Randy Guijarro told the Guardian on Monday, “I hope this inspires others to delve into trunks and attics in search of lost gems.”
An 1878 photograph, 45 inches long, showing Billy the Kid playing croquet.
A picture of Billy the Kid playing croquet that was found at a thrift store formerly only had a $2 value. Today, it has sold for millions of dollars.
Three four-by-five-inch tintypes from a Fresno, California, antique store cost Guijarro $2 in 2010. valued today at several million dollars.
The telecom guru and his spouse Linda have declared that they intend to fund additional exploration activities with a portion of the money from their surprising finds.
We may benefit from a new vehicle.
We wish to look into historical events that have been forgotten, both domestically and internationally.
Together, we adore traveling the world. The chase is a breathtaking show.
Looking at the photo under a microscope at home, Billy the Kid, the legendary figure of the Wild West, discovered that the man leaning on the mallet was actually him leaning on the mallet and the others were members of his gang, the Regulators, playing croquet in New Mexico in 1878.
There has only ever been one confirmed picture of the criminal, and it is valued at $5 million.
On Sunday, a National Geographic special hosted by Kevin Costner described the five years of study and inquiry into its veracity.
It truly was incredible. Guijarro, 54, added, “It was extremely difficult for us to observe that.” Since we have been totally open and truthful with you, we sincerely hope that your journey was enjoyable.
He went on to add that mistrust and false leads hampered the inquiry, making the two nervous and unsure of whom to believe.
There are happy and sad moments in life. It had been a long, lonesome trek. The image looked like it was taken from The Twilight Zone. It’s too wonderful to be true, no doubt about it.
The moniker “Billy the Kid” instantly conjures up thoughts of the Wild West and the well-known New Yorker who, at the age of 21, was shot by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett following a hard but brief career as an outlaw.
However, other historians assert that he was only accountable for nine killings. His only surviving painting, painted in the 1880s and showing him relaxing with a revolver, brought $2.3 million (£1.5 million) at auction in 2011.
Guijarro and his wife, who also enjoys collecting, have spent the bulk of their lives accumulating a variety of artifacts, such as coins, sports cards, comic books, and old photos.
One late July night in 2010, while strolling around Fresno’s Tower neighborhood on his way home from work, he came across Fulton’s Folly Antique Collective.
Guijarro was told to go up to two individuals who, in the vendor’s words, were lugging “junk crates” and were trying to get rid of the contents of a storage unit.
He offered $2 and chose three images, some of which included croquet players and other historical settings. To get it, they had to use force.
Guijarro just has hazy recollections of them. Everything has become so hazy that I can’t even recall who they were anymore.
He was happy to see the croquet ball, but it took him a week of close inspection to identify the fabled robber.
The man’s clothes, manner, and the fact that he was standing on a croquet stick prompted the comment, “You could hand him a Winchester rifle.” Whoa, I thought, that’s Billy the Kid.
“A fantastic, astute lady,” he addresses Linda, who was employed to look into the other Regulators.
Thanks to the internet, she was able to get in touch with two other croquet players, Charlie Bowdre and Tom O’Folliard. “It was excellent,” said Guijarro.
The remnants of the schoolhouse in Chavez County, New Mexico, were discovered because of the work of academics, collectors, facial recognition specialists, and others. All eighteen individuals in the picture were recognized.
The photo was found to have been shot immediately after a wedding in 1878, less than two months after the gang had engaged in the fatal altercation in Lincoln County.
It is insured for $5 million by the California-based numismatics company Kagin’s Inc., which is currently searching for a private buyer.
Despite the curiosity, Guijarro stated, “We’re not counting our chickens before they hatch.”
Following that, he and Linda want to start organizing more treasure hunts, pay off debt, get a new car, and assist a few close friends and family members.
He claims that as evidence that they are not hoarders, they almost always sell the items they purchase. We need to hunt because, in the absence of it, “we’d be sitting on a hundred acres of stuff else.”
