"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> a tv hitmaker loves animals. >> he turned that creativity on animal rights, and it was unbelievable. >> one dog he rescues is off-the-charts dangerous. >> if it's a scale from 1 to 10, columbo's a 12. >> when the hollywood owner dies, columbo becomes their strange -- and expensive -- inheritance. >> acupuncture for a dog? i know we're in los angeles, but really? [ dog growls ] >> is it all worth it? >> your kids could get hurt. you're willing to take the risk. >> we made a commitment to healing dogs and showing other families how to do it. >> welcome to the weird world of pet inheritance. >> so, are you leaving your home to the birds? [ bird squawks ]

i'm jamie colby, and, today, i'm in encino, california. will rogers once said, "if there are no dogs in heaven, then when i die, i want to go where they go." but when the owners go first, especially the rich or eccentric ones, it can make for one strange inheritance. >> my name is tyson kilmer. i'm an animal trainer. when one of my clients, sam simon, passed away in march of 2015, i inherited his dog, who is not exactly lassie, marmaduke, or any other lovably harmless pet you've seen on tv. >> hi, kilmers. i'm jamie. >> i'm tyson kilmer. this is my wife, alison. aliyah and tyler. >> how are you? >> i'm great! >> i heard your family has a living, breathing inheritance? >> indeed, we do. we have a cane corso that used to belong to the late, great sam simon.

>> sam simon -- even if you don't recognize the name, you surely know his work as co-developer, with matt groening, of that iconic and long-running tv show, "the simpsons." sam was born in 1955 and grew up in beverly hills, just down the street from groucho marx. after graduating from stanford university, sam catapults his way up in the tv business, becoming a showrunner in 1978 for the hit series "taxi," at the age of 23. >> sam was the youngest showrunner in the history of television, when he was a showrunner on "taxi." >> mark thompson is an l.a. radio host and a long-time friend of simon's. >> to describe him as highly intelligent would be to understate it in the extreme. >> sam works on "barney miller" and "cheers," before teaming up with matt groening on "the simpsons," which premieres on the fox network in 1989. >> matt groening created these

characters and this family, but the universe that the simpsons exist in -- the town, the nuclear power plant, mr. burns, all of these different characters... sam simon was the driving force behind that. >> but in 1993, after four trailblazing seasons, sam decides he wants a life outside of television. before quitting, he negotiates a deal giving him continuous credit as an executive producer and a share of the show's annual profit, to the tune of $30 million a year. sam, now twice divorced with no children, turns his energy to what becomes his calling in life -- saving animals, especially dogs. in 2002, at the cost of several million dollars, he creates this lavish, sprawling dog shelter in malibu. one of the neglected pooches that end up at sam's shelter is a 6-month old cane corso, also known as an italian mastiff, a

breed some people refer to as "a pit bull on steroids." the big canine is quickly deemed too aggressive to stay at the shelter. so sam takes him home and names him columbo, after the rumpled, trench-coat-wearing detective played by peter falk. >> he adored columbo, clearly. i think he was like an offspring almost. he was like a son. >> a son with a nasty disposition. within months, columbo attacks staff members on the simon estate. there are as many as eight biting incidents. he even goes after sam's buddy, howard stern. >> ok, guys, go play! [ dogs barking ] >> so, in 2011, sam contacts tyson kilmer, who has a reputation for working with dangerous breeds. his hollywood clientele includes rob lowe and mike tyson, but none impresses him like sam simon. >> the first meeting he had with sam, tyson came back and went, "i met my hero.

i met a guy that's doing way more than i am with animals." it was a bromance. >> alison kilmer is tyson's wife. >> was it more than just about the dog? >> oh, yeah. tyson knew right away that sam was someone that was gonna mentor him. >> still, tyson hesitates taking the columbo case. why? >> i had stopped working with that breed a few years prior, just because of the volatility and the liability issues around them. >> i'm sure that training aggressive dogs is dangerous. where is columbo on the scale? >> if it's a scale from 1 to 10, columbo's a 12. >> tyson says he makes an exception for columbo, when simon convinces him that health issues, like painful hip dysplasia, explain why he's such a bad dog. so, it's not just behavioral. it's also medicine? >> that's correct. >> simon's already paying for the best veterinary medicine

money can buy. among other things, columbo gets electromagnetic therapy and acupuncture. acupuncture for a dog? i know we're in los angeles, but really? >> this dog has endured so much pain in his legs that this is not some frivolous treatment. >> and the price tag for columbo's first-class care? >> columbo costs approximately $138,000 a year. >> that's a four-year college education. >> the reality is -- i didn't hire these folks. i was just asked to be present while these folks were working. and this work changed my perspective on this dog entirely. ready to go. >> tyson takes over the actual training, hooking up columbo with a partner to keep him in line. >> hey, jamie. i brought my friends. >> i see that, tyson. i hope they'll be my friends. >> they will be your friends. so, kasha's been the one to teach him how he should be responding and reacting in these encounters. >> she's a pit bull. >> she's a pit bull, yes, but she's very fabulously trained. you want to give it a try?

>> i'm willing to try. >> perfect. okay, so, let's start off by showing her a stay. point to the ground. tell her, "okay, down." >> okay, down, kasha. good girl, kasha. >> and now, this is how she smiles. so, it looks like kind of scary. >> oh! you get a rub on the belly! stay. tyson says his hard work and sam's money transform columbo into a loving and much-less-aggressive pet. so, the bottom line is -- you have rehabilitated this dog. >> i would say that this dog is living, at this point, within very acceptable margins for behavior and safety, as long as we continue to put the work in with him daily. >> it's late 2012, when, at 57, sam simon is diagnosed with colorectal cancer. the prognosis -- it's terminal. >> how did sam tell you he was sick? >> [ voice breaking ] he was just sick. >> what happened?

>> you know, he said, you know, "tyson, i'm dying." >> will sam's death sentence also be the end for columbo? >> i was asked to make sure that columbo was taken off the property immediately. >> immediately? >> yes. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. was it roy rogers' trigger... mr. ed... or seabiscuit? the answer when we return.

♪music ♪another summer day is come and gone away♪ ♪in paris and rome but i want to go home♪ ♪mmmmmmmm ♪maybe surrounded by a million people i♪ ♪still feel all alone i just want to go home♪ ♪oh i miss you, you know ♪let me go home ♪i've had my fun baby i'm done♪ ♪i gotta go home ♪it will all be alright

♪i'll be home tonight ♪i'm comin back home >> so, what stuffed horse fetched $266,000 at auction? it's "a," trigger, who belonged to roy rogers. >> with the help of his new friend and dog trainer tyson kilmer -- and a year and a half of intense training -- sam simon's rescued 140-pound cane corso is under control. so, you've given columbo a stay of execution. >> nobody else has been bitten, so the first part is amazing. secondly, he's a happier soul. >> but, in 2012, sam's diagnosis of stage-four cancer changes everything. after being told he has only

months to live, "the simpsons" co-developer launches a campaign to save as many animals as he can before he's gone. he brings tyson along for the ride. >> as his body began to fail him, he would be jumping on a learjet and flying off, so somebody had to watch out for him. >> here was sam simon ready to do all of these things that seem unthinkable. he rescued all of these bears from roadside circuses. he shut down a mink farm. >> so, the money is kind of gone. >> you gave it all to peta. >> no, no, no, no, no, no, no. i put in a trust that will be distributed, in perpetuity, to save the children and peta and other organizations. >> fantastic. >> for two years, sam beats the clock, but his disease never relents. >> i got a call that he was in the hospital, and he had summoned for me to come to his bedside. he just said, "i'm sorry to burden you with this, but will you please take my dog?" of course, i said "yes."

>> tyson looked at me and said, "i got to do this for him. if we don't, they're gonna put columbo down." >> tyson also makes sure columbo can stay by sam till the end. >> i was asked to train columbo to climb a set of steps beside sam's bed so that columbo could get up there and sleep with him. columbo was with sam right up until he passed. i was asked to be on the property when he passed to make sure that columbo was taken off the property immediately. >> why immediately? >> well, columbo couldn't be on the property with an influx of people coming in, just because it just wasn't safe. >> arguably even less safe -- bringing this strange inheritance home to your wife and kids. i have to ask you about that. i met him. he's fierce. you let them hang out with columbo? >> supervised. columbo cannot be unsupervised around my children or around anybody. when he's uncomfortable, he's grumpy. you don't want to be anywhere

around him. and i don't want my kids to be anywhere around him. and stay. >> your kids could get hurt. you're willing to take the risk. >> we make all the precautions. we make sure they're never alone with columbo. we make sure that they train him every day. and us, as a family -- we made a commitment to healing dogs and showing other families how to do it. >> a noble commitment, but who's going to pay for columbo's ongoing $138,000-a-year medical care? was there some sort of verbal agreement between you and sam? >> sam just basically said, "listen, don't worry about this. everything's taken care of." >> ruh-roh! is it possible that sam made a promise to tyson he didn't intend to keep? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. santa's little helper, the simpsons' family dog, is what breed? the answer in a moment.

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>> so, santa's little helper, the simpsons' family dog, is what breed? the answer is "b," a greyhound homer rescues from the dog track in "the simpsons'" first episode. [ dog growls ] >> the cane corso, or italian mastiff, is an aggressive breed, sometimes called a "pit bull on steroids." columbo, a 140-pounder who belonged to "simpsons" co-developer sam simon, was actually deemed too vicious for simon's dog-rescue shelter. hollywood dog trainer tyson kilmer says one of simon's last requests was that he take columbo when simon died.

>> one thing that sam said is that, "every animal's life has value." >> tyson assumes simon's multi-billion-dollar trust will pay for columbo's costly medical treatments, including acupuncture and electromagnetic therapy. >> was there some sort of verbal agreement between you and sam? >> sam took care of everything while he was alive. when sam said, "will you take columbo?", i didn't say, "hey, how much, buddy?" i just said, "of course. i'll take care of it." >> then, in june 2015, three months after sam's death, tyson learns that those vets and therapists will no longer be paid and all those hollywood-style treatments will be discontinued. tyson reaches out to the executor of the simon trust. now, i'm a dog lover -- don't get me wrong -- but tell me how much you were asking, money-wise, to take care of columbo in the style sam had -- >> i didn't ask for money. i was asking for them to send

the vets over. i wasn't asking for money. >> come on, columbo. >> either way, tyson says he's told there's no money earmarked for columbo. >> i first thought, "it has to be a misunderstanding," but, at some point, you'd think, even if that were the case, they would have an allegiance to what sam would have wanted." >> radio host mark thompson was a longtime friend of simon's. is it possible that sam made a promise to tyson he didn't intend to keep? >> i think the answer is -- of course not, of course not. sam would have wanted money to go for the continued care of columbo. >> the executor of simon's trust doesn't return our phone calls but has ripped tyson in the media. the trustee issued a statement that we got our hands on, and it starts with, "it's truly sad that someone would try to take advantage of sam's generosity to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense of other causes." >> and i'm just an outsider, but the same money that sam was paying for columbo, when sam was

alive, is all tyson is asking for. and it's about his therapy, not a dollar more. i think that's a reasonable request. >> how much is it costing you a month, besides your daily time, to take care of columbo? >> it costs me approximately $9,000, $9,500 a month to take care of him. tyson has custody of a dog that is considered very dangerous. and we have a trustee unwilling to disperse money for the dog's care. end of case? >> if they're willing to go to court, tyson might be able to assert rights on columbo's behalf and get the court to construe the trust. >> underscore "might," says ken kossoff, an l.a. lawyer specializing in pet inheritances. he says it's telling simon apparently did not set up a trust fund to pay for columbo's care, which is allowed under california law. >> you want your trust or any other document to be very clear

that who was ever in charge of the money needs to support the pet. >> case in point -- ken's client in palmdale, california, a widow who wanted to provide for her faithful companions when she was gone. hi, yvonne. i'm jamie. >> jamie, hi. how are you? >> nice to meet you. i heard you're the bird lady. >> i am that. would you like to meet my kids? >> i would like to meet your kids. >> come on. >> oh, thank you. look at all these guys. oh, hello there. who's that? >> he says, "i'm bogie bird." and he says, "i'm the senior bird here." >> bogie is a 34 year-old double yellow-head amazon parrot. while he's older than yvonne's two cockatiels, he's still a youngin' among the parrot breed, who can easily live for 60 years. when yvonne first adopts bogie from a bird sanctuary, in 2013, she worries about making a commitment to a pet that could very well outlive her.

>> at my age, i thought, "how am i gonna make this work out? these guys can live to be 60 years old. i'm not rich." >> so, will bogie become a strange inheritance? yvonne is worried that her cherished parrot will get discarded, like columbo. and what about columbo? >> it must be costing you a fortune. >> columbo's not cheap, and we never, ever, ever, in a million years, thought we'd be here. >> and? >> how can the kilmers get the funds they say they need for his care? >> good boy! you know, i agreed to take sam simon's dog. i didn't agree to take on a billion-dollar estate. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> yvonne eubanks loves her parrot, bogie, who may very well

outlive her. will bogie get the special care he needs when she's gone? she turns to ken kossoff, who's been creating trusts in los angeles for over 30 years. >> a lot of pet owners do not know that they could plan their estate to include their pets. >> yvonne doesn't just want to make sure her pets always have a caring home. she wants to make sure they have her home. >> the trust provides, immediately, for a caregiver to come in, and this is someone who is familiar with my birds. they will live here in the house, basically rent-free, and they'd take care of the birds. i will take care of the utilities and all on the house. >> that could theoretically last for decades. you understand people will watch this and they'll say, "okay, you're 'the bird lady.'" >> yeah. >> "and you've left this beautiful home to birds." >> yes. i don't care how whacky they think i am. i just want to protect these guys. >> apparently, sam simon wasn't

so clear or emphatic about columbo, and so the executors of "simpsons" co-developer sam simon's billion-dollar trust reportedly have no intention of providing a penny for his care. where does that leave animal trainer tyson kilmer, to whom sam bequeathed the 140-pound mastiff? >> i've never had much interest in anything outside of just seeing columbo cared for. i really don't want to be in court over the next five, six years. i'd far rather raise funds for him and just move on with my life. >> sam was his mentor and hero. and, sometimes, you don't write the script on how it's gonna come out, but we're doing the best we can and we're gonna handle it. >> i wanted to put a call into you to see if i could rely on some support from you guys. >> today, tyson hopes to raise enough funds through a network of friends and supporters to finance columbo's care.

you made a promise. >> absolutely. yeah. >> that's a big promise. >> i'm gonna keep that promise. you know, sam was one of -- he was a mentor to me. he was one of my best friends. i'm gonna honor my word to my friend. >> bogie or columbo can only dream of the fortune of the so-called world's richest pet, a german shepherd who's really rolling in the dough. turns out that when a german countess named carlotta liebenstein died, in 1992, she left a $124 million trust for her trusty pooch, gunther iii. well, when gunther iii met an untimely death, carlotta's riches passed to gunther's son, gunther iv, and by then, the trust was worth $372 million and included a villa in the bahamas and a mansion once owned by madonna. and, at that rate, gunther v could be the first canine billionaire. i'm jamie colby for

"strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember, you can't take it with you. >> found 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 this is too close, and they've

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. any comments doug? yeah. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liber♪y

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go to vettix.org. >> 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, 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 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.

>> 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? t?

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.

(sfx: orchestra warming up) where's tommy? (sfx: stage doors opening) i thought he was with you? no jack! (sfx: piano plays "twinkle twinkle little star" tommy? (sfx: audience laughing) go get him! don't stop. keep playing. (sfx: pianist playing masterful duet) here we go here's the fun part did you do this? great job! (sfx: audience applause)

>> 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 case of some guy's 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 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. lou: good evening, the radical dimms' impeachment extravaganza rolls on. but unfortunately for schiff and the dimms they are more promotion than production. three star witnesses up, three abysmal performances. if this is schiff's trial run, he's done. the factors of the schiff impeachment turkey keep propping this mess up but they should bring the curtain down on it all. today they trotted out the former ambassador to