He Bought An Old Photo For $2 That Turned Out To Be Of Billy The Kid, And It's Worth $5 Million

Have you ever dreamed of walking into a junk shop and buying a treasure that later turns out to be worth some serious money? Well, I certainly have, and a man named Randy Guijarro is among the lucky and rare few who can say they had this happen to them!

It was back in 2010 that Randy made a stop at a place called Fulton’s Folly Antique Collective, located in Fresno, California. He was on his way home from work that day and popped in to take a peek.

While in there, he found a box of old photos and picked up three that he purchased for only two dollars. It never occurred to him that such an innocent and inexpensive find would have him one day calling himself a multi-millionaire.

Later on, Randy took a closer look at one of the photos, which was 4x5, and depicted people playing croquet. He had a feeling that one of the men might just be Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid was a famous outlaw and gunfighter in the Wild West. He died in 1881 at just 22 after being involved in a gunfight. He was buried in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and you can actually go visit his grave if you're curious.

Anyway, before Randy walked into Fulton’s Folly Antique Collective, there was only one verified photo of Billy the Kid in existence.

It was snapped most likely around 1879 to 1880 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and in the tintype, Billy stands outside of a saloon wearing a hat and vest with a Colt .45 revolver and a 1873 Winchester rifle.

The photo was in the possession of Billy's friend, Dan Dedrick, and was passed down to his loved ones. Eventually, it was sold for $2.3 million dollars at an auction in 2011.

It took some time for experts to piece together just who was in Randy's photo, as they had to sift through historical records, gather evidence, and determine when that photo had been taken.

Andy - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only - pictured above is the grave of Billy the Kid

The location where the photo was taken was actually in Chaves County, New Mexico, and the team involved in authenticating the photo was able to uncover the remains of the building in the background.

"We found the old lumber underneath," said Jeff Aiello, a director of the documentary National Geographic Channel made about Randy's find. "We found those exact rock piers are still there."

Ultimately, it was established that the photo was indeed of Billy playing croquet approximately one month after he was involved in the Lincoln County War.

Randy's neat photo has since been appraised at $5 million dollars, and Kagin's is reportedly helping him find a buyer.

Sign up for Chip Chick's newsletter and get exclusive stories like this delivered to your inbox.