APPRAISER: How did you come to own it?

GUEST 1: My father had it, and when I went off to college, he took the trash can and put it in his window to sell. It's, must have sat there for about four years, and then, in 1978, somebody came in that offered him $50 for it. And my dad looked at me and he said, "Well, I, Gary, that's your trash can. You want to sell it?" And so I kept saying no after $50 increments, and the guy went up to $250, and, when the guy left in a huff, he, he says, "Gary, why didn't you want to sell it for $250?" And I said, "Well, I, 'cause I think it might be sterling silver."

APPRAISER: It is a sterling silver trophy.

GUEST 1: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: You are correct. But it's a fun piece 'cause it has a lot going on for it. In addition to just being a very large, uh, piece of presentation silver, it has crossover appeal. It's not a piece where the person that's buying this is gonna be looking for a perfect-condition piece.

GUEST 1: Right.

APPRAISER: They're more interested in the history that it represents.

GUEST 1: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Now, most people have never heard of the Union Printers' National Baseball League.

GUEST 1: (laughs) Huh.

APPRAISER: So they were originally established in 1908 with eight different teams. And within a couple decades, they had grown to a peak of about 12 teams. And these guys were all card-carrying union typesetters in the printing trade. Finally, the league kind of dissolved naturally. In the early 21st century...

GUEST 1: (chuckling)

APPRAISER: ...typesetting is no longer really a, a widespread career. Technology took over. In 1915, it was won by the St. Louis Typos.

GUEST 1: Right.

APPRAISER: Love their name, that they were comical enough to, to choose "the Typos." So great piece of presentation silver. You can see there're some markings on the underside.

GUEST 1: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's marked here "sterling." Um, "12 pints," which is the size. And then it's marked for the retailer, who is J. E. Caldwell, out of Philadelphia, which makes sense on account of, this tournament was played in Philadelphia. J. E. Caldwell could be seen as the premier jeweler of the time.

GUEST 1: Oh!

APPRAISER: So this is something that would have been retailed by them. Can you tell me about what that, that Sharpie notation was?

GUEST 1: (chuckling) Yeah, so, when I went to take it to get, uh, to the local pawn shop, they weighed it, and, uh, so they gave it to me in pennyweight and troy ounces, and I just Sharpied it on there. And I haven't been polishing it, but last December, I had it polished, but the polisher left that on there.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) Got it-- well, I think polishing was a, was a great choice.

GUEST 1: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: It's not a piece where polishing is gonna hurt it. So at one point, you were offered $250. So the big question is, what is it worth now?

GUEST 1: Exactly.

APPRAISER: As a base value, just the silver alone, um, with silver prices currently at about $30 an ounce, it's about $1,500 in silver.

GUEST 1: Right.

APPRAISER: And then the question is, how much of a premium does an early piece of American baseball history add to it? Granted, a not very well-known one...

GUEST 1: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: ...but an important piece of early American baseball history. And I feel confident that, if it came to auction, we would expect it to do $2,000 to $3,000 at minimum.

GUEST 1: Oh! Okay, great, okay, yeah, that's better than I thought.