Considering the time and money the Colonel invested into his collection, one would imagine he continues to add to it to this day. However, that couldn't be further from the case, since Bryan Laird let most of his automobile memorabilia, general antiques, and more go on the very same day his appearance on American Pickers was filmed (via TV Trend Now). An auction hosted by Walt Cade on March 26, 2016 (via Facebook) saw the vast majority of the Colonel's hoard find new homes across Texas and beyond.
As Cade told the Longview News-Journal around the time of the sale, "There's several cool pieces.[...]We've got signs; signs bring an enormous amount of money. We have, probably, a thousand lots here." He also recalls when the American Pickers stopped by, mentioning that "They come in, and they'll buy eight to 10 items," but they hardly made a dent, since, at that point, there were "tens of thousands of things" there, by Cade's estimates.
In terms of how Laird acquired the bulk of his items, Cade notes that he often attended auctions and obviously left empty-handed very infrequently. His resale of the items, in the same manner, was surely bittersweet, especially if there were any objects he felt a strong attachment to. Be that as it may, that didn't stop Laird from undergoing some dramatic downsizing, thus putting the legend of the Colonel's hoard to rest.
