Pawn Stars s03e12 Episode Script
Peeping Pawn
On this episode of Pawn Stars I have a flag that went to the moon.
Everything NASA is collectible, but something that's actually been on the moon can make the value go through the roof.
I'm sort of in love with this at the moment.
We have an egg-laying-chicken machine.
Flaps his wings like this, and he makes a lot of noise.
Quack, quack, quack, like that.
This sort of, like, blows my mind.
It's one of the most collected firearms out there.
I have never seen one in this shape.
But usually when it's too good to be true, it usually is.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, big hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
How you doin'? I'm doing good.
What do you have today? Well, I have something that you might be interested in.
Have you ever seen one like that? Rick.
What? Come check out this lady's bandanna.
Three, two, one.
[Rocket roaring.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell my flag that went to the moon on Apollo 16 and autographs from the three astronauts who took it there.
I want to sell this flag because I want to go to Paris.
This picture is signed by John young, Ken mattingly, and Christian Duke.
"This flag carried to the moon aboard Apollo 16 "during the first scientific exploration of the lunar highlands, April 16 to 27, 1972.
" Okay, this is pretty amazing.
Why is the flag so small? Because weight was a big issue with the Apollo missions, Apollo 16 was the fifth mission to land on the moon.
Everything NASA is collectible, but when we're talking about something that's actually been on the moon, the value goes way up.
So what did you want to do with this? I'd like to sell it.
And how much did you want for it? I have done some research on it, and the only one I came up with that has sold recently sold for $23,900.
Okay.
And that was from Apollo 11.
Apollo 11.
"One giant step for mankind"? I'm sort of in love with this at the moment, and I want to do something with it.
Let's get it checked out.
Let's find everything out about it beforehand.
I'm gonna call up some friends.
I'm gonna figure out who's gonna know the most about this thing.
We'll figure out what it's worth, and I'll make you an offer.
Sound fair to you? Sounds fair.
Thank you.
Or I could buy it right now for 20 bucks.
[Laughs.]
No.
This thing is pretty awesome, but before I attempt to make a deal, I have to get this thing checked out.
What's going on, man? What's going on? You old enough to carry that thing? Barely.
You should at least have it in a case or something, dude.
What's your name, man? Justin.
[Laughs.]
Justin case.
[Laughter.]
I got this civil war musket in a poker game against my Uncle.
My Uncle decided he'd try to teach me a lesson about gambling.
Well, the lesson he taught me is, he lost and I won, so I'm gonna keep gambling.
Where in the world did you get this thing? Won it in a poker match.
Oh, okay.
You know much about it? Not much.
I know it's an 1863 colt musket.
Yeah.
They were issued during the civil war.
No name has contributed more to American firearms than Samuel colt.
It's one of the most collected and revered firearms out there.
On top of that, it's from the civil war, and that can make the value go through the roof.
This is the weird thing about it.
An 1863 gun that was issued during the civil war was a used gun.
Guys would drag these things around the mud and the muck and hammer nails with them and everything else, and you have a gun here that looks like it's never been used.
The stock's perfect.
There's zero wear on anything.
The barrel is perfect.
See this yellowing right here? Mm-hmm.
That's not rust.
That's dry oil, what they originally packed it in.
Oh, wow.
Either it's the nicest model 1861 ever to exist, or it's fake.
No.
This thing could've been owned by, like, ulysses s.
Grant or something, dude.
You don't know.
You want to call up Sean, get an expert down here? Either he's selling me a fake, or somehow he got ahold of a mint condition civil war rifle.
Usually when it's too good to be true, it usually is.
I really, really want someone to check it out.
Have somebody come look at it.
Okay.
Let me get him down here.
All right.
We just got a call from one of my regular customers.
He usually has some pretty interesting stuff, so me and chumlee are on our way to go check it out.
Hey, what's up, dudes? What do we have here? We have an egg-laying-chicken machine.
He quacks, and he flaps his wing, and he makes a lot of noise, quack, quack, quack, like that.
I thought ducks quack.
Yeah, he quacks.
What do chickens do? They bawk.
[Laughs.]
I called these guys from the pawn shop to see if they wanted to buy my chicken-laying-egg machine.
Guy had an ad in the paper.
I didn't know a clue of what it was, but it sounded interesting.
The machine is cool because he flaps his wings like this here.
He keeps flapping 'em and flapping 'em.
He don't stop.
And then he starts quacking and quacking and quacking.
You just put it right in here, the quarter, like that there.
And he'll start doing his thing.
He'll flap and bawk, like you said, and it'll come out the bottom, the egg.
Inside the egg is your prize.
So it's not flapping its wings, and it's not bawking.
Right.
That's because I haven't got it operating completely.
Okay.
Chum, unplug this thing so we can look in the back.
This chicken machine is really cool.
It's basically a gum ball machine that was probably in a corner drug store or a five-and-dime somewhere back in the '60s.
Kids would love this thing.
Hell, I love it.
Just from the outside, I can tell you it needs a lot of work.
It's been modified a few times.
That's one of the problems we have here.
All these electronics down here has been replaced, and someone's put in voice electronics.
To make him quack.
Yeah, this thing has definitely seen its better days.
This thing is a disaster.
It's gonna cost a fortune to restore it, so the only way it's gonna be worth it to me is if I get it cheap.
So how much did you want for it? $2,500.
$2,500? $2,500.
That's exactly what I got into it.
I just don't see that kind of money for it.
When the collectors buy these things, they want everything original inside, and everything original is gone.
It's cool.
It's neat.
It just needs one of everything, and in the end, I'll never make any money off it.
Well, I'm really disappointed in that, but it's like anything else.
It's all in the game.
I'm sure that someone else out there will buy it.
It's just not me.
Thanks anyway.
Hey, my pleasure.
I'm not disappointed I didn't make a deal, 'cause there'll always be another time.
Come on, chum, let's go.
It's just a [Bleep.]
Chicken.
Now, turn around.
This is it.
This is, like, in scary condition.
It's very, very crisp.
That, to me, is a good thing, but it also is a reason to raise a red flag.
This is what I called you about.
Now, I've seen a number of flown flags.
It's the right size.
It's the right type.
Was this flag on the moon? Maybe.
Earlier today, a customer brought in a flag that may have flown to the moon on Apollo 16.
So I called in my buddy mark to see if he can authenticate it, and if he can, we're talking major dollars.
Hey, Rick.
How are you doing? I'm the administrator of the Clark county museum system.
So this is what I called you about.
Well, now.
Let's see what we've got here.
If this actually went to the moon, this is a cool piece, because in the history of mankind, almost nothing ever has.
What's your concerns on this one? Was this flag on the moon? Maybe.
[Laughter.]
Now, I've seen a number of flown flags.
They were given away to senators and congressmen.
You know, given the size restrictions they had on the flights, these are the types of flags that they carried.
All of the astronauts were allowed to take up a small bag.
It was called a personal preference package.
It was eight inches by four inches by two inches, and you could take along some souvenirs.
So what do you think? Okay, looking at everything here, at this point, if the signatures are right, I think it's a flown flag.
It's the right size.
It's the right type.
I told you so.
[Laughter.]
But you're going to have to get those signatures authenticated.
I am not a handwriting expert.
I hope you've got somebody who knows a lot more about authenticating signatures than I do on it.
Thanks, mark.
I appreciate it.
Not a problem.
Very good to meet you.
Thank you.
All right, um So if you don't mind, I'd like to you to come back when I have a handwriting expert here.
He can check out the signatures.
If everything looks legit, we'll start talking money.
I'll see you soon.
What do we have here? Some cartoon art.
Dick Tracy and li'l abner.
Yeah, li'l abner.
He was a guy in dogpatch, Kentucky, with a bunch of hillbilly relatives that all wanted to marry him.
[Laughter.]
[Glass shatters.]
Yee -haw! I decided to come into the pawn shop today to sell some cartoon art.
I used to work in the art department of the New York daily news in the 1960s, so I acquired these two pieces.
The reason I'm selling them is because I'm moving to Italy and carpe diem.
So is this the art that actually went in the newspaper? Yes, this is original art.
It's signed by the artist.
This is al capp for li'l abner and Chester gould for dick Tracy.
I read li'l abner back when I was a kid.
And it's got Daisy mae hitting on li'l abner.
That's what they did.
Right, that's what they did.
And she was hot too.
Since the mid -'30s, al capp produced li'l abner for over 40 years.
It was read daily by millions.
It was so popular, several films were made.
There was even a Broadway play.
Okay, and dick Tracy.
Rick, you know about dick Tracy? A little bit.
Comic strip started in, like, the '30s.
Yep.
And he had the radio watch, which, when I was a kid, was really cool.
It was always a little bit ahead of time.
Right, but his main message to the public was, crime doesn't pay.
For close to 80 years now, dick Tracy has been running after criminals.
And it's one of the longest-running comic strips of all time.
How old is this one? '72, okay.
1972.
And that one's 1970.
It has yellowed a little bit.
Rick, you got to understand, when this stuff was drawn, the artist didn't use the most high-quality paper.
Back in the day, once the strips was printed, they threw 'em out.
Now people know better, and they hang on to 'em.
So the older strips can be rare.
So what do you want to do? You want to pawn 'em or sell 'em? Sell 'em.
And how much did you want for 'em? $3,000 for li'l abner and $1,000 for dick Tracy.
Ooh.
No.
No, no.
Crime doesn't pay, and neither do I.
I would pay you half that.
Well, but they're originals signed.
Yeah, and you're in probably the worst art market in 20 years.
Well, I'll make you a deal, then.
$2,500 for this one and $500 for this one.
I'll do $1,500 for this one and $500 for this one.
There's no point in even negotiating any more.
I mean, that's my top dollar.
Top of the line.
It breaks my heart But deal.
All right, let's go do some paperwork.
It broke my heart to accept $2,000 rather than $4,000.
I would've liked to take 'em to Europe, but I'm gonna put it in a safe place There you go.
And use it to pay about four months of my mortgage in Italy when I retire there.
Earlier, a guy brought in a mint condition colt rifle that looks like it's never been used.
Now, this thing is either fantastic or a fake.
So I called in Sean to take a closer look.
How's it going, guys? I specialize in antique arms and armor, and the guys call me whenever they got any kind of weird guns that come in they don't know anything about.
Looks too good to be true, almost.
This is a model 1861 colt special rifle musket.
They made these as large contracts to the U.
S.
government for the civil war.
This one is dated 1863, and this is, like, in scary condition.
And what I mean by that is that there's no dings or major scratches or anything.
All the edges are sharp.
When you come across a gun in this kind of condition, you really have to scrutinize all the little nuances about the gun.
Is it cleaned in any way? Has it been refinished? There's a couple of things that are jumping out at me that may explain why it's in such good condition.
If you see right here, there's an "n.
J.
", and that is a new Jersey acceptance mark, so this was in the new Jersey arsenal.
But I will add this to it.
There are no government inspector cartouches that would be located here on the side of the stock.
This is not the original stock to the gun.
I think that the original stock was damaged, and if they weren't accepted by the military inspector, they weren't issued to the soldiers on the front line.
I've determined that probably the original was damaged, and then it was restocked to be sold as surplus or to a militia unit.
This is definitely a restock but not a recent restock.
This is an old one.
You know, the barrel and most of all the furniture was probably to an original rifle, and they just salvaged the parts.
I'm so relieved this gun is real.
I had my doubts, but, hey, sometimes even I'm wrong.
So what do you think it's worth? Um I would say, in this condition, because of these issues, I'm gonna say Probably $1,200, maybe $2,000, somewhere in that range.
Okay.
Thanks, Sean.
Absolutely.
$1,200 to $2 grand is not bad for something you won in a poker game.
I just hope he's willing to sell it for a reasonable price, because I want it.
So what do you want for it? $1,500.
What do you really want? $1,500.
I mean, you wouldn't take 700 bucks for it? No.
But you would take 800 bucks for it.
No way.
You sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
I like it.
I mean, you just heard Sean.
Realistically, like, 1,200 to 2,000 bucks.
And, you know, today's economy, it's usually the bottom number, not the top one.
Let me think about it.
All right, man.
Yeah, the offer stands.
Okay, cool.
Thanks for coming in, man.
Thanks a lot.
I decided to hang on to the gun, 'cause I really like it.
Down the road, if I find the right collector, you know, I could get a little more change for it.
Hey, how's it going, man? Good.
Yourself? What do we got? I got some super bowl pins from the first 20 super bowls.
They're all from Coca-Cola.
You notice something about this? What's that? There's no chargers pins up there.
But your archenemy raiders have a few.
You know what? You're fired.
[Laughs.]
Seriously? No, I'm just kidding.
Came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my collector pins of the first 20 super bowls, all made by Coca-Cola.
I think they're worth something, 'cause everybody loves football, and this is the first 20 years of the best teams every year.
So I'd like to see if I could get about $300 for these pins.
I think that would be worthwhile.
So Where'd you get this? I got it out of my Uncle's garage.
He passed away a few months ago, and he was a big football fan.
I noticed it was the first and are all Coca-Cola issued pins.
So I figured since they were all issued by the same company that it would have some value to it.
These pins are really cool.
I mean, they're the kind of thing that would appeal to sports collectors or people who collect Coca-Cola memorabilia.
Well, one thing you might be mistaken with here is that Coca-Cola made this for the 20th anniversary of the super bowl.
Okay.
It wasn't like that one's So they were all made at the same time for the same thing.
I was kind of hoping they were issued one a year, so that would give a little more value to it.
That definitely would, but, you know, it was a collector thing that Coca-Cola made.
They probably gave 'em out to different bars, different restaurants and stuff, had 'em auction 'em off during super bowl Sunday, try to get people in the bar.
Typically, pieces of memorabilia like this aren't that valuable because they were made to be collected, which means everybody who got one still has one.
But these things are 25 years old, and they're almost in perfect condition.
I mean, it'd look really good in somebody's bar or man cave or something.
Have any idea on what something like this would be worth? I'd put a value on it of around 40 bucks.
Ooh.
I was hoping to get about $300 for it.
You know, if somebody took the time to collect these over 20 years, I could definitely see $300, $400, $500 worth of value in 'em.
But as it sits, it kind of just is what it is.
It's a little collector's piece.
That's the best you can do? Absolutely.
Well, hey, I found it in his garage, so 40 bucks is better than nothing.
Yeah.
I was kind of really sorry to hear that my Uncle didn't collect these pins one at a time.
I think they would've been worth a whole lot more.
But I made 40 bucks on the deal.
It's $40 more than I walked in the store with, so I'm fine with it.
Earlier today, a customer brought in a flag that may have flown to the moon on Apollo 16.
I've had one expert confirm that the flag seems legit but only if the signatures are real, so now I'm bringing in a handwriting expert to take a look.
I'm a forensic document examiner.
It's also known as a handwriting expert.
From time to time, Rick calls me.
He's looking for certain details that he can't authenticate himself, and I'm the man for the job.
I'm just making sure everything's right on this thing, and that's why I called you, those signatures right here.
They could've been autopenned.
They could've been stamped.
It's a very strong possibility.
All the Apollo missions, they signed very few autographs.
These are very busy guys.
You know, autopens were just so common, it's unbelievable.
Oh, this is making me so nervous.
Let's take a look.
One thing when you're analyzing signatures, you got to look at every single detail.
Starts with entrance strokes, exit strokes, "t" bars, "I" dots.
It goes on and on.
We see a lot of feathering here in particular letters.
Moving on to the mattingly, same thing.
Looking at the "t" bar, feathering at the end.
You can see it getting darker and lighter.
Interesting.
Duke's got a very fascinating signature.
It's very consistent.
I've studied it over the years.
Okay, you know what? It's all adding up.
This is an authentic piece.
No doubt about it.
Wow, that's great.
Thank you so much.
Excellent, you're welcome.
All right, thanks.
Congratulations.
You get a high -five.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
This is an awesome piece, and I definitely want it.
The problem with a piece like this, though, is, people always think it's worth a fortune.
What do you want for it? $23,900.
No.
It has all the bells and whistles.
I know it's got all the bells and whistles.
These signatures aren't worth a lot.
They're worth, like, $500 total, okay? The last one of these flags sold at auction for $3,500 that was on Apollo 16.
I think, for the whole package, I'm gonna be able to get a lot more.
I can go $3,500 for it.
Well, do you think you could go $4,000, or should I haggle with you just a little bit and start at $5,000 and we can meet at $4,000? I, uh $4,000.
I'm outgunned.
[Laughs.]
Thank you.
I've never seen that before.
Go write her up, chum.
It's like the jedi mind trick.
[Laughs.]
I'm very happy about what I settled for, and I can head to Paris, France.
I'm gonna go book my ride.
And $4,000.
Thank you so much.
All right, thank you.
Bye-bye.
I want to go to the moon.
Everything NASA is collectible, but something that's actually been on the moon can make the value go through the roof.
I'm sort of in love with this at the moment.
We have an egg-laying-chicken machine.
Flaps his wings like this, and he makes a lot of noise.
Quack, quack, quack, like that.
This sort of, like, blows my mind.
It's one of the most collected firearms out there.
I have never seen one in this shape.
But usually when it's too good to be true, it usually is.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, big hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
How you doin'? I'm doing good.
What do you have today? Well, I have something that you might be interested in.
Have you ever seen one like that? Rick.
What? Come check out this lady's bandanna.
Three, two, one.
[Rocket roaring.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell my flag that went to the moon on Apollo 16 and autographs from the three astronauts who took it there.
I want to sell this flag because I want to go to Paris.
This picture is signed by John young, Ken mattingly, and Christian Duke.
"This flag carried to the moon aboard Apollo 16 "during the first scientific exploration of the lunar highlands, April 16 to 27, 1972.
" Okay, this is pretty amazing.
Why is the flag so small? Because weight was a big issue with the Apollo missions, Apollo 16 was the fifth mission to land on the moon.
Everything NASA is collectible, but when we're talking about something that's actually been on the moon, the value goes way up.
So what did you want to do with this? I'd like to sell it.
And how much did you want for it? I have done some research on it, and the only one I came up with that has sold recently sold for $23,900.
Okay.
And that was from Apollo 11.
Apollo 11.
"One giant step for mankind"? I'm sort of in love with this at the moment, and I want to do something with it.
Let's get it checked out.
Let's find everything out about it beforehand.
I'm gonna call up some friends.
I'm gonna figure out who's gonna know the most about this thing.
We'll figure out what it's worth, and I'll make you an offer.
Sound fair to you? Sounds fair.
Thank you.
Or I could buy it right now for 20 bucks.
[Laughs.]
No.
This thing is pretty awesome, but before I attempt to make a deal, I have to get this thing checked out.
What's going on, man? What's going on? You old enough to carry that thing? Barely.
You should at least have it in a case or something, dude.
What's your name, man? Justin.
[Laughs.]
Justin case.
[Laughter.]
I got this civil war musket in a poker game against my Uncle.
My Uncle decided he'd try to teach me a lesson about gambling.
Well, the lesson he taught me is, he lost and I won, so I'm gonna keep gambling.
Where in the world did you get this thing? Won it in a poker match.
Oh, okay.
You know much about it? Not much.
I know it's an 1863 colt musket.
Yeah.
They were issued during the civil war.
No name has contributed more to American firearms than Samuel colt.
It's one of the most collected and revered firearms out there.
On top of that, it's from the civil war, and that can make the value go through the roof.
This is the weird thing about it.
An 1863 gun that was issued during the civil war was a used gun.
Guys would drag these things around the mud and the muck and hammer nails with them and everything else, and you have a gun here that looks like it's never been used.
The stock's perfect.
There's zero wear on anything.
The barrel is perfect.
See this yellowing right here? Mm-hmm.
That's not rust.
That's dry oil, what they originally packed it in.
Oh, wow.
Either it's the nicest model 1861 ever to exist, or it's fake.
No.
This thing could've been owned by, like, ulysses s.
Grant or something, dude.
You don't know.
You want to call up Sean, get an expert down here? Either he's selling me a fake, or somehow he got ahold of a mint condition civil war rifle.
Usually when it's too good to be true, it usually is.
I really, really want someone to check it out.
Have somebody come look at it.
Okay.
Let me get him down here.
All right.
We just got a call from one of my regular customers.
He usually has some pretty interesting stuff, so me and chumlee are on our way to go check it out.
Hey, what's up, dudes? What do we have here? We have an egg-laying-chicken machine.
He quacks, and he flaps his wing, and he makes a lot of noise, quack, quack, quack, like that.
I thought ducks quack.
Yeah, he quacks.
What do chickens do? They bawk.
[Laughs.]
I called these guys from the pawn shop to see if they wanted to buy my chicken-laying-egg machine.
Guy had an ad in the paper.
I didn't know a clue of what it was, but it sounded interesting.
The machine is cool because he flaps his wings like this here.
He keeps flapping 'em and flapping 'em.
He don't stop.
And then he starts quacking and quacking and quacking.
You just put it right in here, the quarter, like that there.
And he'll start doing his thing.
He'll flap and bawk, like you said, and it'll come out the bottom, the egg.
Inside the egg is your prize.
So it's not flapping its wings, and it's not bawking.
Right.
That's because I haven't got it operating completely.
Okay.
Chum, unplug this thing so we can look in the back.
This chicken machine is really cool.
It's basically a gum ball machine that was probably in a corner drug store or a five-and-dime somewhere back in the '60s.
Kids would love this thing.
Hell, I love it.
Just from the outside, I can tell you it needs a lot of work.
It's been modified a few times.
That's one of the problems we have here.
All these electronics down here has been replaced, and someone's put in voice electronics.
To make him quack.
Yeah, this thing has definitely seen its better days.
This thing is a disaster.
It's gonna cost a fortune to restore it, so the only way it's gonna be worth it to me is if I get it cheap.
So how much did you want for it? $2,500.
$2,500? $2,500.
That's exactly what I got into it.
I just don't see that kind of money for it.
When the collectors buy these things, they want everything original inside, and everything original is gone.
It's cool.
It's neat.
It just needs one of everything, and in the end, I'll never make any money off it.
Well, I'm really disappointed in that, but it's like anything else.
It's all in the game.
I'm sure that someone else out there will buy it.
It's just not me.
Thanks anyway.
Hey, my pleasure.
I'm not disappointed I didn't make a deal, 'cause there'll always be another time.
Come on, chum, let's go.
It's just a [Bleep.]
Chicken.
Now, turn around.
This is it.
This is, like, in scary condition.
It's very, very crisp.
That, to me, is a good thing, but it also is a reason to raise a red flag.
This is what I called you about.
Now, I've seen a number of flown flags.
It's the right size.
It's the right type.
Was this flag on the moon? Maybe.
Earlier today, a customer brought in a flag that may have flown to the moon on Apollo 16.
So I called in my buddy mark to see if he can authenticate it, and if he can, we're talking major dollars.
Hey, Rick.
How are you doing? I'm the administrator of the Clark county museum system.
So this is what I called you about.
Well, now.
Let's see what we've got here.
If this actually went to the moon, this is a cool piece, because in the history of mankind, almost nothing ever has.
What's your concerns on this one? Was this flag on the moon? Maybe.
[Laughter.]
Now, I've seen a number of flown flags.
They were given away to senators and congressmen.
You know, given the size restrictions they had on the flights, these are the types of flags that they carried.
All of the astronauts were allowed to take up a small bag.
It was called a personal preference package.
It was eight inches by four inches by two inches, and you could take along some souvenirs.
So what do you think? Okay, looking at everything here, at this point, if the signatures are right, I think it's a flown flag.
It's the right size.
It's the right type.
I told you so.
[Laughter.]
But you're going to have to get those signatures authenticated.
I am not a handwriting expert.
I hope you've got somebody who knows a lot more about authenticating signatures than I do on it.
Thanks, mark.
I appreciate it.
Not a problem.
Very good to meet you.
Thank you.
All right, um So if you don't mind, I'd like to you to come back when I have a handwriting expert here.
He can check out the signatures.
If everything looks legit, we'll start talking money.
I'll see you soon.
What do we have here? Some cartoon art.
Dick Tracy and li'l abner.
Yeah, li'l abner.
He was a guy in dogpatch, Kentucky, with a bunch of hillbilly relatives that all wanted to marry him.
[Laughter.]
[Glass shatters.]
Yee -haw! I decided to come into the pawn shop today to sell some cartoon art.
I used to work in the art department of the New York daily news in the 1960s, so I acquired these two pieces.
The reason I'm selling them is because I'm moving to Italy and carpe diem.
So is this the art that actually went in the newspaper? Yes, this is original art.
It's signed by the artist.
This is al capp for li'l abner and Chester gould for dick Tracy.
I read li'l abner back when I was a kid.
And it's got Daisy mae hitting on li'l abner.
That's what they did.
Right, that's what they did.
And she was hot too.
Since the mid -'30s, al capp produced li'l abner for over 40 years.
It was read daily by millions.
It was so popular, several films were made.
There was even a Broadway play.
Okay, and dick Tracy.
Rick, you know about dick Tracy? A little bit.
Comic strip started in, like, the '30s.
Yep.
And he had the radio watch, which, when I was a kid, was really cool.
It was always a little bit ahead of time.
Right, but his main message to the public was, crime doesn't pay.
For close to 80 years now, dick Tracy has been running after criminals.
And it's one of the longest-running comic strips of all time.
How old is this one? '72, okay.
1972.
And that one's 1970.
It has yellowed a little bit.
Rick, you got to understand, when this stuff was drawn, the artist didn't use the most high-quality paper.
Back in the day, once the strips was printed, they threw 'em out.
Now people know better, and they hang on to 'em.
So the older strips can be rare.
So what do you want to do? You want to pawn 'em or sell 'em? Sell 'em.
And how much did you want for 'em? $3,000 for li'l abner and $1,000 for dick Tracy.
Ooh.
No.
No, no.
Crime doesn't pay, and neither do I.
I would pay you half that.
Well, but they're originals signed.
Yeah, and you're in probably the worst art market in 20 years.
Well, I'll make you a deal, then.
$2,500 for this one and $500 for this one.
I'll do $1,500 for this one and $500 for this one.
There's no point in even negotiating any more.
I mean, that's my top dollar.
Top of the line.
It breaks my heart But deal.
All right, let's go do some paperwork.
It broke my heart to accept $2,000 rather than $4,000.
I would've liked to take 'em to Europe, but I'm gonna put it in a safe place There you go.
And use it to pay about four months of my mortgage in Italy when I retire there.
Earlier, a guy brought in a mint condition colt rifle that looks like it's never been used.
Now, this thing is either fantastic or a fake.
So I called in Sean to take a closer look.
How's it going, guys? I specialize in antique arms and armor, and the guys call me whenever they got any kind of weird guns that come in they don't know anything about.
Looks too good to be true, almost.
This is a model 1861 colt special rifle musket.
They made these as large contracts to the U.
S.
government for the civil war.
This one is dated 1863, and this is, like, in scary condition.
And what I mean by that is that there's no dings or major scratches or anything.
All the edges are sharp.
When you come across a gun in this kind of condition, you really have to scrutinize all the little nuances about the gun.
Is it cleaned in any way? Has it been refinished? There's a couple of things that are jumping out at me that may explain why it's in such good condition.
If you see right here, there's an "n.
J.
", and that is a new Jersey acceptance mark, so this was in the new Jersey arsenal.
But I will add this to it.
There are no government inspector cartouches that would be located here on the side of the stock.
This is not the original stock to the gun.
I think that the original stock was damaged, and if they weren't accepted by the military inspector, they weren't issued to the soldiers on the front line.
I've determined that probably the original was damaged, and then it was restocked to be sold as surplus or to a militia unit.
This is definitely a restock but not a recent restock.
This is an old one.
You know, the barrel and most of all the furniture was probably to an original rifle, and they just salvaged the parts.
I'm so relieved this gun is real.
I had my doubts, but, hey, sometimes even I'm wrong.
So what do you think it's worth? Um I would say, in this condition, because of these issues, I'm gonna say Probably $1,200, maybe $2,000, somewhere in that range.
Okay.
Thanks, Sean.
Absolutely.
$1,200 to $2 grand is not bad for something you won in a poker game.
I just hope he's willing to sell it for a reasonable price, because I want it.
So what do you want for it? $1,500.
What do you really want? $1,500.
I mean, you wouldn't take 700 bucks for it? No.
But you would take 800 bucks for it.
No way.
You sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
I like it.
I mean, you just heard Sean.
Realistically, like, 1,200 to 2,000 bucks.
And, you know, today's economy, it's usually the bottom number, not the top one.
Let me think about it.
All right, man.
Yeah, the offer stands.
Okay, cool.
Thanks for coming in, man.
Thanks a lot.
I decided to hang on to the gun, 'cause I really like it.
Down the road, if I find the right collector, you know, I could get a little more change for it.
Hey, how's it going, man? Good.
Yourself? What do we got? I got some super bowl pins from the first 20 super bowls.
They're all from Coca-Cola.
You notice something about this? What's that? There's no chargers pins up there.
But your archenemy raiders have a few.
You know what? You're fired.
[Laughs.]
Seriously? No, I'm just kidding.
Came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my collector pins of the first 20 super bowls, all made by Coca-Cola.
I think they're worth something, 'cause everybody loves football, and this is the first 20 years of the best teams every year.
So I'd like to see if I could get about $300 for these pins.
I think that would be worthwhile.
So Where'd you get this? I got it out of my Uncle's garage.
He passed away a few months ago, and he was a big football fan.
I noticed it was the first and are all Coca-Cola issued pins.
So I figured since they were all issued by the same company that it would have some value to it.
These pins are really cool.
I mean, they're the kind of thing that would appeal to sports collectors or people who collect Coca-Cola memorabilia.
Well, one thing you might be mistaken with here is that Coca-Cola made this for the 20th anniversary of the super bowl.
Okay.
It wasn't like that one's So they were all made at the same time for the same thing.
I was kind of hoping they were issued one a year, so that would give a little more value to it.
That definitely would, but, you know, it was a collector thing that Coca-Cola made.
They probably gave 'em out to different bars, different restaurants and stuff, had 'em auction 'em off during super bowl Sunday, try to get people in the bar.
Typically, pieces of memorabilia like this aren't that valuable because they were made to be collected, which means everybody who got one still has one.
But these things are 25 years old, and they're almost in perfect condition.
I mean, it'd look really good in somebody's bar or man cave or something.
Have any idea on what something like this would be worth? I'd put a value on it of around 40 bucks.
Ooh.
I was hoping to get about $300 for it.
You know, if somebody took the time to collect these over 20 years, I could definitely see $300, $400, $500 worth of value in 'em.
But as it sits, it kind of just is what it is.
It's a little collector's piece.
That's the best you can do? Absolutely.
Well, hey, I found it in his garage, so 40 bucks is better than nothing.
Yeah.
I was kind of really sorry to hear that my Uncle didn't collect these pins one at a time.
I think they would've been worth a whole lot more.
But I made 40 bucks on the deal.
It's $40 more than I walked in the store with, so I'm fine with it.
Earlier today, a customer brought in a flag that may have flown to the moon on Apollo 16.
I've had one expert confirm that the flag seems legit but only if the signatures are real, so now I'm bringing in a handwriting expert to take a look.
I'm a forensic document examiner.
It's also known as a handwriting expert.
From time to time, Rick calls me.
He's looking for certain details that he can't authenticate himself, and I'm the man for the job.
I'm just making sure everything's right on this thing, and that's why I called you, those signatures right here.
They could've been autopenned.
They could've been stamped.
It's a very strong possibility.
All the Apollo missions, they signed very few autographs.
These are very busy guys.
You know, autopens were just so common, it's unbelievable.
Oh, this is making me so nervous.
Let's take a look.
One thing when you're analyzing signatures, you got to look at every single detail.
Starts with entrance strokes, exit strokes, "t" bars, "I" dots.
It goes on and on.
We see a lot of feathering here in particular letters.
Moving on to the mattingly, same thing.
Looking at the "t" bar, feathering at the end.
You can see it getting darker and lighter.
Interesting.
Duke's got a very fascinating signature.
It's very consistent.
I've studied it over the years.
Okay, you know what? It's all adding up.
This is an authentic piece.
No doubt about it.
Wow, that's great.
Thank you so much.
Excellent, you're welcome.
All right, thanks.
Congratulations.
You get a high -five.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
This is an awesome piece, and I definitely want it.
The problem with a piece like this, though, is, people always think it's worth a fortune.
What do you want for it? $23,900.
No.
It has all the bells and whistles.
I know it's got all the bells and whistles.
These signatures aren't worth a lot.
They're worth, like, $500 total, okay? The last one of these flags sold at auction for $3,500 that was on Apollo 16.
I think, for the whole package, I'm gonna be able to get a lot more.
I can go $3,500 for it.
Well, do you think you could go $4,000, or should I haggle with you just a little bit and start at $5,000 and we can meet at $4,000? I, uh $4,000.
I'm outgunned.
[Laughs.]
Thank you.
I've never seen that before.
Go write her up, chum.
It's like the jedi mind trick.
[Laughs.]
I'm very happy about what I settled for, and I can head to Paris, France.
I'm gonna go book my ride.
And $4,000.
Thank you so much.
All right, thank you.
Bye-bye.
I want to go to the moon.