Albert Schaaf Fiat Collection

Appraised on: August 14, 1999

Appraised in: Columbus, Ohio

Appraised by: Kathleen Guzman

Category: Collectibles

Episode Info: Trash to Treasure (#1220)

Originally Aired: December 15, 2008

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:22)

APPRAISER: You know, they say that one man's trash is another man's treasure. And what we have is a suitcase here, but what's in here?

GUEST: It's a collection of things by a person named Albert Schaaf, that I found while I was on my way to work. There was a lot of boxes on the side of the street and I stopped and I picked up about six boxes of this stuff. And here it is.

APPRAISER: Wonderful. Well, you brought this article which is terrific. We have a little picture of him before he became the general manager of Fiat. That explains why we have some of these really beautiful automobilia catalogs from early 1901, 1902. You have probably about 15, 20 of these. And they're really quite beautiful. They're Italian. They're of the height of Art Nouveau. Some of them have color plates in them. Just fantastic. These alone are worth about $300 each.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: You also brought these wonderful things from the "Lusitania"-- pamphlets, all these Cunard lines. Mr. Schaaf must have been a terrific traveler.

GUEST: Oh, yeah.

APPRAISER: But what else did you find?

GUEST: I found photographs.

APPRAISER: Photographs. And so we see here some-- a terrific photograph of the Eiffel Tower. Here's one of the Statue of Liberty. These silver prints usually sell for about $500 each. And, again, you probably have, what? 50 of those. But what really intrigued me, though, are these absolutely fantastic views of Yosemite, probably from the turn of the century, with the Fiat cars enshrined as well.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Now, there are people who avidly collect Yosemite. Ansel Adams, Carleton Watkins were photographers of Yosemite. It's extremely collectible. We have each of these without any specific anonymous name, but they should bring between about $1,000 each.

GUEST (chuckles): Yes.

APPRAISER: So, as I said, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

GUEST: Wow. Fantastic.

APPRAISER: You've probably found about $30,000 worth of stuff in the trash.

GUEST (laughing): Wow! Great! Yes!

APPRAISER: So I'm going to go with you next time, okay?

GUEST: All right, yes, and I'll keep looking.

APPRAISER: Great.

GUEST: I left six boxes of stuff because I couldn't get them in my car--

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: --and everything was gone about an hour later.

APPRAISER: Oh, wow.