Original subtitles

Pinky, are you ready to see a magic trick? Let's see a trick.

Can I try to get in it? Sure, go ahead.

Oh, my God, this hurts.

I was the one who was shot from a cannon, cut in half with a buzz saw,

turned into the tiger. You know, that's what I did.

Now, this, believe it or not, is one of the holy grails of magic.

Now I've got to figure out where Chum disappeared to.

So how does it work?

Rick, it's magic.

I'm a hypnotist. If we make a deal on this, don't go hypnotizing me for the

price you want. Why not? I'm doing that right now, Chum.

Sometimes I wish I could make Chum disappear.

Chum has been corresponding with a guy with a magic prop that he's looking to

sell. So we're here downtown in the theater to take a look and see what he

has. Hopefully there's not any tricks up his sleeve, and Chum is just not trying

to charm his way out of work.

I guess that's the magic prop?

I know what that is.

That's a zigzag box.

Pretty much like the sawing in half trick, but a little different of a

variation on it.

Hi guys, welcome.

How you doing?

Good, how are you?

So this is yours?

Yes, it is.

So have you ever chopped anybody into three pieces? I have.

I have never, ever, ever had someone offer to sell me one of these. Really?

This is pretty cool. How does this thing work?

Basically, the girl gets in the box, head goes here, left hand goes over

here, right hand here, and left foot there.

The blades get inserted, and then this whole entire side of the box comes over.

And the neat thing about it is that all her body parts, her feet, and her hands,

and her face are all visible the whole time, unlike most sawing-a-woman-and-a

-half illusions.

It's a really cool illusion. I know you had to have seen this.

All right, and it opens up? Yeah, you gotta take the blades out first.

Oh, you gotta take... All right.

Let's go here.

These latches open up. You just grab it by the head.

Can I try to get in it? Sure, go ahead.

I don't think you're gonna fit.

All right, put your face in it.

There you go.

Oh, my God, this hurts.

Here we go.

No, no, no, no.

Can you let me out, please?

Sure, yeah, I'll let you out, yeah.

Whoa!

When you come out, aren't you supposed to walk out and go like something like

that? Yeah, I was rushing out of there. That thing is a tight squeeze. It is

tight. And the center part slides over?

Yes, the whole thing comes over here, and it actually locks into position over

here.

This comes that far.

This locks in here.

Hands and feet all visible.

So I guess that's why they call it the zigzag box. Yep. All right.

How much do you want for this? I'd like to get $6,000 for it. Okay.

Well, if you're a magician here in town, you probably know Murray.

Yeah, I know Murray. Let me give him a call and see what he thinks.

Okay. And I'd really like to see how it works.

You want me to give him a call for you?

Yeah, give him a call.

All right. I'll be right back. Okay, cool.

Sometimes I wish I could make Chum disappear.

Hey, how's it going? Hi, good. How are you doing?

Let me put this down here for you. All right. What do we got?

We've got a gold lighter from the Frank Sinatra Cal Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe

from the 60s. Cal Neva. Cal Neva.

Really kind of cool, interesting place here. I mean, you know, there's Lake

Tahoe, California, Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

So you can buy a lottery ticket in one city and you can play a slot machine in

the other. But if you do, then vice versa, it's completely illegal.

This is pretty cool, man.

So what do you know about Frank Sinatra on the place? Well, Frank Sinatra bought

it and he invited Dean Martin to be a partner.

And they were open for a couple of years.

Yes, he did own it for a short time there. I don't know how he found the

time with his music, acting, comedy, TV, now casino running career. I don't know

where he had the time to do all this stuff. But I mean, the guy was

definitely a busy guy. And of course, he leaned on his Rat Pack buddies to, you

know, kind of pump the place up a little bit.

Quite frankly, when you have a mob boss as a silent partner and the Nevada

Gaming Commission finds out, they don't like it too much and they close them

down.

Looks like it's barely been used, if it ever even has.

So what are you looking to do with it?

I'd like to sell it. How much are you trying to get? Well, I've done a lot of

research on it and I've seen they're pretty rare.

Some in auction have gone as high as $1,200.

So I thought, well, I'll put a price on it at $1,200.

Okay.

I'm sure there's probably a few hundred of them out there still. No one really

got rid of anything that said Frank Sinatra on it.

I'd offer you about 400 bucks.

Oh, boy.

That's less than half of what I wanted to get.

I understand, but it's... I mean, it is just a casino, Shotsky. Yeah.

Can you do five?

I can push it up to about 450.

450.

Yes, I'll do it. 450.

Cool, we got a deal. Thank you. Why don't you go ahead and grab this, and

I'll meet you right over there. All right, very good. Thank you.

You know what, it's not as much as I had hoped it would be, but it was fair. I

think we met in the middle, and it worked out okay. Now that I've made

$450, I'm going to let my wife shop around in the store, and maybe she'll

find something really neat that she can buy.

Chum and I are meeting up with a magician that is looking to sell a

zigzag box that has been used in magic shows.

It's in great condition, and he's asking for $6,000.

But I have a lot of questions about it, so I've called up my buddy Murray.

He's going to take a look at it, hopefully test it out, and tell me if

this is a great deal or just an illusion.

Hey, Murray.

What's up, guys? How you doing? Pretty good.

Oh, my God. I brought my assistant with me, Lindy.

She's going to help demonstrate this because I already heard that you had one

of the most famous illusions in the world, the zigzag box.

The greatest thing that I loved about this illusion to this day still is you

can do this illusion surrounded. So we can have people behind the trick, in

front of it, above it.

So can I use this? Can I actually do the trick? Sure, go for it. Lindy, do you

mind? All right.

So Lindy, I'm going to have you step inside the box. I'll take your shoes off

first. We'll get her in the box like so.

Wonderful. She fits so much better than I did. All right. So you're ready? Yep.

All right. When we close this, I'm going to have you put your head through the

hole. Okay.

And then you're going to put your right hand through that hole right there. And

then your left leg through the hole in the bottom right over here.

All right.

Cool. Comfortable?

Yep.

Okay. Are you ready?

Yeah.

Here we go. You all right? Yeah. Feel good? Yeah. All right.

So far, so good?

You have a blade going through your stomach. What do you mean, so far, so

good? Here we go. You ready? Do this.

You all right?

That doesn't hurt?

There you go. He's still smiling, so that's good. All right.

I'm going to go over here.

You ready?

Here's this. Here we go.

Ow.

Thanks for the sound effects. I appreciate that.

That's it. There we go.

Excellent. How's your hand doing? Good?

This is crazy.

You still breathing? Yeah.

And there it is, guys. What do you think?

I was just in that box.

Not bad, huh?

You guys want to go for lunch?

Pretty cool, right? So how does it work?

Rick, it's magic.

Well, should we put her back together? Yeah, let her out. Yeah. The importance

of building cool illusions or props that you use in magic, you know, you're

seething the eye, right? It's an illusion. That's why you call it an

illusion. Check it out.

How great she looks. All in one piece.

Yes. So it's important the props are built proper to not hurt the person

inside, even though, ironically, it looks like you're cutting in somebody in

half and hurting them, but you're not.

So what kind of value could you put on this?

So if this was actually Robert Harbin's original zigzag, which is still around,

it's actually at the Magic Circle in London, a really famous magic club

there, this would be worth $15,000 to $20,000.

Wow. That was the original one that started this whole thing. Sure.

Obviously it isn't. It's about 10, 15 years old. I would say this would be

worth $4,500.

Okay. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Well, if you guys do get it, you know,

I'll give you a guest spot on my show.

Good luck. Take care, you guys.

Thanks, Luke. See you, Mark. See you, Jeff. Good luck. You too.

It's really, really interesting, but let's face it, there's not a huge market

for these things. True.

I'll give you like $2,000 for it. How about $2,750?

How about $2,200?

How about $2,500?

How about $2,200?

Because it's going to sit for a long, long time.

Well, I've had it a long time, and I don't really have any use for it, so

I'll take the $2,200.

All right, sweet.

All right, so get it down to the shop. I'll get you paid.

Sounds good.

I see a roadshow in our future.

You can be my assistant. I'll be the magician.

No, I think I should be the magician, you the assistant.

You gotta have hair like Murray to be a magician, and obviously you're just a

little jealous of that.

Hi. What is that?

This is a Blackstone Vanishing Bird cage.

By Harry Blackstone? Yes.

This is really, really cool.

I mean, people today don't know Harry Blackstone like they used to, but he was

literally in a league with Harry Houdini.

And where did you get it?

I was married to Harry Blackstone Jr., and I was the one who was shot in the

cannon, cut in half with a buzzsaw, turned into the tiger. You know, that's

what I did.

So how is this like a trick?

Well, he would come out holding it and invite anywhere from...

a half a dozen to 50 kids up on stage who would all put their hands on it. And

while everyone was holding it, it would vanish.

Okay. So can you make it work?

No.

It's really cool that you had father and son magicians that were just as famous

as each other. So if we have one of their original tricks from someone who

was part of their stage show, that's cool.

I am... I'm just trying to see how it works.

I mean, it's put together weird, I can tell you that. So there's something

going on here.

You can tell by the wire and everything, it's really old.

So one thing is, did that have feathers on it at one time?

No, it never had feathers.

Okay. And it was made by his great uncle, Harry Blackson Sr.'s brother,

Pete. Okay. I mean, it's really, really cool.

And I'm sort of fascinated.

I really want this one for the shop.

And I want to know how it works.

You're looking to sell it. Yes.

And the whole thing is how much do you want for it?

Well, I'm going to say $3,000.

Okay. And I don't know if it's worth

$500 or $10,000.

I do have a friend who is really big into collecting magic stuff.

Who is it?

It's Murray the Magician. He's a good friend of mine.

I have known Murray since his hair was normal.

All right, I'm going to go give him a call. I'm going to see if he can come on

down. I know he'll fall in love with this.

But he'll help me figure out what it's worth, okay?

Fair enough.

Hang out a few minutes, and I'll be right back.

Murray is a great choice because so many of the younger magicians in this day and

age don't know the history of magic, but Murray does.

So I think he's a great one to give very honest appraisal.

Hey, what's up?

I would like to show you something that I have.

What is it, like a girdle or something?

Well, kind of. They were used to cheat at playing poker cards or something like

that. A lot of people got killed with those in this town. I'm sure they did.

Where did you get this?

My husband's grandfather owned a bar in the San Francisco area.

One of the bar customers was going to prison, and he gave it to him and asked

him to hold it for him.

Okay. I mean, the day people started gambling, I assume the very next day

someone figured out a way to cheat. I'm sure, yeah.

You know, everything from dice to cards, marking cards.

And it's always been that.

Looks like a mechanical device to cheat at cards.

It's definitely cool. I mean, there's some really neat little engineering

here.

Do you know how any of this stuff works?

I have absolutely no idea.

Okay. I mean, we have like a little core.

Dad, put it down.

I'm trying to figure it out here.

You're going to break it.

You just broke it. That's what I thought I would have done. Okay. Now you broke

it.

Of course, my dad has to pretend like he knows exactly how this thing works.

Vegas may be a gambling town, but this is a little out of both of our

wheelhouses. So what are you looking to do with it? Do you want to sell it? I

just want to sell it. Any idea of what you want for it? I'm thinking the range

is anywhere from $600 to $6,000.

Okay, well, it's... I'm going to have to call a friend of mine to come down and

take a look at it. There's no way either of us are going to know what this is

worth. Yeah?

I mean, it's... Who would you be calling?

I've got a friend who's...

magician on the strip and collects all types of this stuff and if anybody knows

about it it's going to be happy let's do that that would be great be right back

so i'm kind of concerned that the guys want to call a magician i'm not sure if

a magician is qualified to give me value on a gambling product but we're going to

see

A lady brought in a magic trick that was used by both of the legendary Blackstone

magicians. I have no idea what it's worth, so I called up my buddy Murray.

He's a magician. He's got to know.

Good seeing you. You well?

I'm fine. And yourself?

No complaints. And I see something that looks absolutely amazing in front of

you. Now this, believe it or not, is one of the holy grails of

magic.

This is from Harry Blackstone Sr.

Mm-hmm.

And Junior used it as well, I'm sure.

And as you know, in magic, the Blackstone is a huge magic name, not

only by one man, by two, senior and junior.

They used to open their shows with this small trick.

I mean, nowadays, we open tricks with massive things. We produce cars and

trains and all that to open a big show. This is what they would open a massive

theater with. He'd walk out, stand on stage, hold this in his hands, and

literally in one second flat, the whole cage would actually vanish from his

hands. And to this day, in the world of magic, it's probably one of the...

greatest magic tricks.

The Blackstones are really influential in magic because they were the last of

the Tuxedo Tales Bowtie Magicians. They were a huge magic family. Not only one

magician, the two.

So Rick, on this item, what are your concerns with it? So how does it work?

Rick, it's magic.

He would hold it in his hands and it would disappear.

And the great thing is if you do end up getting this, you will actually learn

the secret.

That's the bonus.

But no, but the greatest thing with this is even when it was filmed on TV, they

would break it down frame to frame, and you could not catch the vanish. It

happened in one frame. That's how great this vanish of the trick was. Okay.

You want to show me how it works?

Rick, it's so fragile. This is over 100 years old.

So what's it worth?

This cage, you know, like I said, it's one of the classic magic props.

and you're getting it right from the estate.

So the price for this one in this economy, in this day and age, is between

$3,500 and $4,500.

Okay. Sir, thank you so much. Good luck with this, and good luck with your magic

career. I'm looking forward to seeing you on the strip.

If Rick makes a deal on this and actually does own this item, I think

Rick will be able to move it pretty quickly. It's a cool piece of magic.

So I'll give you $2,500.

How about $2,750?

It's... It's a specialized thing. It takes a long time to sell it.

Will you take $2,600 for it?

I'll take... Yes, $2,600.

Okay, it's a deal. Okay, great. Thanks. This is really cool.

If I just can't make sure some of my employees don't screw up something

fragile. This is such a cool historical item.

I'm glad we got it for the shop. You never know. Maybe I'll join Murray's

Magic Show.

Our hair doesn't exactly match, though.

A woman brought in an older poker cheating device that my dad tried to put

together. It's pretty cool, but neither of us are experts in this type of thing.

So we called up our buddy Murray to show us how this thing works and what it

might be worth.

This is really cool, actually.

Do you ever heard of the saying, there's nothing up my sleeve?

Mm-hmm. Okay. Well, this is the device that it started from.

I can see why Rick called me in for a cheating device, because in magic,

that's really what we do. We kind of cheat people out of reality.

There's a guy who invented the first sleeping device named Keplinger. He was

the number one con man in the West Coast.

He went up and down the Barbary Coast, the San Francisco coastline, cheating

people. He came up with the first type called the Keplinger holdout. It was a

card holdout, which meant it would actually hold the card within your

sleeve, so it would hold it out until it would be switched with the cards in your

hand. This is really intriguing.

Now, this one, by looking at the wells and the joints, the way it's designed,

this is actually a Martin San Francisco card holdout made in the 1920s, 1930s.

All right?

Well, do you know how it works?

Yes, I do know how it works.

That car's with me.

Cool.

So here's what would happen.

This area here is always called the thief.

The reason why it's called the thief is because it would sneak out from your

sleeve, grab a card and steal it. Pull it back into your actual sleeve.

And it actually fits right... All right, see how it pinches it. And this goes

against your forearm.

Rick, I'm going to have you help me. Do me a favor. Take that.

Okay. Now, when it runs down your body, it comes all the way down with all these

round joints. That's why they're round, so it rolls properly. Now, this would be

attached between your knees, and you'd open them up. And as you do that, it

should slide. As long as we keep it pretty well linear, it should slide out.

Can I pull it?

Yeah, you can pull.

Oh, cool.

Your secret has been told.

Kevlinger's success actually got the best of him.

He got caught by some gamblers. They offered to either kill him or him to

make the device for them. He made the device for them and they all went out

cheating people. They all get caught and they went to jail for the rest of their

lives.

So what do you think it's worth?

These are really cool because there's not many around.

And this is an amazing shape. So a lot of people use them for museum pieces or

they use them as a cool thing and they're home to display for a value on

this.

What you're looking for is anywhere between $1,500

and $2,200.

Woo-hoo!

All right. That's great. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for having me in.

Good seeing you guys. Thank you. Pleasure being here. Thank you. All

right. We'll see you guys later, all right? Have a good day.

All right.

He said it would go for like, what, $1,500 to $2,200?

Retail. That's like retailing it. I would give you $800.

$2,000.

There's no way I could give you $2,000. There's just no way. There's no money to

be made.

How about $15,000?

No, I'd give you like $800.

It's going to be difficult to sell.

$13,000.

Can I always put it back in the box? There's a little room at $13,000. You

heard the guy.

All right, $900.

$900. All right, tell me.

Well, you know, I've learned something by coming here. I figured out I need to

be a better negotiator. But all in all, I think it was worth it.

How you doing?

Hey, how you doing? I'm pretty good.

What do you have here? It looks like the Desert Inn.

That's exactly what it is. It is my Desert Inn architectural model.

It's a casino for ants.

This is pretty cool.

Was this a model they had built to show people what the casino was going to look

like after it was built?

Yes. Okay, pretty cool. The reason I thought it was that is because these

trees all have letters on them. Yeah, sitting right here, this is actually the

top for the display, and it actually gives you the information about the

different areas. And being that they tore it down in 2001, I think it was, I

mean, nobody can see what it used to be. It's pretty cool to see it right here.

The Desert Inn is probably more rich in history than any other casinos. I mean,

this is the casino that Howard Hughes bought.

Because they tried to kick him out of the casino. He had rented the entire

ninth floor out.

And he stayed in there and stayed in there. And after so long, they're like,

we need the rooms back for our high rollers. He said, I think I'll just buy

the place. Imagine being that rich, right?

Yeah.

So how much are you looking to get for it?

So I'm looking to get $7,500 out of it.

It's super cool.

I'm just not seeing a huge resale market for it, you know?

If I was to buy something like this, I would offer you a lot less because I

imagine it would take a long time to sell. It's a very unique item. I think

for me to buy it, I'd have to be like somewhere around $2,000, you know?

Yeah, I feel that it's...

Definitely worth more than that. So do I. That's why I'm trying to buy it for

$2,000.

I mean, it is a one-of-a-kind piece. I mean... I 100% agree with you. I would

love to buy it for $2,000. Doesn't sound like you want to sell it for $2,000.

No, I mean, for that price, it's hard to let go.

I appreciate you bringing it in today.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

How you doing? I'm good. How you doing? Right on, man. Right on.

All right.

What do you have here?

So I've got this really cool antique, what is called a spirit clock.

Basically a clock that predicts whatever number that you say that clock is going

to predict it. Kind of like a magic trick?

Right. Is that your line of work? No, I'm a hypnotist. If we make a deal on

this, don't go hypnotizing me for the price you want. Why not? I'm doing that

right now, John.

All right, let me shake it off.

Pretty cool.

So tell me, why do you have this?

I actually received this from my mentor.

My mentor was also a hypnotist slash magician who did a lot of stage shows.

And I kind of inherited it from him because I really liked the piece.

Now, I'm seeing some age on it. Did it come kind of weathered like this for the

effect, or over time did it start to... So the piece that is the actual antique

piece is this dial right here. This is from the early 1900s, and this is German

-made. The actual clock that the dial went to was glass, and the glass

shattered to pieces. So this was made to be period piece to go with the actual

dial. I was going to say, you know, it kind of looks a little modern, but...

Yeah. Made to look old. Spot on.

Would this trick still work?

Absolutely. So if you give me a number, that number is going to come up on this

clock. 12 o'clock.

It's 12. So if you spin it, it's going to be on 12, right?

Okay. But if you name a number, what will basically happen is the number will

actually come up and predict exactly what you said.

Pretty cool.

And do you have a price in mind?

I'm looking at a fair price of $1,500.

Okay. It's not that I don't believe you, but I'm afraid you might have hypnotized

me already, so... I would like to have someone come down and take a look at it,

though, someone I know that does magic as well.

Give me just a minute. I'll get him down here, and we'll see what he says.

Let's do it.

Hey, how's it going?

Good. How are you?

What do we got? I got playing cards and a shuffler.

Okay, do you mind pulling it out for me?

Where in the world did you get this?

I got this at an estate sale.

Okay.

I'm one of those people that for whatever reason, I can't shuffle a deck

of cards. And if you're actually playing for real money, this thing don't cheat.

This is interesting.

Do you mind if I take a look at them?

No.

They're definitely old playing cards, that's for sure. Playing cards have been

around since the Romans.

It's been almost a thousand years people have been playing with cards because

people always needed a way to entertain themselves.

People have always liked gambling. They've pretty much got standardized

once the printing press was invented around the 1400s. And I mean, they

really haven't changed much. I mean, every family had a few deck of cards. It

was a cheap, easy way to entertain yourself and your friends and your

family when people came over.

And the shufflers, this was a home device. If you can't shuffle, this is

something that you would want to have.

Does it work still or?

I've never tried it. Can we try with a new set of cards? Yeah, let's try that.

I believe it would actually work like... Mm-hmm.

Hey.

Eureka. And there you go. You got a shuffled deck of cards. And like I said,

the machine can't cheat.

Any idea on how much you're looking to get out of it?

I was hoping to get $150 for the cards and the shuffler.

Okay.

You got to understand, I can buy these cards all day long for less than...

five bucks a set and the shuffler is cool but it's not like somebody's gonna

buy it and use it you have to really be into it and you have to really kind of

be a collector for it all in all total i'd give you about 30 bucks for the

entire set wow that's different well how about 70 how about 35

how about 40 and there you go sounds like a deal to me come with me let's do

some paperwork

I ended up selling them for less than what I wanted, but I actually ended up

making a profit on them.

A customer came into the shop with what he says is an original spirit clock from

the 1900s. He's asking for $1,500, but it's essentially a modern clock with a

vintage pendulum that creates a magic trick. I have no idea if it's even

something that magic collectors would seek out.

So I need Murray the magician to let me know if I should get into the spirit and

buy this or if it's just a waste of time.

What's up, guys?

Hey, Murray. How you doing? Murray, those shoes were made for walking. You

like that? You could hear me like a Clydesdale.

Kevin, what are you doing here? Good to see you. I brought this psychic clock.

That is amazing. All right, so you guys do know each other.

Yeah, he's a phenomenal mentalist. I've always loved mentalism.

You know, it's such a great thing, because we always ask, what's the

difference between magic and mentalism?

Mentalism is one of those things where you're trying to combine human

psychology, behavioral, you know, sciences, trying to make this

unexplainable experience, right? Because magicians do stuff with slight of hand

with their hands, and mentalists use their mind, right? That's correct.

So I'll go ahead and let him tell you what he has, since you guys are already

familiar. As you know, this is a Houdini-era psychic clock. The dial is

actually German.

That's the original.

piece to this. The outside, all the other aesthetics are aftermarket. Yeah,

everything looks very period, you know. This is pretty wild. So where did you

get this from originally?

This is from Orman McGill, the world-famous hypnotist slash stage

magician. Can you verify this is early 1900s? Yeah, the mechanisms and all the

workings of it, you know, you can see like the little dots around the outside,

which are the trigger points with the pin and the actual arrow. It's in

amazing condition, you know, and the gentleman that he got it from is all

legitimate. He really is.

a legend in the business, you know, and it came from that lineage.

Question, does this actually work still? It works 100%. Can we perform the trick

for Chum?

Absolutely.

So at this point, Chum, all you have to do is basically name a number, and this

dial will actually predict your number.

Two. So we'll take the dial, we'll put it back, and all we're going to do is

spin it again, and let's hope the clock heard what you said and actually

predicts your time.

There it is.

Two o'clock. Oh, wow.

That's amazing. Nice job.

Pretty cool.

So how much do you think this pendulum is actually worth? Because I think

that's where all the value is. Sure. It's so rare, and there's not many

around. You're looking at $2,000.

All right. Thanks for coming in, Murray. You're welcome. Good luck. And if you

decide to get it, you're welcome to open for me on my show.

See you later. All right. Now hurry up and disappear.

All right. Well, it's definitely pretty cool.

I'd love to buy it for $1,000.

I can go $1,250.

So you'll go $1,000.

All right, Chum, you got a deal. All right, sounds good. Appreciate you.

If it stops working when you leave, I'm going to know you hypnotized me.

All right, come on.

I'll write you up over here.

What do we got here?

I have an antique roulette table.

Wheel was built about 1926, and the interesting thing about it is this is

the holy grail of casino cheating.

It's a rigged wheel?

It's a rigged wheel, yeah. I'll put 100 on black.

I think it's absolutely beautiful. People have always gambled. In the

1700s, they basically came up with, well, we have this roulette. It's a

French word. I forget what it means. And it ended up in gambling halls around

Europe, became very popular, eventually came here.

The great thing about this game is the house always wins. There's no winning

with roulette. I tell people that all the time. You can't. Just the law of

averages, eventually it'll take all your money.

Absolutely.

How did you determine it's rigged?

The legs were hollow.

There were four batteries, two in each leg. There were three switches, one on

the end, one on each side, so the dealer could actuate them if they knew which

screw to push.

Right there. Yeah, there's a button right there, yeah. I grew up in Vegas.

I've read about all the mob things. I've read everything.

And I know how they would rig these things.

If the ball looked like it was going to go in one section where the big money

bet was at, he'd press a button, a plunger would hit the ball, and it

wouldn't go in that one. It would go somewhere else.

No, it's very, very interesting. It's cool. I mean, it's got some history. We

don't know exactly what the history is.

How much do you want for this?

95,000.

How did you come up with that number?

Antique tables near this same quality are selling for 75 to 100,000. I've

never heard that kind of money for a roulette wheel. What you got here is

super cool, but it's finding a customer for it that wants to spend a lot of

money and has the room for it and wants to collect this. That's going to be the

problem. I'm not even going to make you an offer on it because we're so far off.

And the regulation size roulette wheel.

Most states, you're not allowed to own it, period.

This is still a felony.

But thank you for bringing it in, and I will go get some guys to help you load

it up. Thank you very much. Okay, have a good one. You too.

Hey, how's it going? Good, how you doing today?

I got this magic kit here, and I want to see if you guys would be interested in

it. Mistone magic set, huh? Yeah.

Awesome. Do you know any magic tricks, Corey?

I had the little thumb thing.

And I think this might be like three balls, you know? You're like... That's

not magic. That's a scam.

Three caramani.

Where's the quarter at?

Yeah. Wrong.

This is interesting.

Bring the mystifying magic of world-famous magicians within the power

of everyone.

There you go. What can you tell me about it? I picked it up at an antique shop.

I thought it was really cool.

I mean, it is pretty cool. This is like probably from about 1930-ish. If you

were a kid who was like inspiring to be a magician, there just wasn't magic

shops in most cities on the corner where you could go in and get a fake thumb or

the three ball trick, you know? So this type of magic set would introduce a kid

to several different types of magic tricks. This is definitely cool.

It has this little pamphlet right here that explains how to do all the tricks.

This looks like some little magic keys here.

Probably some magic coins, huh?

Absolutely. Looks like you even have a little magic potion.

Not exactly sure what's going on in there. We'll leave that shut.

Any idea what you're looking for on it? Maybe $3.50?

Okay. It looks like it's in really good condition.

You appear to have all the pieces.

It looks like everything's there, yes.

Basically, here's the deal. I know Gilbert Toys is really popular for their

erector sets. I know the erector sets could go for thousands and thousands of

dollars. I don't know what their magic sets are worth.

Okay.

Do you mind if I have a buddy of mine come down and take a look at it? That'd

be great.

You want to give Murray a call?

Yeah, let me get him down here.

A guy came in with an old magic set. It's really cool, but he's asking $350

for it. So just to make sure there's no tricks up this guy's sleeve, I've got my

buddy coming down to help me out.

But now I've got to figure out where Chum disappeared to.

How you doing?

How you doing? Murray.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. James. How's it going?

Look at that. She's got a pinky. All right. I mean, look at that.

That's where I got my hairstyle from. I think she's going to need some hairspray

and a blow dryer to get like you.

So what do you got here? A Gilbert Mistow magic set. This is awesome.

Yeah, this is like, I'd say, late 1930s, early 1940s.

The cool thing is Alfred Carlton Gilbert was the guy that came up with the set.

He was an amateur magician.

And his first company was called the Misto Manufacturing Company. He would

make small tricks and sell them to his friends.

And then he started making magic kits, which became very popular.

Now, what's interesting is that he came up with the erector sets in 1911, which

is a very famous set of where he would build, like, bridges.

He had over 150 patents under his name. He's a genius.

Can you tell us what these tricks are in here?

Yeah, these are kind of cool. I mean, everything does something different,

obviously. Pinky.

Are you ready to see a magic trick? Let's see a trick.

She says don't turn her into a wig.

Perfect, perfect.

This is kind of a cool trick here where you have a little paddle, and there's

nothing on it, right? You can see there's nothing there.

There's nothing on this side, and there's nothing on that side. But if you

wave your hand like this, a rabbit appears, just like that. Pretty cool.

Isn't that great?

There's these cool cards here where you have cards that look like, so if you

hold it like this, it looks like five cards, right? Right. So you put them in

my hand, go like this.

Snap the fingers.

Change to two cards.

Awesome. See? Because they have all this print on the back. See, there's some

really cool, kind of fun tricks.

The key is, too, with the kids, they could do them right away, instantly.

This is an amazing shape. Even look at this. This is the instruction book.

And look at that. You know, it's in really great shape. This is all real

metal. Like, magic sets nowadays are all cheap. To make a set like this nowadays

would cost a fortune.

So what's something like this worth?

Nothing's missing in this. Even if one thing was missing, it would devalue it.

You know, originally back in the late 1930s and the early 1940s, this would go

for like $1.75, two bucks, which was a lot of money back then.

Nowadays, this set would actually go for, I'd say it would be $110.

I appreciate it, man. Corey, thank you again, man. I'm always good seeing you.

All right. Nice meeting you, James.

350 bucks isn't going to happen.

What are you thinking?

40?

Can you do 80?

No, but I can do 50.

All right, 50 sounds good. 50 sounds good? All right, cool. Chum will rush

up. All right, thank you. All right.

I'll make this disappear later. Come on.

What do we got here?

Well, it's a nickel slot machine made by Jennings, the standard chief model, made

approximately 1955-56.

All right. Where'd you find it? A barn?

Yeah.

So does it work?

Yeah. You got a nickel? Yeah. You bet.

I'm keeping the jackpot if I hit it.

All right.

Oh. There's no money in it. Yeah, I took it all out.

How did you figure out the year?

Well, actually, somebody told me.

Okay.

Well, they were pretty common. I think they made these right before World War

II, and they made them after World War II. Right.

Jennings came up with some really cool machines.

You know how you see the fruit on a slot machine?

Right. They came up with that because in the 1920s, 1930s, there's sort of like

an anti-gambling thing going around the United States.

A lot of places these were sold, it wasn't a slot machine.

It was a gum machine.

For the cherries and the lemons and the oranges, those were supposed to be gum

or mint flavors.

And you would put a nickel in. You would get a pack of gum, and if you just

happened to win some money, two at the same time, hey.

Right. It was anything to get them around the gambling laws.

He's an interesting fellow, but he just keeps talking and talking and telling me

about this machine. I've had this machine for a few years now. Tell me how

much you're going to give me.

So let's get down to business.

All in all, it looks really good shape, and when I buy these things, I want the

mechanism to work right, and we just proved that that worked right.

How much you want?

Well, I have $1,800 into it, but I'd like to get my money back.

It's collectible. It's in beautiful shape.

But it's not one of the rare ones.

Nickels were more or less the standard machine from this time period.

Half-dollar and dollar machines are pretty rare because people couldn't

afford to play them.

Let me give you $1,000 for it.

I can't take $1,000. I need a little bit more than that.

I know how these fellas haggle.

They say one thing, I say another, and we either meet in the middle or we

don't.

And what's your best price?

Well, I can say 15, and then you'd say 11 or 12.

And I'd say 13, you'd say 12.50.

And that's what we're going to settle on?

I'll take 12.50.

Um, you've done this before.

Deal. 12.50.

Meet me up front. I'll give you some cash.

So, Eric, did you hear about Toga Fridays?

No.

Okay. All right. I get it.

Everyone's going to laugh at Rick.

I'm assuming there was no flyers and no one got the memo about Toga Friday.

No, Rick. Okay. Joke's on me. I understand.

What's up, Big Hoss?

Not much. Have you heard from my dad yet?

Have I heard from him?

I've seen him. You haven't seen him yet? I haven't seen him. There he is.

What's up, Emperor Rick? Apparently you never put up the flyer.

I thought we were joking about the toga party.

I know you guys planned it. You guys wanted to embarrass me where I was the

only guy who showed up in a toga.

And that's fine. I'm going to wear the toga all day long because it's Toga

Friday. I'm going to enjoy myself, have a blast.

Okay? And you guys, you got me.

So just so you know, I just let two managers off for the weekend. You guys

are working.

That's worth it.

Toga! TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!