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00:05I'm Mike Wolfe, and I've spent my life traveling the world, chasing forgotten objects and the
00:11histories behind them. People everywhere are turning up artifacts every day, often by chance.
00:19And if you're lucky, some of these finds can be worth serious money.
00:27Tonight, on History's Greatest Picks.
00:32Nothing sells like celebrity, and you don't need to be famous to cash in. Like the guy just walking
00:38down a Minnesota street. There's a poster, he picks it up. It hasn't been touched for decades. It's
00:45really valuable. Or a guy who patches a neighbor's roof and gets an unusual payment. Where have these
00:52been for over a century? And sometimes the biggest treasure is hiding in your mama's closet.
00:59And inside the lining, there's a name written. Amelia Earhart. Ordinary people with extraordinary
01:05finds, each one touched by fame. So sit back and let me tell you the stories behind some
01:12of history's greatest picks.
01:23Collectors will spend big and go to some wild lengths to own just a piece of their sports
01:30heroes. Like the guy who drops three grand on Barry Sanders' signature on a urinal. Or the
01:37guy who pays $18,000 for Ty Cobb's dentures. But when it comes to sporting legends, nobody is bigger
01:47than this guy. The greatest of all time.
01:56It's the late 80s, and there's this bank of storage lockers in the middle of California. And one of them
02:02is delinquent. Nobody's paid the rent on it in about seven months. And so the items in there are
02:08going up for auction. It's the thrill of the hunt. It's the surprise. You never know what's going to be
02:13in there. Now, 99 times out of 100, there's nothing of value. But every once in a while, something truly
02:22spectacular shows up. This locker once belonged to a guy called Bundini Brown. And for 17 years,
02:31he's kept an iconic red robe, which once took center ring.
02:45New York City and the world is buzzing. The fight of the century is about to happen.
02:52It's a fight among two of the greatest boxers at the time. Muhammad Ali, simply known as the greatest,
02:59is up against Joe Frazier, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Muhammad Ali is also a
03:06champion. He's undefeated. Because he has refused to join the Vietnam War, the boxing authorities
03:12have stripped him of his titles. There's so much hype leading up to this fight.
03:20Pre-match press conferences were extremely entertaining, as they always were with Muhammad Ali.
03:26My predicted fight wouldn't go the distance. I'll stop it. Stop me. You.
03:30A lot of jawing back and forth. A lot of playing up the controversy by the press.
03:39I will annihilate this man. And again, I will be right and the world will be wrong. The man has
03:44problems.
03:4622,000 folks pack into Madison Square Garden, sellout crowd. Frank Sinatra is there. Jack Nicholson is there.
03:53Another 300 million people are watching it globally on a live television simulcast. It's as big as the
04:03moon landing that just happened. Ali takes his walk to the ring and he steps out not in his usual
04:10black and white robe that he's very much known for. Instead, he's in this red robe with a white collar,
04:17white cuffs and a white sash and his name emblazoned on the back.
04:21He doesn't want to look like he's going to just another fight. He wants to look like a king.
04:26Ali's corner man is Bundini Brown. And he's more than just his physical trainer. He's his
04:32hype man. He's his right-hand man in every way. His speechwriter. He's actually responsible for some
04:37of the most famous lines we've ever heard from Ali. Like,
04:40Bundini, tell him, what are we going to do? You're going to float like a butterfly and sing like a
04:44bee.
04:46This is a fight like none other. Ali and Frazier go toe-to-toe the entire match.
04:55Ali dominates the first five rounds, but Joe Frazier comes back and he's actually leading on
05:01the scorecard entering the 15th and final round. Frazier is not getting tired. He's taunting Ali as
05:08he hits him with jabs and uppercuts and Ali tries to yap back, but eventually he's woozy.
05:15The unthinkable happens. Ali goes down. He loses the fight.
05:22Joe Frazier is the heavyweight champion of the world. Ali says, if I just stuck with my old standard
05:31black and white, I would have taken Frazier down. In disgust, he throws his fancy red robe at Bundini
05:39Brown and blames the robe because he tried something new and then something new happened. He lost.
05:4617 years later, Bundini Brown's locker hits the auction block, sitting inside that same red robe,
05:55going for just two grand. Not a bad price for the collector lucky enough to snag it.
06:02By the time of Ali's death in 2016, the public perception of him has completely changed. He is
06:09no longer seen as a draft dodger or an unpatriotic person. He is seen as someone who really did fight
06:15for the ideals of America. So anything that he touched through his long and storied career
06:22is going to be of immense value both culturally and monetarily. And when the robe, which was
06:30originally priced at $2,000, comes up for auction again in 2022, it's bought for an astonishing 348 grand.
06:42And it's pretty ironic that it sold for that much considering it was the thing that Ali blamed
06:48for his first ever professional defeat.
06:55The golden age of aviation. I'm talking about a time when every takeoff could be your last.
07:01And pilots were redefining what humanity could achieve above the clouds. I'm talking about a time when
07:09legends were being made. So what would you give for a pair of goggles worn by Charles Lindbergh?
07:16Or a piece of the original propeller from the Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk?
07:23But sometimes you can only appreciate an artifact's true value if you know the real story behind it,
07:30like an aviator's leather skull cap.
07:34So for 75 years, Anthony Twiggs' mother, Ellie, has told this fantastic story.
07:41It's one of those family tall tales. No one's sure if it's true or not, but it's a damn good
07:46one.
07:50On August 26th, it's the day of the Women's Air Derby, which is this grueling
07:552,800-mile race from Santa Monica to Cleveland.
08:00In these early days, this race takes eight days. Not hours, days.
08:06And the favorite to win the race is the celebrity pilot, Amelia Earhart.
08:12Amelia Earhart of the Airlines, who will give flight to anything with wings.
08:16And she was so famous that when she landed in Cleveland at the end of that derby,
08:22she was mobbed by a crowd of 18,000 people.
08:26Among these fans is a teenaged Ellie who loves Amelia Earhart and just wanted a glimpse of her hero.
08:37Later that day, there's a boy who has a crush on Ellie and gives her a gift that he says
08:43he found
08:44on the runway where Amelia Earhart landed. It's an aviator skull cap, kind of like a leather helmet.
08:51And when Ellie looks at it, aw. Even though she doesn't like the boy, she loves the helmet.
08:58Because this helmet, she believes, belonged to her hero, Amelia Earhart.
09:08She keeps it for the rest of her life, and she likes to occasionally tell the story behind it.
09:16So, decades later, after Ellie passes in 2005, Anthony Twigg is sorting through her possessions.
09:24Now, this is a lifetime worth of stuff. So, there's clothes and jewelry and all kinds of things.
09:31But he also finds a long forgotten shoe box. And in that shoe box, he finds a lambskin leather helmet,
09:39or a cap wrapped in tissue paper, preserved in a plastic bag.
09:44And inside the lining, there's a name written, A. Earhart, or Amelia Earhart.
09:54So, Anthony starts to think that maybe his mom was telling the truth all of those years.
09:59He does the logical thing. And he takes it to get appraised, to see what the value is. And the
10:04appraiser, they're like, great story. Nice old helmet you got here.
10:08But do you have any proof?
10:10Anybody could write A. Earhart in a helmet. He goes on a mission to see if he can find some
10:16actual evidence that this was Amelia's helmet.
10:19He combs through footage and photos of Amelia Earhart trying to compare the helmet she's wearing in
10:26those photos to the one in his possession. And finally, he comes across newsreel from 1928.
10:33A year before the Women's Air Derby, she became the first woman to be a passenger on a transatlantic
10:41flight. This is international news. There's newsreels and there's dozens of photographs.
10:46Amelia Earhart is wearing a helmet that Anthony recognizes.
10:52Now, Anthony's just an amateur, so he gets in touch with a professional photo matching agency.
10:58The shape looks right, the trim looks the same, and the seams line up.
11:05Even the wear on the ear flap and the way the stitching is aligned, it all falls into place.
11:13And they confirm that this is, in fact, the helmet that Amelia Earhart dropped on the runway when she
11:19landed in Cleveland in 1929.
11:26After being picked off the ground for free, it's tucked away for 92 years. Then in February of 2022,
11:34it hits the auction block. Early estimates say $80,000. But the story and the name draw massive
11:46attention worldwide. Bidding hits $100,000 right away. Then it jumps to $250,000. Then $500,000.
11:56The final selling price, $825,000 to an anonymous bidder from California.
12:06Meaning it's not only a good story, but a profitable one as well.
12:16When it's the right band and the right show, an original concert poster can be worth a fortune.
12:23Like the poster for the Grateful Dead's summer of 1966 Skeleton and Roses concert, which sold for a
12:30little over $137,000 in 2022. Or the Beatles poster from their Shea Stadium show, which sold for $275,000.
12:41But those numbers don't even come close to the poster for a concert that never took place.
12:53So it's 1959, huge snowstorm, super cold, freezing day. Maintenance worker goes outside just to check
12:59things. And he sees underneath the telephone pole that there's a poster lying face down.
13:04Picks it up, brushes it off. It's 14 by 22 inch, pretty standard. It's got a glob of glue on
13:10the
13:11back where it had been posted up. Turns it over. It's what they call a tour blank poster. Traveling
13:17Acts would have them. They would be pre-printed with everything but the location and the date.
13:21It says, winter dance tour, but in red grease pencil, the rest is filled in. Moorhead Armory,
13:28February 3rd, two shows, 7.30 and 9.30. And then below that is the lineup.
13:35It's got Richie Valens. It's got the big bopper. It's got Dion and the Belmonts. And the
13:40headliner for this show is this up and comer, Buddy Holly.
13:47Buddy Holly is on the cusp of superstardom. Songs like Peggy Sue, That'll Be The Day.
13:53The dude was rocking out. He was one of the pioneers of rock and roll music.
13:57The guy who finds it takes the poster home and it just sits there gathering dust for decades.
14:05So why hang on to it? What makes this concert poster so different from the rest?
14:12The winter dance party kicks off two weeks earlier. And it's an ambitious tour.
14:1924 cities, two gigs a night. But here's the thing. It's the dead of winter in the Midwest. And they're
14:25zigzagging through the snow, just freezing their butts off. It is hell.
14:33It's not like they're traveling in comfort. They're traveling via bus in 1959. In the first 11 days of this
14:39tour, five buses break down. And they have to get them replaced.
14:46A couple of weeks in, Buddy Holly has had enough.
14:49So Buddy Holly says, I'm going to book this small plane, this four-seater to get from Iowa to Minnesota.
14:54He's had enough with buses. He didn't have time to be traveling another 365 miles freezing his ass off.
15:02Buddy Holly, the big bopper, Richie Valance, hop on board. Famously, one member of the band decides the plane is
15:11not for him.
15:14In the early hours of February 3rd, 1959, the plane takes off, but then immediately crashes into a frozen cornfield.
15:24Everyone dies. This is a tragedy that has been immortalized in many different ways,
15:30but perhaps none more famously than in Don McLean's song, American Pie. And this poster,
15:37found on the snowy sidewalk, is the only surviving copy of the concert poster for the day the music died.
15:52When the gentleman who found the poster passes on, his son starts clearing out the family home,
15:59piece by piece. And that's when he uncovers the poster his dad kept for all of those years.
16:07It's pristine. It hasn't been touched for decades. It is in the best condition you can ever find a concert
16:14poster. It's going to be unbelievably valuable. In 2004, he sells it to a collector for 175 grand.
16:26But the story doesn't end there. Whereas in the 1950s, posters were seen as advertising,
16:38disposable after they'd served their purpose. By the 21st century, posters are regarded as valuable
16:43collectibles, if not art. The ones coming out of the Haight-Ashbury in the 60s. They're beautiful.
16:50The art is designed. This poster is from a much simpler time, a much more innocent time in rock
16:55music, really the birth of rock music. This poster represents all of that talent, all of that wonder,
17:01and all of that promise. Here before us in this poster, we actually have one step on that road not
17:08taken, a poster for a concert that actually never happened. There's a lot going on in this one
17:14poster. So it's not hard to see why it would have been of such great interest to so many collectors.
17:19This is a holy grail for any poster collector. In 2022, the collector brings the poster back to market.
17:28The numbers rise at a staggering pace. It's $150,000 asking for $160,000, and we have it in $170
17:35,000,
17:35now go $180,000. So $300,000. $360,000. The total amount paid is $447,000,
17:48which means a poster that was found on the street in snowy Minnesota is now the most expensive concert
17:55poster ever sold at auction. If you had a spare million laying around in 2023, you could have
18:05bought Teddy Roosevelt's bedside Smith & Wesson. For twice that amount in 2002, you could have bought
18:12George Washington's saddle pistols. And if you had been in the right place at the right time,
18:17you could have picked up an even more valuable pair of six-shooters for nothing.
18:28In 1934, times were hard for everyone. One guy ends up needing some roofing work done.
18:37So he offers something in trade, which was extremely common during the Great Depression.
18:42What he receives is a wooden presentation box. And when he opens it up inside, he sees two beautiful
18:50revolvers.
18:53Now, the roofer is an interesting character because he's accepted this thing as payment,
18:56but he hasn't taken the next step to find out what it's worth.
19:01Had this repairman looked closer, the two handles, he would have seen engraved in each the portrait
19:06of one of the most famous Americans of all time, none other than Ulysses S. Grant.
19:15So let's turn back the clock to 1863, the height of the Civil War.
19:23Ulysses S. Grant is engaged in expeditionary warfare deep into Confederate territory at Vicksburg
19:29on the Mississippi River.
19:31The Union Army knew they needed to take over Vicksburg, but it wasn't going to be easy.
19:35It was a 40-day siege until finally they were able to take it away from the Confederates.
19:45That was a game changer.
19:47A short while after Grant takes Vicksburg, he's given a gift, and it's a gift of two guns.
19:55And they're not just any old ordinary run-of-the-mill revolvers.
19:59These guns are also engraved with ornamentation that is extremely handsome with this beautiful
20:07polished blue finish.
20:09These revolvers are exceptional.
20:13Louis Nimska was the master engraver of Colts of that time period.
20:18And these are done by him, which makes them incredibly beautiful.
20:21On the back strap of both revolvers is an inscription from your friends Cutler and Wagley.
20:28Cutler and Wagley are cotton traders of dubious reputations. Not that unusual for the cotton trade.
20:35So when Grant moves his army in and captures Vicksburg, cotton can now begin flowing north on
20:41the Mississippi River to safe territory. And his friends, who were the big beneficiaries of this deal,
20:47they wanted to acknowledge his generosity by giving him this handsome pair of cased Remington revolvers.
20:5820 years after the Civil War, Grant's living in New York, unaware that his luck is about to take a
21:06serious nosedive.
21:08The thing about Ulysses S. Grant is, on the one hand, he's one of the most successful people who's ever
21:12lived.
21:12The moment makes the man, and that moment was the American Civil War, and he stood up in a way
21:17that
21:17I don't think anybody else could have. And he was president of the United States twice.
21:21And then on the other hand, when it came to money, he just could not win.
21:27A terrible businessman. Something that he was throughout his life.
21:30Grant has a business partner. His name is Ferdinand Ward. And Ward is known as the Napoleon of Wall Street.
21:38This guy is brilliant with money. So Grant gives all of his money to Ward, and lets Ward do all
21:44the heavy lifting.
21:45Problem is, Ward's a fraud. And Grant loses everything overnight.
21:52He has no estate to leave for his kids. And he realizes in the closing months of his life,
21:56I've got to help the kids. I've got to create a legacy. And he decides to write the memoir,
22:02while also desperately scrounging for anything in the house that he can exchange for a little bit
22:07of money to help him get through it all.
22:08But there is one item that he's not letting go of. And that is that box with two beautiful guns
22:16inside.
22:18Could it be that he doesn't want people to know that he's received these from individuals who might have
22:23benefited from the opening up of the cotton tray? The fact that he held onto these and kept them in
22:30the
22:30family only fuels that type of speculation. Anybody who's looking for any last little
22:36shred of dirt that they can use to drag his name through the mud, these revolvers would do that.
22:41So he holds onto them. Because what does every president do when they get out of office?
22:45They start worrying about their legacy, the way they're going to be remembered after they die.
22:51After Grant passes in 1885, the revolvers stay in the family, passed down to his son, Jesse.
22:58The family holds onto them until the Great Depression. And they decide to trade them for roof repairs.
23:06The repairman keeps them for 40 years, eventually selling them in 1976 for $1,500.
23:15The amazing thing is these guns are hidden from view for more than a century and a half until all
23:22of a sudden
23:24in 2018, they appear in Las Vegas at the Antique Guns Show.
23:30When I walked in that day, somebody stopped me and was like, have you seen the Grant revolvers yet?
23:34And I was like, what Grant revolvers? I had no idea.
23:37These cased Remingtons constitute the most elaborate and historically significant set of
23:43currently known revolvers manufactured during the Civil War.
23:46Where have these been for over a century? It's an incredible story. A story that I think tells you
23:53very interesting things about a man that we thought we knew everything about. And what we learned,
23:59I think, makes us love and appreciate him more. Because what do those revolvers do? They make him
24:05more human.
24:07Let's get started. Lot number 106. Never been sold publicly before. They probably will never be sold
24:12publicly again. They are that important.
24:14When they finally hit the auction block, May of 2022, the atmosphere in this sales room is electric.
24:21Fresh, fresh, fresh as the day is long. $800,000 bid, $850,000.
24:27Bidding skyrockets past $2 million, then $3 million, then $4 million.
24:33What do you go? $4.3.
24:34Yes.
24:34$4.3. Once the hammer falls and the smoke clears.
24:38Sold at $4.4 million.
24:40Add in the buyer's premium and the final price is $5,170,000.
24:50Making them second only in value to the gun that shot Billy the Kid dead.
25:02It's not just the athletes who make a fortune from sports. Sometimes it's the everyman,
25:07the guy in the bleachers. Like the goal-winning puck from the 1980 Miracle on Ice, which flew into
25:13the crowd and was sold at auction for $37,000. Or the baseball fan who caught Shohei Ohtani's
25:2050-50 home run ball in 2024 and sold it for $4.3 million. But for every big win like
25:27those,
25:28there's a cautionary tale, a reminder that fortunes found in the bleachers
25:32can vanish just as easily as they're made.
25:41It's a 2022 divisional round of the NFL playoffs. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
25:46led by Tom Brady, are playing the Los Angeles Rams. The Bucs are down by two touchdowns. They
25:53need another miracle from Brady. 3.20 left in the fourth.
25:57He launches a ball 55 yards in the air to receiver Mike Evans, who catches it for a touchdown.
26:05And then tosses the ball into the stands.
26:11There's a guy in the stands who isn't even supposed to be there.
26:15His wife convinced him to splurge on these field side tickets.
26:20In his hands, he's got Tom Brady's touchdown pass football.
26:26Everyone around him, they want it. He's holding it. You cannot have it. This is an iconic moment for him.
26:33This ball is obviously valuable. Not only is Tom Brady the winningest Super Bowl quarterback of all
26:38time, but this was his 86th playoff touchdown. That's 40 more than any other quarterback.
26:45And he's got kind of this larger-than-life celebrity status in the U.S. He was married to a
26:51supermodel,
26:52Gisele Bundchen, and led his team, primarily the New England Patriots, to multiple come-from-behind victories in the Super
26:58Bowl.
26:59But despite his best efforts, the Rams do end up winning the game 30-27, and Brady and the Bucs
27:05season is done.
27:06But the story of the ball in question is only getting started.
27:11A week later, the ball gets even more valuable when Tom Brady posts on social media that he's going to
27:18focus on other things, which presumably means he's planning to retire.
27:26So what that means is this football is the last touchdown football the Tom Brady has ever thrown.
27:34It's going to be unbelievably valuable.
27:38Now, the year prior, Tom Brady's first-ever touchdown ball had sold for $428,842.
27:46If that's his first ball, what's the last going to sell for?
27:52So the guy knows he's got something special, so he doesn't waste any time. He's got to get this
27:57authenticated.
27:58It has the gold NFL logo emblazoned on the side. It has a silver oval with the
28:04Tampa Bay Buccaneers logo in it. It's got the number 435 on it, which was seen in photos.
28:10And it's got some white specks on it that were seen when Mike Evans caught that touchdown.
28:15This is the ball. It's been matched. It's been authenticated.
28:18Three weeks after he catches the ball, the fan puts the ball up for auction,
28:22and bidding opens at $100,000.
28:25It's an online sale. And over the course of the next four weeks, the bids reach 200 grand.
28:32By the evening of the final day, the highest bid is $218,000. But over the last four hours of
28:41the
28:41auction, the price more than doubles. The final hammer price?
28:47It's an astonishing $518,000.
28:52At this point in time, the seller is thinking,
28:55Thank you, Mike Evans. You just paid for my next mortgage.
29:0124 hours after the auction, Tom Brady announces he's not retiring.
29:10Bad news for the guy that bought this football for a half a million dollars. Is it worth that still?
29:17No.
29:18The anonymous winner of the bidding war refuses to pay.
29:24This is clearly no longer Tom Brady's final touchdown pass ball. It's returned to the guy
29:31who originally caught it. Who, poor guy, now doesn't actually know whether this ball is valuable or not.
29:40Six months later, he tries his luck once more and puts the ball back up for auction.
29:45This time, it's not advertised as his last touchdown pass, but his 86th playoff touchdown pass instead.
29:52It sells for over $129,000, which is a massive number considering he got it for free.
29:59But he'll probably always be haunted by that $500,000 that could have been.
30:08Just like Tom Brady's ball, another infamous collectible took the spotlight while millions
30:15watched on live television. But this time, it's not about sports. It was a moment captured by the
30:22news that stunned the country.
30:28It's January 1960. Two friends walk into Race Sporting Goods in Dallas, Texas to buy a gun.
30:35One of the guys is a small-time hustler, and his buddy just happens to be a police officer.
30:42One of them picks out and purchases a Colt Cobra six-shot revolver and .38 special.
30:48And it's the police officer that buys the gun because cops don't pay tax on guns in Texas.
30:53He pays $62.50 for it. When they go outside to the parking lot,
30:58the police officer turns the pistol over to the small-time hustler.
31:02And that small-time hustler is the owner of the Carousel Club.
31:06The Carousel Club is a strip joint in downtown Dallas. And his friend, the police officer,
31:11says, listen, you've got some dangerous clientele. You're dealing with large amounts of money.
31:17You should be protecting yourself. You need a gun.
31:19Back then, there were very few options for somebody that wanted something very concealable
31:25that they could carry in a pocket. Because everything else is basically a duty gun that
31:31you're wearing in a holster in front of God and everybody. If you want something that packs some
31:36punch that's going to go in your pocket, the Colt Cobra is the perfect answer for an underworld
31:42businessman who's carrying a lot of cash and needs something to hide in his pocket to protect himself.
31:48What you've got to know about this small-time hustler, his name is Jack Ruby.
31:56Just three years later, his Colt Cobra will take center stage in one of the most shocking moments
32:02ever seen on live television.
32:06At 125, the motorcade moves into the downtown area.
32:13John F. Kennedy has just been assassinated.
32:17America is in turmoil.
32:18And there can't be a bigger story than the assassination of the president of the United
32:22States of America.
32:23And the news is unfolding in real time. And they see the chain of events happen. They see Kennedy
32:32assassinated, Lyndon Johnson sworn in. And they see the massive manhunt for the eventual culprit who was
32:40caught, Lee Harvey Oswald.
32:41And now there's a live feed of the accused assassin being moved from police headquarters to the county
32:46jail. And millions of Americans are watching this.
32:49They want to get a look at the man that shot and killed President Kennedy.
32:53He's swarmed by all the news media reporters, still photographers, live television cameras.
32:59I really don't know what the situation is about. Nobody has told me anything.
33:03He's also swarmed by the man who ended up with that Colt revolver.
33:09Jack Ruby steps out of the crowd and puts a round right into Lee Harvey Oswald's gut, ending his life.
33:17Right after the shooting, officers wrestled the gun from Ruby's hand, marking it as evidence.
33:24For years, it sits locked away in Dallas police custody until 1967 when Ruby dies of cancer.
33:34And that's when the fight for this gun takes another turn.
33:38Now there are two parties who are claiming that the gun belongs to them. The first
33:43is Jack Ruby's lawyer. He's owed about $65,000 in unpaid fees and figures that the gun is fair compensation.
33:52Ruby's brother Earl claims that it belongs to the family.
33:58This begins a legal battle over the custody of this revolver. Who owns it? It takes 24 years.
34:07Eventually, the gun is adjudicated to Earl. But by this time, he's racked up $70,000 in legal fees
34:14and he owes the IRS $86,000. He's got the gun he's been fighting for, but he's just going to
34:20have to sell it immediately.
34:21The timing of this sale couldn't be more perfect because when Earl finally decides to unload this thing,
34:28it's the year 1991, which is also the year that Oliver Stone's feature film JFK is released in theaters.
34:35And nothing is hotter on the collector's market than JFK-related memorabilia. It's in the zeitgeist.
34:46For a gun that cost $62.50, when Ruby's Colt Cobra goes up for auction in 1991, it brings $220
34:57,000.
34:58The buyer? Florida real estate developer Anthony Pugliese III.
35:04Over the next three decades, he fires hundreds of rounds from that gun,
35:09every one of them with the same ballistic fingerprint as the bullet that Ruby used to kill Oswald.
35:16And those bullets? Well, they end up at auction, too.
35:20Selling for charity, some going for $18,000 each.
35:32If celebrity sells, then royalty sells big time.
35:36Like Mary Antoinette's diamond bracelet that sold for a staggering $8.2 million in 2021.
35:43Or her pearl pendant that sold for an even more staggering $36.2 million in 2018.
35:51Even a crown made of 100% plastic can be worth a small fortune if it once sat on the
35:58right person's head.
36:06This story takes place in 1997. There's a guy named Baron Claiborne. He's a photographer.
36:13He goes to this costume novelty shop that had been in New York City and Manhattan for nearly a century
36:19called Gordon's.
36:21It's like something off of a Hollywood set. Any type of novelty, any type of costume, mask,
36:29accessory, it was old, it was cheap, but it was also incredible.
36:34You need some kind of novelty item? You're going to this store for Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, Valentine's Day.
36:40If you wanted to dress a clown, you could dress a clown. But if you wanted to dress the ascendant
36:45king of hip-hop, you could do that, too.
36:48So Baron starts rummaging through stuff for this photo shoot he has. He's rummaging through magic tricks
36:55and goofy costumes and costume jewelry and stupid hats. He stumbles on this cheap plastic crown.
37:02He's like, you know what? Maybe this crown could work for this photo shoot. So he buys two crowns.
37:08One's a smaller size and one's a bigger size. He pays 12 bucks and he's out the door.
37:14And he's got this great cover assignment for a magazine called Rap Pages, which is a big hip-hop magazine.
37:21The man they're featuring, Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, the notorious B.I.G.,
37:28like one of the most legendary rappers of all time, just blowing up on the East Coast.
37:33I grew up on the East Coast. I remember hearing Biggie Smalls for the first time.
37:38We would just drive around in our cars, the mid-90s, listening to Biggie 24-7.
37:44So Claiborne, he's got this idea now with these crowns. He's gonna crown Biggie Smalls the king of hip-hop.
37:52He's huge. He's big. Six foot three, 280 pounds. And Baron's like, wow, I got this crown for you.
37:59And he puts the little crown on his head and it sits like, it's too small for his noggin.
38:03Even the big crown is too small for his head.
38:07So he takes the bigger one, cuts out the foam that lines the interior of it. Doesn't really fit.
38:13He's able to fit it onto Biggie's head at least well enough for the photo.
38:17Maybe not that where Biggie would want to be prancing around or walking to the city in this crown,
38:21but at least for the photo shoot, it's gonna work. And he starts shooting him with this crown.
38:26Just a few snapshots later and a cheap plastic crown becomes a hip-hop icon.
38:33Worn by one of rap's greatest, immortalized in one of the most famous pop culture portraits ever taken.
38:41At the time, the East Coast-West Coast rift was a real thing.
38:46Biggie, East Coast. Then you got his rival, Tupac Shakur, West Coast.
38:52Back and forth through the lyrics, who's the best.
38:55They're at war with each other.
38:58Tupac Shakur unfortunately gets shot down in Las Vegas.
39:04And they assume that Biggie Smalls is involved.
39:09And then three days after the King of New York photo shoot,
39:14Biggie himself is gunned down in a drive-by.
39:18He had only produced two albums at this time. He wasn't even 30 years old.
39:24But before he left, he left that iconic image.
39:31The photo, because of his death, becomes iconic. You saw that photo everywhere. You saw that photo in
39:36magazines, on murals, on the sides of buildings. It's not just the crown. It's the choice of the deep
39:43red backdrop, the pose, the expression on his face. Put it all together and this photo makes him regal.
39:50He's the king of New York. He's the king of hip-hop.
39:53You know, photography is a funny thing and I don't think there's any way Baron Claiborne knew
39:57quite what he was creating. Maybe he had an inkling though, because he decided to hold on to that crown.
40:03So what he does right after is he asks Biggie to sign it. So not only does he sign it,
40:10next to his
40:10signature, he writes, K-O-N-Y. King of New York.
40:16For years he kept it and a piece of the pointy top of the crown ends up cracking off. But
40:22it's
40:22still around and, you know, you can see that's the one that Biggie wore.
40:26It's plastic. It's made to be thrown away. It's like a one-use piece. But what makes it iconic is
40:32the head that it stood upon and that photo that it produced for the cover of that magazine.
40:41When Claiborne decides to sell the crown, its value is estimated between $200,000 and $300,000.
40:48But when the hammer finally drops, what started as a plastic $6 keepsake sells for nearly $600,000.
41:04All of which goes to show it might be a ball thrown into the stands,
41:09or a poster falling on the ground, or a piece of cheap plastic.
41:16If it's got the right name and story attached to it,
41:20then you might be sitting on a fortune.
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