It's the kind of thing everyone has dreamed
about: you're digging around in grandma's attic when you stumble across an old knick
knack that's actually worth a pantload of greenbacks. Sometimes, though, the fantasy becomes reality. Here are some Antiques Roadshow finds that
mad owners crazy rich. Collected by the owner's father in the 1930s
and '40s on two visits to China, this collection included four pieces from the 18th-century. The owner was hoping for a nice valuation,
but even she was stunned when appraiser Jim Callahan delivered the verdict. “For a total amount of between seven hundred
and ten thousand to one million seventy thousand." "...DAMN!" Many people keep artwork on their walls behind
their doors; it's a pretty normal thing. It might be a Reservoir Dogs poster if you're
a single man, or a framed picture that says "Life is just a chair of bowlies" if you are
a grandma. What most people don't hang behind their doors
are million-dollar lost paintings by the great Latin-American artists of the 20th century. But this owner from a 2012 visit to Corpus
Christi isn't most people. His great-grandparents bought a painting in
Mexico in 1930 and subsequently hung it in their house behind a door. What they didn't know was that this was actually
an early painting by a teenaged Diego Rivera from 1904, who would go on to be one of the
most prominent painters in Mexican history, famous both for his murals and also for being
married to Frida Kahlo. Needless to say, he was pretty surprised to
learn just what he had. “I would be putting a retail estimate on
the piece of between eight hundred thousand dollars and a million dollars." "SERIOUSLY?!" Every baseball card collector dreams of finding
the ultimate score, but nobody will ever be able to beat the lucky owner who brought her
family's collection to the show in 2014. In 1871, her great-great-grandmother had hosted
Boston's first professional baseball team, the Red Stockings. As a gift, they gave her a complete set of
team baseball cards, along with a signed letter from the team. Appraiser Leila Dunbar was so blown away by
the collection, which was unlike any previously known to exist, that she got choked up delivering
the verdict. "I would insure it for at least one million
dollars!” “It is the greatest archive I have ever
had at the Roadshow." Perhaps needless to say, military artifacts
and memorabilia are a very popular category of antique on both the U.S. and U.K. versions
of Antiques Roadshow. As a result, it should come as no surprise
that the highest ticket item in the history of the U.K. show — ringing in at £1 million,
or just over $1.3 million — is a military item. Well, sort of. Actually, it's a delicate flower, crafted
by legendary jeweler Peter Carl Faberge. The flower was gifted to an army regiment
in the early 1900s by Georgina, Countess of Dudley, in honor of their service in South
Africa. "I'm going to tell you in my opinion, that
this is worth a million pounds." "Whoa!" "Goodness gracious!" Let's be super clear about one thing just
right up top: absolutely do not under any circumstances buy anything made from rhino
horns ever for any reason. Rhinos are endangered, and the chief reason
is people hunting them for their horns. Rhino horns: just say no. That said, one man in Tulsa discovered his
collection of rhino horn cups was worth a fortune back in 2011. He began collecting them in the '70s, spending
a total of about $5,000 for several Chinese libation cups from the 17th and 18th centuries. So he was pretty shocked to hear just how
much they had increased in value. “A conservative number would be between
a million and a million five hundred thousand dollars for this group." "Serious?" PBS later gave an update indicating that after
the appraisal, Chinese officials began cracking down on the trade of anything made with rhino
horns. As a result, the market tanked, even for ancient
art objects like these. When sent to auction, three of the five cups
failed to sell at all, while the other two fetched the low end of their estimate range
— which was still good for $300,000. China has since reversed their position, though,
so who knows what value fluctuations are yet to come. Though most people these days just use their
phone to tell time, there's still a big demand for well made watched. In 2004, a man visited the roadshow with a
Patek Philippe watch handed down to him from his great-grandfather that had cool features
like a calendar that accounted for leap years and a moon-phase indicator. Appraiser Paul Hartquist basically lost his
mind, but in the way you'd expect a person to lose his mind on PBS: very calmly intoning
that it was the finest watch he had ever seen. “This watch, at auction, I suspect would
bring close to a quarter million dollars." "No…" However, it was later discovered that this
watch was literally one of a kind, as the special features were made just for this singular
example. That drove the price up dramatically, and
in 2016, it brought $1.5 million at auction. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite
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