Everyone loves an unexpected windfall, and no one more so, perhaps, than a collector of Motown paraphernalia. After buying some records at the estate sale of a musician who’d recently passed away, a Motowon Museum employee found he’d scored a bonus item included inside one of them: Marvin Gaye’s 1964 passport.

The man explained his lucky tale in last night’s episode of Antiques Roadshow, explaining that he’d originally dropped by the family home to pick up items to be donated to the museum. He later came back to the estate sale that weekend and grabbed a few albums for $0.50 or so each, with a few 45s going for only a quarter.

“When I got home, I was going through them and out of an album fell this passport,” the man recalled. “And so it literally fell into my hands.”

That lucky find is a valuable one indeed, as the appraiser says: “For insurance, I wouldn’t put less than $20,000 on the passport if you were to insure it.”

“Are you kidding me? I never would have thought,” the man replies. “I mean, I’m just shocked. I mean… wow. Oh gosh, thank you.”

Thank you, indeed. It’s not everyone who gets to hold the personal possession of a revered musician in his hands whenever he wants to [cut to scene of me shaking every record at every curb/garage/rummage sale in the near future].

1964 Marvin Gaye Passport [PBS.org]

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