the memory of the grandfather whose comic book collection came to the family's rescue. i am jamie colby for "strange inheritance" and thank you for watching. rememb kheryl in for neil cavuto thank you for watching. >> deep in the swamps of central florida. >> we have a couple,000 alligators. -- a couple hundred crocodiles. >> lurks one "strange inheritance." >> my ideal all along was that i could build something that i could pass down to my family. >> always in the back of your mind? >> always. jamie: can we name this one jamie? >> absolutely. >> passing down an enterprise like this can be trecherrous. >> we might have to hit the road. >> it might be soldout from under us. >> it is risky business. >> what happened to your finger? >> a correct deal bit it off -- crocodile bit it off.

jamie: i am jamie colby, today i am off of beaten path away off. in swampy low lands of south central florida. these dense marshes, -- they are home to an old time florida family, a very "strange inheritance." >> patty? hello. >> hello i am jamie. >> nice to meet you. jamie: what is a nice girl like you doing in the middle of nowhere in central florida. >> how do you know i'm a nice girl? i am pat i register, my mom marietta passed away in 1996, she left me an inheritance with a lot of bite, and a lot of hooping to jump through. jamie: patty inherited

alligators from her mother, it rarely is simple with family businesses. and gator ramma. old fashion roadside attraction in florida 50 years ago is more complicated than most, patty runs gatorama with her husband alan. >> we met in high school when we were 14 years old. jamie: their son ben is the official crocodilian wrangler. >> where are you from? >> tennessee? i'll count slow for you. jamie: they can't resist bringing a reporter from new york into the show. >> come here crocodile. jamie: he has that evil eye thing going. >> up, up. >> yeah. >> tourism is about half of gatorama's business. >> i could see a invest out of this. >> you need too get me one. >> other half is farming gators

for skins and meat. >> value of the skin would be about 600 or 650. jamie: this pile could be worth more than $5,000. so, how do you hatch an enterprise like this? there in lies tally of a "strange inheritance." one that involves native floridians four-and two-legged. >> my dad was a important who was perfectly at home in the swamp. mom was more of a city girl. >> way back in pristic era. -- prehistoric era, circa 1970, dave returned to central florida after retiring from the army, he served 20 years, including a tour in vietnam, he and marietta, his wife of 18 years, buy a nice house, in haynes city. dave trying a few different

businesses, selling worms, crop spraying, nothing clicks until he runs into an old swamp rat he knew as a kid. >> he was one of the best trappers that i knew, he if -- had 15 wives, i knew through of them. jamie: he named it gatorama. >> it was an up front for the gator business. jamie: in 1967, alligators are listed as an endangered species, trapping or killing them becomes a federal crime. >> hunters here were happy to bring him little alligators for 3 and 4 dollars a piece, he was turning those and selling them on the black market for dollars 200 or 300 a piece. jamie: by mid 80s, cecil is getting on in years, he wants

his old pal dave to take gatorama off his hands, dave is intrigued high finds out that gate oars are about to come -- gators are about to come off of the endangered species list. he offered 350,000 for the whole operation, old cecil snapped at the deal. >> your wife must have been thrilled when you told her you were going to move here. >> she fought he tooth and toe nail. jamie: maybe she was right. >> i came here, i thought this was a farm. it was no farm at all. the incubate o or was a box. >> in the house. >> in the rouse. >> there was roaches, rats and snakes in this building. jamie: marietta wants nothing to do with it she would rather live someplace with sidewalks.

>> she would not come down there, she was afraid, and second, it was sort of beneath her dignity. >> it took about 6 months for her to make the adjustment. jamie: what did he tell her. >> come on marietta, we're going. jamie: the couple hoped their kids would get involved. >> my mom and dad had the feeling if you were not here on the farm, you are not working. >>ny idea was that i -- my idea was that i could build something to pass to my family. jamie: that was always in the back of your mind. >> always in the back of my mind. jamie: in the back of his mind already away back there whether it gets to fronts of dave's mind, his "strange inheritance" muddies the water. >> i think in that process, it opened up a lot of resentment. >> next. and later -- >> when what are you saying? >> where is my mama?

>> but first our "strange inheritance" quiz question, how many teeth does the typical at alligator go through in a lifetime? the answer in a moment.

>> how many teeth does the typical alligator lose in a lifetime? c. 2 thousand to 3,000. >> in 1986. retired army major dave buys

gatorama. a alligator form. it is an exciting time to be in the gator game, they are about to come off the endangered species list. >> it was aparent after a little bit of time there was some money to be made here. >> after her initial reluctance. his wife mayor yet i marietta jd brings her business sense. >> i could note have done it bought her. jamie: they turn it into an attractive attraction, by 1990, gatorama is making a profit. but it is a grueling life for a couple approaching their 60s. jamie: did she ever describe to you what she felt like here. >> on the register, 7 days a week.

and she would hardly leave. jamie: did she feel trapped. >> no one trapped her, she allowed herself to be trapped here. jamie: dave needs help, he approaches his daughter patty and her husband alan, patty is only one of his kids interested in running the business. >> we were going to come work for a year, dave would pick up and move back t hain city and we would run the business. jamie: the couple is ready for a change. >> last 2 years in the navy, i only saw my parents. for a couple of days, i made the decision, we would go to work for her mom and dad. jamie: did it end up being what you thought it would be. >> it was different.

out of our comfort zone. >> we were trying to get our feet wet, figure out where our part was, within family structure, the, structure. >> as alan discovered wrangling the 600 pound, 10 foot carnivore is not without a hazard. jamie: what happened to your finger. >> a crocodile bit it off. jamie: a correct deal bit it off -- crocodile bit it off. is that just a day at the office? >> that day it was. jamie: working with patty's dad, alan learns the ins and outs of the gator business. >> we spend our time making sure our gators are happy, fed well, and have healthy skin. jamie: remember dave a first incubatincue or by 1994 his sonw helped to build a new one, it can handle up to 3 hus eggs at a time. >> jamie you are in luck we have

baby alligators that are hatching out. jamie: they have to be cute. >> put these on. jamie: i feel like a surgeon. >> just the slightest movement will cause them to move. jamie: here comes one, he is born. >> it is his birthday. jamie: can we name this one jamie? >> absolutely. jamie: what are you saying? where is my mama? >> my mid 90s, patty and alan are putting in long hours, 7 days a week to make gatorama a success, they assume that patty's parents will retire leaving them to take over. but there are no concrete plans. then in august 1996, after a year of battling cancer, patty's mom marietta dies at the age of 64. >> shy worked the last day she was alive. >> they buried her, they buried half of me, right in the same

grave with her. jamie: in his grief, dave walks away from gator ram aleving day-to-day management to alan and patty. and here is where the inheritance part of this "strange inheritance" gets complicated. marietta's 50% passes to a trust. the state control trust, upon his date, their 3 children inherit an equal share, the arrangement lives patty and alan in limbo, they are running the business but have no say in what happens to it. >> i am trying to figure out a way to say it might be sold out from under us. >> we knew we had to do something to ensure we would be able to carry on. jamie: dad gets that, but he wonders if the fairest thing might be to sell gatorama to the highest bidder, and sit money aside for all 3 sibling equally.

>> my father was so concerned about being fair to my brother and sister, even though they did not contribute to the farm very much. >> that was tough for you? >> i really, pondered over it. and struggled with it. jamie: dave decides he will come up with what he thinks is a fair price, no special deal, and make an offer to patty and alan. what did dad tell you he wanted to buy it. >> a million dollars. jamie: where did he come up with that? y. >> pulled it out. jamie: next. >> another quiz question for you, how fast can alligators run on land? about speed of an olympic sprinter, a riding lawn mower or a kid on

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>> how fast can a gator run? a, a gator could keep up with a sprinter for a short distance. jamie: you have friends? >> yep, we have alligator are here to the right. and on the left over here are only breeding colony of american crocodiles in the country. jamie: good business. >> everyone that wants a correct deal they come to us -- a crocodile they come to us whether it is disney or bush gardens. jamie: after patty register's mother dies, she ander husband allen take the lead role in running gatorama. >> we spend 10 years here already, we were getting to age that it would be difficult to start another career. jamie: at this time, patty shares a half interest in gatorama with her brother and sister, the "strange inheritance" from their mother. >> their father dave fee land

owns half and still controls business. >> allen and i knew we had to do something to ensure we would be able to carry on this business and farm. jamie: patty and allen feel the best solution for them to buy the business from patty's father and siblings, lock, stock and gator, but at what gator, but at what price? whatever they do will affect finances and feelings of the family. >> i talked with families and up her tens i realize -- inheritance i realize sometimes things go really well, and sometime not so well. >> in that process it opened up a lot of resentiment. jamie: a conflict that happens in a lot of family owned businesses. could her siblings get more inheritance if it was sold to an

outside buyer, and where would that live patty and allen. >> we negotiated with her father for years. >> we didn't want to pay any more than it was worth. jamie: what did dad tell you he wanted to buy it. >> he wanted a million dollars. jamie: where did he come up with a million dollars. >> he just pulled it out. >> from the sky. jamie: a tug-of-war. the years of sweat equity are at risk. >> we had a lot of difficulty coming to an agreement. finally his attorney suggested we hire an appraiser to come out and an appraise the business. jamie: will it help? what do you hope happens? >> i hope that it can continue on in the family.

>> they became merdifficult in our family -- more difficult in our family relationships. jamie: sometimes you just don't know how to let go. >> if a gator does not know that i want to university of miami, it is looking at me. >> i think he likes you.

@ jamie: in central florida, patty and allen register continue to

work long hours at gatorama while they await a professional appraisal of patty's family's "strange inheritance," they hope that dollar figure will below enough to buyout the rest of the family, and high enough so there is no blood in the water. answer comes in. 600,000 dollars. it is a number they can work with. patty's father, makes the deal. >> it was relief, because, we felt that now we had a future, that we didn't have to worry that upon my father's passing we might have to hit the road. >> we have a loan with the bank. then we also have a mortgage with david, carrying the note. jamie: according to patty not everyone is happy. >> my sister thought she would not get a fair portion of the proceeds from my mom and dad's

estate. but the bottom line is we paid the appraised value for part of it, we inherited part of it. >> patty and allen own gatorama and every beast on the lot. i doubt old cecil clemens who opened it in 50s would recognize it today, allen has redone the ink yo. the inside in a good year they sell more than 10,000 pounds of prime gator meat. farming has been good still in the wild. >> population has been steady or increased. you know like any other farmer we're not going to destroy the environment because that is our livelihood.

with any luck their son ben will be next generation to seagate or ramma -- it is already paying him dividends he found his wife here. >> just got married 4 months ago, my wife walked through the doors of the gift shop. jamie: that is how you met? >> that is how we met. jamie: she works with him. >> she loves it mere. jamie: they have one last treat for me. >> we'll show you how to sit on an alligator. jamie: do you do that? >> i have been wanting to do it where i was 6 years old. >> cover his eye, put your knees in the dirt, and your hands right here -- stay back! jamie: this not in my contract. it's looking at me. >> i think he likes you. jamie: you might say this is the

type of guy, once you get your hands on him, you don't want to let go. >> we're getting along. jamie: otherwise you might end up like allen, literally giving him the finger. >> after all their hard work and stress. patty and allen found their place in the sun even if it is inhabited by thousands of man eating rebtiles. -- reptiles, alan said when ben was 16 he was working with a 6 footer it clamped down on his arm, ben stayed calm, he did the right thing, he got that gator down on the ground, kept it there until others could pry the critter's jaws open, he had two rows of teeth marks on his arm but he still had his arm, that is the moment allen knew his boy was cut out for this kind of work, i am jamie colby for "strange inheritance," thank you for watching, and remember, you can't take it with you.

>> do you have a "strange inheritance" story you would like to share with us? we would love to hear it. sed me an e-mail or go to our webit it right now. >> found in grandpa's attic. >> dirty, dusty old box. like, wow. i don't know what it is. >> a discovery that will make the baseball world flip. >> you've got honus wagner. cy young. christie matthew son. >> i'm thinking to myself, oh, my god. i have a million dollars sitting in a chair. >> but is it almost too much of a good thing? >> it certainly changes the market in a negative way. (?) ♪ jamie: i'm jamie colby. i'm in northwest ohio.

called the great black swamp. this is a family who has lived here for more than 100 years. when they unearth their "strange inheritance," they give it a code name: the "black swamp find." >> i'm karl kissner, in 2011, my cousins and i inherited the home from our aunts. we would find things in this home that we never knew existed. >> karl, a 54-year-old restaurant owner has invited me to the family home in the small town of defiance, ohio. karl, hi. i'm jamie. how are you? >> pleasure to meet you. jamie: nice to meet you too. is this the family home? >> this is grandma's home. come on in. i'll show you around. jamie: the house came into karl's family in 1949. >> needle place, but

needs tlc. >> are you saying to be careful? >> yes. jamie: karl and his cousin start the daunting task of cleaning out the home lived in for more than a century. after several weeks of sorting through the house, only the attic remains. karl and his cousin, carla decide to tackle the project. >> ladies first. >> oh, my. look at this place. jamie: the attic is empty now. but not that day in 2011. karl and carla walk in to find a century worth of dusty boxes and family heirlooms. >> literally filled to the rafters. >> all the way up to here and just a path down the middle. jamie: after several hours, they uncover a box hugging the back wall. it contains something the two cousins have never seen before. >> it was dirty, busty oldustyold box. i open it up. i don't know what it is.

>> the cousins see what appear to be small cardboard photos tightly wrapped in twine. they recognize some pretty familiar faces. >> we're looking at it. baseball players. cy young. tiger. they're not baseball cards. not to us. they look like baseball cards. miniaturized. no who made it. no nothing. >> how many we talking about? >> hundreds. jamie: amazing. you see the box. you take them out. what do you and carla say? >> actually we set them on a dresser in the hallway and dove into the attic. >> soon karl starts to ponder where the strange cards may have come from. where they something the aunt collected off a cereal box? or maybe they go back to his grandfather karl hench. >> he works his way through chicago. german immigrant. towards the ohio valley.

>> he's chasing the american dream, to own a home and start a business. karl is a butcher by trade. by 1905, scraped enough to open his own shop here in defiance. a meat market. he sells candies and other grocery items. >> was he successful? >> very successful as a butcher in town. >> in 1909, he marries his love jenny. they start a family and buy that dream home. by now, baseball has long established itself as the national past time. for decades, very companies have used baseball cards to sell their products. >> the first nationally circulated cards came in packages of tobacco. it was the opportunity for the average citizen to own a photo. >> candy companies jump into the game. caramel cart helped sell

the top people of the day. >> cy young. christie matthewson. >> children'children love the candy, but cards even more. >> children traded them. >> all karl and carla know is that the cards may have come from their grandfather's store. >> our guess is that he would have given them away as promotional items. when you have leftovers, you save them for the next promotion. >> beyond that, karl isn't sure what they have in the box. he tells his cousin, he'll find out. the box sits on that dresser for a few days. and almost gets thrown out several times. before karl brings it to his restaurant to research the cards online. >> after a few days, he has some leads. >> i was looking at a 1909 caramel card. and i'm going, okay, it's not identical. but this is too close.

they have an estimated value on this card of around 15,000. jamie: karl discovers that a similar ty cobb card recently sold for $40,000. >> and i got a box full of them and they're pristine. jamie: that's amazing. you're sitting on a bundle of money. >> yeah. at that point, the heart is starting to race. i'm thinking to myself, oh, my god. i have a million dollars sitting in a chair. >> a lot more than that, if that is, karl can confirm his cards are real. >> you're a little skeptical, you're looking forward to that one phone call that turns out to be gold. jamie: that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. which gets credit for setting off the rookie card craze? the 1968 nolan ryan.

or the 1989

>> so which helped set off the rookie card craze? it's c. he didn't have the hall of fame career some predicted. but the cards remained popular.

jamie: while the grandchildren of karl and jenny hench are cleaning out the century old family home in ohio, they find a dust covered box with what appear to be vintage baseball cards. >> i'm seeing a tod ty cobb for $40,000. i'm looking at mine and saying, mine is better. jamie: the box karl found not only contains cobb known as the georgia peach, but all the greats of the era. it's dozens. in all, 800 cards, most in pristine condition. >> it takes it off a scope and realm that you're not quite sure how to handle it. jamie: step one, find out if the cards are real. karl reaches out to vintage cards expert peter in dallas. >> i received a phone

call, which was very cryptic. he didn't want to go into any details. on a daily basis, we receive phone calls from people who find cars. it's always reprints. jamie: peter says to text photos of the cards and he'll take a look when he gets the chance. >> when i got the first picture, i thought these were too good to be true. they looked amazing. i saw nothing about them that looked like they weren't real. the next plan, we talked about him sending me a sample of the cards. >> karl overnights eight cards to peter with a note attached. call me before you open. when the box arrives at heritage auction -- >> i gave him a call. there's that moment of silence that feels like ten minutes, but it's a matter of seconds. i open the box. pull out a large plastic holder. then there's the holy

[bleep] >> i was just floored because i had no idea what a 100-year baseball card looked real. >> at that moment, i pretty much know, yeah, these are real. >> karl has one more bombshell. >> so his next question is: do you have anymore? >> yes. hundreds. >> i would have been happy if it was just the eight cards. that's when you realize, this is the find of a lifetime. ♪ jamie: karl dubs the cards the black swam"black swamp find." they're quickly shipped to dallas on an armored truck and locked in a vault. the next step is to get each card officially graded on a scale of one to ten. karl goes with professional sports authenticator. i meet up with joe orlando, president of

psa at the national sports collector convention for a crash course in grading baseball cards. why is this one only a one? babe ruth can't be just a one. >> if you look at the card, you can see all the defects. multiple creases throughout the card. this is about as low as it can get. >> this one is higher? this is eight? is that considered mint? >> almost mint. but you can see tiny white pieces of wear on each corner. that's the difference between an eight, nine or ten. jamie: those tiny imperfections can make a difference of thousands of dollars. >> this one is worth roughly $100 or so. if a nine, probably north of 1,000. if it's a ten, north of 5,000. jamie: so what about the "black swamp find"? do karl's cards make the grade. >> what was your reaction when you saw

the first card? >> it was mind-blowing. jamie: before the find, the highest it ever gave to a card was a seven. karl's cards beat that in their first. >> it was a ty cobb. little did we know there were 15 more ty cobb 9's and, of course, hundreds of high-grade eight, nines, and even tens in the set. >> sounds pretty good. right? not so fast. it doubles the population of this type of card and the unprecedented size and quality of the find could crash the baseball collector's market. will karl's inheritance end up being too much of a good thing. >> if you were to flood the market with all of this at one time, it would certainly diminish the value of the entire find. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. what's the most ever paid for a babe ruth

baseball card? is it 78,000, 517,000, or $1.3 million? the answer in

♪a little voice came on the phone♪ dad, when you gonna come home? ♪and said daddy when you comin home? ♪he said the first thing that came to his mind♪ i'm already there ♪i'm already there ♪take a look around ♪oh, i'm already there

♪ >> so what's the most ever paid for a babe

ruth baseball card? it's b. $517,000. for a 9014 baltimore news sold in 2008. (?) jamie: in 2012 in defiance, ohio, karl discovers 800 vintage cards in the attic of his old family home. most of the cards remain in near mint condition. which is rare among cards even half that age. before the collecting craze in the 1980s, cards were simply fun things or to be used in flipping games. it will land either picture. you'll toss the card. if you match my card, you get to keep my card and your card. if you don't, i get to go home with your card. here goes. it's up.

picture. i'm a winner. >> you're a winner. jamie: fortunately, for karl, his grandfather wasn't interested in such games, and the collection should easily be worth millions, if they play their cards right. you see, selling the so-called black swan find all at once could flood the market and drive prices down. >> because of the size of the collection and the quantity involved, there was concern about the value. if there was one of each player, that would have been ideal. heritage auctions proposes a series of second sales to maximize the family's stake. >> to sell them by the set over a number of years. take our time. jamie: karl runs the estate on behalf of the 29 grandchildren. each family member can either join a consortium to sell the cards or keep their share as a

family heirloom. >> did anybody keep the cards? yes, some of them did. >> most family members agreed to team and up sell the cards gradually. peter tal eastalliesy the numbers. nearly $3 million. for karl, it's a staggering sum. >> we're stunned. this is something we almost threw in a dumpster. in baltimore camden park, they put the first 37 cards up for auction. >> they were the best of the best. the best graded cards out of everything we had graded. 1910e198010. the family sees one lot of nine cards go for $40,000. a second lot of 27 cards goes for 286,000.

(?) but the real clean up hitter of the night, the only psa, ten mint, hall of famer, honus wagner in existence. 240,000 solid. anyone else? >> done. 240,00$240,000. >> we were flabbergasted. this is a wonderful gift from our grandfather and from our aunt. what more could you ask for? >> the family's total for the night: 566,000. it's a very promising start. but they've also sold their best cards. does the black swan find have enough gas into it to get the gran

>> now, back to "strange inheritance." jamie: karl kissner and his family are slowly selling off their "strange inheritance." 800 rare vintage baseball cards. the schekthe collection is valud around $3 million. the family still has plenty of high-grade hall of famers to sell. in october 2012 and may 2013, two online auctions with some help from legendary manager connie racked up

$419,000. in august 2013 in chicago, a psa minor brown pitches in to help the team ring in another 220k. in the big apple, february 2014, a psa, 8.5 johnny eve ever seen. johnny. two more online auctions raise the total to $1.7 million. jamie: on july 31st, 2014, i join karl and his cousin carla at the 35th national sports collectors convention in cleveland for their latest auction. >> got a fired up crowd here tonight. what do you think, karl? >> it's exciting watching everybody, and listening to the on floor bids. you get into the feel of it. the mood of it. >> the last person standing, get the item. >> apparently people have money.

at the end of tonight, you may too. jamie: up first for carla and karl tonight, the georgia peach. >> 730 ty cobb. mint nine. are you serious? yes, we are serious. 27,000. anybody else? >> when the auctioneer kind of slows down? you know it's getting -- it's getting good. >> yeah. >> sold at $28,000. >> congratulations, guys. give me five on that, yeah. jamie: now, stepping up to the plate, a psa9, honus wagner. >> come on, honus. >> sold at 33,000. the bidding ends at 33,750. >> yeah, very good. all right. jamie: their weekend earnings, including online sells, total

133,000, listing the "black swamp find" total to 1.85 million. [applauding] >> are you satisfied tonight? >> i'm estatic, the person that's buying it wants it and appreciates it. hhe will add it to his collection and maybe pass it on to his family. jamie: a box stored and forgotten in the attic for over a century, changes an industry forever along with the lives of the 20 hench grandchildren. so far the black swamp "black sp find" is like a slugger with -- well, on track to surpass the goal by peter. >> still ten more sets to sell. still averaging 10,000 a set. >> in the card collecting market, the game is not over until the last man is out. >> what would grandpa say? >> i think grandpa would be stunned, amazed, and pleased. i'm sure that he is. i'm sure that the whole

family is up there looking down with big smiles on their faces. jamie: was the "black swamp find" nearly history's most epic case of some guys mom throwing out his baseball card collection? karl thinks so. when he made his big discovery in the attic, he spied several wrinkled and grimy cards strewn among the rafters and the floorboards. karl believes that they went flying during one of his grandma jenny's cleaning purges. when she pitched boxes of junk right out the attic window, into a big mound below. thank goodness, she never got a hold of that one box in the corner. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thank you so much for joining us. remember, you can't take it with you. do you have a "strange

inheritance" story you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it. send me an email or go to our website, "strange