Elvis Presley Military Archive, ca. 1960
GUEST: My father-in-law served in the army. He was an officer, he was a tank commander, and when he was stationed in Germany at the same time that Elvis Presley was, uh, Elvis was actually his jeep driver for a period of time. And so it's funny because we have letters, uh, from my mother-in-law to her sister talking about the whole experience of Elvis.
APPRAISER: So I did take a look at the letter, and it's written a long time ago, so it's not a distant memory, which is important.
GUEST: Correct.
APPRAISER: Sometimes when these letters are written many, many years later...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...the stories tend to become slightly embellished.
GUEST: Right, right.
APPRAISER: But I read through this letter, and um, your father-in-law initially thought he was a bum because he was a pop star.
GUEST: (laughing): Right. Yes.
APPRAISER: But then he gets to know him and he sees that he's there and he's very personable. And the letter even mentions that, um, initially, Pete asked him, "Why did you do this?" "Why put yourself through this?" Do you remember what he said?
GUEST: He said he wanted to prove to everyone that he could do it. People didn't think that he would be able to do a, a good job, and he wanted to be taken seriously. He wanted to prove it to himself and to everyone else that he could do it.
APPRAISER: And the hoopla surrounding him made it very difficult for him to do that, I think, which was probably very frustrating to him.
GUEST: Correct, yeah.
APPRAISER: We see pictures like this come up at auction.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Um, yours, much like many of the ones that we see, you have the original negatives.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: You also have the signature...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that was obtained directly from him. Um, but when we see these come up, they-they do really well, because they're pictures of Elvis, and everyone loves Elvis. And these happen to be taken very close. There were other soldiers there who took pictures of him. Some are more distant. Some are very much more personal, like this, taken up close.
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: We don't know who the gentleman is in the one closest to you?
GUEST: No, we do not.
APPRAISER: But it... it doesn't matter. They're all such extraordinary photos of him, and they're very clear and well shot.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: At auction, if-if these were to come up on their own, this would probably be a $3,000 to $5,000 grouping.
GUEST: Nice.
APPRAISER: But because we have all the content that your letter provides and all this background information and all these extra stories, if you were to put the letter with this for the provenance and everything else that goes with it, I think we're looking at more like a $5,000 to $7,000.
GUEST: Wow, that's incredible. That's absolutely incredible. I was... always wondered what the value would be; I'll never sell it. Well, certainly.
APPRAISER: If you were to insure them, I'd probably say it would be safe to put $10,000 on the grouping.
GUEST: $10,000. Incredible. Thank you very much.
$5,000 Auction
$10,000 Insurance
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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.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
