i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> a world-famous musician dies and leaves his daughters his prized instrument. >> his love, his treasure, his heart, his voice. >> it's more than 300 years old and could be worth many millions. but this strange inheritance is about more than money. it's about a european countess, a father's legacy, and a huge financial dilemma for his heirs. >> it was very clear to us that he did not want it to be hidden away. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] i'm jamie colby, and i'm on cape cod, massachusetts, heading

to the small town of wellfleet. i'm here to learn about a strange inheritance that shaped a family's life for half a century. >> my name is elena delbanco. in 2011, my sister and i inherited an extraordinary object from our father. this was my father's home for many years. he and my mother built it in 1955. >> elena's father was the virtuoso cellist bernard greenhouse, who died in 2011 at the age of 95. [ classical music plays ] greenhouse spent most of his career playing with the renowned beaux arts trio, which made its debut in 1955 and catapulted to fame. >> he was very warm and very charming but very involved with his work. and he traveled all the time as

he became more and more successful. >> as one of the world's premier cellists, bernard figured he should be playing one of the world's finest cellos. he began searching in europe for an instrument equal to his talent. >> he went to dealers and to instrument shops, and wherever he went, he said, "have you heard any rumors about great cellos?" >> in 1957, he found one in the west german city of aachen. your father came home with something he longed for, searched for. >> i was very young. but i knew that he had found something very important. >> very important, indeed. it was a stradivarius, crafted in italy around 1707 by the master of them all, antonio stradivari. it even has its own aristocratic title, "the countess of

stanlein." sound expensive? it was. >> it was a huge sum of money for us, for our family. and it made a huge difference in our lives to pay it off over many years. >> dealers estimate bernard paid around $100,000, an astronomical sum in the late 1950s, when the average american house sold for $18,000. but for greenhouse, the instrument became a part of him. >> he called it every superlative you could call it -- his love, his treasure, his heart, his voice. >> at the height of his career, greenhouse performed nearly 200 times a year. >> i always wanted to hop in the cello case and travel with my father wherever he was going. >> when greenhouse wasn't in concert, he taught at the manhattan school of music, juilliard, and here at home, in his cape cod studio.

this is where elena also played the cello as a child. you sometimes put your name in his appointment book to try to get time with him in lieu of a lesson, erasing the name of a student that was actually coming. >> i didn't do that to get a cello lesson. i did that to get an hour of his time. >> did you ever play the strad? >> no, never. >> why? >> i never played well enough to play the strad. >> by whose opinion? >> i guess by my father's, but i never wanted to. >> can i hear him play? >> i would love it. [ mid-tempo classical music plays ] having the music is wonderful. it's hard but wonderful. [ music continues ] isn't it beautiful?

>> wow! >> haunting. >> what's the first thing you do when you have to decide whether to keep or sell the family jewel? >> i think the first question you ask yourself is, "do you have any use for or love for the family jewel?" and then, i think a big part of it also is, "can you afford to keep the family jewel?" >> the financial implications of this strange inheritance worry elena and her husband, nicholas, who are both college professors nearing retirement. what would it have entailed to keep the strad? insurance? storage? >> coming up, of course, with the taxes that the government wants. >> did you hear from them? >> no, no, they just said, "let those people keep their inheritance." >> [ laughs ] >> "we have so many other people." yes, of course. >> so, does that weigh in to whether you have to sell something, the fact that you have to pay taxes? >> absolutely.

>> so, what should elena's family do? they decide it's too expensive to keep the strad. they're keenly aware that a successful auction could yield millions -- quite a nice nest egg in retirement. but selling a 300-year-old stradivarius is no small undertaking. >> it's a cutthroat world in the world of musical instruments. we came to understand all kinds of things that could go wrong. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question... the answer when we return. ♪ there's a lot of places you never want to see "$7.95." [ beep ] but you'll be glad to see it here. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be.

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>> when master cellist bernard greenhouse dies at the age of 95, his heirs face a quandary -- what to do with his beloved stradivarius, worth millions of dollars. >> my father, in his will, left the cello to me and to my sister. he left no instructions. he was unable to confront the sale of the cello, and he

preferred to let us figure it out so that he could have it till the very last day of his life. >> i'm in boston to understand how elena and her family deal with their strange inheritance. elena does her homework and decides to sell the strad through chris reuning from reuning & son. chris is a rare-instrument dealer. he's also a cellist and a luthier, someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. how do you decide what bernard's stradivarius is worth? >> well, i think the first thing, you have to evaluate the quality. and then it also helps to know what the market history has been. so, in the case of this cello, we did know what other stradivari cellos had sold for. and we could compare the quality of this one to those. >> back in 2002, a similar cello

sold for $5 million. but over the past several years, collectors have driven the price of rare instruments way up, and each one has its own history -- a unique story that's a big factor in whether it fetches a 6-, 7-, or even 8-figure price at auction. nobody knows this cello's story better than elena's husband, nicholas delbanco. a novelist by trade, delbanco actually wrote an entire book about the instrument. it's called "the countess of stanlein restored," and it describes the painstaking restoration his father-in-law commissioned for the countess back in the 1990s. >> the wear and tear on such instruments is very high. aside from all the physical stress, there's chan climate, change in temperature, change in humidity. and at a certain point, the cello was almost as weary as he. >> nicholas' book details a

harrowing process. the cello was popped open with a knife and sat in pieces for months while some of its wood was patched. >> bernie got more and more restless and more and more ready to have his heart's darling returned. he said, then, "i will never let it go again," and he never did. >> but he did play the strad for more than another decade, and he let his students play it, too. in the last years of his life, bernard remained so attached to the cello that he slept with it. chris reuning believes every serious bidder will demand proof that the countess has no significant hidden flaws. >> in this case, we actually did a c.t. scan of the cello. >> like a doctor does. >> yes. >> is that unusual? >> we don't do it very often, but in this case there were some questions, if there was a crack. >> chris reuning called me one day here at the shop and said, "john, i've got this cello that i need c.t.-scanned right away."

>> chris flies with the strad to a hospital in minnesota, where experts are ready to diagnose the patient. the worry? vast sums could be wiped from this multimillion-dollar sale if the countess has damage from cracks or, worse, wormholes made inside the cello by tiny larvae. would that equate to thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars? >> another quiz question... the answer in a moment.

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>> in the fall of 2011, the heirs of bernard greenhouse anxiously await the results of a c.t. scan -- not on a person, but on a 300-year-old stradivari cello, known as the countess of stanlein. millions of dollars are at stake. radiologist steven sirr performed a scan just like this one. >> the diseases that affect the old cellos, they're usually caused by two things. one is cracks. the other abnormality is wormholes carved by larvae, which eat the channels of wood until sometimes there's hardly any original wood left. >> the c.t. scanner produces x-rays, which are high-energy

light beams and very thin sheets. >> this is the actual c.t. scan of the stradivarius. chris shares with me his bottom line. >> this cello has been in constant use since 1800. and it's always been a player's instrument. so, it's been cared for beautifully. but there are cracks. >> whatever tiny cracks there might be, they don't affect the cello's unique sound. chris is able to set the official opening bid for bernard greenhouse's stradivari cello at a cool $6.2 million. there's just one hitch. the delbancos might not accept the highest bid if it's from such rich investor who just wants to lock the countess away in a vault. >> a cello is only half, perhaps not even half, itself if unheard. it had been his expressed desire

and conviction that it be played. >> and you made a decision that the strad was better in the hands of someone who could play it than on the shelf of someone who would pay more for it? >> well, potentially pay more for it, but we just didn't want it on a shelf. >> so, the idea was that they would be able to open the bids, look at all the factors -- the price, who's buying it -- and choose one of those bids. >> chris agrees to this unusual condition. it's not every day you get to sell a 300-year-old stradivarius. so, off he goes with the countess on a world marketing tour. >> all the cellists that i showed it to were completely shocked about the sound. all of them said it was the best cello they'd ever played. >> i had to wonder. is the sound of a strad really so divine?

after all, researchers recently blindfolded professional musicians and had them play violins, mixing historic strads with top new ones. most said they preferred the sound of modern instruments. so, i asked boston symphony orchestra cellist mihail jojatu to play two cellos for me, one modern and one from the 18th century, and not tell me which was which. can you play each one to see if somebody who doesn't know as much as you do can tell the difference? >> sure. my pleasure. >> you listen, too. what do you think? [ playing mid-tempo classical music ] that was spectacular. so, to me, that sounds as good as it gets. >> let's try this one.

>> i have to say that the sound sounded to me richer, deeper. >> you have a good ear. >> really? i'm shocked. >> yes, this is a good-quality, modern cello. it's a couple years old. and this is mihail's cello. this was made in what year? >> in 1780. >> i had one more request. if i were a student of yours, could you teach me to play one note? >> sure. >> chris, would you let me? >> i suppose, yes. >> you suppose? i sense hesitation. >> no, i trust you. [ cello screeching ] >> am i hurting the value of this cello? >> yes. >> [ laughing ] i'm sorry! i better stop. returning to the tale of the countess of stanlein, it isn't long before sealed bids start coming in.

in boston, chris sits down with the delbancos to open them and pick a buyer. what was the emotion in the room when you open the first bid for elena and nicholas to look at? >> you know, there was not a dry eye in the room because this cello was so much part of their life and signified her relationship to her father. >> saying goodbye to the countess of stanlein were more painful than i expected it to be. we all sat down in a little seating group in his office, and we put the cello as part of the seating group, and i began to feel more and more upset, and we just closed the case. and i've never seen it again. >> in the end, the greenhouse heirs accept a bid they feel they cannot refuse. it comes not from a cello virtuoso but from a foreign billionaire. but that's one last twist to this story when we return on

"strange inheritance."

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>> eight months after virtuoso cellist bernard greenhouse dies, his heirs accept a secret bid on their stradivari cello. the price? all the auctioneer will say is that it's significantly higher than the $6.2 million opening bid. what's significantly higher than $6.2 million? >> yeah, the reason i'm not disclosing the price is out of respect to the buyer. >> a fair bid to me is 15% to 20% higher. significantly higher is 50% higher. is it between 15% and 50%? >> good try. [ chuckles ] >> okay, so i tried. and the delbancos are keeping it a secret, too. but in the end were they able to honor greenhouse's wish, that the countess be played and not shut away in a vault or museum?

the buyer, it turns out, is a canadian billionaire, jacqueline desmarais. she decides to permanently loan the countess to a 20-year-old canadian virtuoso named stephane tetreault. i've known about bernard greenhouse for years. he's a huge figure in music history. to have the chance to even touch his cello was just an honor. >> after the auction, the delbancos never intended to see the countess again. welcome. >> thank you. >> welcome. but then, we offered them a chance to meet stephane for the first time, at the carriage house recital hall near boston. [ playing mid-tempo classical music ]

as i listen, i can't help but think that if stephane performs as long as greenhouse did, the countess of stanlein will be heard for many decades to come. >> that was lovely. >> bravo. >> so good to hear you play. >> what a pleasure to meet both of you. >> and you. >> really. >> really. that was very beautiful. >> i was quite nervous, actually. >> what a great pleasure. >> pleasure. >> let me just... oh, there she is. >> so, in this tale of music and money, the delbancos seem satisfied that they have found a way to split the difference. more money might have made a difference in your life. how do you walk away from that? >> there's never enough if you

think in those terms. an extra million or six would hardly have mattered. >> i think it was a very special strad, and i think we're really happy with the outcome. >> before we go, i want to share this last thought. you know, years ago, back in the old days, bernard greenhouse and the trio could count on a break from the airlines when they had to fly the cello, allowing bernard to buy a child's ticket at half-price. well, once at the airport, a ticket agent called mr. greenhouse over after seeing the name "cello" on the ticket and said, "mr. greenhouse, how old is your son, cello?" to which bernard laughed, winked, and responded, "250 years old." i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for joining us on "strange inheritance." and don't forget. 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.l or go tor website, strangeinheritance.com. >> they're cars you never heard of. >> he liked to buy unique cars -- kissels, grahams, overlands. he always used to say, "i don't want to meet myself on the road." >> it's a great hobby. keeps you out of the beer joints. >> do you have your foot on the brake, teacher? just in case? >> i haven't jumped out yet. >> these heirs hit a fork in the road... >> so that is a point of contention. do you donate cars here? do you have an auction? >> it's really tough to get every sibling on the same page. >> yeah, i'd say we're no different. >> ...until they hear an emotional voice from the past. >> when we go by his gravesite, he's probably on high spin mode up there. >> it's just money. can't take it with you.

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm cruising through boone county, iowa, smack dab in the middle of corn country. i'm here to meet the heirs of a man who left behind dozens and dozens of "orphans." orphan cars, that is. so, what's an orphan car? you're about to find out. >> my name is jerry quam. my father, grant quam, liked to collect orphan cars, which are cars that were manufactured by companies that are no longer in existence today. many of these are rare cars of which there's only a few known to exist. >> i meet up with jerry and his brother john at this modern, climate-controlled barn. what's in the barn? you got tractors, you got horses? >> something better. >> better than that? >> you're gonna love this. >> whoa.

i am in heaven. did you know i love cars? >> i've heard a rumor. >> this is an incredible collection. you inherited this? >> our father's collection. >> i imagine there's a great story behind these cars. >> each and every one. >> these car stories begin right up the road in roland, iowa, where john and jerry's father, grant quam, grew up in the 1920s. >> why was your dad so passionate about cars? >> he grew up on a farm and they were pretty poor, but he'd see people coming into town driving around in these fine cars, and that got him excited about it. >> while grant may not be able to afford these fancy cars, he sure can fix 'em up. >> he had a real knack for fixing things. he was just fascinated with machinery and cars. >> soon enough, the budding mechanic is running a little repair operation out of the farm corncrib. and when he's a teen, grant

finally figures out a way to buy his first car -- using his school lunch money. so cars were more important than food. >> that's probably true. >> when the great depression hits, it devastates farm country and grant's family. >> his father -- they lost the farm and stuff. you know, when he left home, everything he owned was in a shoebox. >> at the same time, hundreds of car manufacturers are losing it all, too. in the early 1900s, nearly 1,800 companies are in the carmaking game. and as late as 1925, some 237 remain. but the depression wipes out a great many of those, with some luxury brands hanging on only to collapse after world war ii. >> cars like the pierce-arrow, peerless, and packard, you don't hear of any of those today. they're all gone. >> so an orphan car is a car with no parents. >> yeah, that's basically right. >> so when grant reaches his mid-50s and starts seeing some real-estate investments pay off,

he's finally able to track down those orphan cars that fascinated him in his youth. >> there's not a lot of fords or chevys. he liked to buy unique cars. he always used to say, "i don't want to meet myself on the road." >> grant's not likely to meet himself on the road driving one of these. not only are his cars from unique manufacturers, many of the particular models are extremely rare, too -- like this 1936 pierce-arrow roadster. >> there's maybe fewer than five that are known to exist of that car. >> i'm totally loving the paint. is it also unique? >> the guy he bought it from liked butter-nut coffee, so he painted the car to look like the butter-nut coffee can. >> grant's 1925 kissel gold bug, made popular by amelia earhart, is just as rare. can i get inside? >> absolutely. >> i'm gonna try to slide in. [ grunts ] wow. you had to be petite.

not so graceful. i could drive this. now you guys know what i like, okay? some of grant's finds are so uncommon, they were thought to have vanished long ago. >> this is a 1934 plymouth phaeton. when he first bought this, a lot of plymouth people here in the u.s. claimed that the car didn't exist. >> what? >> and they said that it was false advertising on the car. but finally, after some background checks, it turned out to be the real deal. >> and here's another rare phaeton, this one supposedly built at the 1934 world's fair in chicago. grant's orphan cars even become the focus of segment on a local public tv program in 1999. did you see the pbs clip when it aired? >> i did. it was a show that they were doing at the time in iowa that was about people had unique

collections. in 2007, grant passes away at the age of 91. >> was he specific with you, jerry, and your family about what he wanted you to do with the cars? >> he never really approached it when we were alive. he never really talked about that. >> do you wish he was more specific? >> yeah, in some ways it would have been better. >> six years later, when their mom, betty, dies, grant's four children -- now "orphans" themselves -- still haven't settled on a plan for their strange inheritance. >> so that is a point of contention. do you donate cars here? do you have an auction? every family has their differences. some want to do this, some want to do that. >> the oldest sibling, john, wants to keep the collection intact. the youngest, jerry, who's gone into collecting, leans that way, too. but the other two siblings, jim and marilyn, don't have the same emotional connection to the

cars and would just as soon sell them. >> we're all pretty independent people. >> that's hard. >> absolutely, it's hard. >> and it won't be getting any easier -- because while grant had plenty of beauties like these, he left behind even more like this. >> i thought, "oh, my gosh, what have i gotten myself into this time?" this was like entering a crime scene almost. >> a crime scene?! we'll walk it, next. >> but first... the answer when we return. when it comes to small business, she's in the know. so strap yourselves in for action flo! small business edition. oh, no! i'm up to my neck in operating costs! i'll save the day! for plumbers and bakers and scapers of lawn, she's got insurance savvy you can count on. you chipped my birdbath! now you're gonna pay!

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>> there never was an airmobile. o-we-gos were produced in owego, new york, american chocolates in a chocolate factory, and a car without a name thought owners might prefer to title their models themselves. >> grant quam's passion was tracking down orphans -- rare and unusual cars from now-defunct automakers. can you rattle off for me some of the rarer cars in the collection? >> 1925 kissel gold bug. 1911 and a 1913 overland.

1913 studebaker. pierce-arrows, grahams. >> he gathers over 80 unique models, such as this 1920 peerless roadster. >> it was one of the most original cars he's ever bought. it still has the original radiator hoses. they're white because that was the natural color of rubber, and they started to color rubber black later on. >> after grant's death in 2007, his heirs are torn about what to do with their father's unique car pool. do they sell? keep? donate? >> you know, i find, with inheritances, it's really tough to get every sibling on the same page. >> yeah, i'd say we're no different. >> but before any decisions can be made, the family needs to know what the cars are worth. for that, they bring in appraiser jim mcdonald from des moines. he learns grant's hoard of automobiles is spread out among three locations, and not every car looks shiny and new.

this machine shed is jam-packed with grant's junkers, barn finds, and project cars. >> when i first walked into it, i thought, "oh, my gosh, what have i gotten myself into this time?" this was like entering a crime scene almost. a lot of these cars had been sitting for 10, 15, 20 years. this looks like it was last driven in 1956. >> these cars are worth a little, maybe a thousand -- more if they get fixed up. a second building holds about 15 mid-tier-quality cars. jim puts these in the five-figure range. but the real money is in the final storage area, what grant called his "inner sanctum." >> this had his pierce-arrow, it had his auburn, it had his kissel. it had all the better cars. >> jim photographs and grades each one, including this exceptionally rare model, a 1922 detroit electric. >> electric cars were very

much favored by women in the early days of cars. they were popular because women weren't able to crank the cars and get them started. >> i'm in! >> this is the steering wheel. >> really? >> well, kind of. this is like a tiller on a boat. >> okay. >> so if you want to go this direction, you push that way, if you want to go that direction, you pull back here. >> okay, i got it. >> then, this is your speed. here is the brake that works sometimes. >> sometimes, john? >> ready to go? >> yes. >> let's do it. >> the engine turns on with a simple flip of the switch. >> the first click, and there you go. >> oh! yikes. >> there you go. >> oh, slow it down, slow it down, slow it down. >> pull this back. >> i'm an excellent driver. i'm an excellent driver. this is like driver's ed. do you have your foot on the brake, teacher? just in case? >> i haven't jumped out yet. >> going straight is one thing, but now the real challenge -- turning! the turns are not so easy. >> no. you'd do well back in that time period. you'd be the, uh, envy of

the neighborhood. >> whoo-hoo! how'd i do? >> excellent. >> yay! >> better than me. >> sold. including that detroit electric, the appraiser arrives at a total value for the collection of over one million dollars. a nice chunk of change, but even that doesn't shift grant's heirs out of neutral. the siblings need something more to finally settle the dispute on how to handle their father's cars. that's when they receive a message, almost from beyond the grave. that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you.

the answer when we return. when you think what does it look like? is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves? is it finally witnessing all the artistic wonders of the natural world? whatever your definition of success is, helping you pursue it, is ours. t-i-a-a.

>> he committed the first speeding infraction in the u.s., winding up in jail for driving a breakneck 12 miles per hour down lexington avenue, four over the limit. >> grant quam's four children can't agree on what to do with their strange inheritance -- 80 so-called orphan cars potentially worth over a million dollars. >> jim and marilyn think it's time to sell, but jerry and john would like to see the collection kept together. >> i've had a chance to experience most every car here.

spent a lot of time in these. i've driven most of them through the years. >> it's two against two. something's got to give. how do they decide? they go to the videotape. remember that local-tv piece featuring grant all those years ago? turns out a crucial part of grant's interview was never broadcast. >> it was like a 15-minute segment, but later they offered up the entire raw footage of the shoot. >> they pop the cutting-room-floor footage in the vcr. during the unedited, hour-long interview, grant is asked about many topics that never reach air, including the future of his cherished autos. listen. >> [ laughs ]

>> their father's words end the debate -- the siblings will auction off the cars. >> now, for me personally, um, that was probably a harder pill to swallow. >> did you fight it? >> no. there's a time when things, whether you like it or not, need to happen. my ideal thing would have been not to have sold the cars, but that -- that wasn't gonna work. >> soon after, the family hires auctioneer yvette vanderbrink to handle the sale of their dad's collection. >> my first impression was, wow, this is really a lot of automotive history. >> yvette immediately puts the family to work. she wants as many of the vehicles as possible up and running by the auction. >> so here we are at the farm. this gives you an idea of what we're up against. >> how much work went into getting them ready for auction? >> it's overwhelming to deal with. you got to get the mechanics up working on 'em, you got to get the detail people to come up.

it's a long process. >> despite the challenge, the family brings many back to life. and as the auction nears, the reality of saying goodbye to dad's cars begins to sink in. >> this is a piece of dad. it's very personal to your father. >> yeah. but he always used to say there's time slots in life, right, for different things. and, uh, anyway, this time slot is over, right, so it's time to sell 'em and -- and move on. >> of course there's no telling what grant's unusually rare models might sell for. >> how do you set a price on some of these? >> that is the hard part. how do you find a comp for a '36 pierce when there's never been one sold and there's only five made? >> what do you expect? >> it's really, really hard to know, because as my dad used to say, an auction, you need two buyers that want the car, three is better. >> up next -- which of grant's orphans find a good home... >> at 40, 40, 40. now 5. >> ...and which ones do not.

what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. there's a lot of places you never want to see "$7.95." [ beep ] but you'll be glad to see it here. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be. if only the signs were as obvious when you trade. fidelity's active trader pro can help you find smarter entry and exit points and can help protect your potential profits. fidelity -- where smarter investors will always be. every year, the amount of data your enterprise uses goes up.

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>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in september 2015, the heirs of grant quam are auctioning off their father's treasured fleet of orphan cars. you think you're doing this auction to his satisfaction? >> well, that's a good, good question. we always tease that, uh, when we go by his gravesite, he's probably on high spin mode. >> the biggest concern -- whether the right buyers will make the trek to small-town iowa for these exceedingly rare models. >> it's been a long adventure, nine months of getting ready. so we're kind of anxious to see how this all goes today. >> at 37, now 8. at 38, at 8, at 8. >> auctioneer yvette vanderbrink kicks things off with the heavy hitters. >> we're gonna start with the

better cars and sell them right off the bat, and the reason why i like to do that is, everybody has money and comes to the sale. everybody wants to take the prom queen. >> but some of those prom queens aren't going anywhere without the right bid. >> this is a 1936 pierce-arrow. this also is being sold subject to confirmation. >> this will be the car that tells the tale on the auction. there were some serious players here yesterday looking at it, so we'll see what happens. >> at 35, at 5, at 5. at 35. where are you gonna find one? it's one of five, guys. >> but today, that right buyer doesn't show up. >> okay, folks, that has not met the reserve. if you are interested, come talk to us. >> grant's 1925 kissel gold bug also fails to hit the minimum bid. >> you have to have the right people here, and you never know. we don't want to give the cars away. >> after that distressing start,

they learn they won't have to. the auction picks up speed with the '34 phaeton, said to have been built at the chicago world's fair. >> at 45,000. at 45, 5, 5. at 40,000, let's go. you have to step up your game there. at 51, 1, 1, at 1. at 51,000. it's just money. can't take it with you. sold at $53,000. [ applause ] >> soon after, someone steers away with that detroit electric i drove for 48 grand. >> [ calling ] >> and the auction just keeps rolling. grant's '34 plymouth goes for 45k. his '37 lasalle brings in another 48. a '36 graham fetches 28k, while this 1913 studebaker

sells for 25,000. >> so far it's looking -- looking okay >> now up for bid -- grant's 1920 peerless roadster. >> 60, 60, 60, at 60. at 60,000. now 5. at 65, 5, 5. at 65. now 90. at 90, 90, 90. at 90, at 90,000. now 5. at 95, 5, 5. at 95,000. 1, 1, at 1. at 101. 101,5. sold at $101,000. >> that was surprising because it takes a very special buyer to buy that car. >> by the end of the day, the family hauls in over 700,000 bucks. and with those two big-value cars still left to sell privately in the future, the family believes they'll break the million-dollar mark. >> it's a bittersweet thing. i mean, as i started seeing cars

going out of here, it's kind of reality. but it feels good to see people that love them, and they'll take care of them. >> and isn't that what adopting an orphan is all about? jerry's sure he's done right by his dad, getting his babies into good hands. >> his time slot is over. it's time for another custodian to take ownership and enjoy the car, because sitting inside in a dark building made no sense. they should be out and enjoyed. so we're happy to see that, and he would have too. >> before the auction, jerry quam purchased a few cars from his father's collection. he didn't pick the ones that were the most valuable or rare. in fact, the cars didn't even mesh with his personal car collection. the vehicles simply reminded jerry most of his father. so even after his children have to bid farewell to their dad's precious cars, a part of grant's legacy will live on and stay in the family.

i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember... >> it's just money. can't take it with you. >> announcer: the following program is a paid advertisement for the dashcam pro, brought to you by inventeproducts, llc. yep, they're out there, driving recklessly, causing accidents, and driving up your insurance rates. now protect yourself and capture it all in full high-definition video with dashcam pro, your personal portable security camera. today, we're going to hear from people who have been in accidents and used the dashcam pro to prove their case. learn from essex county sergeant arnold bernard, a law-enforcement expert, to hear the secret to protecting yourself from tickets and lawsuits. you will find out why he calls the dashcam pro the most significant advancement in dash-cam technology and why everyone should own one. we're also going to visit a car show to check out some really cool rides and discover how their owners protect their cars