It's been in my family and I was looking

to see what I could get for it.

You got the rifle butt with it.

MIKE: Yeah, it came with this.

COREY: It's unusual and it's rare.

I mean, I've read about them.

I've seen them in books.

I've never really seen the rifle butt in person.

It was probably one of the best planned

worst inventions of all time.

[laughter]

[gunfire]

MIKE: I've got this old Colt army revolver.

I need to sell it to help of my kids through school.

They're in college and college isn't cheap.

You know, you got one of the--

one of the cooler guns of the Civil War era.

The thing is, is that the South had

the Griswold's and the North had the-- had the Colts.

MIKE: Right.

And since the North controlled all the manufacturing,

they made sure that the South didn't

get any of the Colt revolvers.

And that's pretty much why the North won the war.

And someone came up with this bright idea where--

let's turn one of these into a rifle

and now we have the best of both worlds.

Problem is at that point you have black powder,

and what's going to happen?

MIKE: It's going to go all over the place.

Most of the black powder doesn't

explode so you're getting dirt thrown in your face.

So the whole concept of this part back here

never really took off.

In theory, it's a great idea, but

the chances of going blind after firing, it just really sucks.

[western music playing]

What do you want to do with it, my man?

Like I said, I just want to sell it.

I'm thinking like in the neighborhood

of a couple thousand.

COREY: Couple thousand as in two?

Yep.

You know, the conditions really nice on it

and I really like to get a buddy of mine

down here to take a look at.

You mind hanging out?

Yeah.

Cool.

The value of a stock like this, if it checks out

and especially if it matches the pistol, 15 grand.

COREY: Oh, wow.

Really?

CRAIG GOTTLEIB: Commercial failures

often make great collectibles and this stock

is a case in point.

Why?

They didn't make very many of them because nobody liked them.

But they're very rare today because of that.

And so they're very desirable and they're very valuable.

Let me take a closer look.

All right, the first thing off the bat

these are usually numbered.

Yeah, but it's numbered inside.

If you take apart this piece right here,

you'll see the number.

- This? - Yeah.

OK.

OK.

There you go.

Humph.

Well, I've never seen one of these numbered here,

this connector rod.

I can just tell you, I don't like the way

the numbers are stamped.

They're usually marked right here.

It's supposed to also say US below the number.

[suspenseful music]

I want to put it together.

Why?

If for some reason I'm wrong about all these other things,

and it's still an original set from Colt,

it should at least fit together really, really well.

So let's put it together and see just how well it fits.

All right, there we go.

You know, it's functional.

You can take it to the range and shoot it,

but it's not a good fit.

You look down in here, there's just gaps--

MIKE: OK. CRAIG GOTTLEIB: --everywhere.

You got a huge gap over here.

I mean, it does tighten down nicely but--

[suspenseful music]

COREY: So the stock's not worth anything?

No. [mike sighs]

The value of something like this, tops 1,500.

Here's why.

Gun's worth 1,500.

This is entirely a spurious stock.

They're still making them today.

Dude, I'm disappointed, but you got me all excited.

Sorry I wasted your time, man.

CRAIG GOTTLEIB: No, it's not a waste.

Thanks for coming down.

CRAIG GOTTLEIB: It's always a pleasure.

MIKE (VOICEOVER): Well, the expert said that a--

the stock might be a modern version.

That somebody faked some numbers on it.

I'm not happy.

Maybe my grandfather was taken for a ride when he bought it.

So you came in for asking for 2,000.

Now I can offer you like 800 bucks, man.

Oh-- [sighs] I mean, we were up and down,

and now we're way down.

Can you come up at all?

[corey sighs]

I'll go to 1,000 bucks.

Oh.

If retail's 15, can you do let's say 13?

[suspenseful music]

I'll go 1,200 bucks.

Can you meet me in the middle at 1,250?

No, $1,200.

[suspenseful music]

All right, you got yourself a deal.

Cool All right, man.

You got your ID on you? - Yep.

Yeah.

Let's do some paperwork.

MIKE: First, I came in and I'm thinking, it's worth 2,000.

Then I hear 15,000.

And now we're down to less than 2,000.

I'm-- I'm going up and down, and up and down and--

right now, I'm just wheeling from it.

I can't believe that this happened.