GUEST: Well, I'm a long-term journalist, and I've been in newspaper work for about 40 years.

And for ten years, I was executive editor in Dixon, Illinois, Ronald Reagan's hometown.

When he went out of office, we did a 66-page special section.

This was the original artwork.

We sent him two copies of it.

And he sent me this incredible letter just saying how much he enjoyed it, how much he meant-- it meant to him.

And he said, "I've cut a clipping or two in my day, but this might be the best I've ever seen."

APPRAISER: It's February 17, 1989, so it's just a couple of weeks that he's out of office.

And he must have been incredibly busy.

Even though he wasn't still president, I'm sure there were tremendous demands on his time.

And the signature is very important.

GUEST: Ronald Reagan, when he would send something to his hometown in Dixon, he liked to put the name Dutch there, too, because that was his nickname.

When his father saw him for the first time and held him, he said, "What a fat little Dutchman we have here!"

And the word "Dutch" just stuck all these years.

So right away, I knew that he personally wrote it.

He had been an announcer on W.H.O.

Radio in Des Moines in his early career.

So I wrote the President and I said, I know that you covered W.H.O.

Radio Iowa football games.

I'm just curious if you ever met Nile Kinnick, Iowa's only Heisman Trophy winner, who lost his life in World War II, very heroic, uh, story.

And he wrote me nine handwritten lines.

"P.S.

I've just realized I didn't respond to your lines about Nile Kinnick.

I, too, am an admirer of him.

He came along at Iowa after I'd gone to California, and was no longer broadcasting Iowa games.

My brother had begun doing the games, and he made me aware of Nile with stories of his great accomplishments.

I won't write them to you here, as I know you probably know all of them.

The fact that the University of Iowa renamed the stadium after him says it all."

That he would take the time to write nine handwritten lines, I mean, it just touched me immensely.

APPRAISER: I love this letter partly because it connects together Ronald Reagan, his hometown, Dixon, Iowa, the presidency, politics and then sports.

Nile Kinnick and his appreciation of the press.

It's a fabulous, wonderful letter.

He thanks you in every single paragraph in this.

"Yes, everyone has a place to come back to.

And for me that place is Dixon.

God bless you all."

What a wonderful way to end the letter and to someone who was editing the paper in Dixon at the time.

GUEST: He was the kind of person who just really cared about his roots and cared about people.

APPRAISER: A retail value on this, I think, at least $6,000 to $8,000.

GUEST: Wow, that's-that's wonderful to know.

You've probably just made it, uh, the fight between my children a lot higher level now.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) GUEST: Not really, they love each other.