Pretty good. How about yourself?

Good.

What do we got here?

Well, I have a pre-Revolutionary

document from 1774.

It's the extracts from the votes and proceedings of the American

Continental Congress.

RICK: OK.

This is like the pre-Declaration of Independence.

Great Britain was really getting on our nerves.

This is basically where they're complaining to Great Britain

about just them being dicks.

[LAUGHS]

GARY: I'm here to sell a pre-Revolutionary document

from 1774.

I purchase estates and storage units at auction,

and I liquidate the contents.

This document happened to go on the backburner

for about 10 years until I realized

what I had in my possession.

I'm looking to get $15,000 for this.

RICK: This is a pretty amazing thing you have here.

At this point, 1774, we were second-class citizens

living in these colonies across the ocean.

We had no representation.

They were just basically you'll do what you're told.

This was a condensed version of what they did

when Congress was in session.

There was a lot of resolutions and everything

else we were sending to England saying, hey,

please get off our backs.

Just treat us equal.

Let us do commerce, and let's, you know,

live our lives just like normal British citizens.

And this right here is telling England,

like, quit being unreasonable, which they didn't do.

So that ended up leading to a war.

So have you had anybody look at this?

No.

Do you know if this is the first edition?

I believe it is.

So how much do you want for it?

I'm looking for $15,000.

I have no idea if that's a good price.

[LAUGHS] It's very interesting.

I know it's rare.

It's very collectible, but there's a lot

of questions I have about it.

Things like this get really, really technical--

the right condition, the right paper,

the right printing, everything.

So let me call somebody up to take a look

at this, if you don't mind, OK?

Absolutely.

I'll be right back.

RICK: I'm totally fine with an expert coming in.

I welcome it.

I'm eager to know what the book is worth.

Wow.

So you know this is one of the most

important documents from the American Revolution, right?

RICK: Yeah.

It's like the early Declaration of Independence, like--

The pre declaration?

Yeah.

It's like we're just telling Great Britain off.

Well, this is actually the point

where we're still trying to come to some sort of compromise.

You have the First Continental Congress which

meets in the fall of 1774, and that's

when representatives from the colonies get together

and they say, all right, we've got to do something about all

of these acts, essentially things that

are like taxes or closing the port in Boston

or quartering soldiers in our homes, that type of situation.

The Intolerable Acts.

Yes, the Intolerable Acts.

A lot of the problems were happening in Massachusetts,

in Boston in particular.

And for a long time other colonies were like,

you know what?

That's Boston's problem.

That's not my problem.

And so for a long time there wasn't unity.

And the thing that's so important about this is this

is the first time you have the colonies coming together united

to talk to Great Britain.

So the united in United States starts here.

RICK: That's incredible.

So these are the most important

points of what the Continental Congress was discussing.

And it gets printed in Philadelphia,

and then immediately they want it spread as much as possible

to the colonies.

RICK: So what's the condition?

Something like this wasn't meant to last.

It was meant to be printed quickly

and spread really quickly and then, like, thrown away.

So you look at this and you think,

oh, it's kind of roughed up.

I look at this and I say, that's beautiful.

For this to survive hundreds of years in this condition

without ever getting bound, that's really a big deal.

And you have the original stitching.

This is everything that a collector wants.

OK.

So he's asking $15,000 for it.

Clue me in.

I have known of copies selling for around $12,000.

OK.

But this is not complete.

Do you see here, we're on page 48.

We've got this sentence here at the end,

"but to unite with us in one social compact formed--".

The sentence cuts off.

This is missing a page.

So once a book is no longer complete,

that price sinks very rapidly.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect a collector to pay

more than about $4,000 for it.

OK.

You're the best.

Take care.

All right, so all said, what will you take for it?

How about $3,500?

No, not at all.

I'll give you for $2,500.

Said I could probably get $4,000 for it.

How about $2,850?

All right, we have a deal.

All right.

I'll meet you right up front there

and we'll do some paperwork.

Sounds great.

There's nothing so cool as owning an original snapshot

of history as it was being made, except for how much money I can

make when I sell it, not that I'm

not going to read this thing 10 times before I do sell it.