GUEST: I purchased them at a garage sale about four years ago.
APPRAISER: Right here in Cleveland?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Mind telling me what you paid for them?
GUEST: Ah… $100 for this one and $80 for this one. Because it was missing the lights and the bumper. The only thing that I could find out about them is that they were made in Cleveland about 1927. I don't know if they were made for resale or… or whatever, but that's about all I know about them.
APPRAISER: You said they were made in 1927, and that's exactly--
GUEST: It was a guess, yes.
APPRAISER: That's what my research also showed. One of the things I like about the Roadshow, and I've been on it for now 20 years—
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: --is there's not a show that I don't attend, not a city I don't attend where I don't see a half a dozen things I've never seen. And right here are two pressed steel toys I've never seen before. I have no history…
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: …except what we find out here that it is made in Cleveland, and called the Viking Construction Company truck. This was made by the same maker, the exact same cab styles. Every pressed steel company had a distinctive cab style. We know it's Cleveland, we know it's pressed steel, I know a little bit of history of the pressed steel market. The first ones were Buddy L, made in Illinois, and then there were ones made in Boston under the name of Keystone. But this brand, Hoenes Engineering, I found two examples of this truck, the only two that I've ever heard of and ever saw.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: And the pressed steel market is not what it used to be. It isn't what it was 15 years ago. The other thing you have to keep in mind is condition. So you're going to compare this condition to the other two examples that I know have sold. I think at auction based on that analysis, this could easily bring $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Now you said… talking to the person who you got these from that they thought that this might have never been actually produced.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: That this was a prototype. It's a unique piece. Because it was never produced, it does make it a little less valuable than… a production piece. This is a body style we haven't seen.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And it is a trailer.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Which is better than a dump truck.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: But it's repainted. But it's not missing the headlights.
GUEST: Or the bumper.
APPRAISER: It's not missing the bumper.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: All these things factor in. So I think, again, $6,000 to $8,000, so I think $12,000 to $16,000 for the pair. I’d say you did pretty well.
GUEST: Thank you.
