RICK: Hey. How's it going?
How you doing?
What I have for you is very special and very unique.
Says who?
Says me.
[laughter]
It is a late 1880s Giffard carbonic gas pistol.
This is the great, great, great granddaddy of air guns.
RICK: This thing is really, really neat.
Rare.
They're very rare.
RICK: I'm sure these are rare because I've
never seen one before, and I've been doing this my whole life.
Rare doesn't always mean value.
There's only one of him in the world,
and I don't think he's very valuable.
And it's--
[laughs]
Thanks, Dad.
I love you too.
All right.
GARY: I got it from my stepfather, who, in turn, got
it as a war prize when he fought in Europe during World War II.
It was meant to replace gunpowder,
but it never came to be.
It's the first of its kind.
So was this a toy you would give a kid or--
RICK: This looks like it throws a lot of mass.
I mean, it's a .30 caliber bullet.
It's big. It's going to hurt you.
It'll kill you.
COREY: I got you.
So I'm assuming this was probably a target pistol or--
Mm-hmm.
I really don't see it as a defensive weapon.
It's got a really, super long barrel and--
COREY: But I'm just assuming, like 1880s, there was
plenty of firearms back then.
I mean-- - OK.
--who would use--
who would use an air gun?
RICK: They were always trying to improve on guns.
COREY: OK.
RICK: And there was a lot of thinking that air pistols--
I mean, highly-compressed gas would
be the way of the future--
Right.
RICK: --for machine guns and other things like that.
It's all good on paper, but it never
really, really worked out.
They never were able to come up with a system that can get you
that massive pressure at the bottom of the breach
right here like gunpowder will.
Just can't be done.
That was the problem.
But you have to admit it's a unique idea--
RICK: It's a heck of an idea.
GARY: --and a beautiful piece of work.
Excellent condition.
RICK: Do you mind?
No, be my guest.
RICK: So I guess it would be a ball and not a conical bullet.
You just drop it in there, and this is--
oh, this unscrews right here.
GARY: That's correct.
RICK: And this was the gas cylinder.
GARY: That's correct.
RICK: I think it's amazing.
So do you know if this was compressed to air,
this was CO2, this was--
Carbonic gas.
I would assume that's CO2.
That's how they referred to it back then.
RICK: All right.
It's really intriguing.
I mean, it's beautiful work.
How much you want for it?
I'm looking for $7,500.
Dollars?
GARY: Dollars, US.
This is a 130-year-old antique.
For $7,500, I can buy an antique Colt revolver.
You will find serious gun collectors stumbling
over one another for this gun.
I guarantee it.
Let me have it checked out.
I mean, it very well might be worth that.
But is the demand there?
That's what I need to know.
I mean, what kind of demand is there?
Yeah, sure.
It's not every day that someone
brings something in my shop that I have never seen before.
It's obviously pretty rare, and I have a lot
of questions about this thing.
I don't get surprised very often, but today's a surprise.
I have seen two of these in my life.
RICK: Wow.
CRAIG: This is the third one.
RICK: OK.
CRAIG: Air rifles are very collectible.
Air pistols are very collectible.
I'm at a loss for words.
RICK: OK.
First question is, is it compressed air, is it CO2?
What if I told you that this gun was
not charged with compressed air or CO2 at all,
but with a liquid?
All right.
CRAIG: Carbonic acid.
The guy who invented this gun was
named Giffard, Paul Giffard.
He was an inventor.
He was really very, very, very smart.
He came up with a patent to capture and compress
carbonic acid into a liquid form and put it into these tubes.
Under normal temperature and pressure, it would be a gas,
and that was what was used to fire the pellet
down range in this weapon.
This gun is incredible because it's innovative.
The user would screw it on underneath the gun,
and when he'd pull the trigger, a little rod
would push a spring out letting a little bit
of this liquid out.
It would instantly expand into a gas creating an enormous amount
of pressure up into the barrel, and it would
push the pellet down range.
That's incredible.
Yeah, and all the gold inlay is still here.
Condition is very nice.
Minor pitting.
Beautiful hand engraving.
They all were hand engraved, so that wasn't an option.
Not a lot wrong with this gun.
In fact, there's nothing wrong with this gun.
If you gave me an unlimited supply of money,
I couldn't find you 50 of these things.
They made under 500, and I'd be surprised
if there were 100 left, so--
All right, so the big question.
What's it worth?
It was certainly worth my trip down here.
Money, it's worth $3,000.
I question that a bit.
You don't think it would go higher at auction?
You know, no, I don't.
The last one that went for auction
went for 1,500 pounds, 300 pound buyer premium,
so right about $3,000.
That's where I got my figure.
OK. Thanks, man.
COREY: Yeah, Rick. Thanks.
You're the best. CRAIG: This is great.
I guarantee you if you lined up 1,000 air gun collectors,
none of them would have this pistol in their collection.
So what you're offering me is 3,000?
RICK: No.
I'm offering you 2,000.
I have to make a little money myself.
You can easily double your money on this gun.
Easy.
If I pay 2,000.
Without losing sleep.
If I pay 2,000.
If you pay even 7,500.
No, there's no way I could pay 7,500.
I'll just go straight to the point.
I will give you $2,200.
That is what I can do.
What happened to 25?
[sighs]
GARY: 3,000 is a fair deal.
RICK: You just said 2,500.
That's what you said. RICK: No.
No. That's what you said.
Oh.
[laughs]
You implied the 2,500.
No.
You implied that you would take 2,500.
I'll tell you what.
I'll give you $2,500 for it.
He just tricked you into paying him $2,500.
He did not trick me into paying him $2,500.
Would you take $2,500?
3,000 is definitely out of the ballpark.
All right, man, take it easy.
We're not going to make a deal.
2,500.
You'll do it for 2,500?
I'll do 25.
COREY: All right. RICK: You'll go write him up?
Yeah, I'll go write him up.
This younger guy jumped in on my negotiation,
and I wish he stayed out of it, to be honest,
because I know they'll double their money on it,
but I'm satisfied.