- On tonight's episode, I wonder if a Rolex watch
is worth my time.
If you're a Rolex collector,
they're the most nitpicking people on the planet.
And it's been refinished.
- Is that not a good thing?
- That is a terrible thing.
Then Corey and I try to make a righteous deal
on a gold record. - Righteous Brothers?
I mean, you know they're kind of big
when Cher's your backup singer.
- As much success as they had,
their autographs really aren't worth a lot of money.
[record scratch]
- And later, Chum calls in the cavalry
to test out a Civil War rifle.
- So this is about as nice a condition
Palmer as I've ever seen.
- Load the thing up. Let's go.
- All right.
[gunshot]
- Yeah! - [laughs]
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Hello. - Hey.
Is that the machine gun from the movie "Desperado"?
- [laughs] I don't think so.
- [laughs]
- I have a 1959 guitar to show you today.
♪ ♪
- Old-school Gretsch.
- Yes, sir. - All right.
Tell me about it. What is it?
- It's a 1959 Gretsch,
6192 Country Club sunburst guitar.
- This one, I mean, just immediately
when I look at it, I thought country
'cause it's just so darn big. - Yeah.
- And that's basically the way country guitars were back then.
You know, they're all wearing their matching
cowboy outfits with their cowboy hats
and really big guitars. - Yeah.
[laughter]
I'm here at the pawn shop to sell
a 1959 Gretsch sunburst color guitar.
The guitar hasn't been played a whole lot.
My dad got it in the early '80s.
My dad passed away about a year ago, and I got the guitar.
I don't personally know a whole lot about the guitar.
My asking price for the guitar is $7,500.
♪ ♪
- God, it's in great shape.
I mean, where did you get this?
- My dad got it from a relative back in the early '80s.
- All right.
Never been refinished or anything, do you know?
- Not that I know of.
- OK, 'cause that's pretty incredible, 'cause usually,
especially country guitars, this would be
so beat up from a belt buckle.
And there's next to no damage there at all.
Did your dad do any changes to it?
- He had a music guy he worked with,
and he had him put this Bigsby tail on it.
- So he changed out the bridge right here, this whole setup.
OK, because I don't know if that was a good thing
or not replacing this.
- Yeah, it's very popular on these guitars to do that,
but I couldn't tell you.
- Gretsch started in Brooklyn late 1800s.
They started off with banjos, tambourines,
a few other things like that.
As the company grew, like 50 years later,
they're making guitars.
1950s, if you're a guitar company,
you've got to sell electric guitars.
They started making electric guitars.
And I mean, it was really considered
one of the premier brands.
It still is.
I mean, this is just really classic design.
- Yep.
- So how much you want for it?
- I was hoping 7,500.
- That might be a decent price.
This thing concerns me though. - Mm-hmm.
- When you start getting older guitars like this,
the more original condition, the better.
Do you mind if I call up my guitar guy
and get him down here? - Of course.
- Yeah. There's just a lot of questions.
He'll look at it, and we'll just go from there.
- Sounds good. - All right.
Be right back.
♪ ♪
- How are you doing? - Good, good.
How are you? - Pretty good.
What do you have today?
- Today I have a pair of the Nike SB Zoo Yorks.
- This is a pretty iconic pair of shoes right here.
Nike needs no introduction.
SB stands for skateboarding.
It was their skateboarding brand of shoes.
And Zoo York is, at least at the time
this collab came out, the biggest skate brand
out of New York.
Immediately looking at them,
you know exactly when they're from--
2002.
I mean, I'm pretty familiar with these shoes.
I grew up skateboarding, you know.
Didn't really skate in SBs, but I would wear them, you know.
I would skate in flatter shoes. - Yeah.
- I never really understood how people could skate in these.
But I guess I just wasn't good enough for it to matter anyway.
- Dang.
I'm here at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop
to sell a pair of the Nike SB Zoo Yorks.
These shoes are very rare, because there's only 444 pairs
and they were released over 20 years ago.
These were also designed by the owner
at the time of Zoo York and Danny Supa,
who was a skater for Zoo York.
For the Nike SB Zoo Yorks,
I'm hoping to get at least 3,000.
- So this is a really cool pair.
It's kind of underrated, in my opinion.
It was only done in this colorway,
and I'm pretty sure this is the only Nike SB Zoo York
collab that was ever done.
So Zoo York was originally a graffiti crew out of New York.
They were a graffiti crew that also skateboarded.
Nike SB wanted to bring something
to the culture that was already accepted by the culture.
So what they did is they let skateboarding teams come in
and design shoes.
Do you have the box for these?
- Unfortunately, because of how old this shoe is,
I don't have the box anymore.
- You know, a lot of these boxes didn't survive,
and most of these shoes probably
got skated in and trashed if they were bought at the time.
- Exactly.
- So these are obviously worn,
but the condition is pretty good.
So one of the things I like about this pair of shoes
is soles don't hold up very good after 20 years.
But what these shoes have going for them is they're
actually sewn in around to the bottom of the shoe.
So it actually helps the sole last a lot longer.
What are you looking to do with them today?
- Hoping to sell them today.
- And how much are you looking to get?
- Anywhere near 3,000.
- I do think that's about probably value for them there.
But I would have to make, you know, some money in the deal.
And considering you don't have the box,
I think the box is pretty important to an old pair
of shoes like this.
Do you have any room to work there?
Would you take 1,200?
- The absolute lowest I could do is 2.
- All right, well, if you had the box,
I'd try to make a stronger offer,
but without it, I think I got to be
a little bit conservative. - OK.
All good. Appreciate you, bro.
Thank you. - My pleasure.
Thank you.
♪ ♪
- I have a guy in the shop with a 1959 Gretsch guitar
that is in great condition.
He'd like to get $7,500 for it, but he did point out
a modification that's been done to the guitar.
I've called in Mike Ball, our guitar expert,
to see if there's been any other changes
and to see if this price is in tune
with what the seller thinks.
Mike. - Hey, Rick.
Good to see you, man.
- This young man right here has a guitar.
- Wow. So we got a Gretsch Country Club,
one of the top tier models from Gretsch's golden age
of electric guitar manufacturing.
May I take a look here?
- Of course. - All right.
Wow.
Some cool mods going on here.
I mean, not only do we have the Bigsby vibrato,
but we have the lightweight aluminum Bigsby bridge as well.
And you can learn so much about a player
by how they've modified their instrument.
And this person was a tinkerer.
Actually, I am seeing a couple things here finish-wise
that I want to take a look at. - OK.
- I mean, this is the original sunburst,
but something going on here.
Yeah, so, you know, with a lacquer finish like this,
over time as it gets UV light,
it'll start to fluoresce in a really specific way.
And then when you put any other finish over the top,
that won't fluoresce the same.
So you see this differentiation between the finish.
And with the black light, you can get in there
and see where you've got this kind of pale,
greenish color going on here with the original finish.
But then here, this black,
that's all been touched up there.
- OK.
I mean, the big question, what's it worth?
- Well, the Country Club's kind of an odd model.
It's a soft market, lesser known Gretsch model.
If this was completely stock and everything was just so,
upwards of 6,500.
But with finish work, some changed components,
we're looking closer to 4,500.
- OK. All right.
Thanks, man. You're the best.
- Total pleasure. - All right.
- Nice to meet you, man.
- Nice to meet you, too. - See you.
- All right.
It's a cool guitar, but it's not 7,500 bucks.
- Mm-hmm. - OK?
I'd give you 3 grand.
- Yeah, I can't do that.
Could you do four?
- No, I'd go 3,200 bucks.
It's a cool guitar.
It's just not a super popular model.
It's gonna sit for a while.
I'm just--I'd do 32.
- All right, well, I think you got a deal.
- All right. Sweet.
Meet me right over at the pawn counter.
I'll get you paid. - All right. Thank you.
♪ ♪
- How are you doing? - Good.
How about yourself? - Pretty good.
What do you have here?
- It's kind of a pull-apart circus
where the toys connect together, obviously.
It's from the 1920s.
- All right.
I'm imagining these things move around a lot
and you can have quite a bit of fun.
Do you mind if I take a look at something?
- Absolutely. - I'm just gonna--
I'm not going to mess with them all, but uh--
- They kind of connect. - Oh.
Oops. All right.
Well, I'm not going to play with these anymore.
- I'm at the pawn shop today to sell
my Mitchell and Reeve's Pull-Apart Circus.
It's kind of a children's play set.
You kind of build whatever you want
with the different animals and characters.
It comes with the original box and the instructions.
The circus was found in the back of an estate sale.
When I found it, I figured, you know, $20 was
worth a pretty good risk.
For the full set, I would like $5,000.
- The set looks really cool.
I like the whole circus thing you got going here.
You could definitely have a lot of fun playing with these,
especially in the 1920s.
1920s wasn't exactly the golden era of toys,
but toys were commonly made out of wood then.
And, you know, this was before the Great Depression.
So kids were at home more.
People were working a lot.
So kids needed to stay busy.
And you could basically have a whole circus.
And in the 1920s, the circus was huge.
This looks like some instructions
in a box over here, maybe?
- Yeah, kind of everything I found.
- I imagine it's not very common
to find a box with your set of toys from the 1920s.
That's really, really cool.
I mean, it looks to be pretty complete.
If it's missing something, it's missing very little.
So what are you looking to get for the collection?
- Probably around 5,000.
Single characters were going for quite a bit.
- You know, I actually have no idea.
I don't know if they're worth 5,000,
but it wouldn't surprise me if they were worth 10,000,
and it wouldn't surprise me if they were worth 500 bucks.
I'm going to call my guy Steve, have him come down
and help me evaluate this.
This will be a fun adventure for him, I'm sure.
- Sounds good. - Give me just a minute.
I'll call him and get him down here.
- Thank you.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Sup, man.
- How's it going?
- Oh, not too bad.
Got this Rolex I wanted to bring here today.
- OK. - Yeah.
- A Rolex Pepsi from back in the day.
- Yes, sir.
- So this is a 1966 Rolex GMT, nicknamed the "Pepsi"
'cause it's got the blue and the red colors
like a Pepsi can.
That's just sort of like a nickname it got.
It never had anything to do with Pepsi.
- OK. [laughter]
[can hisses, pops]
I'm here at the pawn shop today to sell
my GMT Master "Pepsi" Rolex.
My girlfriend got this from her dad,
who got it from his dad previously.
It's very sentimental to my girlfriend and her family,
but me and my girlfriend are looking
to get married soon, so that's why I'm here.
My asking price is $20,000.
I know Rick likes to play hardball,
but I think I can play right back with him,
because this is for me and my girlfriend's wedding.
So I'm looking forward to it.
- Super cool.
There is something special about a Rolex.
So this is a Rolex GMT.
GMT stands for Greenwich Mean Time.
Originally came out in the early '50s,
and it was actually Pan Am went to Rolex to design this watch.
- Oh, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool.
- OK. We need a watch with a lot of specifications
that can basically tell us three different time zones
on their watch, but still very easy to read.
We need it air proof.
We need it waterproof and kind of indestructible.
- OK.
- And they came up with this.
It's a kind of a neat design.
You have the large hand right here.
That's always set to Greenwich Mean Time.
OK?
All air traffic control uses Greenwich Mean Time.
But let's say you got a pilot who takes off from Florida
and flies to Germany.
You need to know the local time, OK?
And if you're going to call the wife and kids back at home,
you need to know back here in Vegas time.
So this will tell you the local time.
That'll tell you the time at home.
And the arrow directly where it goes
will tell you Greenwich Mean Time.
- That's really cool, actually.
- So have you had this thing worked on?
- Yeah.
So my fiancée, her dad actually got this watch
serviced back in 2016.
So I think the band itself might be different.
- Yeah.
A UV light is an essential Rolex tool.
- OK.
- Basically, the hands are shot.
There's no glowing at all.
But you see the dial itself, how bright those pop out?
- Yeah.
- That's because it's been refinished.
- And is that not a good thing?
- That is a terrible thing.
OK, if you're a Rolex collector,
they're the most nitpicking people on the planet, OK?
Literally, they don't want anything restored on a Rolex.
You want it original, original, original.
It's in rough shape, but it's a Rolex GMT.
How much do you want for it?
- Looking for 20,000.
- If it was a couple years earlier, yes.
But the crystal's been replaced,
the bezel is really beat up,
and the dial has been refinished.
I'll give you 10 grand.
- Yeah, I don't know if I could do that low, honestly.
- Yeah, the thing is, I have to resell it.
I mean, I'd max out at 11 grand.
It's a cool watch and everything like that,
but reconditioned is tough.
- I gotcha.
Yeah, I don't think I could do anything lower than 20, though.
- OK, no problem.
Thanks for bringing it in, though.
- Appreciate you, sir.
♪ ♪
- I have a customer in the shop with
a 1920s building toy for children called
Pull-Apart Animal Circus.
He would like to get $5,000 for the collection,
but I don't want to clown around until I get
some more information about this.
Steve Johnston is on his way over
to tell me if I should be the ringleader of this deal or not.
This is the collection I told you about.
You know this is outside of my wheelhouse.
- Well, I mean, your life is a circus.
No, I'm-- - You're right. You're right.
I do have to deal with you all day.
- [laughs] So this is great.
I love time period toys.
So circus toys got really big in the early 1900s.
You had the traveling circus.
Everybody wanted to go.
If you couldn't afford to go,
you still wanted something from the circus.
This would have been sold more as individual pieces.
So it would be something that financially
anybody could afford.
So you could buy at least a small piece of it
or a big chunk of it and build your circus.
- I imagine someone spent some good time collecting it all.
He still has the box.
How important is that to collectors
when you're talking about wood toys from the 1920s?
- This type of toy is something that you would
put away after you used it.
So a lot of times you would put it back into the box.
So the boxes are a little more prevalent.
Now, what's funny is that that box actually
doesn't go to the set.
That box was part of the set.
This wouldn't all fit in that box.
- OK.
It's a large collection.
What kind of value would you put on this?
- In my opinion, these particular items, I think,
are probably better to be sold individually.
And the reason being is because I think
you can maximize your dollar value out of each one.
Based on how complete it all is and the condition
and everything is, I think it's safe that we could say
it's about $1,000 that I believe
that you would get for this collection all said and done.
- All right.
Well, thanks for coming out, Steve.
- No problem. Good luck.
- Sure. Thank you. - Thanks, man.
- All right. So after listening to everything
Steve said, I do think this collection is very, very cool.
I don't quite think it's for me.
- Yeah.
- It sounds like I'm going to have to go through it,
figure out all the pieces that go together,
list them all individually online, most likely,
and then sell them.
And I just don't feel like working that hard this week.
- I understand.
I appreciate it. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- Hey, how's it going? - Very well.
- What have we got here?
- I've got a Righteous Brothers gold album.
It's signed by both Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley.
- OK. Your ears buzzing?
Righteous Brothers. They're your favorite, right?
- Not necessarily my favorites, but like they
were really big in the '60s.
I mean, "Unchained Melody," to this day,
is considered ultra iconic.
It's also one of the hardest songs to sing, I understand.
- Can you sing it?
- Maybe in the shower.
[laughter]
- I'm here in the pawn shop to sell
my Righteous Brothers gold album,
signed by Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley.
I bought it in April of 1988.
Been a big fan of the Righteous Brothers
since way, way back.
And it was something I had to have.
I'm asking 25,000.
- That's pretty cool, man.
Righteous Brothers-- classic part of the 1960s.
I don't know exactly what genre of music you'd call them,
whether it's rock and roll or it's country
or something in between.
- Blue-eyed soul.
I love it.
All right.
And this right here is "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."
So this came out like 1964-ish, which I don't know if that was
their breakout hit, but it was literally
their biggest hit up to that time.
It put them through the stratosphere.
- Yes, it did.
- I mean, you know they're kind of big when
Cher's your backup singer.
- Cher was the backup singer?
- Yes, she was. - Which song?
- "You've Lost That Loving Feeling."
- How would you know that?
- Very few things I don't know about Cher.
- OK. I'm not going to go there.
So how did you get it?
- I bought it in a charity golf auction back in 1988.
- OK.
So you said they signed it on the back?
- They did.
- Best wishes, The Righteous Brothers,
Bobby Hatfield, Bill Melody, April 18, 1988.
The signature is good.
Kind of sucks that it's on the back, though.
Nowadays they'll sign them on the vinyl.
- Yeah.
- I like it.
I think it's cool.
You got some cool stuff going here, some other stuff going.
This is not an RIAA record.
RIAA, that was sort of official back in the day.
But in the '80s, there was a few companies
that would make these.
That's what this is.
It's not an official gold record.
But it is cool.
How much you want for it?
- I'm asking 25,000.
- That is not gold. You know that.
- Right. - It's gold plated.
- OK. It's definitely not that number.
I mean, you can get amazing Elvis stuff.
You can get amazing Beatles stuff for that kind of money.
But I can call a guy in to help us figure out what it is worth.
- Please.
- All right. I'll be right back.
I'm going to get ahold of Steve.
- Very good. Thank you.
- We have a customer in the shop who claims to have
a gold-plated record signed by both
Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers.
He wants $25,000.
So I'm going to have Steve Grad come down and take a look
at the autographs and tell me if this
is golden or just a flop.
OK, so we have a gold record.
It's signed by Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley on the back.
- OK, so the two guys who comprise
The Righteous Brothers, the originals, at least.
Bobby Hatfield died in 2003, I believe.
So he's been gone a while.
And I think Bill Medley still kind of carries
on the tradition, doesn't he?
- Yeah, he's still out there.
He got another singer and redid
the whole Righteous Brothers thing.
But he bought it at an auction. - OK.
- And I guess they signed it at the auction?
- Yes.
- Well, it's tough to see, huh?
- It is tough. - Look at this.
I mean, you can barely see it.
It looks like a fiber-tip marker.
It's blended in so well, though, here,
and this surface is almost like a particle board, Rick,
would you say?
- Yeah, I mean, it's a kind of cardboard.
- This is something that Bobby would do a lot.
He'd write "best wishes from The Righteous Brothers."
So a lot of times they would inscribe stuff.
The things I see in the autographs, first of all,
we take a look right here, this "The Righteous Brothers"
really takes a lot of time with that signature.
Really nice.
And Bobby Hatfield almost was on a one-plane signer.
And we see that right here.
Bill Medley down here slants the same.
Nice big B. Nice M.
I see all these characteristics here,
and there's no doubt in my mind authentic autographs, live ink.
Not the greatest contrast in the world.
- OK.
Because basically we're valuing the piece of cardboard
on the back. - Right.
And that's what it comes down to.
- OK, so what are those autographs worth?
- Their autographs together, now,
as much success that they had-- commercial success is crazy.
Their songs, you know them instantly.
Their autographs really aren't worth a lot of money.
They're collectible, but to an extent.
So a signed photograph, for example, on them is $200.
Index card, the two of them, 150.
If I'm judging just the piece of cardboard here on the back,
you're about $300 just for the autographs.
Cool piece nonetheless, but tough to display.
And you know all the pitfalls of that, so...
- Yeah. - Good to see you.
- Have a good one. Appreciate it, man.
- Yep. Good to see you, and good luck to you.
- Thank you. - All right.
So I don't think we're going to make a deal at all, OK?
The gold records that are worth money
are the ones that are sent in by the record companies.
This is not.
This is a company that makes gold records
to resell to the public.
There's nothing limited edition or anything about that.
You have the signatures on the back
that he's saying is worth 300 bucks.
So I don't think you're going to take 200 bucks for it.
- No, no. - OK.
And I think it means a lot more to you than it means to me.
- It does. It does.
But thank you. I appreciate the time.
Have a good day. - No problem, man.
- You too.
♪ ♪
- Got karaoke at my bar tonight.
We can do a duet.
Think about it.
Just think about it. - This is weird.
♪ ♪
- How are you doing? - Good.
How's it going? - Pretty good.
What do you have here?
- So I have a pair of Victorian story padlocks.
This one's called the Tramp's Terror lock from the 1880s.
And it was used to just scare tramps away.
And the other one is a werewolf padlock.
And it kind of worked on superstition.
It was believed if you were to tamper with the werewolf lock
that you would receive a curse.
So extra security, right?
If you believe in it. - Yeah.
- [laughs] [wolf howls]
- Today I'm at the pawn shop to sell
two of my Victorian story padlocks.
Both of these locks are in really good condition
and both have the original keys.
I got both locks at a flea market.
I'm asking 3,000 for the pair of locks.
I collect a lot of unusual items,
and it's always good to have a little bit, you know,
funds to play around with and add to the collection.
- Story locks are pretty cool.
Story locks are a product of the Victorian era.
I mean, everything was fancy and much cooler
in the Victorian era, right? - Of course.
- This one happens to have skull and crossbones on it.
But this is definitely telling a story of "don't cross me."
- Stay away. [laughs]
- Stay away.
Do they work? - They do.
- Let's try here.
Pop right open. - All right.
There we go.
I really like the werewolf one over here,
because putting the key in its mouth.
- Yeah, he likes to eat it, right?
He's a werewolf. [laughs]
- I'm just taking a look at this one here.
This one, I'm not so sure about this one.
This one looks a little suspicious to me.
You know, story locks are very cool,
but they're very expensive.
So they're often reproduced.
I'm seeing a consistent loss of detail.
It kind of looks like it was cast
from an original lock maybe.
When they made the mold, it would kind of lose
a lot of the detail in it.
I'm not saying it's authentic or not.
I'm just saying I'm a little worried
about making an offer on it. - Of course.
- So I would just kind of stay away from that one.
Do you know what you're looking to get for this werewolf one?
- On the werewolf one alone, I could do 2,000.
- It's super cool, and I think that's just a lot more
than I can pay for it, though.
Do you have a bottom?
I don't want to insult you with an offer.
- No problem.
I mean, the least I could probably do is
like 1,500 bucks.
- You wouldn't take 800 for it?
- I couldn't do that today, unfortunately.
That's almost what I have into it.
Yeah, I couldn't today.
I'm sorry. - All right.
Well, I appreciate you bringing them in.
- Of course. both: Thank you.
[rock music]
♪ ♪
- Cool.
So what do we have here?
- Got a couple of miniature salesman samples
from the 1920s, '30s.
You got a McCormick-Deering cream separator
and a Toledo scale. - OK.
Really cool.
I actually have the real one of those cream separator.
- Oh, yeah?
- It's a lot of work to separate the cream
from milk without one. - Right. Yeah.
[laughter]
- I'm here to sell my miniature salesman samples.
They're replicas of actual working devices that
were used during that period.
I got these cast iron miniatures
from fellow collector friends.
I am asking 650 for the pair.
If I make a sale today, I'll probably
pick up something for my grandkids
to bring home for them.
- I'm kind of impressed.
McCormick-Deering cream separator.
There was a lot of different products made from milk,
and one of the most important ones was butter.
So-- - Right, right.
- And you need to separate that cream to get the butter.
Every barn had one that had cows.
This Toledo scale is really, really decorative.
- This actually operates.
If you push it, it would weigh stuff.
It kind of goes up and down, like it would actually work.
- OK.
It is really, really cool.
But these are not salesman's samples.
You know, these are cast iron toys.
Salesman samples are generally really high quality,
and most of the time they're an exact replica
of the large one. - Right.
- Because you literally have to show them how
it works and everything.
A salesman sample of that would probably be that big.
- Yeah. - But this would not be
a salesman sample.
It's just not the quality.
They're good shape. Not the greatest shape.
You mind if I pick them up? - No, go ahead.
Take a look. - OK.
"Arcade. Freeport, Illinois."
Arcade, big toy manufacturer. - Yes.
- They made miniatures of just about everything.
It wasn't just farm stuff.
It was trucks. It was cars.
It was horse and wagons.
They did a lot of different stuff.
How much you want for them?
- 650 for the pair.
- I was thinking, like, 325 for the pair.
- Can't do that.
I'd love to work with you, but I can't.
I couldn't do it.
- I mean, I'd go 425. I mean, I got to sell them.
- Do you need to buy them together?
Which one do you have more of a--
- I'd give you 150 for this one, for the scale.
- Mm, I would do 2 for that one.
- All right, 175 for this one.
- Do you want an arm wrestle for it?
- No. - No?
No chance?
- 180?
- All right. - All right.
Sweet. - I appreciate it.
- I'll meet you right over there, and I'll get you paid.
- OK. And I'll take this one with me.
- OK. - Thank you so much.
- I weighed my options.
This was the choice.
♪ ♪
- Hello. - Hello.
How are you? - I'm good.
How are you?
- I'm good.
I see you have a rifle there.
- I do.
It's a Civil War Palmer gun.
That's what I've been told.
- All right, go ahead and set it right here.
- Thank you so much.
There you go.
- I'm not seeing anything that says Palmer on it,
so that I don't know about.
But what do you know about it?
- This is as far as I know.
There's some dates and some description
You can see just there.
And it says 1865.
- 1865 is probably the year that it
was actually manufactured and sent out to whoever bought it.
- Wow. That's a long time ago.
- Just a couple of years.
- [laughs]
I'm here at the pawn shop to sell a Civil War Palmer gun.
The gun is in incredible condition.
It's, of course, very old.
And there's lots of markings on it.
I've done my research, and there doesn't seem to be
many of these guns out there.
So I'm going for an asking price of 20,000.
If I'm able to sell this gun,
I'm hoping to spend this money by going
for a spa day, a shopping spree,
and of course, having a vacation.
- So it's pretty cool.
May I take a look at it?
- Yeah, absolutely. - OK.
You have a compact bolt action rifle here.
Typically, when I think of a Civil War gun,
I think of a much longer barrel.
So this would have been very easily maneuvered,
possibly even cavalry-style gun where
you're mounted on something.
I think this loop right here would be kind of
to hook it up to your waistline.
1865 would put it right around the time of the Civil War.
- That's right. Yeah.
I think that was the final year of the Civil War.
- U.S. E. G. Lamson and Co.
- Mm-hmm. - Windsor, VT.
I think that's Vermont.
Definitely made in the U.S.,
but maybe even made for military use.
- Whoa.
- So tell me where you got it.
- I was working on a show on Broadway,
and one of the cast members, she absolutely loved England
and the royal family.
And I had a tea set that was used in Buckingham Palace,
so I gifted that to her, and she really appreciated it.
And in return, she said, well,
I've got to give something to you.
My father's a collector.
I'll give you one of his pieces.
I thought it was going to be a piece of art.
And then when she gave it to me, it was this gun.
- Well, this is kind of a piece of art.
- Yeah, I suppose it is.
- All right.
How much are you looking to get for it?
- You know what, I think we should go hard or go home.
I think 20,000.
- I mean, this is a beautiful gun.
It's got some beautiful markings on it.
But for $20,000, I'm definitely going to have to have
this gun evaluated by a professional.
- That makes sense. - All right.
I'm going to call in my gun expert, Alex,
and see what he has to say about it.
If you have a little bit of time to hang out here,
I can go call him now. - I've got all the time.
- All right. Let me go give him a call.
I'll be right back. - Thank you.
♪ ♪
- A woman came into the shop with what she thinks is
a U.S. Civil War Palmer rifle.
She would like to get $20,000,
and I have a lot of questions about the gun.
So Alex Cranmer is on his way over to take a look
and let me know his thoughts.
Hey, Alex. - Hey, Chum.
- How you doing? - Good to see you.
I'm Alex. - Hi Alex.
Nice to see you. - Nice to meet you.
- So go ahead and tell Alex what you think you have here.
- It's a Civil War Palmer gun.
That's what I think it is. And from 1865.
- Do you mind if I pick it up?
- Go for it.
- So, wow, this is in great condition.
So this is actually a really important
firearm in American history.
Palmer was a gun maker, came up with this design,
patented in 1863.
And this is the very first bolt-action firearm that
used a metallic cartridge.
A major change from muzzle loading
to something that you would think of today.
If I said bullet, you sort of think of a brass back
and a projectile on the front.
That's a metallic cartridge.
The inspiration of this design wound up
being used in firearms manufacturing and design
for another hundred years.
So the U.S. government ordered 1,000 of them in 1864,
and the intended purpose was for their cavalry.
What happened is they're not finished and made
in Windsor, Vermont, until 1865.
They're delivered to the U.S. government
one month after the Civil War ends,
so they're never used.
And the US government auctions them off
and they're sold commercially.
So this is a very important gun for collectors.
So I'm going to just do a little bit
of inspection to make sure the inside
looks as good as the outside.
- Fingers crossed.
- I'm going to just take a quick look at the bore.
Oh, wow.
It honestly may never have been shot.
Once they've have been fired a lot, the bore gets darker.
It gets a little bit mutated.
But this is very crisp.
So this is about as nice a condition Palmer
as I've ever seen.
- All right.
Well, how much is it actually worth?
- Like $20,000?
[laughter]
- No, it's not.
That's--that's a lot.
But certainly many thousands of dollars.
- OK. - Just not $20,000.
- Well, how many thousands do you think?
- Anywhere from 6,000 to 8,000.
We need to test it.
I mean, if it fires and it works well,
this is a pretty easy one to value.
- Are you OK if we go out to the range and fire it?
- Yes, I would love that.
- All right.
Even though it's in beautiful condition,
I still want Alex to make sure it's safe to fire
before we go out to the range.
- That's a good idea.
- It is 160 years old. - Yes.
- He's going to take this with him, if you don't mind.
I'll get your information, and then I'll let you know
what time and what range we'll meet at
to try it out and fire it.
- Can't wait. - OK, great.
- All right. Thanks, Alex.
- Thank you.
- Thank you so much. - Nice to meet you.
- All right.
Well, not the 20,000, but he says it could be
worth, you know, 7,000, 8,000, which is good news, I guess.
Better than the tea set, right?
- Exactly.
- All right, let's go get your information.
- Thank you.
♪ ♪
- What do we got here?
- A 1950s Hopalong Cassidy cowboy playset.
- OK.
Hopalong Cassidy the character, came along in, like,
the early 1900s, like 1904, 1905, something like that.
Little pulp fiction.
Inexpensive books you bought at the dime store.
Classic cowboy guy in the West.
And he was called Hopalong because at one time
in a gunfight, got shot in the leg,
and he had a little hitch in his giddy-up.
[laughter]
- I'm looking to sell my 1950s Hopalong Cassidy playset.
I believe it's rare because of its condition.
Kids, when they played this stuff, they destroyed it.
This is like it's never been touched.
I'm hoping to get $600 for this playset.
If I make the sale today, I'm looking to buy
other Hopalong Cassidy items for my shelf.
- So were you a Hopalong Cassidy fan?
- Yes, since birth, I guess.
[laughter]
Since we got a TV, I was watching him.
- Hopalong Cassidy, he's your standard TV good-guy cowboy.
Basically, he would go from town to town
and generally save a damsel in distress, get the bad guys,
everything like that.
And that was his TV show.
I don't know how many episodes he did,
but I know it was on for four or five years.
Bill Boyd, he stars as Hopalong Cassidy
right around 1935, I think it was.
And there were serials and there was also movies.
And he slowly started buying up all the rights.
He got the merchandising rights to Hopalong Cassidy.
He ended up getting the TV rights for it
in like 1949, 1950.
So next thing you know, he was selling
$20 million, $30 million a year in merchandise.
I mean, there was Hopalong Cassidy bicycles, lunch boxes.
There was a furniture line.
He literally had everything,
and he just turned it into a marketing machine.
Do you know what year this is?
- Probably early '50s, I'm guessing.
- OK. How much you want for it?
- I'm thinking around the $600 range.
- OK.
Great display.
They're in great shape.
That's all pinned down.
♪ ♪
Obviously you've never looked at the back
of these holsters, have you? - No.
What?
- 1995. - Oh.
[laughs]
- Probably some collectibles business got the rights for it,
made some of these up in the '90s,
and it's probably worth like 75 bucks.
In this shape for Hopalong Cassidy,
I would have gave it 400 or 500 bucks in a minute,
but it's not 1950s, it's 1990s.
Sorry man. It's just not for me.
- That's OK.
I got a place on my wall for it.
- OK. There you go.
[rock music]
- Hey, how's it going? - Good.
I have an item I got from Disneyland.
I have a $50 bill from Disneyland,
and an "I Was There" pin that I bought with it
on the 50th anniversary.
- This was a big deal.
They only gave this out for, like, one year, right?
- Right.
But you could only get this bill that day of.
And so I picked up this one after
we waited in line all night.
- You know, I mean, it's pretty genius when you think about it.
Let's get you to wait in line all night long
to buy a $50 bill that you can only spend in our park,
but you're not gonna spend it,
because it's a collector's item.
- Right. [cash register dings]
I'm here to sell my Disney $50 bill
from the Disney 50th anniversary.
Along with the $50 bill,
I brought a pin that says "I Was There."
These are very highly collectible
in the Disney community.
I'm asking $7,000 for it.
If I'm able to make the sale,
I was planning on using the money
to get the entire family together
at Disneyland for Christmas.
- This is definitely cool.
Charles Boyer, he was the one that designed this one.
Beyond Walt Disney, he was the first ever
you know, full-time artist that Disney ever hired.
Do you mind if I pick it up?
- Yeah, go ahead.
- OK. It's Mickey, looking at himself
as Mickey 50 years younger, I'm assuming.
- Yeah, the original.
- Definitely pretty cool.
Very, very Disney.
So tell me, what makes you stand in line
all night long for Disney dollars?
- I just figured, you know, it's going to be
once in a lifetime, and they don't make
Disney dollars anymore.
- Of course not.
I mean, it makes almost no sense these days.
I mean, no one goes to Disneyland
with a cash budget that they plan on spending anymore.
- Right. - You know?
It's credit card, credit card, credit card,
which is probably what makes them a little bit
more collectible today. - Yeah.
- How much are you looking to get?
- $7,000.
- $7,000. OK.
I got to let you know, I get Disney dollars
in here about once a week. - Yeah.
- And you waited in line to get it, and that's great.
But we're looking at around 700 bucks on my end.
- I'll just hang on to it for that.
- Well, it's a magical world, man.
You go out and do what you want with it.
- OK. - I appreciate it.
If you change your mind, I'm always here, OK?
- OK. I appreciate it.
- Take care. - Thanks.
♪ ♪
- A woman came into the shop
with an 1865 Civil War Palmer model carbine rifle.
It's in pretty good condition, but she's asking for $20,000.
Alex took it to the shop to inspect it and to test fire.
Since the rifle has a lot of history behind it,
I figured the biggest history nerd I know
should come out here with me.
So Rick and I are here at the range to see how it fires.
How's it going?
- Hi. Nice to see you.
- OK, so this is the weird Civil War gun
that wasn't in the Civil War.
- Yeah, and it's a pretty ingenious design.
So let me take you through it.
Traditionally, all the firearms that were
being used by the U.S. military in the Civil War
were cap and ball.
But this uses a metallic cartridge.
So you rotate the bolt up, pull it back,
it ejects the spent cartridge.
So that was a very different type of advancement
in order to reload quicker.
- So you just checked it out.
It seemed structurally fine?
- Yeah, I inspected it really closely.
It is in pristine condition.
- So what kind of weird target did you bring?
Because you always bring a weird target.
- So provisions in the Civil War were
really important.
So one of the provisions that wouldn't spoil were
pickled items such as pickled eggs.
And so I made a pyramid.
And if I hit it right, there'll be a little bit of a surprise.
- All right, let's load the thing up.
Let's go.
- All right, you guys all have eye protection,
but put in ear protection.
- All right, here we go. - Perfect.
Thank you.
♪ ♪
[gun clicking]
♪ ♪
[gunshot]
- Yeah! - [laughs]
- Got it.
♪ ♪
- It works. [laughs]
- You can smell the pickled eggs already.
- Its eggs-plosive. Da-dun-dun.
- That was egg-cellent.
- Oh, good one!
I like it. - [laughs]
- OK.
What do you think it's worth, Alex?
- The pluses about it is it's very rare,
it's Civil War, and it's in fantastic condition.
I think a realistic number at retail is 7,500.
- OK.
- All right.
I'm going to go, leave you to it.
Good luck. - Thank you so much.
- Thank you. See you guys.
- Bye.
- [sighs]
- What do you think?
- I mean, no, I mean, it's cool, and it will sell.
I mean, it'd probably take a while,
because 99.9% of the people out there don't know what it is.
I mean, I'll give you 4,000 for it.
- 4,000? - 4,000.
- Oh, can we go up a little?
- I'll tell you what. I could do 5,000.
I think we could both be happy with that number.
- Well, I don't know what to do with this,
so I think that works out perfectly.
- OK, sweet!
- Thank you.
- Just bring it back to the pawn shop,
and Chum will do some paperwork with you and get you paid.
- Excellent. That sounds good.
I'll see you there. - All right.
I'll see you there.
- Thank you. - All right.
Give us a little time. We're going to eat lunch.
What do you want?
How about egg salad?
Egg salad sandwiches.
- Pickled egg salad sandwiches.
- Yeah.