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I was watching a reality show, i dont remember the name of the show, where these gun brokers/auctioneers were putting up a rare Winchester 1 of 1000 for auction. They call in an expert to verify the authenticity, and the expert says there are some strange things about the gun, and the expert can't verify that it's fake, but just says he has a weird feeling that something is off.
The auctioneer does all huffy and does some research and finds the exact gun in an old catalog and proclaims, 'it's real!'. I'm watching this show (which is supposedly a reality show based on reality), and I'm thinking, wow I'm never buying any collectibles from these guys.
Anyways, the expert comes back and the owner/auctioneer shows the expert the 1 of 1000 that was authenticated in this catalog many years back with the same serial number in the old catalog.
Several days later, a caller, who found out about the auction, calls and says that he has the actual 1 of 1000, and that the gun in the catalog is a replica of his gun, and that the replica had been used by catalogs to promote their catalogs. They verify the callers story (I think by going to examine the actual gun) and the expert finally detemines that the gun that was in the auctioneer's possession, which was soon to be auctioned for 5 or six figures (I forget how much exactly) and AUTHENTICATED as genuine, was a replica of the original gun.
Imagine if the buyer at auction bought this gun, and the replica was sold as authentic at the auctioneers insistence. Wow.
Apparently the replica was a famous doppelgänger of the original gun, right down to the serial number. The problem? The doppelgänger was famous for being a good fake, but it was worth something like 1/10th of the originals value.
Did anyone ever see this show or episode? I would like to find it on YouTube or something.
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