2004 Green Bay Packers Prototype Gold Helmet
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GUEST:
It's a prototype helmet that Ron Wolf had made when he was hired as the head of the Green Bay Packers. He was going to change the colors to Notre Dame gold back from the yellow that the Packer helmet is now, because it's called the Packer green and gold, and he thought it was yellow, and he wanted to bring it back to gold. So he went to the board, and he had the board okay everything, but when news leaked out about it, there was a backlash from the fans and he really got cold feet, he never pulled the trigger. But this was a prototype he had made.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, and even as an outsider, I'm fascinated that they would even toy with the idea of changing such iconic colors.
GUEST:
At that time, a lot of teams were changing colors, and the teams that seemed to change colors were having success, so...
APPRAISER:
So we have today a prototype of that helmet, that he was this close to, perhaps, getting changed.
GUEST:
Yep, yep.
APPRAISER:
And then tell us about it being signed.
GUEST:
Actually, I found it at a thrift store. And I thought it looked weird, and I didn't know what it was, and after I bought it, a friend of mine had this newspaper article that he showed me, and it explains everything, how it came to be. And it's a one-of-a-kind thing. Years later, I was at a gas station and I ran into Ron Wolf and I told him I had it, and he offered to sign it for me. My sister worked at the gas station, and she says, "Oh, Ron comes in here all the time." So I left the helmet with my sister while she worked there and he signed it-- came back his next visit and signed it for me.
APPRAISER:
How much did you pay for it?
GUEST:
$25.
APPRAISER:
What do you think it's worth?
GUEST:
No idea.
APPRAISER:
No? Because of the rarity of it, the great story that goes with it, even toying with the idea of changing such iconic colors, I'd put an auction estimate on it of $2,500 to $3,500.
GUEST:
Wow. I would have never expected that. And I'm glad they didn't change.
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