[blues music playing] - What we have here?
I have a banner.
All right.
And it's the banner for the Cubs--
no! [laughs]
It's for the Fly--
Whoa!
The American volunteer group.
RICK: The Flying Tigers? ALAN: Yes, sir.
RICK: The Flying Tigers was a group of volunteers that
went to China and flew planes for the Chinese government
to fight the Japanese.
This is really, really, really cool!
I remember even as a kid having--
I used to-- the little model airplanes and everything,
once in a while, and I thought my one hanging
from the ceiling that was the--
one of the Flying Tigers with the tiger teeth and everything
on the side of it.
I'm like super nerding out on this thing, dude!
They did have the coolest looking planes though.
Yes. Yes, they did.
[gun fire]
I'm at the pawn shop today to try and sell my banner.
I have a banner from the Flying Tigers.
The Flying Tigers are a group of about 320 men, which
prior to World War II, went to China to help defend
against invading Japanese.
It's a piece that's being retired from my collection.
And I hope to get a good price for it.
RICK: This is an amazing find.
Before World War II, these guys were military officers
who resigned their commission to volunteer to fight in China
and have absolutely no backup support.
If you crashed, no one was coming to rescue you.
There was no medevac You were going to die.
The flying tigers are absolute legends.
If this is an actual banner from the Flying Tigers,
and it belonged to a pilot, that's huge.
So how much do you want for it?
After looking online, I think they go for quite a bit.
I'm going to be asking 10,000 for it.
So, what's quite a bit?
17,000, 32,000.
They've gone for way over the top.
RICK: OK.
ALAN: I know you have to make money.
RICK: OK, the insane prices would be for like leaders,
ace pilots, things like that.
Correct.
RICK: This is my big problem with these things,
they're faked.
They're fake like crazy.
It looks maybe old enough and--
there is nothing more tempting to fake than the Flying Tigers.
It's almost too good to be true.
I want someone to look at this. He'll know more--
ALAN: OK.
--about it than me.
He'll probably know more than you and just about
everyone else on the planet.
So, I just to get his opinion. OK?
Sounds great. RICK: All right.
Thank you very much.
RICK: I'll be back
MARK: Now, it's obviously silk, which would be correct.
Now, they-- they did these basically as souvenirs.
The interesting thing about them is they were all handmade,
and you would have ordered it from a local seamstress
who would have used the silk that she
had available at the time.
This one you can see the silk is beginning to go here.
That's absolutely typical of these things.
Let me take a look at the back, see how this is done.
Oh, yeah.
And you can see this is all hand done.
So, what's your concern on it?
RICK: It looks right to me, but is this the Flying Tigers?
Is this faked?
Who is R.C. Peret?
Is this the right colors for the banner?
You know it-- [laughter]
Understandable.
Had any chance to try to track him down?
I found his name in a Flying Tiger book from '42.
He was a flight engineer for the second squadron
and parachute rigger.
MARK: He would've been one of the 200
they came along as support staff.
I'll tell you, Rick.
Looking at this--
[suspenseful music]
I think this is real.
I think it's absolutely-- - Yeah!
MARK: --original, World War II made.
You know, it's a really nice find.
Yeah. RICK: OK.
Sweet!
Well thanks, man.
Not a problem. Thanks a lot.
- Thank you. - Thanks for letting me see it.
I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
This is just a really wonderful
souvenir from that time.
This is one that has a great deal of historic interest
and visual interest.
[rock music playing]
RICK: It's an incredible piece.
OK.
You're one major drawback here, it's not a pilot.
ALAN: Yeah.
RICK: OK and-- and it makes a huge difference.
Sure.
RICK: I'm thinking-- (GROANS) I'll give you $4,000 grand
for it.
[suspenseful music]
And I-- and I-- the reason why I think that's
a fair price, these other ones, these are pilots.
These are-- those guys are in the history books.
This guy's not.
That's the difference.
Do you think maybe we could come up to seven maybe?
(SIGHS) I would go $4,500 bucks.
[suspenseful music]
Can we go five?
[suspenseful music]
I'll go $4,600 bucks.
I mean-- I'm not going to get rich off you.
[suspenseful music]
I think we got a deal. RICK: Sweet!
This is cool!
I'll meet you right over there, man.
Find it a good home.
Thank you.
I'm going to take $4,600 today because I
think it's a fair price, and I need the money.
[rock music playing]