kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. oh, look at you, so great to see you! none of this works. come on in. >> fou in grandpa's attic... >> it was a dirty, dusty old box. and then it's like, "wow. i don't know what it is." >> ...a discovery that will make the baseball world flip. >> you've got honus wagner, ty cobb, cy young, christy mathewson. >> i'm thinking to myself, "oh, my god. i have $1 million sitting in a chair." >> but is it almost too much of a good thing? >> it certainly changes the market in a negative way. >> i'm jamie colby, and today, i'm in northwest ohio, on the edge of an area called the great black swamp.

i'm here to meet a family who's lived here for more than a 100 years. so when they unearthed their strange inheritance, they give it the code name -- "the black swamp find." >> i'm karl kissner. in 2011, my cousins and i inherited the family home from our aunt. she had left us a note -- 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? >> very good. pleasure to meet you. >> nice to meet you, too. thanks for having me. is this the family home? >> this is grandma's home. come on in. i'll show you around. >> the house first came into karl's family in 1909. >> neat old place, but needs a little tlc. >> are you saying be careful? >> yes. >> okay. in 2012, karl and his cousins

start the daunting task of cleaning out a home that's been lived in for more than a century. after several weeks of sorting through the house, only the attic remains. karl and his cousin, karla, decide to tackle the project. >> ladies first. >> oh, my! look at this place. the attic is empty now, but not that day in 2012. karl and karla walk in to find a century's worth of dusty boxes and family heirlooms. and literally filled to the rafters. >> filled to the rafters, all the way up to about here and just a path down through the middle. >> after several hours, they uncover a box hugging the back wall. it contains something the two cousins have never seen before. >> it was a dirty, dusty old box, and i opened it up. and then it's like, "wow. there's -- 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 both looking at it. it's baseball players -- cy young, ty cobb, wagner -- but they're not baseball cards, not to us. we get one out and we look at the back, and they look like baseball cards, just miniaturized, no stats, no who made it, no nothing. >> how many are we talking about? >> hundreds. [ laughs ] >> amazing. so, you see the box. you take them out. what do you and karla say? >> actually, we set them on a dresser in the hallway and dove back into the attic >> but soon, karl starts to ponder where the strange cards may have come from. were they something aunt jean collected off a cereal box? or maybe they go all the way back to his grandfather, carl hench. >> he's a german immigrant and he works his way down through chicago and towards the ohio valley. >> he's chasing the american

dream -- to own a home and start a business. carl's a butcher by trade, and by 1905, he's scraped together enough to open his own shop here in defiance -- the carl hench meat market. along with meats and sausages, he sells candies and other grocery items. was he successful in his shop? >> very successful as a butcher in town, very well-known. >> in 1909, he marries his love, jennie. they start a family and buy that dream home. by now, baseball has long established itself as the national pastime, and for decades, various companies have used baseball cards to sell their products. >> the first nationally circulated cards came inside packages of tobacco in the late 1880s and was actually one of the first opportunities for the average citizen to own a real photo. >> candy companies jump into the game, too. the so-called "caramel cards" help sell the sweets and the top players of the day. >> you've got honus wagner

ty cobb, cy young, christy mathewson. >> children love the candy, but the cards even more. >> kids did what kids do. they played with them. they traded them. there's card-flipping games that they did with them. >> all karl and karla know at this point 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, and like any good businessman, when you got leftovers, you save them for the next promotion. >> beyond that, karl isn't sure what they have in the box, but 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 got an estimated value on this

card --" >> of? >> around $15,000. >> karl discovers that a similar ty cobb card, identified as a 1910 caramel card, recently sold for $40,000. >> and i got a box full of them, and they're pristine. >> that's amazing. you're sitting on a bundle of money. >> yeah. at that point the, the heart is starting to race, and i'm thinking to myself, "oh, my god. i have $1 million sitting in a chair." >> a lot more than that... if, that is, karl can confirm his cards are real. >> you're a little skeptical, but you're always looking forward to that one phone call that turns out to be gold. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question.

the answer when we return. wild-caught alaskan salmon. from icy ocean waters... to your kitchen counter. pure. pristine. each one its own delicious arctic prize. when you cook with incredible ingredients... you make incredible meals. fresh ingredients. step-by-step-recipes. delivered to your door. get your first two meals free blueapron.com/cook .

>> it's "c," the 1984 donruss don mattingly. he didn't have the hall of fame career some predicted, but mattingly's cards remain popular. >> while the grandchildren of carl and jennie hench are

cleaning out the century-old family home in northwest ohio, they find a dust-covered box containing what appear to be vintage baseball cards. >> i had went to some of the auction sites. i'm seeing a ty cobb for $40,000. and i'm looking at the ty cobb that i have, going, "ooh! mine's better." >> the box karl found in the attic not only contains cobb, known as "the georgia peach," but all the greats of the era. and it's not just one of each player -- it's dozens. in all there, are 800 cards, most in pristine condition. >> it kind takes it out of a scope and a realm that you just -- you're not quite sure how to handle it. >> step one -- find out if the cards are real. karl reaches out to vintage-sports-cards expert peter calderon in dallas. >> i received a phone call, cry. he didn't want to go into any

details. on a daily basis, we receive phone calls from people who find cards. it's always reprints. >> peter tells karl to text some photos of the cards, and he'll take a look when he gets a chance. >> when i got that first picture, the first thing i thought of, "this is gonna be filed in a too-good-to-be-true folder," but they looked amazing, and i saw nothing about them that suggested they weren't real. so, i definitely -- the next plan was -- we talked about him sending me some sample of the cards. >> karl overnights eight cards to peter, with a note attached, saying, "call me before you open." when the box arrives at heritage auctions in dallas... >> i gave him a call, had him on the phone. >> and there's that moment of silence that feels like 10 minutes, but it's actually a matter of seconds. >> i opened up the box and i pulled out a large plastic holder. >> and then there's the, "oh [bleep] >> i was just floored, because i had no idea what a 100-year-old

baseball card looked like brand-new. >> well, at that moment, i pretty much know that, "yeah, these are real." >> karl has one more bombshell. >> so, his next question is, "do you have any more?" "yes. hundreds." >> i would have been happy if it was just the eight cards. there was when you realized, "this is the find of a lifetime." >> karl dubs the cards the "black swamp find," after the nickname for this section of northwest ohio. they're quickly shipped to dallas on an armored truck and locked in the safety of a vault. the next step is to get each card officially graded on a scale of 1 to 10. karl goes with professional sports authenticator. i meet up with joe orlando, president of psa, at the national sports collectors

convention for a crash course in grading baseball cards. why is this one only a 1? babe ruth cannot be just a 1. >> so, if you look at the card, you can see all of the defects. there's surface wear, multiple creases throughout the card. this is about as low as it can get. >> so, this one is higher. this is 8. is that considered mint? >> this is considered almost mint. but when you look really, really close, you can see very little, tiny white pieces of wear on each corner. and that's the difference between an 8, a 9, or a 10. >> those tiny imperfections can make a difference of thousands of dollars. >> if this is a psa 8, it's worth roughly, you know, $100 or so. if it were a 9, it's worth probably, you know, north of $1,000. and if it's a 10, it's worth north of $5,000. >> so, what about the black swamp find? do karl's cards make the grade? what was your reaction when you saw the first cards? >> it was just -- it was mind-blowing. >> before the black swamp find,

the highest grade psa ever gave to a card in that series was a 7. karl's cards beat that in their first at-bat. >> it was a ty cobb and it graded a psa mint 9. little did we know that there were 15 more ty cobb 9s and, of course, hundreds of high-grade 8s, 9s, and even 10s in the set. >> sounds pretty good, right? not so fast. the collection doubles the known population of this type of card, and the unprecedented size and quality of the find could crash the baseball-card-collectors 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.

the answer in a moment. when you think about success, 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. i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one.

i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet?

youto get the help you'refar looking for. that's why at xfinity we're opening up more stores closer to you. where you can use all of our latest products and technology. and find out how to get the most out of your service. so when you get home, all you have to do is enjoy it. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. shoshow me more like this.e.

show me "previously watched." what's recommended for me. x1 makes it easy to find what you love. call or go online and switch to x1. only with xfinity. >> it's "b," $517,000 -- for a 1914 baltimore news ruth rookie card, sold in 2008. >> in 2012, in defiance, ohio, karl kissner discovers 800 vintage baseball cards in the attic of his old family home. most of the century-old cards remain in near-mint condition, which is rare among cards even half their age. before the collecting craze in the 1980s, cards were simply fun

toys to be used in bike-wheel spokes or flipping games, like this one. so, i'm gonna toss a card, and it'll land either picture or stats. you're gonna toss a 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 cards. >> okay, let's do this. >> all right? here it goes. stats. >> stats up. >> picture. i'm a winner. >> you're a winner. >> 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 swamp find" all at once could flood the market and severely drive prices down. >> because of the size of the collection and the quantity involved, there was a lot of concern about the value. if there was one of each player, that would have been ideal.

>> so heritage auctions proposes a series of separate sales to maximize the family's take. >> we decided the best way to do it is to take your time, sell them by the set over a number of years. >> karl runs the estate on behalf of the 20 grandchildren and divides the cards up into equal sets. each family member can either join a consortium to sell the cards or keep his share as a family heirloom. did anyone keep the cards? >> yes, yes. >> really? >> some of them did. >> but most family members agree to team up and sell the cards gradually. peter calderon tallies the numbers and comes up with what karl might expect, if all goes right -- nearly $3 million. for karl, it's a staggering sum. >> we're stunned. this is something we almost threw in a dumpster. >> in august 2012, in baltimore's camden yards

ballpark, they put the first 37 cards up for auction. >> they were the best of the best. they were the best-graded cards out of all of them that we had graded. >> ladies and gentlemen, let's do lot 001. it's the 1910 e98. >> in bidding that's fast and furious, 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 gem-mint-10-graded card of hall of famer honus wagner in existence. auctioneer: >> $240,000 solid. i have the cut bid. anyone else? done! $240,000! >> we're flabbergasted. this is a wonderful gift from our grandfather and from our aunt. what more can you ask for? >> the family's total for the night?

it's a very promising start, but they've also sold their best cards. does the black swamp find still have enough gas in it to get the hench grandchildren to their $3 million goal? that's next.

your business hours are the same as your insurance company's. now claim calls are eating into work. and you don't know if you'll get an insurance check or a severance check. the liberty mutual mobile app makes filing and tracking claims fast and easy. liberty mutual insurance.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> karl kissner and his family are slowly selling off their strange inheritance -- 800 rare vintage baseball cards. the collection is valued at around $3 million. an initial auction of their best cards has already brought in $566,000, and 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 mack -- rack up $419,000. then, in august 2013, in chicago, a psa 8 "miner" brown

pitches in to help the team ring up another 228k. and in the big apple, in february 2014, a psa 8.5 johnny evers and mint 9 frank chance assist in a $300,000 haul. two more online auctions raise the total to $1.7 million. on july 31, 2014, i join karl and his cousin karla at the 35th national sports collectors convention in cleveland for their latest auction. >> we've 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 just -- you get into the feel of it, the mood of it. >> bid what you want. the last person standing with their hand in the air gets the item. >> apparently, people have money. >> apparently. [ both laugh ] >> and at the end of tonight, you may, too.

up first for karl and karla tonight, the georgia peach. >> this is a 1910 e98 set of 30 ty cobb, black swamp find, psa mint 9. are you serious? yes, we are serious. $26,000. who's bidding 28 grand? $27,000 -- heritage live. $28,300. fair warning, anybody else. >> when the auctioneer kind of slows down like that, you know it's getting good. >> yeah. >> sold at at $28,000. >> congratulations, guys. that's awesome! >> give me five on that. yeah! >> now stepping up to the plate, a psa mint 9 honus wagner. >> go, honus. >> yay! come on. yeah, come on, honus, baby. >> 32 1/2 on heritage live. another bidder just jumped on. let's sell this thing. $33,000. >> the bidding ends at $33,750. >> yeah! very good! all right! >> their weekend earnings, including online sales, total $133,000, lifting the black swamp find total to

$1.85 million. [ cheers and applause ] are you satisfied tonight? >> i'm ecstatic. and you know the person that's buying it wants it and appreciates it, and he's gonna add it to his collection. and maybe he'll pass it on to his family. >> a box stored and forgotten in the attic for over a century eventually changes a collectibles industry forever, along with the lives of the 20 hench grandchildren. so far, the black swamp find is like a slugger with 40 home runs at the all-star break -- well on track to surpass the goal set by peter calderon. >> there's still 10 more sets to sell, and we're still averaging almost $200,000 a set. >> and in the card-collecting market, the game's never over till the last man is out. what would grandpa say? >> i think grandpa would be stunned, amazed, and pleased. i'm sure that he is, 'cause i'm sure that the whole family is up there looking down with big

smiles on their faces. >> was the black swamp find nearly history's most epic caset 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 jennie's cleaning purges, when she'd pitch boxes of junk right out the attic window into a big mound below. thank goodness she never got hold of that one box in the corner. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thank you so much for joining us. and 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 e-mail, or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. [ rock music plays ] >> a world-record car collection... >> he just kept going. he never stopped. >> i believe his goal was to have one of every car ever made. >> a maverick driven to leave a mark... >> he went to a wrecking-yard auction, bought the whole wrecking yard. >> his family promises to carry out his grand plan. >> i think there was a feeling of dread, relief, excitement, and enthusiasm. >> i love it. feel the hair blowing, the top down. >> but can they fulfill the patriarch's dying wish? >> none of us wanted to be the ones who said we split all the stuff up. you don't want that car oil on your hands. [ woman vocalizing, theme music plays ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

[ country-rock music plays ] >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm driving outside tacoma, washington, on my way to meet the heirs of a man who started with nothing, built an empire, left his heirs enormous wealth, but also an overwhelming task. >> i'm doug lemay. my father, harold lemay, passed away in 2000 at the age of 81 and left us with a world-record collection that has become a full-time job. >> doug has invited me to the family house, where his father lived for more than two decades and where he now lives and works. hey, doug. >> hi, jamie. glad you could come. >> i'm so happy to be here, but i can't figure one thing out. >> what's that? >> is this a house or a garage? >> well, it's a 5-bedroom house with a 300-car garage. >> 300 cars? >> yeah. >> good thing i have the whole day today. [ mid-tempo music plays ] as doug shows me around, it's easy to see this isn't just a

home, but a reflection of his father's passion for the automobile. i mean, doug, i got to be honest. i've been to car shows that haven't had this many cars. >> dad did it for a long time. >> everywhere you look, there's a collector car. what's your dream ride? a 1930 cadillac 452 convertible? a 1922 austro-daimler? 1961 metropolitan? it's probably here -- somewhere. there are even rooms completely filled with the same model or manufacturer. these are all packards? >> this whole row is packards, yes. >> oh, my god. there's so many of them. am i allowed to touch? >> yeah, have a seat if you'd like. >> oh, my gosh. you don't have to ask me twice. oh, my goodness. look at the steering wheel. i think it has my name written all over. so many do. [ jazz music plays ] harold lemay's fascination with cars started even before he could reach the pedals.

nancy lemay is harold's widow. >> his mother said, from the time he was born, he loved the car. he loved anything with wheels. >> harold is born in 1919 to marie lemay, a single mother struggling to make a living and care for three young children. when harold is just three, marie feels she has no choice but to place harold in the custody of friends who can better take care of him. when the couple comes to pick up harold, they're driving a 1914 baby grand chevy. >> harold was a little apprehensive. he had not met these people before. >> he's only three. >> and he's only three. and as he described, this portly man behind the wheel said, "harold, you need to sit on my lap, and you can drive the car home." >> little harold puts his hands on the wheel of that chevy and is instantly calm, sealing a lifelong love affair with the automobile. after driving a truck in

world war ii, harold returns home and builds up a garbage and scrap-collecting business. it may not be glamorous, but trash proves very profitable. how successful was his business? >> very successful. >> lemay enterprises eventually grows to become the 10th largest private trash-removal company in america, with annual revenues topping $100 million. in 1963, harold marries nancy. a few years later, he has another life-changing moment. >> a friend of his was in the model t club. he thought that that would be just the thing for him to get into. [ up-tempo music plays ] >> once he joins the club, a light bulb goes off -- harold wants to start collecting classic cars. he begins with american models, mostly chevys and fords, everyday cars and trucks. how did he find these cars? >> well, he would find most of them himself. >> by the 1970s, harold's hobby

really revs up, and, as his grandson eric says, so does his wish list and search grid. >> it didn't matter where in the country the car was. he'd say, "you want to go for a drive?" and the next thing you know, you're crossing from oregon into california. >> as his passion grows, harold starts buying nearly any car he comes across. >> grandpa never called himself a car collector. he was a car saver. he saved cars. >> harold couldn't stand to see a car crushed. would just break harold's heart. >> he went to a wrecking-yard auction in idaho, bought the whole wrecking yard. [ bluegrass music plays ] >> by the mid 1990s, harold's collection of cars totals into the thousands. >> he just kept going. he never stopped. >> and you never said to him, "honey, enough already -- we could use that money for a vacation"? >> no, but whenever we did go on vacation, there was always a car somewhere in the route.

>> as harold's fleet expands, he runs out of room in his 300-car garage, so he snatches up over 50 properties to stockpile his collection. >> he'd buy houses so that he could use the garage, you know, and then he'd rent the house and not the garage. >> he even buys this 87-acre former catholic boarding school called marymount. we'll circle back here later. how many conversations did you have with harold about what should happen to the collection when he passed? >> he never though about passing at all. this was not on his agenda. >> but the question is on his heirs' agenda. they're thinking about the huge challenge rumbling toward them once harold's gone. >> you've got to decide, at some point while you're alive, what are you gonna do with the stuff, and that's a very confrontational thing. and you know it's kind of a burden on everybody else, and you got to have a plan. >> up next, harold makes that

plan -- plus the one car he really wants but never gets. >> and now our "strange inheritance" quiz question. what was the first official white house car? was it an 1899 packard for mckinley, a 1909 white steamer for taft, a 1919 pierce-arrow for wilson, or a 1929 cadillac for hoover? the answer when we return. if you're going to make a statement... make sure it's an intelligent one. ♪ the all-new audi a4, with available virtual cockpit. ♪ whewhat does it look like?ss, 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.

listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs. this is 100% useful for a 100% fresh mouth. what's it like to not feel 100% fresh? we don't know. we swish listerine®. as do listerine® users. the very people we studied in the study of bold. people who are statistically more likely to stand up to a bully. do a yoga handstand. and be in a magician's act. listerine® kills 99% of bad breath germs so you can feel 100% in life. bring out the bold™. technology moves faster than ever. the all-new audi a4, with apple carplay integration.

>> so, what was the first official white house car? it's "b," the 1909 white steamer. that year, congress passed legislation on behalf of william howard taft for official white house automobiles. [ rockabilly music plays ] >> for nearly four decades, businessman harold lemay amasses a collection of classic cars in tacoma, washington, that includes at least 3,000 vehicles. even he doesn't know the exact number. but there is one car he misses out on, says his wife nancy. >> he always wished he'd gotten a tucker. >> preston tucker was an american inventor and entrepreneur who designed the tucker sedan in 1948, conceived as the car of the future. >> it was so ahead of its time. it's so sleek. it has awesome lines. >> but sales were doomed after tucker was investigated for stock fraud, and only 51 cars

were made before his chicago company folded. with or without a tucker, lemay's vintage car collection is named world's largest in the 1998 "guinness book of world records." it includes true classics such as a 1910 roadster, 1930 duesenberg, and 1936 auburn. harold, now in his late 70s, starts to worry about what will become of his beloved autos when he's gone. charlie maxwell was friends with harold for over 30 years. what did harold want to happen with the collection? >> well, he really wanted to see his collection preserved. he felt really, really bad when we would go to car auctions and he would see somebody's life collection being dispersed to the four corners of the world. >> easy for harold to feel that way. it isn't he, but his heirs, including son doug and grandson

eric, who will have the enormous burden of housing and maintaining all these cars. did he think about what he had amassed and what his family would face as he got older? >> yeah, he had made the decision -- him and my grandmother -- that they were going to create a museum. >> that's right -- a museum just for harold's cars. the family starts by requesting land from the city of tacoma, but before officials will award the property, they ask harold for an initial donation of at least 300 cars to get the project going. 10% of the collection. was that hard for him? >> i think it almost killed him. [ guffaws ] he had this document that he had to put his signature on, saying that he wasn't going to own this stuff at some point. and i can remember his hands shaking, and he kind of took a deep breath, and he signed it, and he handed me the piece of paper, and then he stormed off back towards home. [ dramatic music plays ] >> on november 4, 2000, after a

massive heart attack, harold dies at the age of 81. his heirs inherit his grand car collection and even grander dream of a museum to house it. >> i think there was a feeling of dread, relief, excitement, and enthusiasm. >> two questions arise. how many cars are there, and what are they worth? the family calls in larry batton, owner of the auto appraisal group in charlottesville, virginia. >> it was a massive operation. the cars were located in 53 different locations. his filing system was a 32-gallon green trash bag 'cause he never had any intention of selling or marketing a vehicle. we worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. >> over the six-month appraisal, the team uncovers countless classic cars only harold knew he had. >> we would open a door that

hadn't been opened in decades. it would be full of cars that had been their for years, covered with cottonwood flower like snow on the inside of a building. and there were bumblebee fords and convertibles, pierce-arrows, and cars that were so unique. >> in all, larry and his team locate, number, and value 2,973 cars, not including the countless rusted, half-wrecked hulks. >> i believe his goal was to have one of every car ever made. >> larry's not allowed to say what the whole collection is worth, but independent estimates peg it at $100 million at the time of harold's death. [ suspenseful music plays ] with the inventory complete, the family tries to realize harold's dream of a car museum, but starts hitting some roadblocks. >> creating a museum, it's like watching sausage get made. [ chuckles ] it's really ugly and hard.

>> and they're not the only ones with car trouble. oh, come on. get me a car that works. that's next. >> here's another quiz question. which classic american sports car came first? is it the chevy corvette, ford thunderbird, or dodge charger? the answer when we return. [ bird caws ] e*trade is all about seizing opportunity. so i'm going to take this opportunity to go off script. so if i wanna go to jersey and check out shotsy tuccerelli's portfolio, what's it to you? or i'm a scottish mason whose assets are made of stone like me heart. papa! you're no son of mine! or perhaps it's time to seize the day. don't just see opportunity, seize it! (applause)

[ bird caws ] >> so, which classic american sports car came first? it's "a," the chevy corvette. from its introduction in 1953, chevy has produced over 1.5 million off them. [ up-tempo music plays ] >> in the early 2000s, harold lemay's family is struggling to honor his dying wish -- the creation of a museum

where his entire 3,000-plus car collection can be on public display. one that will be featured -- the black beauty that sparked harold's classic car obsession -- henry ford's model t. i meet with harold's grandson eric and his friend mike for a driving lesson. step one -- hand-crank the car to start it. i don't know. what do you think? >> i think you're up for it. >> you do? >> all right. let's see if you can do it. >> give it a good crank. >> oh! not quite. >> [ grunts ] aah! ouch. [ laughs ] wait. is this a trick? [ grunts ] oh, come on. get me a car that works. [ engine starts ] >> there it is! >> hey! >> all right. >> there you go. >> right on. the model t is considered the first affordable automobile, but it's not particularly easy to drive. it has three pedals, but the brake is on the right.

what's it doing there? you did clear the streets today? >> [ chuckles ] and the sidewalks. >> as we scoot around, it's easy to see why harold fell in love with this classic. i love it. feel the hair blowing, the top down. there's a big tree. >> there's a tree back there. >> big tree. brake, brake, brake, brake. okay, brake. ooh! that's forward. wait. brake, brake. oh, yeah. that thing on the right. throttle up. >> yep. [ engine turns off ] >> oh, my god. [ applause ] perfect. not a scratch. but a collision is in store for the lemay family as it tries to get its museum into drive. >> it needed a building, it needed fundraising -- all the next steps. >> the family donates 600 cars to the project and $15 million, too, but it's not enough. so they hire a fundraiser who tells them they have to court corporate sponsors for more big

bucks. that will mean, the lemays are told, they will have to sacrifice their control and vision of the museum. the family agrees, but soon find themselves just 2 on a board of around 30. on the one hand, you want to see the legacy and the stories of those cars preserved. on the other hand, you really can't control once it's in a museum's hand. >> exactly. >> the museum adds cars from other collections to attract national attention. then fundraising runs tight. the board tells the family they don't have the budget to preserve all of harold's cars, and many of the ones he donated they say are redundant. they decide on a step that harold lemay would've never ever considered -- sell some of his cars. if you could've controlled that situation, would you have asked them to sell other cars? >> i don't sell many cars. >> in fact, harold had only sold three collector cars in his

lifetime. family members are dismayed. >> none of us wanted to be the ones who said we split all the stuff up. you don't want that car oil on your hands. >> if you really didn't want them, why'd you ask for them? because it made me feel like that's why the reason they wanted them was to sell them. >> the museum auctions off 145 of harold's donated autos. their estimated value -- well into the millions. his 1940 packard convertible victoria sells for 113k, while his 1936 rolls-royce goes for more than 65 grand. the funds do their part to help the museum keep going, but when the sleek-looking building finally opens in 2012, its name's been changed from the harold e. lemay museum to lemay-america's car museum. that reflects the museum's shift in focus from just harold lemay

to cars from other donors, as well. that's discouraging to harold's heirs because his wish was for a museum devoted just to his world-record collection. but the family believes there's still a chance to keep his vision alive. eric, what is this place? would you believe a second museum just minutes down the road from the first? that's next. if a denture were to be put under a microscope, we can see all the bacteria that still exists. polident's unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99.99% of odor causing bacteria. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day.

you should have quit while you were ahead. 32 years at this place and i've got 9 days left before retirement. look jim, we've been planning for this for a long time. and we'll keep evolving things. so don't worry. knowing what's on your mind and acting accordingly. multiplied by 13,000 financial advisors. it's a big deal. and it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. my school could be bad.ing fast. could be a blast. can't find a single thing to wear. will they be looking at my hair? won't be the same without you bro. ♪ when it's go, the new choice privileges gets you there faster. and now, stay two times and you can earn a free night. book now at choicehotels.com

freshly made in the japanese tokyo-sttradition.noodles. when you cook with incredible ingredients...you make incredible meals. get your first two meals free at blueapron.com/cook. >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> harold lemay's family continues to face the dilemma of how to honor his legacy. a chunk of harold's huge car collection has been sold off, and a museum in tacoma, washington, originally meant to be solely devoted to harold, now has a different mission. [ mid-tempo music plays ] then a solution -- the family decides to refit that school property that harold purchased in the mid 1990s. eric, what is this place?

>> this is the other part of the equation that was our family learning how to save the world's largest car collection. this is marymount. it's an event center, a museum, and -- >> your museum? >> yeah. >> why two? >> we wanted another museum that was more about the lemay family and our tastes in collecting. we may be only six miles apart, but we're very different culturally from each other. >> the lemay family considers marymount the down-to-earth little brother of the sleek, modern tacoma museum. it's the "dirty fingernails" version that celebrates harold's cars and nobody else's. [ rockabilly music plays ] the museum depends on the hard work of harold loyalists. everyone here, from the tour guides to car repairmen, is a volunteer. so, not to take off on a car color, but are you in the black or in the red? >> at some point -- and it's not that far away -- this will be a self-sustaining business.

it looks really like it's gonna be healthy for a long, long time. [ folk music plays ] >> before i leave, there's one last car eric tells me i need to see. >> it's a 1948 tucker. >> tucker? wait a minute. harold wanted a tucker. i thought he never got a tucker? >> he did not buy this. my grandmother bought it after he died. >> really? >> yes, we knew that he wanted one, and so group of our family went to an auction, and grandma bought the tucker that he couldn't have before he passed away. >> unbelievable. so he left, but you knew it was that important to have. >> we knew it was that important. >> what would harold say? >> he'd love it. i think, if grandpa were to look at how hard we've tried to do what he was hoping we'd do, i think he'd be really proud of it. and it took a whole community, it took a lot of volunteers, it took a family that never got off

track with each other. that's his legacy basically. [ mid-tempo music plays ] >> one last harold lemay story. back in the '80s, at a garbage convention in chicago, he caught wind of a car for sale -- a 1914 baby grand chevy, the same model he first tooled around in as a three-year-old that day he said goodbye to his mom. well, harold bought it on the spot, and he loaded it into the back of this fancy garbage truck that he purchased at that trade show. he and nancy hauled that old chevy all the way back here to tacoma. and there it sits to this day. he never let it go. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and 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 e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. >> an ancestor they knew nothing about... >> i went through 50-some-odd years of my life and had no clue. >> an inheritance they can hardly believe... >> what was your reaction as you opened those first boxes? >> it was mind-blowing. >> why does andrew green have george washington's will? >> bare-knuckle politics, cold-blooded murder, a legacy all but snuffed out... >> this was a cloud of suspicion of having lived a double life. >> what did they do? >> what are the chances that those boxes would've just been trashed? >> very good chance of that. >> what would you do? >> well, it drove me crazy. >> how 'bout 6,000? >> and what's it all worth? >> you think you'll ever get another auction with a story like this? >> no, i kinda doubt it. [ door creaks