GUEST: I brought my Rolex GMT Master that
I bought 55 years ago. APPRAISER: Where did you get it? GUEST: I bought it in Germany, in Zweibrücken,
at a PX when I was in the army over there. I bought the watch just before I came back
to stateside. My sergeant recommended that before I came
back to the States, buy a Rolex watch. APPRAISER: Why did he do that, do you know? GUEST: Well, he liked... he thought it was
the best watch ever made. And he said, "Make sure you get one before
you go home," and this is the one I liked. APPRAISER: And had you heard of Rolex before
that? GUEST: Not before that, no. I'd never heard or seen one before. I just took his word that it was a great watch,
and it is. APPRAISER: And do you still wear it? GUEST: I don't wear it very often now. It's kind of a keepsake now. I wear my cheap watch now, and this is my
dress watch. APPRAISER: Well, I was very excited when you
brought this up to the table. As you know, it's a Rolex, it's a GMT Master
model. But it's got some very special things about
it. It is the first model GMT Master that was
ever... Rolex ever made. GUEST: I didn't know that. APPRAISER: It's a model 6542, which we have
on the reference number on the paper here. On the box itself, on the edge of the box
right here, we have the reference number of the watch. It's incredible that you've saved everything. Is there a reason why you saved all this paperwork? We usually don't see this. GUEST: I don't know. It just... I'm just lucky, I guess. APPRAISER: Well, this watch is totally complete. You have the watch. I know you've replaced the original bracelet
at some point. This is a replacement bracelet. But we do have the original bracelet here
in the box, which is also dated that it was manufactured in the first quarter of 1960. And according to the papers of the watch,
you purchased it in April of 1960. GUEST: Correct. APPRAISER: You have the original sales receipt
right here. I notice you bought two watches. GUEST: Yes. APPRAISER: We saw the other one. The other one wasn't as special as this one. What did you pay for this watch? GUEST: This watch I paid the $120. The other watch, which had some gold to the
bracelet, I bought for my dad, and I paid $104 for that. APPRAISER: Was that a lot of money back in
1960? GUEST: It was a lot of money. APPRAISER: Yeah? GUEST: My salary in the army was just under
$100 a month. APPRAISER: Okay, so that was over a month's
salary. GUEST: Yes. APPRAISER: Do you know what this paper is
right over here? GUEST: No. APPRAISER: Rolexes were sent to the observatory
in Geneva to be certified as chronometers, and that is the original chronometer bulletin
that if you look on the left-hand side of it, you'll see the numbers, and they actually
timed the watch to tell what timekeeping it kept, plus or minus how many seconds it lost. We also have the original brochure on the
watch. Everything's complete. You have the original hang tags. I'm very pleased to tell you that this watch
today at auction is a very, very collectible watch. Just the watch on its own merit would be worth
today between $35,000 and $45,000. But this watch is worth much more. Because you saved the box and all the paperwork
for it, easily today it's $65,000 to $75,000 in the market. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: Probably more than a month's pay
in the military right now. GUEST: Wow. I had no idea. I'm speechless. If you would have told me $1,500, I would
have been happy.
The Sergeant gave him a very good advice.
i love his reaction, he really was speechless.
This one is by far my favorite. The lady is confused, and thinks the appraiser is wrong because of the value he estimates.
https://youtu.be/K8UlZvuDONQ
This post, by itself, would easily fetch 1 or 2 thousand upvotes on the front page...
But this post is worth much more.
Since you didn't post spoilers in the title, this post is worth 10 thousand+ upvotes. Easy.
This one eventually went for $1.5M at Sotheby's.
Patek Phillipe watch
I love these videos. Seeing older people so happy makes me happy.
Seems like a good dude. Happy for him.
The price he paid for it back in 1960, is equivalent to $984 in today's money.
The dudes salary in the Army was equivalent to like $800 a month. Thats like half of what most soldiers get paid today lol
edit: I GET IT, IF HE HAD INVESTED, HE WOULD HAVE MADE LESS MONEY. CHRIST STOP IT ALREADY!
Back in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina did some pretty extensive damage to my grandparents' home in Biloxi, Mississippi, I was helping my mother clean out what could be salvaged. The garage had a small office that my grandfather had built to keep knick-knacks and reference books and his typewriter and desk in. There was a wooden chest in there that if I had found it, I would've left it on the curb for garbage pickup. For some reason, my mom decided to take it over to her house the next town over. A year or so later, Antiques Roadshow came through Mobile, Alabama. My mom, being a huge fan of the show, decided to bring a few items in the hopes of getting them appraised. Just on a hunch, she brought the wooden chest. She was waiting in line when a man approached her and asked about the chest and if she would follow him over to another part of the convention center. She knew something was about to happen. They brought her over to a sectioned off area and the appraiser began asking various questions and they began filming. Turns out, this wooden chest was actually a very, very old handcrafted blanket chest from the Appalachian area in Virgina. I don't know what that means or why it's so important and my mom didn't either. When the appraiser asked how much she thought it might go for at auction, she genuinely had no idea. Turns out it was valued at $60,000. She sold that son of a gun and retired early. My brother and dad and myself still poke fun at her about her reaction. She was, quite literally, speechless.