For some fans, there’s no price too high when it comes to buying a piece of their favorite star. Apparel, vehicles, breakfast food, hair—we’re way beyond autographs here. From Justin Timberlake’s uneaten french toast to the queen’s knickers, here are some of the weirdest celebrity, um, accessories ever put up for auction.
It’s not the famous blue dress, but it’s close. A black nightie and letters from the former president formerly belonging to Lewinski are up for auction. Anyone who wishes to bid should make sure to have some cash on hand, as the items are expected to fetch between $25,000 and $50,000. It may seem like a hefty price tag, but the unusual assortment is part of presidential history.
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Anyone whipped into a royal frenzy should jump on an auction of Queen Elizabeth II’s bloomers. The estate of a man in Florida is auctioning off a pair that the queen supposedly left behind on a private airplane while visiting Chile in 1968. They’re hoping to fetch $9,000, which is the price Queen Victoria’s chemise grabbed in 2008.
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A lock of Elvis Presley’s hair was auctioned off last year, but it wasn’t the first time bidders got all shook up over the King’s mane. In 2002 one clump of Presley’s famous do went for $115,000. The recent snippet had an excellent provenance: it was hair from 1958, when Presley received his military buzz after being inducted into the Army. The winning bid of $18,300 far exceeded the preauction estimate of $8,000 to 12,000.
M. Spencer Green / AP Photo; AP Photo
Spears’s very public breakdown in 2007 began with the shaved head that shocked the world, but it culminated with her dramatic, savage umbrella attack on a defenseless, paparazzo-housing Ford Explorer. The very same umbrella, along with a car suspiciously described as “a” (and not “the”) 2002 Ford Explorer, went on sale on eBay not too soon afterward carrying an opening bid of $25,000—some $16,000 higher than the Kelley Blue Book value. Who needs Cash for Clunkers when you’ve got a pop star trying to take you down with an umbrella?
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
You wouldn’t know it from his toothy grin, but Jack Nicholson apparently has a set of chompers floating around among memorabilia collectors. The assortment, mostly baby teeth and a few adult molars, was put up for auction as a complete set for the first time in 2001 by British outfit Auction World.tv. Nicholson was reportedly furious at the auction and threatened to participate to win his teeth back; obviously, he wasn’t thinking of the rich “You can’t handle the tooth!” joke possibilities.
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Most people, on meeting a celebrity, wouldn’t immediately check the trash for discarded items—but most people aren’t celebrity memorabilia auctioneers. A piece of chewed gum, alleged to have once in been in the mouth of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, went up for sale on eBay last year along with a photo of Seinfeld and co-star Michael Richards—and, of course, a picture of the trash can where the gum had been thrown away. The auction attracted bids as high as $6.99.
Mario Magnani / Getty Images
An empty plastic receptacle purported to be the dead rock star’s hair-color bottle went for $175 at 1996 memorabilia auction, where it was up for sale alongside other bits of Cobain ephemera like a cable bill and a coin collection. The bottle’s owner remains anonymous, but it seems safe to say that the unknown bidder is a fan of Nirvana’s debut, Bleach.
Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic / Getty Images
Remember those halcyon pre-recession days, when everything was for sale, including Gary Coleman’s sweatpants? The Gap Kids–brand sweats, being sold on eBay to pay for Coleman’s dialysis, received a huge boost when talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel expressed interest in them on his show, placing an $80 bid; the auction soon maxed out at $400,000. Oddly enough, the winner never came forward (some accused Coleman of having placed the high bid himself), and the pants went to the next-highest bidder—none other than Kimmel himself, who paid $500.
Richard Drew / AP Photo
When Death Row Records went under and was forced to auction off all of its property at a liquidation sale, most people went straight for the big-ticket items, which included an electric chair, some MTV moon men, and a Source Award won by Snoop Dogg. But one intrepid collector bucked the trend and went after a truly one-of-a-kind item: boxer-briefs belonging to former label boss Suge Knight. How much for the larger-than-life exec’s larger-than-average underwear? A steal at $1.
Alaric Lambert / AP Photo
One question not often answered: what exactly happens with the celebrity artifacts that get sold at auction? Thankfully, we have an answer for the slightly singed pieces of french toast left behind by Justin Timberlake—then still in ’N Sync—after a early-morning interview: “I’ll probably freeze-dry it, then seal it ... then put it on my dresser,” explained 19-year-old Kathy Summers, who paid $1,025 for the breakfast food in 2000.
Sara De Boer / Retna Ltd.
Would you pay $1.7 million for a painting by Anna Nicole Smith? A purported self-portrait by the troubled actress went on sale on eBay after her death in 2007 (its authenticity guaranteed, apparently, by a signature in one corner). Despite the very generous offer of free shipping, bidding was slow, and it’s unknown whether the sale was completed on the auction website.
Danny Moloshok / AP Photo
Elvis wasn’t the only king whose tresses have been for sale. Some 12 strands of the King of Pop’s burned hair, collected from the set of the infamous Pepsi commercial where his head caught on fire, were collectively put up for sale in 2009 in what was no doubt a thriller of an auction.
Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images
It’s unclear what’s more shocking about this portrait of Brynner, which was up for auction on eBay in 2006: that the actor is nude or that he had hair. Either way, the 1942 portrait by George Platt Lynes, taken when the famously bald star was a struggling young actor, would make the perfect gift for the right person.
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After the end of Bob Barker’s run on The Price Is Right, who could be blamed for wanting to keep some small part of the daytime institution in their homes? Radio host Dave Ryan won Barker’s trademark skinny microphone with a $20,000 bid on eBay, calling it a “cool opportunity to win ... a one-of-a-kind piece of American pop culture.” His wife, he said, did not think the price was right, telling him, “You gotta get out of it.” The money made from the proceeds was donated to United Activists for Animal Rights.
Ric Francis / AP Photo
It seems likely that Rosie O’Donnell regretted starring in S&M comedy Exit to Eden (called a “strange cinematic catastrophe” by Leonard Maltin) from the moment it bombed at theaters, but she probably never regretted it quite so much as when someone bought a black “girdlelike” outfit from the movie at a charity auction in 2007 and sent it to Donald Trump, with whom she was feuding at the time. The clothing—also described as a “giant pair of panties” and a “bustier”—was framed by its purchaser and delivered to Trump, who in turn sent it to O’Donnell’s co-host on The View Barbara Walters. Walters refused to talk about it on air, but the irrepressible Trump said he “felt sorry” for Rosie’s wife.
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Why would collectors limit themselves to human hair? Savvy celebrity-hair hoarders could have jumped on an auction for a strand of racehorse Secretariat’s hair (only $190!). Seller “historicalhair” (whose auctions are essential for the serious hair aficionado) calls it “just gorgeous” and “a jewel.”
Heinz Kluetmeier, Sports Illustrated / Getty Images
