RICK HARRISON: What do we have here?
KEVIN: A book titled "The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin."
RICK HARRISON: OK.
KEVIN: Written and signed by Harry Houdini.
RICK HARRISON: This is cool.
Harry Houdini, I mean, he was an amazing guy.
KEVIN: People still today are trying
to figure out how he escaped from some of these tricks.
A lot of people said that he could store stuff
in his esophagus, keep keys, and just
regurgitate them on demand.
Weird cat, but works out for a magician.
[laughter]
KEVIN: I came to the Pawn Shop today to show them my Harry
Houdini signed book from 1908.
The title is "The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin."
Harry Houdini signed it three times.
I'm asking 5,000, which is actually
a very good price, because I've seen
them go for more than that.
RICK HARRISON: God, it's cool.
You know anything about it?
KEVIN: So it's a pretty fascinating
book, which basically debunks his idol magician,
Robert-Houdin.
The rumor was that Robert-Houdin's widow
did actually not want him to write the book.
And I think he took it personal.
RICK HARRISON: Yeah, what happened was is,
he went to the widow, wanted to like interview
her about this book.
And she basically said no.
And so he wrote a negative book.
I imagine his widow was a little pissed off of me
anyway, because he never asked for permission
to be called Houdini.
KEVIN: Right.
Harry Houdini was a legendary magician.
It's cool to see a book written by him about another magician's
secrets.
This book sort of proves he was a little bit of a narcissist.
If these are real signatures of Harry Houdini in this book,
we're talking show stopper.
So I mean, it's really interesting.
The great thing is it's signed by Harry Houdini.
KEVIN: Yeah.
You can see he signs it to a friend of his.
He says, best wishes from the author, Harry Houdini.
And then along the side he says, oh,
be sure to read the introduction,
and initials it again.
So it's pretty fascinating.
I dig it.
I think it's cool.
But the book's in rough shape.
You know that.
I'm assuming you want to sell the book.
KEVIN: Yes.
RICK HARRISON: And how much you want for it?
5,000.
All right.
KEVIN: It's pretty flawless.
I mean, the signature is bold and not faded
like you see a lot of photos.
Yeah, like it was done last week.
Hey, come on now.
What are you trying to insinuate here?
Let me have someone look at the signature.
OK.
Hang out a few minutes.
I'm gonna get my friend down here,
and we're gonna figure this thing out.
All right. RICK HARRISON: OK?
Thanks.
If that authenticator says it's not real,
I will eat the first few pages of that book.
I'll eat it without bread.
I'll just take it out, and I'll just eat it.
RICK HARRISON: Well, here it is, Harry Houdini.
STEVE GRAD: I love Houdini.
I'm fascinated by him, actually.
I mean, he's-- for all the great magicians, no
one could do what this guy did.
And I mean, he'd show up in a town,
and [inaudible] he hang off a wire or you know, go to prisons
and get locked up.
And you know, he'd put-- put on a show anywhere he went.
I mean, he was a showman.
And I mean, Harry Houdini wasn't even his real name.
His real name was Eric Weiss.
RICK HARRISON: I would go to a show
with-- starring Harry Houdini.
Eric Weiss, eh.
STEVE GRAD: Be like, who?
Houdini is just an amazing magician.
I mean, he was the man.
People wanted his signature.
They wanted to meet him.
They wanted to get near him.
And he had no problem doing it.
And through the years, I've seen all kinds
of stuff signed by Houdini.
The guy really signed his name a lot.
RICK HARRISON: So it's right here.
STEVE GRAD: Tell me about your concerns.
RICK HARRISON: OK, it looks like it was written last week,
and I'm trying to come up with a value here.
The book's in terrible shape.
STEVE GRAD: Yeah.
RICK HARRISON: But it is signed by Houdini.
STEVE GRAD: You know, Rick, the first thing I want to do
is use the Pro Scope and see what we're dealing with.
So I'm going to go over the signature here.
And this is pretty typical of what I would expect to see.
And you see kind of like the little ink
separating out there.
And I really have no issue with that.
So that's live ink.
RICK HARRISON: OK.
STEVE GRAD: The next thing I want to do
is pull out my examples.
And I'll go to the Houdini signatures that I have on file.
And here we are.
And this is a full-name signature.
The consistency is what I look for, especially
here in the last name.
I really like how he goes H-O-U, H-O-U, stops,
and then he finishes the rest of his name.
RICK HARRISON: OK.
And so what do you think?
STEVE GRAD: Based on what I see with ink analysis, signature
here, I think it's definitely genuine.
Thank God, because now I don't have to eat it.
RICK HARRISON: OK, now, what do you think it's worth?
STEVE GRAD: Based on what I know and what
they bring in the marketplace, about $2,400.
RICK HARRISON: Thanks, man. STEVE GRAD: Yep.
No problem. Good to see you.
Thanks.
In terms of like Houdini stuff I've seen, it's up there.
But maybe the only thing that would have made it more stellar
is if the book itself was in better condition.
So I gave it a pretty fair price.
RICK HARRISON: So?
I have to definitely disagree on the value.
RICK HARRISON: The way I'm looking at it,
I think he's dead on.
And I have to resell this.
I have to make money.
And I'm thinking $1,500 bucks.
KEVIN: Yeah, I just could never--
I just couldn't go that low.
It's got a lot of problems as far as book collectors.
KEVIN: But is the book collector also an autograph collector?
You're kind of merging two markets there.
RICK HARRISON: If this wasn't signed by Harry Houdini,
this would be a $20 or $30 book.
That's all it would be worth.
KEVIN: It's worth way more than that.
[sighs]
RICK HARRISON: OK, well, sorry we're not gonna be able
make a deal.
We tried. KEVIN: OK, appreciate it.
All right, if you change your mind, come on back.
KEVIN: All right. I will.
Thanks, man. KEVIN: Thanks.
He's not going to find a book like this for 5,000 anywhere.
I mean, this is--
this is a piece of history.
He could have made money on this book.
I really think he missed out.
[music playing]