Golden Ticket

Could get 1,500 bucks easily for the set. So, that hurts. MARK: Nashville, Tennessee. Rock 'em, sock 'em, all day. TRACI: High-end items just turn me on. That was $200 too much. SALLY: Billy made an agreement with us. I knew I couldn't trust him. BILLY: Screw the agreement. One film sold for thousands of dollars. MARK: That's a great payday, even for Elvis. Thank you very much. NARRATOR: Every day, $40 billion in property travels around the world. 1% of that gets lost or left behind. When this property goes unclaimed, it's put up for public auction. Yo! AUCTIONEER: Sold! SALLY: We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. NARRATOR: This is "Baggage Battles." MARK: Nashville, Tennessee. This is home to one of the biggest estate auctions this side of the Mason-Dixon line. Here comes Mark Meyer to Music City, arriving in style. There's a lot of southern hospitality in Nashville. There's a lot of old money here, too. I'm hoping that these people were wealthy and these collections have just accumulated over the years. I hear that there's a lot of pop-culture stuff. There's even the front end of a pink Cadillac. It's stupid, bidding against each other every auction, pushing the prices up. Yeah, we should bury the hatchet, so to speak, where you don't have to fight over stuff. We don't bid each other up, then? The hatchet's buried. Yes. Back off. Okay. What's wrong with your husband? Oh. New Orleans/Tahiti. It could be, like, an effigy or a figurine or maybe a shrunken head. A shrunken head? I think it's a voodoo thing. Voodoo, honey, can be very collectible. I just like the size of the box. I like what it says. Voodoo's not really up Billy's alley, right? Oh, he loves weird stuff like that. I think he will bid on anything he wants, Anywhere, anyhow. Billy is going to cheat us. I don't trust Billy as far as I can throw him. Boxes. New Orleans/Tahiti really intrigues me. Voodoo stuff? I mean, I could sell it all day long. I'm going to go 150 bucks on this box. I'll hold up my end of the deal as long as they stay out of my way. This is really cool. It's a mask of the Kuba people from the mid 19th century. All of the design is hand-done. I mean, you can see how even, you know, they hammer out the metal, all the bead work. It's colorful. It's big. This would be awesome for the right collector. MARK: The reason I came to Nashville is because they have exotic, weird stuff like this. This is a front end of a pink Cadillac. It looks like it's from the '60s. I could totally have this in a nice high-end consignment shop for 1,300 to 1,800 bucks. It's coming home with me. Mark, look at this. It's right up your alley. It's pink, might be fiberglass. Does it? BILLY: I love this pink Caddy. But Mark looks a little too interested. It's a '66. No one wants a '66 Cadillac. You sure? I don't trust Billy for a second. If this is a '66 Cadillac, it's made of steel. I'm really not interested. It's not in good shape. I think you're totally lying to me. Yeah. TRACI: High-end items are really my forte. But there is something about running my fingers on a dirty old box that just turns me on. This one feels like it's packed. NCC-1701 could be a serial number. First edition -- You've got to think that if it's a first edition of anything, it's going to be good. Most collectibles come out in editions. So, I'm willing to spend up to $200 on this. BILLY: "Inmates"? Oh, "Inmates, Davidson County Asylum." This is a ledger of all the inmates from 1893 to 1902. Ah, this has Billy written all over it. This is great. [ Moaning ] TRACI: Fossils are cool. It's probably 10,000-plus years old. I'm willing to spend about $150 for this. This is nice. I like it because it says "safe." It's heavy. There's lots of items inside. It would be really nice to find some silver bars, some coins. This looks like a sucker's box. But I'm a sucker for wealthy items. BILLY: Another box. I really like this box because it's light and it says "fragile." Anything made of glass, crystal. I mean, "fragile" means it's valuable. $200, $250. I love this box. "Fragile." [ Rattling ] Famous American advertising, RCA Victor. [ Sniffing ] Right customer, you can get $1,000 for it. Now, this is my childhood in a nutshell. Rock 'em, sock 'em, all day, man. Right, I know you're an expert on playing with toys. I am an expert on selling them. This ain't Christie's, Miss Thing. Why don't you step into the ring, and I'll show you how to rumble? Ready. Bout. Wait. Seriously? Get used to hearing these words at the auction -- Traci's down for the count. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. SALLY: This auction house is packed. There are a lot of people who come here every week. And they are ready to buy as much as they can. [ Auctioneer calling ] Sold! MAN: Got another box lot. It says "first edition." All right. TRACI: I want this first-edition box bad. But I know it's not going to come cheap. LAURENCE: Could be the first edition of "Harry Potter." That's worth 10 grand. [ Auctioneer calling ] What is up with Laurence? Is he trying to punk me? I'm with the young lady in front row at $250. I'm looking for $275, $275. Going once. I've sold it to you, Miss, for $250. That was $200 too much. TRACI: I spent a lot of money on this box. It better pay off big time. Here we go. On the pink Cadillac. MARK: Billy's full of crap. This Caddy's crazy valuable, and it's coming home with me. [ Auctioneer calling ] Now, you want in on the Cadillac? Big surprise. I am. You're going to regret this. Any higher and my profit is out the window. Let's go. It's hot. Come on. Last call. $325? You're taking it home, son. Thank you. Thank you. We've got a box that says "country store." Whoo! SALLY: Billy wants this country store box. We want to bid on it. But I think we should just let him have it. We are not breaking any agreement. This country store box is mine. Everybody back off. Yeah! All right, ladies and gentlemen, on the New Orleans/Tahiti box. People who go to Tahiti are rich. Now, $100. BILLY: It's really tough not bidding Laurence and Sally up. This New Orleans box -- I've got to get it. Such a creep. Billy made an agreement with us that he wasn't going to bid us up. I knew I couldn't trust him. A deal is a deal. But when it comes to Laurence and Sally, all bets are off. SALLY: Billy made an agreement with us that he wasn't going to bid us up. I knew I couldn't trust him. BILLY: This New Orleans box has my name written all over it. Screw the agreement. [ Auctioneer calling ] This is our item, not Billy's. It's just a box. Sold it! $150, bidder number 273. Too hot for the antics. MARK: I spent $410 at this auction. I'm walking away with a sealed box and an actual '66 Cadillac front end. I bought this for 300 bucks. This could go in a theme restaurant -- maybe someone who's enthusiastic about music, Elvis, cars, all of the above. A good coat of wax, a new emblem, some lights. After shipping, I'm looking at a $1,000 profit. That's a great payday, even for Elvis. Thank you very much. The question is, what's inside the sealed box? For the most part, you lose with these boxes that say "safe" and "jewelry." And because it said "safe," I had to pay $110. A couple gold bars would definitely put me into retirement. Ah, this is not good. This is, like, a box full of junk. I think you put these inside your shoe. $3 apiece. All right. These are actually really good, these doorknobs. As much as I don't like vintage hardware, these sell for good money, about $60 for the pair. These are crystal and glass. We're looking at a whole tray filled with old doorknobs. I paid $110. I got $110 worth of doorknobs right here. Old doorknobs. Enough said. [ Auctioneer calling ] Hi. BILLY: I spent 650 bucks on a set of asylum ledgers and two boxes. 420 bucks on these asylum books. What I didn't know is that this baby came with the asylum book. It says what the treatments are, so I can look up a certain patient and see if he got electroshock therapy. I have a lot of customers for these, and I could get 1,500 bucks easily for the set. I paid 130 bucks for this box. It said "fragile." And I had a really good feeling about this box at the preview. Oh, no. Toys. Ugh. New Kids on the Block super-gloss photo cards and stickers. This is more up Mark's alley. What's this? The hell is this? This looks like a Wonka bar from that movie, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory." The way this is designed makes me believe this is from the '70s. They had this wrapped in bubble wrap. It has to be a special piece of chocolate. The question is, is this just some kind of promotional item or a prop actually used in the movie? If this is from the original 1970s "Willy Wonka" movie, it's my golden ticket. Now, I've got to bring it to somebody that knows what this is worth. I might have found a new reason to like chocolate -- money. I got this box for 100 bucks. "Country store" is why I got it. This is an old-looking box here. Oh, boy. We got something really nuts here. Thermocap. I've seen these before. I know exactly what this is. It falls under the category of medical quackery. Quack medical devices are uncommon and kind of cool. But I don't think they're worth a lot of money. I need to unload this to somebody who thinks it's valuable. What is it? Uh, it's some kind of a quack medicine piece. You want to sell it? I would sell this for 200 bucks. I'll give you 30 bucks for it. Listen, Mark. I was once a young jerk-off, too. I'm trying to help you, here. Look at me. All right. $150. That's it. I'll do $100. All right. All right. Okay. Do you want the newspaper? So long, sucker. MARK: I bought this piece from Billy. He told me it's worth a lot, but I don't trust him. So I tracked down an oddities expert. He agreed to meet me in an antique shop he frequents in town. I need to find out how much this is worth and what the hell is it. So, I bought this thing from my friend Billy. And I use that term lightly. It looks like a giant flashlight to me. MAN: It's a quack medical device. 1924 is when it was made, electricity still fairly foreign to a lot of American households. So, we see a lot of quack medical devices that use electricity from this period. It's actually for growing hair. Do you have a secret you want to share with me? Yeah, yeah. This is some sort of little statement from your friend Billy. First thing you have to do is find a place where you can sit unobtrusively for 15 minutes with this on your head, plugged in, with the light going. But they promised that it worked. So I think you should try it out and see what happens. If it doesn't work, how much is this worth? It's a piece of cardboard with some aluminum attached and an old silk-wrapped wire. 20 bucks as an oddity if doesn't work. If it does work, I've seen these things sell for a fair amount of money. But we're talking about working mechanically, big daddy. We're not talking about growing hair on your bald head, or my bald head, for that matter. If this thing works, I'm going to make some real money. Turn it on. I've seen these quack medical devices sell for a fair amount of money. Turn it on. Wow, there we go. It works. Why don't we see if it actually grows hair? This is going to be like putting your head into an Easy-Bake Oven and baking it like a cupcake. I got nothing to lose. Let's start the clock. 15 minutes. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. Whoo! I don't know why they call it quack medicine. It worked for me. Did it work? I don't see any change, sadly. Well, I'm disappointed. So, listen. What's it really worth? I've seen these sell for up to... ...800 bucks. Nice. That's what we're talking about. I could buy hair for that. Looks like Billy's joke backfired. I can't wait to rub it in his face. BILLY: I'm meeting David Murphy, an expert in movie memorabilia. He's going to tell me if this is an authentic prop from the 1970s "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" or just gross, old chocolate. Paid $130 for this box. But inside the box was this chocolate bar. Ah! It's a Wonka bar. Looks official. It looks like it was used in the movie. Huh. There were very few made for consumption in the movie. Most of them were cardboard, just for show. That's what I like to hear. I taste money. I never watched "Willy Wonka" when I was a kid. Well, if this candy bar is from the 1971 film, some of the props have sold for thousands of dollars. Thousands of dollars? This chocolate is turning into gold. There are actually two movies. The first one was in 1971. The second one was in 2005. What? Remake? I didn't even know there was a remake. It doesn't have quite the following as the original movie. But it's still valuable. Bottom line is, how much is this candy bar worth? You know it's chocolate. The graphics are great. All that works in its favor. It could go for...$300. Ugh. $300 chocolate bar? I should be happy. But it's not the big score I was hoping for. TRACI: I spent $875 on a fossilized mastodon bone, an African mask, and a sealed box. I spent $150 on this mammoth fossil. Generally, the cooler they look, the more you're going to get for it. I think I could get at least $300 to $400 for it. I paid $475 for this African mask. This is at least 100 years old. People interested in this sort of mask are eccentric collectors, where they want something that looks really cool that no one else has. I can make at least $1,000 on this, probably more. Museum-quality pieces for pennies on the dollar -- this is exactly why I do this. The question is, what's inside the box? This box was a huge gamble. All right. Well, there's a lot of wrapping in here. So, that's a good sign. If something is packed well, hopefully, it's valuable. Awesome. "Star Trek." Just because of the name "Star Trek," it has to be worth a few hundred dollars, at least. Mr. Spock in the original packaging. This is what you want to find in a sealed box. This is really cool. Here he is, Captain Kirk. Every ship needs its captain. I don't know how many people are in the whole crew. Kirk, Spock, Uhura. I have those. So, that's a good sign. But I could be missing the rarest one. I need to find someone who's going to tell me exactly what this collection is worth. "Star Trek" is a whole new frontier for me. I'm heading to see Russ Belcher at The Great Escape. Hopefully, he can tell me how much these bad boys are worth. I got these at auction. And when I saw the first edition, whatever it is, I'm going to think is good. The NCC-1701, it's actually the call numbers of the starship Enterprise. Anyone who knows "Star Trek" would know that that is the Enterprise? Yes. Yes. The only numbers I care about are the ones that come after dollar signs. The more zeroes, the better. So, I paid $250 for all of these. Obviously, "Star Trek" is going to be a collectible franchise. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Well, these came out in 1988 by the Hamilton company. They're all in plastic. And they have all the original papers. We would consider that mint condition. Mint condition. Sounds delicious. Now, I didn't know if maybe I was missing someone from the crew? There are seven figures total. It looks like you're missing Mr. Sulu. So, that hurts. Not having the full crew really cuts into my profit. I'm not so sure about this anymore. If it was all here, would it be better to sell it as a collection? I think you would get considerably more if you had the whole collection. Since you don't have a Sulu, I would value it at anywhere from... ...$270 to $350. It's not great. You'll make a little bit, but not a lot. $350 -- not the payday I was hoping for. SALLY: We got the Tahiti/New Orleans box for $150. And we got the dwarf head for $150. LAURENCE: We spent $150 on this, hoping it was, like, going to be an early Disney item. This is a fiberglass shell. The condition is not perfect, certainly not excellent. Can't see anything that identifies it as being part of a Disney costume. But we feel pretty confident we will make $500. We come to the mystery box. It really rides on what's inside this box whether we will make or break this auction. Ooh, look at that. [ Laughing ] It's a coconut. To see more of the spectacular stuff that we find, go to... We come to the mystery box. What's inside? Ooh, look at that. [ Laughing ] It's a coconut. This has got a tag. "Made in the Philippines." Are they all coconuts, honey? Who does that look like? This is me. This is Billy. This is Mark. And this is you. "Bow down to me!" "Oh, shut up, Billy!" We came to Nashville to get stuff far more interesting than a box of coconuts. Well, let's see what else we got in here. Oh, look at this. Beaky. It's voodoo. I was hoping for two tickets to paradise. We've got a bunch of coconuts and some voodoo dolls. Billy. Billy's a pain the butt. This is not what we came to Nashville for. NARRATOR: Mark drove off with part of a pink Cadillac and a strange hair-growing machine that he scored from Billy, cashing in over $1,400. Billy's Willy Wonka bar was not the golden ticket he was hoping for. But some crazy-house ledgers kept him sane, checking out with nearly 1,300 bucks in profit. Traci thought she hit the big time with a star fleet of first-edition "Star Trek" action figures, until she realized she was missing Sulu, grounding her profit to less than $900. Sally and Laurence had some bad voodoo in Music City, cursed with a Tahiti box and a funky dwarf head, netting them only 400 bucks in profit. [ Tambourines jingling ] Seriously? Hey! [ Cheers and applause ] How's your Thermocap? They said it was worth 800 bucks. $800? Yeah. Why are you acting shocked, though? You didn't think it was worth that much? BILLY: I'm tired of fighting. Maybe if I make amends, I can turn a new corner. You know what? I tried to screw you. You should be more honest next time. You know what? Screw the apology. -- Captions by VITAC -- Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.