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ALBANY, GA --
Stop in Phillip Phillips, Sr.’s pawn shop and you’ll find just about everything for sale, but the one item not for sale is his son Phillip Phillips’ first electric guitar.

“We got offered $3,000 for it the other day,” he says.

Phillips says he plans to turn items, like the guitar, into keepsakes to celebrate his son’s musical journey.

“Through life we just keep things like his first electric guitar, his first song he wrote, stuff like that. It’s just fun when we have get-togethers we'll sit and just flip through things,” says Phillips. "We're going to put together several scrapbooks and have stuff that's framed for him just to look back on when he gets my age."

People flip through the miscellaneous items at his store, Albany Sporting Goods and Pawn, hoping to find their memento of their visit. Some stop by to simply take pictures.

“Tons of calls wanting to buy the turkey, guitars, and we've got his first electric guitar,” Phillips says. “We're getting people from everywhere coming by - going to Florida or coming from Florida going back home - all over, they just want a little something saying they've been here.”

He says the strangest inquiry is an offer to buy the stuffed turkey that made an appearance during his son’s introduction on American Idol. Phillips says someone called offering $2,500 for it.

While people scour through the pawn shop for a memento of their visit, it in turn helps the Phillips visit their son in Los Angeles.

“People say well this ain't but a dollar... I don't care if it ain't but a penny every little bit helps, and I just want to tell people in southwest Georgia, I just want to tell them thank you for taking the time out to try to help us be with him because it makes a big difference,” he says.