This is the closest I may ever come to a "Pawn Stars moment"

[RealSNR]

So if you've ever seen the show, you know a large portion of it has to be scripted. I have no clue where they find the people who bring the shit they want to sell/pawn. Do they send out a call for people with weird stuff to get on TV, or do they "plant" the items on randoms? Even for a pawn shop as unique and unordinary as that one, 99.9% of the time people aren't entering pawn shops looking to sell their own copy of the Declaration of Independence that was hand-written by Thomas Jefferson himself.

I notice that any time somebody brings up something really cool, and Rick asks, "Where did you find this?" they often say, "Eh, I found it at a garage sale" or "I tripped over it when I was nosing around in my Grandpa's attic." Sometimes it's believable, like an old gramophone or something. Or a WWI uniform. Sure, I could buy that being a family heirloom getting passed down. Susan B. Anthony's private collection of vibrators and dildos? I'm calling bullshit on that. You did NOT just find that laying around.

Well, this isn't anything totally unusual or bizarre, but it's pretty damn cool. I'm currently in the process of helping my grandparents move into an assisted living place, so we've got a lot of odds and ends laying around in their basement and attic to go through. Today I was pulling out shoeboxes of pictures, old dishes, model trains. It's all really cool stuff in itself, but it's something you kind of expect in a house from somebody who's lived that long and still has that Great Depression mentality to save anything that could be of use one day.

But then I found a brown paper sack containing a baseball with a lot of signatures on it. I asked them about it, and they said, "Oh yeah, that must have been that baseball game we went to when the kids were really young." They lived most of their lives in Sioux Falls, so I assumed it was a Twins game, since I never heard of them going down to Kansas City for stuff like that. I guess they won it in some sort of "Hey, your ticket number was called! You win a team-autographed baseball" drawing. However, this was at the end of the day, and they were getting tired. They couldn't remember exactly what it was or how they won it. My dad didn't remember any of it, either, so he must have been very young.

After googling the rest of the names, I'm 99% sure this is from the 1962 Twins. I knew nothing about Twins baseball before the Kirby Puckett era other than Harmon Killebrew, and his signature is on there. Only one name doesn't match up (Dan Dobbek), but I guess he was around for the 1961 season, so maybe he was just in reserve all year?

Anyway, it definitely made my day. I'm pretty much the only one in the family who has an appreciation for sports memorabilia like this, but I still insisted they keep it. Apparently they forgot about the damn baseball decades ago, so they said it'd be better if I kept it and appreciated it. I'm also going to be doing some more research on that season. Hopefully I can pinpoint eventually the exact game they went to and who was on the team at the time that didn't get their signature on the ball.

And no, I'm not going to sell it. I'm not a Twins fan, but I always think it's kind of shitty when somebody goes in looking for easy cash for shit that's been in the family for generations, and then Rick does his usual, "I could give ya like $5 for it." This isn't exactly an heirloom or something that has personal meaning to my grandparents or parents, but I think it's pretty damn cool, and it's still something I'll have for years to come after they are both gone.

So I guess from now on I'll be less skeptical of the lady on Pawn Stars who found Katherine Hepburn's pubic hair trimmer in her grandma's medicine cabinet. That kind of stuff IS out there in weird places that you never expect it to be.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by cdcox

You bash on my dead grandpa? Is nothing sacred?

What? No, I'm talking about the frame. It's a fat ugly frame.

[Hammock Parties]

Old photographs are amazing. I recently scanned over 200 old photos of my family members. This is my grandmother when she was a dancer at right.

[Jimmya]

Love old pics!

[HoneyBadger]

I have a baseball signed by the 1996 SF Giants team, including Bonds. Wanna trade?

[TimBone]

Originally Posted by Count Alex's Losses

Old photographs are amazing. I recently scanned over 200 old photos of my family members. This is my grandmother when she was a dancer at right.

What strip club was that?

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

I have a baseball signed by the 1996 SF Giants team, including Bonds. Wanna trade?

What you want for it?

[TambaBerry]

Originally Posted by lewdog

What you want for it?

Probably a patio set that someone gave you

[mr. tegu]

When we went through my grandpa's things recently we found a bunch 1985 Royals newspapers and magazines.

He also kept like the whole week of the moon landing from the Star. It is crazy to think that back then you had to wait until the paper the next morning to get your news. It was amazing seeing the amount of coverage and detail that went into the reporting leading up to the actual landing.

The papers are in great condition still, but they are just in a bag. I don't think they are really worth much money but it is cool that they were kept for so long. I don't know if I will ever get them framed or anything.

We also found an account ledger of their personal expenses from the late 1950's. That was very interesting seeing the amounts they paid for things and even some of the things they paid. For example they had a bill for the milkman (I think $10 a month) a bread man, and their house was about $70 per month.

I am not sure how big that house was or where it was because they moved into their next house that I am familiar with soon after that.

[HoneyBadger]

Originally Posted by TambaBerry

Probably a patio set that someone gave you

It better be a nice wicker set.

[J Diddy]

Originally Posted by SNR

It was a heart-warming story that I took 20 minutes of my busy life to write for you miserable jerks.

But that's okay.

I once found a giant meteor. I lugged that giant ball around with me everywhere until one day I thought out loud, "hey I could use some extra cash."

Took it to a guy where he informed me it was just a giant ball of poo that fell out of an airplane.

Needless to say I was heartbroken. That was until I found a nuclear bomb but that too ended in heartbreak.

My point is it all ends in heartbreak. I mean, come on, I was just trying to find my parents since we were separated since the Grand Canyon adventure.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by TambaBerry

Probably a patio set that someone gave you

Originally Posted by HoneyBadger

It better be a nice wicker set.

I do have a wicker patio set but I bought it myself.

[DaNewGuy]

I got a coke from 2000 signed by Thabiti Davis ill give it to you for 5 bucks and a 7/11 Cuban Sub