Nowadays, shows about people who professionally visit various auctions where they sell, for example, lost luggage or abandoned warehouses are quite popular. Sometimes, having bought some bag cheaply, they find truly expensive things, on which they earn money.
And I remembered about it because the main character of today’s story was able to increase his profits by 2.5 million times. At an ordinary flea market collector Randy Guicharro from California bought several old photographs dating back to the XIX century.
Randy didn’t have much money with him. To get the pictures, he shelled out $2 and sang a song from the animated film Madagascar. A week later, he was scrutinising a photograph of a group of people about to play croquet. Taking a magnifying glass, Randy realised that it was none other than Henry McCarthy himself, better known as Billy the Kid, looking at him from the photo.
Until now, only one photo of this Wild West legend could be found. In 2011, the photo was sold for $2.3 million. But Randy needed to prove that this was the man pictured here. He turned to experts.
For about 4 years, the photograph was studied to the smallest detail. Eventually it was determined that the photo was taken in 1878 during a wedding. It is interesting that on the photo next to Billy was a croquet player and sheriff Patt Garrett. According to one version it was he who shot Billy in 1881. The photo is now valued at $5 million.
When Randy bought the picture, he thought he’d make money from it, but he certainly didn’t expect to become a millionaire. Unprecedented luck!
