- Oh wow!
- I hadn't seen it since I put it in here 25 years ago.
- Really? - Yeah.
- John, you had cars in here?
- A few.
Oh, please be careful.
- Oh yeah.
- Whoa!
Look at that sucker.
- Here's a skull.
I just don't want that kind of juju, man.
- What the heck?
Wow.
- ...6-pack out of there.
- Look at that thing, jersey.
(rock music)
(phone ringing)
- Dani d, what's up!
- What's up, wolfe, how's your day been so far?
- I'm actually doing pretty good, it's pretty warm down here.
I am about probably... Four miles from bienville.
Did I say that right?
- Bienville. Like spanish, like... Muy bien.
Yeah, you said it perfectly.
- Alright. So refresh my memory again.
- So I'm sending you to meet wesley and his grandson, austin.
Wesley has been liquidating estates for years.
And on top of that, he's a collector... - Okay.
- So this dude's got all the good stuff.
- He's going through people's estates handling that,
And then he's keep... He's also collecting, he's keeping stuff.
- Yeah. Yes, plus the family's super deep rooted in the communities.
So he owns some businesses around town.
One of those spots was a convenience store.
Now it's since burned down,
And they want to rebuild that convenience store.
- Oh cool.
Alright, let them know I'm just about four miles away.
- Alright, I'll give them a heads up, papa wolfe.
I will see you soon.
- Alright, talk to you soon. - Bye.
(honks horn)
- Hey, I'm mike. - Hi, heather.
Nice to meet you. - Hey, is wesley around?
- Uh, yeah, give me just a second.
- Okay. - Hey, dad!
Y'all have somebody here to see you.
- Hey, I'm mike.
Talked to dani on the phone. - Yeah. I'm wes.
- Yeah, she said you've been collecting awhile.
- Austin. - Hey austin, hey.
Man, I'll tell you what,
If you're opening a convenience store here,
You're going to do really well, you probably already know that.
But I drove for, I don't know how many miles without seeing anything.
- We're the only thing within 15 miles of here.
- No kidding. Good for you guys.
- Yes, sir. - Yeah.
- So dani said that you guys had an issue before
Where you had a store and then it burned down?
Or how long ago was that? - 2005.
- So when is this one going to open?
- Uh, I'll be open here in about a week.
- No kidding! - Yes sir.
- Good for you, dude. - Yes, sir.
- That's awesome, man.
When you live in the city or a suburb or a small town,
You take these places for granted because there's one on every corner.
But out here in rural america,
A family business like this is a necessity.
And it's so cool to see someone so young take on this role.
- I wouldn't call myself a collector, I-I was a hoarder.
(mike laughs) - okay.
- If I thought it was a good deal, I bought it.
It would probably be easier to say what I don't collect.
I really am interested in whiskey jugs, stone crock jugs, signs.
- I've kind of gotten into it just riding with him throughout the years growing up.
- Okay, I gotcha.
- You want to see it? - Yeah, absolutely.
- Let's go.
This was originally built as a garage.
- Okay.
- It was later turned into a pool hall, domino hall. - Uh-huh.
- I moved the stuff out of the convenience store, in here to store.
- Yeah, okay, alright, so this was storage.
Oh wow!
- Dani said you guys had a lot of stuff.
So how many years of accumulation is this?
- Oh... About 35.
- No kidding.
- Well, I bought this in illinois, kentucky, alabama.
- Okay. So you're... This is you driving around and buying stuff.
You walk into a space, first thing, you're looking around at all the stuff.
But if you're really into the history, this was a pool hall.
Back roads, tiny spot in louisiana,
Imagine if the walls could talk here.
I saw you got the eagle beer sign.
And that's the tough one. And then over here...
- That's, yeah, that one's in worse shape.
- Ugh...
Okay, so this one, obviously, is in way better condition.
- Correct. - Right.
- That one over there,
I was actually cleaning some eagle beer bottles,
Air conditioner man came in to fix my heating unit that was out.
And he said, well I know where there's a sign, they used it to clean fish on.
So he gave me the address, I drove over there.
- This was the fish cleaning sign or that one?
- That one. - Okay. (laughs)
- And I went to the lady, I said,
"ma'am, do you want to sell that sign?"
She said, "if you can get it off the table, you can have it."
Well, I didn't have anything but a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.
And I brought it home in my wife's suburban. She wasn't pleased but...
(laughing)
So I don't remember where I got this one.
But you don't find a lot of these.
These were somewhere between 1937 and '43.
- I have never seen this eagle beer sign before.
The fact that I'm finding it in an old pool hall, you know, is pretty cool.
And it's a hometown honey piece.
I'm in louisiana, this is a new orleans beer.
When you look at the sign,
Immediately it speaks patriotism: The colours, the big eagle,
And the porcelain is like,
I don't know how to describe it, like very heavy-handed.
Like when you draw your hand across the sign,
You can feel the ribs of the eagle's wing.
Yeah. I have found some new orleans beer before, but it's always jax.
- Yes. - That j-a-x, I think it was.
Yeah, this is cool, eagle beer. - Yeah.
- How about... $1,000.
- Yeah.
- If he doesn't want it... - What do you think?
- Alright. We're doing that.
Okay. And then let me see this dr. Pepper, 'cause that interests me too.
You know, I just got to look at the condition overall of this.
I mean, dr. Pepper's hot right now.
1,200 bucks.
- Man, I'd like to keep that. I...
- You know what, I love that you want to keep it.
Because you got the store coming up,
You're probably going to be selling this product. - Right.
- I mean, trust me, I would love to have it.
- Yes sir. - Because every sign right now is getting
Hard to find, 'cause signs are hot. But I'm...
You got... You got a good eye, man.
- Right... I'd like to keep it. Yes, sir.
- Yeah, alright, cool.
- Dude, I keep my bags in the back.
What's that pizza box still doing in here?
You ever hear the word "salmonella"?
- You ain't going to get that from pizza to begin with.
- Five days? - Hey, don't beat on it- it's just cheese pizza.
New jersey pizza's the best in the world.
- Happy joe's taco pizza from le claire, iowa.
The best pizza you'll ever eat in your life.
- Corn cob pizza, dude?
Give me a break, man! - Dude, get outta here!
- Iowa pizza! - You're kidding me.
- You can't beat jersey pizza, man. It's the best.
- Alright well, I'll put it up against it any day.
Right here, dude.
- You're here, right there...
- Yeah. Alright, hold on. - Watch it, robbie.
- Settle down... - Don't scrape the side of the van, dude.
- Settle down.
- I think you just scraped the side of the van.
- I'm an ex... I'm a expert, jersey.
Look at this!
- Man, this place is packed.
- Look at the buildings here.
- A lot of outbuildings, probably packed full of stuff.
- Look at this dude. - Whoa, he's on the porch.
(honks horn)
- You john?
- I'm john, yeah.
- You talked to danielle on the phone?
- Oh, I did.
- Yeah, rob wolfe, nice to meet ya.
- Hey. - Hey, nice to meet you.
- Jon, nice to meet you. - John and jon.
- Yeah. Jersey.
- Well, I started at a very young age collecting
And sometimes it may get a little out of hand.
- Wow, you're weren't kidding there...
- Y'all be careful. It's... - Wooh.
- Snail trails. - Man...
- I like snail trails.
- We call them pig trails. - Pig trails around here.
- Why, is there a lot of pigs down here?
- Actually, I have on and off had wild hogs on the property.
- Wow.
- All that's from a 1958 corvette.
- That freakin' grille?
- Grille, steering wheel, and gas pedal from a '58 corvette.
- Ah. - Oh.
Indian motorcycle, man.
- Can you believe it? - I love that stuff.
These are record books.
- Well, now those are from the dealer in jackson.
- These are actually written in, it says "indian scout, 45 motor number,"
So this was a... A record of a sale.
- He had wonderful bookkeeping.
- He bought the bike, and he... For $274.80.
And he sold it for $355.
They're getting harder and harder to find, these record books,
These little memo books.
But to find one with all the engine numbers
For these bikes that this dealer sold.
And it's all from the '30s, man,
It's in the middle of the depression, this guy is selling bikes.
He's not making a lot of money, but he's making something to survive
And feed his family.
You had a dealership, a car dealership, right?
- My grandfather and father,
They had the ford dealership here in laurel,
From 1914 to 1965.
- It was a car dealership, not a motorcycle dealership.
- Not a motorcycle. - So why do you have these books,
These indian motorcycle books?
- Well, this came from the grandson
Of the original owner, from jackson.
He opened the dealership, I believe if I'm correct, it was 1929.
The guys who'd been riding harleys forever just saw these new indians,
And it was, "oh wow."
- Look at that, here's oden cycle works from harley davidson.
- He's-- - from reno, nevada.
- That's his grandfather. - A negative.
- And the guy with the card.
- I've been riding these motorcycles for like 30 years now.
I still remember the day when I found my '29 indian scout, my 101.
I mean, to find the diary of a dealership,
It's the same kind of experience.
Which is what collectors are dying to find nowadays.
- This book right here, blank,
They come on the market a lot.
With no writing on it,
They sell for like 85 to 125 bucks for a blank one.
This one here, I could do 45 bucks on it,
'cause I got to resell it and make money.
- That's the range I was thinking.
- Yes, so that's what this goes in, but--
- I think that one-- - this is a different deal. It's got, hey man,
It's got the diary of the guy in there,
It's got a negative in there,
It's got a harley card in it from some early dealership.
I'll step up pretty high for this thing.
- It'd probably take 500 for the pair.
And I'm really not figuring the other one any lower than you're thinking.
I'm just, or higher, I'm just...
I'm putting all my weight on the diary.
- I'll tell you what, I'd do 4 for both of them.
- 4-and-a-half, you got them.
- I'm going for it.
- They're yours. - Thanks, brother.
- That's an indian on your shirt.
- Exactly right. That's a real indian pin, I'm an indian guy.
Man, I love indians. I rode a 1929 indian 4-cylinder across the country last year.
- Fantastic. - Yeah.
Alright.
- What's in this door, is this the bathroom?
- It's just... Be careful the, careful the door, it's just more junk. More...
- More junk, I like more junk.
- Junk, junk.
- Alright.
Man, it's like a hidden room back in here.
(clanking)
- When was the last time you saw that?
- It's been a long time.
- I can do 3-and-a-quarter.
Is this something that... Is this one that you wanted?
- No, sir.
- If he tells me he wants it, then it's not for sale,
But he said he's not interested, it's a deal.
- Okay. Alright, buddy.
Alright, thanks, man. - Yes sir.
- She's my wife now, but my girlfriend and I,
After church on Sunday,
We'd go to some of these old dumps that were around town and dig for bottles.
So I guess digging for antique bottles
Was the first thing that got me really started.
And a good friend of mine
Got interested in the whiskey jugs,
And I just progressed from there.
I learned from him.
- "a.P. Simms, fine whiskey, natchez miss."
Okay, you're the jug guy.
- Strike's pretty good on it.
- Yeah, this is faded, obviously, that print up there.
- But that's the way it came. - Yeah.
- Natchez, mississippi was founded in 1716,
Two years before new orleans.
It sits on a high bluff above the mississippi river,
So it's never flooded.
During the civil war, none of it was ever burned.
It's a town that time forgot.
What year do you think it's from?
- I would say the '20s. - Yeah.
So to find this jug
From a town with so much history is pretty cool.
- What you thinking? I know what I'm thinking.
- You're the jug guy. - I'm the jug man.
- I know, you're the jug guy, and you're... And here's the deal
I'm a southerner by choice, you're a southerner by birth.
- Yeah. - So you got to put a number on it.
- 175.
(exhales) - 150.
Alright, we're doing it?
Thank you, buddy. - Thank you.
- I noticed on your property here, john, that there's so much stuff that...
- Buildings. More buildings.
- Yeah, buildings, you just keep filling up buildings.
- More buildings, don't need less stuff.
I need more buildings.
- Hold on here, hold on here... Hold the horses, hold up.
- It's a... - That's a piece to a... A supercharger.
Look it, look at this.
It's missing this piece on the top, this is the...
- They're, they're...
- Yeah. - ...From the day.
- Do you know where these came from? - Oh, definitely.
I knew the driver and the mechanic very, very well.
- 1938, 1940, that's just before the war.
Hot rods are starting to come out, people are building things.
These mcculloch superchargers came out around that time.
They went on top of a flathead engine.
You know, you're basically taking air and fuel mixture
And forcing it into the engine.
- The actual car that they used to race,
Or at least what's left of it... - Yeah.
- Flathead v-8 model t. - Okay.
- It's just a couple hundred yards from here.
- Oh, you actually have the car.
- I have the car. I have a photo--
- Oh. It's got the motor in it?
- Motor's not in it. - Okay.
- Nowadays, guys are building traditional hot rod stuff.
This is the stuff they're looking for.
They want to go back to those days,
And they want to build it exactly as those guys did.
- I see these at swap meets,
Typically if they're done,
Running with a carburetor on it,
Hmm... 2,500.
So it's missing the carburetor,
It's locked up, needs to be rebuilt.
This is just parts to one.
I'd want to be at...
800 bucks for the pair.
- I was thinking they were worth a lot more than that.
- Not on a rebuild.
You could have 1,500 bucks in a rebuild on this.
So at 800, I could go buy one for 25.
- I gotcha. - You see what I'm saying?
And this piece is just a piece.
I mean, you're going to have to find all the rest of the pieces to this.
- I, like everyone else, want to get close at least.
I don't want to squeeze every nickel you can out of someone on any deal.
You do me a grand on the pair?
I think that's about as low as I want to go.
I've had them a really long time.
- I'm doing it. 1,000 bucks.
I'll take them. - You got them.
- Yeah. I love it.
- Alright, let's see here.
- Well, the reason we contacted you is
I need to clean this out so he can incorporate it into his store
And get, you know, I've got to get rid of the stuff
And I don't have anywhere to put it.
- Okay. So you want to use it for the same reason he did with storage.
- Right. But I'm going to use it more for my storage with the convenience store.
- Okay. I gotcha.
- So since the store burned down when I was little,
I've always wanted to re-open it, run it,
From the memories I made when I was a child.
Riding my tricycle up and down the aisle at their old store.
- Here's a coke machine.
- The coke machine actually came from gibsland,
Where bonnie and clyde met their demise.
- Okay, oh yeah, they got the museum there.
- That's correct. - Yes, okay, I've been there.
- It was a little country, a little store there.
- I've been to that town.
Years ago, we picked a guy that lived in a house
That had the previous owner's stuff in the attic.
And the guy that owned it before him
Was the editor of the local newspaper.
So we found some things that were connected to bonnie and clyde.
Alright, so this is the elephant in the room to me.
I mean, this thing's in really good shape.
Was this a local piece?
- Bonnie and clyde. Trade days.
- Oh okay. - Trade days.
- Okay, so this bonnie and clyde trade days, it's like...
- It's gone.
- ...But was it like a huge flea market, like... - Yes, yes.
- ...Like how many vendors you guys talking, like how big was it?
- When it first opened, there were probably 500.
- Really! - Yeah.
- My ideal vacation would be hitting the flea markets, the garage sales.
- I grew up riding the car seat in the back seat of... He had an old black dually.
I've been all around the world with it,
And I... I mean I loved it.
- I think it's a '39 model.
- Yeah, right there, am sign company,
I think it says lynchburg, virginia.
Yeah, '39.
So what are you thinking on this then, what would you have to have for that?
- Uh... It's not for sale.
- This is one you want to keep. - Yes.
(laughs)
- That's one I like. - You got good taste.
- Wesley and austin have obviously been doing this for a long time.
They're the grandfather-grandson picking duo.
And wesley is turning to austin and going, do you want this?
Which I think is really cool, it's respectful.
It's not all about the cash,
It's also about generational collecting.
So do you want to do the store like, vintage in any way?
- I'd like to hang up some old signs and things in there, and...
- Yeah.
- I mean, it doesn't have to be a sign,
It can be something that looks neat, is old and... - Yeah.
- I think it's cool that the family,
With the roots that they have in the community,
The store 17 years ago.
This is a place that people frequented all the time.
You know, it's going to have some old signs in it.
You know, that's really cool.
It's going to create more of a... More of a moment when you walk in.
You know what I mean? It's going to be different.
And it is different because now this is austin's baby.
- I mean, it's in great condition
And it's a very rare sign. - No, it's cool.
- Hey, john. - Yeah.
- Found a box back there, it says california redwood.
So inside it's got like, its original contents...
- And, and you have a whole house full of furniture.
- What?
Oh!
- There's a room full of furniture.
- This is a great little piece.
It's like... The whole thing disassembles.
There's the chair. - There are chairs.
- It's like a piece that you would all put together as a puzzle.
You know, it's like rubik's cube for furniture.
- And the neatest part is, it just goes right back into one little, one little piece.
- Yeah, and it all comes back together again.
Maybe this was sold in a tourist shop,
When you went to california as a tourist,
They would probably sell this in one of their roadside attractions or something.
It's really cool.
This redwood tree was harvested probably around the turn-of-the-century.
So now they had this redwood stock
And they're making these souvenirs out of it.
The redwoods, they were taken down for lumber,
They were building buildings with them.
At that time, they were overharvested for sure.
But today, they're protected.
- It's just a neat little puzzle box.
- It's different.
- I would gladly pay you $75 for that piece.
What do you think?
- You make it the 100 and it's yours.
- 100 bucks? - It's yours.
- Dude, I will do $100 on that.
I love that. - It's yours.
- Alright, whoa.
Holy crap.
- You may fall through that bed...
- No, he ain't. If he does...
- No, that thing, that's solid oak, baby.
The great thing about this pick is the amount of discovery.
This is not a big space, but there are so many cracks and crevices
That you have to dig stuff out.
- Here, let's move this neon.
I can see where this is going.
- When you look at this many layers in a building,
You start to think about the chronological time of how long it took to do this.
Alright, now I can get this off...
Ah!
Ugh!
The signs go against the wall;
The workbench goes against the wall;
The display case goes on top;
And then the filing cabinet, and then the dresser, and all that stuff,
And all of a sudden, you know,
You're just backing your way out of the building.
- Alright, here we go.
- So basically I'm digging for artifacts, man.
Oh, it's a big coke.
- You know, I'm deconstructing the scene,
To get to the porcelain.
Argh!
There's another one underneath it.
Alright, we'll put this one right here, you guys are getting style-cramped.
Alright, then there's another sign right here.
Oh, this thing is roached.
Whoo!
- Any more in there? - Dang! No, I think that's it.
- You got one spot down there.
- Yeah. So we got 1...
- And then you got a little spot on the end down there...
- 2, 3, 4, 5... Yeah.
Where's the other one, what's it look like? - Behind you.
- How about uh...
1,400 for the pair?
They got some whambo-jambos on them.
- Alright, big daddy, it's your stuff, you make the decision.
- Shake his hand.
- Alright, man, thank you, buddy.
Whoo!
We're moving some stuff here.
- It needs to go. If he doesn't want it, move it on.
- Yeah, and I love that, I love that he's asking you before too,
That's pretty damn cool.
- Well, I mean, it's-- - and I love that you're into it,
'cause not a lot of young guys into it.
- You're saying there's more stuff upstairs?
This up here?
- You have to be careful, but yes.
- I can get up there. - There's a good bit.
- I'm like a squirrel, man, in a nutshell.
Once you tell me there's stuff up here, I'm going up here, man.
- Now I didn't know that it got quite this cluttered somehow.
- Well, you weren't kidding up here, man.
This place is cluttered, holy cow!
Some ford headlights I found.
- My grandfather started the ford dealership here in 1914.
And he actually was personal friends with henry ford.
My dad was friends with edsel, henry's son.
I worked at the ford dealership two different times.
I never intended to be a mechanic.
My dream was to design automobiles.
- And there's some, there's aluminum heads up here too, john.
Hey, jersey!
- Yo!
- Let me hand this stuff down to you.
- Alright, hold on a second, man.
- The flathead parts, everybody's looking for these type of things.
They want to reuse them and put them on their flatheads.
- Hey, john! - Yes.
- You okay if we haul some of this stuff down
So we can take a better look at it?
- That'd be fine. - Alright, alright.
Seriously, how long has this stuff been up here?
- I don't think much more than, maybe 3 or 4 days?
- Well, here there's a big dead rat right next to jersey's arm.
- Yeah, it is a dead rat, all dried up.
- And... I think he's petrified.
So he's probably been here for at least... Yeah, jersey.
- You want that? - No, it's disgusting, dude.
- Dead rats are better than live rats.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There you go, hand you some edelbrock heads.
- Oh, those. - Oh, yeah.
- So leave it to robbie to find the heavy stuff in the attic,
And I got to go help him get it out of there.
But to find old speed shop equipment anywhere, it's hard to do.
- Dang, jersey. Did you get--
- Hey man, I know! Look at this stuff.
- Look at me! - Yeah.
- You got one.
- I had two of them, dude!
- Oh, geez.
- This is edelbrock high performance.
- Yeah.
- This must be the... No, that's a different brand.
- Yeah, that's a sharp.
- Is that a good one?
- Uh, well, it's just a double manifold.
- Different. - I mean, these, yeah, they're different.
This is a... You know, this is an unmarked set of aluminum heads here.
You know, we get them down and I'm looking them over.
They're not in the best shape.
This one's not as bad,
But that one, that's why- that's why they were taken off.
- Looks like something blew up in that one.
- Oh yeah. That piston blew.
I don't think these parts are going to be reusable.
They're going to be a wall-hanger.
So john, I love the look of this.
I mean, for the original car that'd be perfect.
They're ford-marked.
- They have the original ford name there also.
- That... This one doesn't.
- That one's an after-market lens.
- Yep. I can find another ford lens.
There's a lot of scratching on it.
To me, I like it,
That's the kind of car you want to put this on, an original.
- Okay.
- A nice set of these will sell for around 350.
- Okay.
- Everyone's looking for these things.
Yeah, they got a couple of dents in them, but they tell a story.
I'm at 200 here.
I don't want to be more than 200 bucks in these two manifolds,
'cause of condition.
And the two heads...
575.
I don't even know if I'd be able to use these, I might just hang them on a wall.
- Yeah, they're unusual.
- They're unusual, but it's like...
The fact that those heads are...
- You don't know till you start playing with them,
You start machining this stuff down, clean it up, before you can even use it.
- Well, but everything, all that costs money.
- The headlights are the most, to me,
The most valuable pieces, because I see possibly using them one day.
The heads and the intake,
I would probably be more like you if I ever had a nice shop,
They'd probably be hanging on the wall.
- You got to buy it.
- I'll tell you what, 600 bucks for all of them, with the headlights.
- I was thinking more like 7.
- Split it with me, 650.
- 6-and-a-half. - There.
- There you go. Thank you, john.
- Was that painless? - My way next time.
- Is that.... Is that painless?
- My way next time. - Is that painless?
- You got the fonzie pinball machine here,
And then I saw this slap stick one.
I've never seen this machine.
So what I'd like to do is, clear this one off... - Mm-hmm.
- And take some photographs of this one.
Because I got a guy that works for me,
That could bring some light to this, I think.
It was a really interesting time in america,
When pinball was like at its full throttle, man.
You know, "pinball wizard," "the who."
We had a place by us called the land of oz, you walked in there,
And it was just: (making pinball dinging noise)
I mean, it sounded like vegas on a Saturday night.
It's actually got the key to the coin mechanism.
It's a big rat's nest in there, a big one.
- Well, it was in there when I got it then.
- I've never seen this machine,
So it was interesting enough for me
To want to send pics to dave.
We got a guy named dave in nashville that works for us.
And he's kind of like the local pinball guru dude.
Dave is a guy that's been working for us for a number of years.
He does a lot of mechanical work on cars and motorcycles.
But he's also a huge collector,
And he specializes in a few things.
One of them being pinball.
Alright, cool. Let me send him these.
- Cars have been kind of in my blood since I was a little kid.
Both my brothers were really big into horses and cows and...
- Really.
- ...Young kid on the back of a horse after a while
Wants to sit on something else.
- Walking through here, john's got everything.
I mean, he's got model ts all the way up to dual overhead cam cars from the '80s.
He's been buying these things for the last 50 years.
- A lot of pieces, parts that got covered up
When katrina came through and knocked the hay barn on top of them.
- So... - That building there?
- That building was a nice, nice little hay barn till katrina came through.
- And that got knocked down by katrina.
- Katrina's got... How far inland are we?
- We're 105 miles from the coast.
- Holy cow!
- Took a lot of things down... Tremendous damage to the house.
Almost blew the house down.
- This did collapse in here.
- What did nasa say, you're going where no man's been before?
- Yeah. - Well, that's what we do.
- Pretty much.
- Ouch.
- Oh, please be careful.
- Oh yeah.
- So john, you had cars in here?
- A few.
You don't still see any, do you?
- No, there's remnants of some cars, that's about it.
- That was my storage. That was my building.
I had a couple of cars in there and a lot of parts.
Had some motors.
It had an upper and lower deck like most buildings do.
And of course you store everything you can up in the top.
And then you get a whole bottom of it completely full.
And then all of a sudden, it's over on its side.
And there are a lot of good pieces still in there.
A lot of good stuff.
- There's some engines back there,
But you ain't getting them out.
There's a bunch of engines back there.
- What are those seats, robbie? Desks.
- They're desks. - They're school desks.
- Yeah. - From the 1950s.
- Yeah. - Alright.
- You ain't getting any of these freakin' engines out of here.
Katrina did a number on this place, man.
- Yeah. What about this grille?
- Let's see here.
Get that thing outta there...
Ugh...
- You need some help there, robbie?
- No, it's got a nail.
There's a nail right there and I just can't get that piece to go beyond it.
- You want me to pick the building up for ya?
- Yeah, you're going to pick that up, alright.
- Please just don't get hurt, is all I ask.
- Oh, I got it.
Man, that is...
(laughing)
I'm looking at this grille.
Yeah, it's in pieces, it's in shambles.
But you know what, it'd look cool in a hot rod shop hanging on the wall,
With pictures of '32s all around it.
How much is a rusty, gone, piece of wall art?
'32 grille.
- That one piece of chrome trim looks pretty nice...
(robbie & jersey jon laughing)
- Wait, there are two pieces!
It has two pieces of nice... No, that one's bent.
- 10 bucks for a wall-hanger.
- Deal. - Cool. - Appreciate ya.
- Alright, what can you tell me, buddy, about this machine?
I've never seen this machine before.
- Well, I mean, that's not surprising,
I don't think a lot of people have.
This one is super, super rare.
85 of these, is what I could find.
And... - Really!?
- You know... Yes, 85. - What year is it from?
- '75, '76, I think is right when they made them.
- Okay.
- The thing about it is,
It's a super rare machine, it wasn't a super fun machine to play.
You know, if you can find one, a bally collector
Is going to be the person to buy this,
Not like a guy to put it in his garage or anything like that, so.
- Okay so what you're saying basically is,
The person that would spend the money on this machine
Would be a serious enthusiast, serious collector.
- Right.
- After going through all of that effort
To produce a machine, and they only made 85.
You know, you want to know the story behind that.
You know, and you start to speculate,
You know, on why they only made 85 of these machines.
But the thing is,
It's like their loss is our gain, man,
Because this is the rarest bally that there is.
So for the first time now
I'm seeing on the right-hand side of the game,
It's extremely scratched up.
The left side that I sent you the photograph of...
- Right.
- Is, I'd say, probably on a scale from 1 to 10,
I'd say a 7.
The right-hand side is like...
More like a 4.
- Still, to like a major collector,
That just means he's going to have to put it in the far right corner of his room.
(laughter)
- Alright, so what are you thinking value-wise, man?
You're the pinball guy.
- I... I'd say the value to a bally guy,
As it sits right now, probably 3 grand.
- That's the way it sits right now,
Without even firing it up or anything.
- Without doing anything to it, yep.
- Okay, so this is... For the bally guy, this is the holy grail.
- It is. Yep.
- Alright, buddy, I appreciate you.
- I bought the pinball machine from the man that I bought my pool hall equipment from.
I gave him 250 bucks for it,
You know, who knows it's going to be that rare.
I had no idea.
- You heard what he had to say.
Is it something you guys would sell?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- What are you thinking?
From what he had to say, what are you guys thinking?
- I'm thinking we all got to make a profit.
- Um...
Would you do 15 on it?
- That leaves you a little room, doesn't it?
- That leaves me some... A decent amount of room.
- How about 1,750?
- Alright, he's got me excited about it, man.
I've never seen the machine.
And the fact that he said it was so rare, is a big deal.
So thank you. - Thank you.
- Yes, sir. - Alright.
- You know what this is, john?
- I think it was a western store,
But I don't remember for sure.
- Here's one panel. - Aluminum?
- No, there are pieces still here, ouch... Ouch... Ugh.
- It might not say anything. - There's letters here.
- W-a-r... - Are you okay down in there?
- Here I got...
- You got more letters down there, robbie?
- Yeah, I got an n... - Give me a couple of vowels.
- An o and an e.
- These letters are like scrabble to me.
They spell words that might be the initial of somebody's first name.
Might be a last name.
But people are always looking for them.
- Yeah, here's the w.
- Right.
- Western wear.
- I bet we've got some missing letters.
- You got a bunch of missing letters. - Yeah.
- I don't really care about the panels.
Would you sell the letters?
- If you can purpose it, yes.
- Okay, 75 bucks.
- Oh, okay then. 75.50.
(laughter) - 75, thanks.
- 75 even. - 75 bucks.
- I'll come off of that.
- This is not a hard piece to find.
You know, an oak filing cabinet.
But what's cool about it is, the robin egg blue paint.
The fact that someone took the time to pickle it in robin egg blue
Makes it unique,
And it's utilitarian, it's something you can use.
- I'll take 100.
- 90 bucks.
- Deal. - Okay.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
What about this, would you sell this dog print?
- I will.
It should be a metal frame, shouldn't it?
- Yeah, it is, you're right, it is metal. - Yeah.
- There's some holes in it.
The print that I'm looking at is very common.
But the frame on this piece is so unique.
It's actually metal, it's folded over,
And I swear, man, where the paint is scratched off,
It almost looks like it's copper underneath.
100 bucks.
- Take it. (mike laughing): Yeah?
Okay. Alright, put that in my pile.
- Let's put it this way: I didn't lose money today.
- And what does that stuff say?
- I did very well.
- Mccormick.
- Oh, mercy broke. - Yeah.
That piece is gone.
But it's, you know, it's wood, so you can repair it.
- Mccormick-deering was a line of tractors
That were produced by international harvester.
These signs are what hung inside the dealership.
The cool thing about them, is that they're made out of wood.
- Oh, there's that other piece.
- Yeah, that's the piece off the mccormick-deering.
- Yeah, there's that piece right there.
- There, there it is. - Yeah, it's on the ground.
So you have that piece. - Yeah.
- Do you remember where you got this?
Was it from a local building or something?
- Yeah. It's local.
Came out of arcadia.
- I think it's really cool that wes remembers where he got most of these pieces.
Because that shows how each one is significant to him.
He remembers where he found it, the story behind it.
That's what it's all about.
500.
It's wood, it's not metal.
- I know.
But they're hard to find.
I'll take 6 for them.
- I'll do the 6, alright, I appreciate ya.
- Deal. - Thank you.
- Yeah, you got huge inventory here.
- Literally, I'm just like looking into the woods,
And they're just like... - Yeah, it goes on and on and on.
- ...They're like little eyeballs looking at me. - Yeah.
- There are a lot more that you haven't seen.
- Oh yeah. There's a lot of cars here.
- I've got to the point where I've realized that I'll never finish.
I would like to turn things that I know I will not ever get to.
- Wow!
- Get this 6-pack out of here.
- Look at that thing, jersey.
- Don't see a lot of 6-deuce engines laying around.
- No. Actually, this is a...
- Rocket 88.
- Yeah, I was going to say it's a... It's an 88 motor.
- I mean, this thing's incredible.
It's an oldsmobile rocket motor.
It's the heart and soul of any hot rod.
- What's this stand I'm looking here, this is...
- It was built to run in as it sits.
- I was going to say, it looks almost like a run stand,
But it... I don't know, I can't tell.
- I think it's a homemade run stand, is what you have.
- Has it got a starter on this thing?
Yeah, it's got the starter on it.
It's got a little filter right there too.
- Starter. - Right, and I got a battery cable, yeah.
- Yeah... - Yeah, that was a test stand.
You guys had this thing running.
- In '54, '55,
It was the fastest automobile anyone had ever seen or heard of.
The rocket was not a joke.
- I mean, has this engine been turned over at all?
Ugh, oh, my god.
- Not within the last... Year, probably.
- Ugh... - Ooh-ooh.
- It might be slightly stuck. - Well, you got a...
- Slightly. I think it's really stuck.
- Well, this is mississippi.
You got humidity down here. - That's true.
- Yeah, a lot of humidity in here.
- They get into these cylinder heads and it just... You got to take this off.
- Yeah, cracked spark plugs on this side too, robbie, rusty.
- It's got some bling to it. It looks good.
But you can tell it's been sitting here for quite some time.
It's got a little rust on it,
It's missing some of the linkage to the carburetors.
We're going to have to do some work on it.
So is this something you're looking to sell?
If I can use it?
- Unless you've got a '32 roadster,
You're going to let me have to put it in.
My dream today is before I die,
I want to drive my aunt's '57 thunderbird over there.
- Are you going to do it? - I plan on it.
I have every dream of... Of making it go.
- I think this motor, sitting in this condition, right here,
Running, running, is about...
Between 5 and $6,000.
- We're really close.
- But that's retail.
- That's what I was thinking. - Yeah.
- You got a project for this, robbie?
- No. But why do you need a project to... I mean...
- Hey. I get that, bro.
- Would be fabulous in anything, closed or open.
- Yeah. - As long as you're willing to open that hood
And let somebody look.
- I want to be at 3 grand.
- I was thinking closer to 5, so we may be too far apart.
- What's this one back in there...
What's that sign say?
- I don't know if that's a reverse glass, that's a big sign.
- What's it say, do you remember? - I... I do not remember.
- You want some help?
- I just want to see... Well, what the subject matter is.
I mean, if it's like pantyhose, I don't care for it.
(all laughing) - oh my gosh...
- The wood frame and the glass on this sign,
Adds up to a lot of weight.
Plus it was stuck on the bottom, so it's like,
You know, you're excited about getting something out because you can see it says something,
You know, and you're pulling it out and you're pulling it out, and you're like, what is this?
And then boom... (grunting)
Wait...
Okay... Let's set it down on top of here.
Hooh!
Okay, it's a cool sign, man.
But the subject matter is not that great.
- But it's one-of-a-kind. - Yeah, there you go.
- It's an early sign, it's reverse painted.
But man, I can't tell you how many times in my life
That I've seen just the corner of a sign,
You could just see like a piece of wood or a piece of metal with...
With like part of a letter on it.
And then you just bird-dog it, man.
There's nothing that's going to stop you from pulling that out.
- Murphy's custom built furniture.
Upholstering, furniture,
Gifts, lamps,
Pictures, draperies,
Carpets, and slip covers.
- Mike, that's the heaviest thing you'll buy in here.
- It is amazing how heavy that is, isn't it?
- It is.
- Here's what it's got going for it.
It's reverse painted, it's early.
I guess kind of seafoam blue.
The frame is... Interesting.
I don't know, what are you thinking, man?
- Make me a price you can live with.
- Ah...
- That's about as fair as I can be.
- I mean, I'm thinking like, 300 bucks.
I mean it's just, if it was like gas and oil or something,
We'd be talking thousands.
But... - Well...
- It's advertising, it's early, and it's glass.
So can you imagine it's lasted all these years without breaking?
- Hm. - I mean, that's pretty incredible.
- Till you saw it, I forgot I had it.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Alright, we're doing it.
- Wes and austin are moving history forward
In a couple of different ways.
One, by collecting things, preserving them,
And moving them forward;
And two, by reimagining their family store again here in this small town.
Good luck with this place. - Yes, sir.
- I think you're going to do pretty well,
There's not a lot of stores around here. - Yes sir.
- So that's great you guys saw a need in the community and stepped up.
I love that. (honks horn)
- See you guys! - Thank you, man.
Be careful!
- I wouldn't try to turn it over till I pulled the plugs and...
- Yeah. - ...Lube, lube the cylinders.
- Yeah, it needs... I mean, all the linkage on these carburetors is, I mean,
It's not only the linkage is gone. So it looks to me...
- I think he was going to run it as 2 deuces.
- I was going to say because a lot of guys back in those days,
The older guys, they wanted all running. - All working.
- They wanted all working, you know that, jersey.
- A lot of fuel in there.
- There's a lot, can you imagine that thing opened up?
- You'd better hang on. - Think about it.
We're in mississippi.
It's hotter than haiti down here, man.
Sitting in an open building like this, the moisture's getting to this thing.
I got to save it.
3,750.
And I'm going off the thing, I'm just, I... The big thing with me right now, john...
- You're trying to make it work, so am I.
We're working hard at it and I...
- You guys are close.
- But I feel like I know what's there.
I'm totally confident. I'm totally confident.
- You're confident that it's going to start and not smoke.
- I'm totally confident it is.
I'm not going to guarantee that to you, but I...
- Well, it's hard to guarantee it for sure.
- Yeah. - It's hard.
3,750, I'm at.
- 42.
- Hooh.
3,900 bucks.
39.
You know, at $3,900, I'm taking a huge chance here.
I'm thinking that this engine's going to free up and run perfectly.
If it doesn't, I've got to rebuild the whole thing,
And I'm going to have more money in it than it's worth.
I have bought so much stuff over the last 35 years,
That they say, that thing'll run, runs like a top.
- Of course, yep. - I guarantee it!
And then I'm in mississippi--
- That's when I get scared: I guarantee it.
- Right, you just scared the heck out of me.
- I told you, I'm not trying to scare you by any means.
- Yeah. - I'll tell you-- - 3,900 bucks. C'mon.
- Make it, make it a smooth 4 and we're done.
- Make it a smooth 39 and we're both feeling good.
3,900.
(cheering) whoo!
Damn! See?
That wasn't so hard.
- I wanted that other 50 bucks.
(all laughing)
- But no, I win, I've won.
Any time that this is going to get out for somebody to see and enjoy.
- Dude. Congratulations, brother.
- Yeah. It's awesome, man. - Yep.
- I felt sure I'd get that other hundred out of rob.
I said, well, I should be nice at least once.
- Thank you, my friend. Appreciate it.
- I enjoyed it. - Happy trails!
- See you, john! Thanks!
(honks horn) - take care!
- Be careful 'cause I know that there's a little bit of spider webs on it.
What about now? Ah! Ahaha!
Yeah!
- It works. - Yes!
- Yes.
- Alright, here we go, here we go.
Oh... Money, money, money! - Get it, get it, get it!
Can you believe this thing traveled across the country and it still works?
- Oy! - You lose, it's my turn.
- Oy, okay. (laughing)
- Oh, you got yourself 300...
- Whoo-hoo!
- Yeah, yeah, yeah! - Come on!
- Ahh...
Let's stop while we're ahead. - Okay.
- I'm just going to... I'm actually worried.
- I win, I win. - Yeah, I'm unplugging it.
- Okay, yeah, that's not good. (strange buzzing sound)
- Yeah, this sound is not right, right?
- No! - Yeah.
- I don't know what it was doing.
- Don't tell mike. (laughter)