APPRAISER: We have a black fedora here and signed Michael Jackson photo. Tell me where you got these.
GUEST: I bought from a Channel 9 Auction in '94, public broadcasting.
APPRAISER: So it was a charity auction for PBS.
GUEST: Charity auction, right, right.
APPRAISER: Great, so it's close to home here with us on PBS.
GUEST: Yeah, bring it back home. (chuckles) The piece was up for auction, and I said, "Well, let me see if I can bid on it." It said... valued at $3,000, so I picked it up for about $800.
APPRAISER: First, it's not just the fedora. If I turn it around here—
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: We can see that it's actually signed.
GUEST: Signed, yeah.
APPRAISER: Which is great, he signs it, "All my love, Michael Jackson." With the little flourishes at the bottom, he did that a lot.
GUEST: Right, hmm.
APPRAISER: And we also have the gold name inside the hat band, which is something you want to see on a Michael Jackson fedora. He was a generous guy when it came to giving things to charity auctions. He did this a lot. If anyone called his management company, MJJ Productions, and said, "We're having this auction, could you send something for charity?" He would send a fedora. What a lot of people don't know, and I've spoken to a couple people in his camp who were the ones who did it, there were also a lot of people who did it for him.
GUEST: Mmm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So oftentimes, they would sign the hat.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And they would sign something and send it. And so, while this is a pretty new collector market, we're getting to know all the secretarial signatures that are out there. But what I can tell you is that yours are actually him.
GUEST: Okay, I appreciate that. Yeah, that's what I paid for. (both laugh)
APPRAISER: That's good news. Because a lot of them that have come on the market since he passed away are actually secretarial, and they're being sold as things signed by him, and it's not because people are necessarily trying to be dishonest, they're just not familiar enough yet with some of the other signatures that are out there. So you not only have the signed hat, you have the signed photograph. At the time, in 1994, when they sold it, it was probably a little bit aggressive for them to say it was worth $3,000. You paid $800 for it, which is great. Today, at auction, it's probably, with the photograph and the hat, worth between $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So it's now worth about what they said.
GUEST: Oh, so now it's about $3,000. (laughing) Oh. I appreciate it.
APPRAISER: This is really interesting to me, the fedoras. I've actually done some statistical studies on fedoras in the Michael Jackson market, because I worked on a sale of his that was canceled right before he passed away. I've worked on the estate appraisal after he passed away, and so I've seen hundreds of them. And when he first passed away in 2009, some auctions were happening in 2010, 2011, 2012, the prices for these were off the charts.
GUEST: Mmm-hmm.
APPRAISER: People didn't realize how many were out there yet. And when the first few started to come onto the market, the record for a fedora was $75,000.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And then another one sold for $37,000.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And then they sold for $35,000. At least 200 to 300 have come on the market since he passed away.
GUEST: About how many original signatures are... fakes are out there?
APPRAISER: I'd say probably 70% of the ones that have come onto the market are him, and probably a good 30% are not him.
