GUEST: Well, I'm a huge Beastie Boys fan, always have been, and especially a big fan of the art itself from the first album, "License to Ill." So about 13 years ago, on a whim, I just said, "I wonder who the artist was." So I did some research on the Internet, and I ended up getting in touch with the actual artist, who was living in Las Vegas. And I asked him if he had saved anything related to the art, and he said, "Yeah." So we ended up doing a deal, and I ended up picking up this preliminary piece of artwork for the album.
APPRAISER: Wow, what was the deal? What did you pay for the piece?
GUEST: I believe it was about $1,200.
APPRAISER: Well, I think that that's a pretty good price. They changed a few things, as you can see, from the final. The logo on the tail here has been changed to Beastie Boys, spelling it out. It's their big, seminal album. I guess he wanted to spell out who it is, we don't need to hide their name anywhere. And prices have been going through the roof on certain pieces of cover artwork. We think that this one, if you were to put it at auction, would sell for at least $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST: Great.
APPRAISER: If this were actually the camera-ready piece that was the one that was used on the cover, it could be as much as $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: And the market's running away as we speak.
