Arnold Schwarzenegger Shirt & Autograph, ca. 1990
APPRAISER: So this is a piece-- when it came in today, it just made me smile. What can you tell me about it?
GUEST: Between 1990 and '93, Arnold Schwarzenegger was the chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. He took a tour of all the governor's councils on physical fitness and sports. I was able to write his agenda as far, what he was going to do, because I was chairman of Iowa's council. We visited the capitol and met with Governor Branstad and part of his staff to promote fitness through the state of Iowa. This was his card that he had on his table. And after the meeting, we left to go to a school, and I was able to get the card, and on the way to the school, I was able to get his autograph. We went to the school and we worked out in the gym with, with all the kids. It was a middle school. And then from there, we went back to the airport. On the way to the airport, he took off his shirt in the van, and his assistant gave me the T-shirt.
APPRAISER: So literally the shirt off his back, as it would be.
GUEST: Yes, it's never been washed.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: I just went ahead and mounted it and I figured, "Okay, you know, he's got all of his..."
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: If he sweat, it's on there.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: And I just never washed it.
APPRAISER: Was he a fairly down-to-earth guy?
GUEST: Oh, yeah, Arnold was? Yeah. Oh, yeah, nice guy, joking around.
APPRAISER: Like you said, Mr. Schwarzenegger was appointed to the Presidential Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, and he remained in that role under, um, President George Bush, Sr., until administration change in 1993. 1991 is when I could find records of his tour and flying around the country and meeting with all these, the 50 different representatives from different states. And he really took a personal pride in seeing that the youth of America were being pushed towards better physical fitness. At this point, Arnold is in the peak of his fame. He just released Total Recall and Kindergarten Cop, and this is right before Terminator 2. He was juggling a bunch of stuff, but he still found it worthwhile to make time for this. I think it was really important to him.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And he did a great job of being an ambassador. And then, can you tell me about who's in the photo down here, on the right?
GUEST: Of course, you see Arnold right here, and you see another council member here. And that's a picture of myself.
APPRAISER: And you did a great job of preserving it. The fact that you didn't wash it, I think, adds all the more to the mystique. You're getting Arnold and everything that goes with him.
GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: And then another fun thing that I noticed, here, on the name tag, is
whatever staffer they had writing that up, they just clearly misspelled his name here. (chuckling): Which was an easy name to misspell. I think today, if it came up at auction, I would place a conservative estimate on it of $1,000 to $1,500.
GUEST: Oh, wow-- wow! (chuckles) Didn't realize it would be worth that much.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh. Yeah.
GUEST: Is that with the sweat?
APPRAISER: (laughing) That's, that's with the sweat, and that's the unknown factor. You might get a few guys that have to have it, and it's probably the only one that exists.
$1,000 - $1,500 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
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