REPORTER SEEKS "PAWN STARS" APPRAISAL FOR BEATLES AUTOGRAPH

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  JERRY HENKEL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

  Money, that's what he wants. R-J reporter Corey Levitan, center, brings a John Lennon-signed "White Album" (and his friend, Vicky Bryan, right) to the "Pawn Stars" shop. » Buy this photo

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JERRY HENKEL/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Money, that's what he wants. R-J reporter Corey Levitan, center, brings a John Lennon-signed "White Album" .

I'm about to get my answer, after more than a year of wondering and an hour of waiting in front of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Boulevard, behind tourists salivating for a glimpse of the "Pawn Stars" dudes.

Some garage-sale hunters go decades before finding their personal holy grail. But there mine was in November 2009, just a month after I began the hobby, propped up against a table leg in a Summerlin driveway. The framed copy of the Beatles' "White Album" was signed "Love from John Lennon, NYC 1980."

"Five hundred," said Branden Powers, the man running the sale. "Firm."

I knew it was worth much more. (Later, I discovered how much. Similar pieces have fetched $12,000 to $15,000, or half a year of college for my newborn daughter.)