GUEST: About 17 years ago, I was at a charity auction. As a group, it came with a script and the tracksuit. I was a fan of the show, and I ended up winning it only for, I think, $100.
APPRAISER: It's from The Sopranos. And obviously, I don't think we really even need to say which character wore this.
GUEST: (laughing): Right.
APPRAISER: But it's, it's obviously Tony Soprano. It's from season five, episode 11. And the title of that, that show was "The Test Dream." It's definitely a memorable episode. I think uh whether people liked it or didn't like it, they remember it, because it was different. There was a 20-minute dream sequence. So it was a bit odd. David Chase wrote that episode, who was the creator of the show, and so it had his imprints all over it. He's wearing it for quite a long time on screen. He's wearing it throughout an entire scene where he's in the kitchen with Carmela having some kind of crazy visions of things on the television that weren't there.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And it's very recognizable. The other thing that's great about this is, this charity auction obviously got this directly from the production to put into to the charity auction. This is absolutely tried and true. This is a correct piece from the series.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: They had a very simple tag on their clothing, and I've seen other costumes from the show, and this is exactly the kind of simple tag they had. The most important thing is, when we value costumes like that, is, where was it worn and which episode? And so we, we know it's right, we know it's Tony, which is the character you're gonna want. Sadly, we lost James Gandolfini in 2013 at such a tragically young age. So I think, um... In our business when, when someone passes away, there often is kind of an increased interest. But that, coupled with the fact that it's such an important show, it really will only stand to, to keep the value in an upward swing. You also got this script over here, which...
GUEST: Yeah, came as a package. I don't know much about it. Even if it's real, but I'm assuming it has something to do with whoever donated the uh costume.
APPRAISER: The script is something that we would call kind of a file copy. This was not a production script. This was a photocopy made of the pilot episode. That's one that you see come up a lot in the marketplace. If it were someone who had used it on the episode, and there were notations throughout it, that, that would be a production script. And so because this one wasn't necessarily used, you're really buying the autographs. I would say the tracksuit right now would be worth, at least in the auction estimate range, around $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST: (laughing): Oh, wow. Wow, I never would have expected that. That's amazing. Wow.
APPRAISER: It's $100 well spent.
GUEST: It sure is. I mean, that's, that's real... I knew it'd be worth more than I paid for it, but I never, ever expected that.
APPRAISER: The script alone, I would say very conservatively, an auction estimate would be at least $1,000 to $1,500.
GUEST: Wow. (breathlessly): It's one of the few times that a charity auction paid off for me.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: That's unbelievable. I mean, I've always respected the guy as an actor, and enjoyed the show, and it's just, uh, it's nice to know I have a piece of him as an actor and, and, uh, the show, so, it, uh, wow, that's... I'm a little bit speechless there. That's, that's really amazing.
APPRAISER: Have you ever put it on?
GUEST: (exhales): To my wife's chagrin, I did try to put the sweatpants on, but even they were too big on a big guy like me, so...
APPRAISER: (laughs)
