00:00Mike Perlman paid $50 for a black shipping container.
00:04At the dock, he cut the lock and swung one door open.
00:07A faint, sweet smell drifted out.
00:10The forklift driver was ready.
00:12Mike pulled a folded page from under a strap and laid it beside his auction receipt.
00:17He looked at the name on the receipt.
00:19Then he checked the name on the page.
00:21They didn't match.
00:23Mike waved the driver back and called his lawyer.
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00:35At the auction that morning, Mike had a price in mind.
00:38He was still paying off the loan on his workshop, and he wasn't taking out another one to build a
00:44shed.
00:44He needed a dry place for two table saws that stood in his way every morning.
00:49He'd already priced the haul.
00:50Even with the truck, the box would cost a fraction of what a new shed would set him back.
00:56The crew at the dockyard was there to help him empty it.
00:59Dark boards were stacked almost to Mike's shoulder, all tied in neat bundles.
01:04The page he'd found was a packing list from 1991.
01:08A line near the bottom said the yard was holding the timber for a dealer.
01:12The seller on Mike's receipt was the dockyard.
01:15The name on the packing list belonged to the timber dealer.
01:18The old page explained why the wood had come to the yard.
01:22It said nothing about a sale.
01:24Mike had paid for the container and everything in it, but had the yard ever bought those boards?
01:29He explained that to his lawyer.
01:31He couldn't give him a number off the outside of the container.
01:34Black paint covered the old markings, and the auction receipt identified the box by its place in the row.
01:41For all they knew, the packing list could have come in with a load that had left the yard years
01:45ago.
01:46The lawyer asked Mike to leave the straps in place and look for a number on the bundle itself.
01:52Mike crouched at the door.
01:54Tucked under the strap was a narrow metal tag.
01:56The first few characters were dusty, so he wiped them with his thumb and read the number out loud.
02:02He compared it with the number on the top of the packing list.
02:05Every character matched.
02:07Mike took a picture with the list beside the tag so both numbers could be read in the same frame.
02:12The forklift driver was still waiting.
02:15Mike sent him on to the next job.
02:17Then he called the auctioneer and arranged to keep the container in the yard while they checked its history.
02:23The packing list had another detail his lawyer wanted checked.
02:27In the space for the type of wood, somebody had typed a name in Latin.
02:31His lawyer could look up the name, but reading a label was a long way from identifying a stack of
02:36boards.
02:37The lawyer sent the pictures to a wood specialist.
02:39The specialist asked to see a board.
02:41When she came to the dockyard, Mike showed her how neatly the boards had been stacked.
02:46The top piece looked about the size of the trim he put around a door.
02:50He could usually carry several pieces that size in one hand.
02:54When he tried lifting the end of this one, he barely got his fingers under it.
02:58The specialist crouched beside the stack.
03:00A corner had chipped off the end of one board.
03:03Under the dusty surface, the wood was a warm brown,
03:06with dark lines close enough together to follow across the exposed corner.
03:10Mike had noticed the smell when he'd opened the doors.
03:13The specialist was more interested in seeing clean grain.
03:16The auctioneer let her take a small piece to a lab for a closer look.
03:20While he waited, Mike went back to work.
03:23The next morning, he was pushing one of the same table saws out of his way when his phone rang.
03:28The specialist had a name for the sample, Brazilian Rosewood.
03:32It matched the name on the packing list.
03:34She'd tested one board.
03:36That afternoon, a guitar maker called Mike.
03:39Before he'd even talk money, he wanted two measurements.
03:42How long were the boards, and how wide?
03:44The specialist had put them in touch.
03:46Mike went back to the dock with a tape measure.
03:49He measured across the top board first.
03:51Then he stretched the tape down its length and read both numbers over the phone.
03:56Behind it, a few boards ended a hand's width short of the one he'd measured.
04:00The maker wanted to know if the rest were long enough for a matching pair.
04:04From where, Mike stood.
04:05He couldn't tell.
04:07He took a picture with the tape in place so the man could see exactly which board those
04:11numbers belonged to.
04:12He left the straps where they were.
04:14The maker built guitars and supplied wood to a few other shops.
04:18He had a wooden pattern for a guitar back and a narrower one for the sides.
04:22From the measurements, it sounded as though those patterns might fit.
04:26But before he made the trip, he wanted Mike to show him how this particular load had gone
04:30from the timber dealer to the yard.
04:32Mike sent the picture of the tag beside the packing list.
04:35It proved the paper went with these boards.
04:38It didn't tell the buyer who had bought them next.
04:40The auctioneer pulled the dealer's file.
04:42There was a receipt for a later sale to the yard, with a list of shipments attached.
04:47Mike placed his phone beside the list, the photo of the tag still on the screen.
04:51He ran his finger down the page.
04:53Halfway down, he stopped.
04:56There was the number he'd rubbed clean at the dock.
04:58Beside it was the exact count of the bundles on the packing list.
05:01The auctioneer signed a note, adding that shipment to Mike's receipt.
05:05Mike sent both records to the guitar maker.
05:08The maker called him back.
05:09He'd come see the boards.
05:11Before he paid, he wanted the shipping papers checked.
05:14The maker arrived with the same two wooden patterns he'd told Mike about on the phone.
05:18Mike unfolded a table beside the doors.
05:21For the first time since the auction, he could wave the forklift driver forward.
05:25The crew brought the bundles out one at a time.
05:28Each tag stayed with its stack, while the wood specialist checked the remaining boards.
05:33Out in the daylight, Mike picked a plank he'd have liked for the front of a cabinet.
05:37The dark grain ran in long, even lines, almost to the end.
05:41The maker asked him to hold a pattern flat against it.
05:44At first, a little crack showed inside the outline.
05:46Mike held the board steady while the maker slid the pattern a few inches along the grain.
05:51This time, the whole shape fit on wood with no cracks.
05:55The maker asked Mike to keep his hand there a second longer.
05:58He drew a small pencil star just outside the pattern, next to the crack.
06:02Then he lifted the pattern and set the board aside.
06:05The next plank was wider.
06:07Mike figured it would be an easier fit.
06:10But this crack ran straight through the part the maker needed.
06:13He tried the pattern at both ends and turned it over once.
06:17There was no room to shift it far enough.
06:19That plank went into a different pile.
06:22The maker priced the boards that passed the test and wrote down his offer.
06:26This time, there was a figure on the page instead of a shipment number.
06:30Mike folded the sheet and took it back to his workshop.
06:33Mike's lawyer had a specialist who worked with protected timber check the shipping papers for this sale.
06:38The old packing list was part of that review.
06:41So were the records showing how the boards had changed hands.
06:45Once the check was complete, Mike accepted the offer.
06:48When the payment cleared, Mike opened the statement for the loan on his workshop.
06:52He'd been paying it down for years.
06:54After the inspection, storage, and legal bills, there was enough left to pay off the balance.
06:59He saved the confirmation with his $50 auction receipt.
07:03On the day the lumber left, Mike saw that little pencil star again.
07:07Most of the boards were going on the delivery truck, but the maker laid the marked one in
07:12the back of his own pickup.
07:13He planned to use it for his next guitar.
07:16Mike remembered exactly where he'd held the pattern.
07:18He asked the man to let him hear the guitar when it was finished.
07:21The truck finally delivered the empty container to Mike's property.
07:25That afternoon, he rolled both table saws inside and closed the doors.
07:30The next morning, for the first time in years, he could walk straight up to his workbench.
07:35A few months later, the guitar maker sent Mike a recording.
07:39Mike set his tools down on the workbench and pressed play.
07:42For the first time, he heard what had been sitting behind those black doors.
