The Rarest And Strangest Items Sold In An Auction Ever
People pay an insane amount of money for treasured items, old paintings or collectibles. These high-end auctions organised by places like Christie’s or Sotheby’s are known for one-of-a-kind invaluable items that the rich can’t wait to get their hands on. But along with these invaluable objects, some strangest items sold in an auction tend to appear every once in a while. Each item, more bizarre than the previous, will make you question the sanity of the buyer and seller alike. And don’t even get us started on the bizarre sales that take place on eBay.
From items that belonged to famous people to things that don’t have any explanations, here’s a list of the most ridiculous things sold for millions that only the rich can buy.
13 Weirdest Things Sold At Auctions For Big Bucks
Prepare to have your minds blown as you discover these ridiculously expensive items that people have actually bought off from auctions. You literally won’t believe the insane amount of money people have paid for some of these rather questionable items.
Without further ado, let’s have a look at the weirdest things sold at auction
1. Justin Timberlake’s Half-eaten French Toast
On March 9, 2000, Timberlake gave an interview at New York’s Z-100 radio station, during which he partially consumed some French toast. The DJ station jokingly listed the half-eaten toast on eBay instead of throwing it away and it ended up being sold for $1,025.
A teenage girl named Kathy Summers bought this questionable item which she planned to freeze-dry and put it on her dresser.
2. John Lennon’s tooth
The craze for The Beatles band is no secret and we understand the fandom. However, this has to be one of the most weird celebrity items for sale. Imagine the level of craze one has to have for a celebrity that they would pay for their tooth!
In the 1960s, when John Lennon lost his molar, he asked his housekeeper to throw it away. Instead of throwing it, the housekeeper gave the tooth to her daughter, who was a huge Beatles fanatic. They kept Lennon’s partially rotted tooth for decades before it ultimately went up for auction in 2011.
A Canadian dentist bought it for $31,200 and has kept the tooth on display in his clinic.
3. A Slice of Cake From Queen Elizabeth II’s Wedding
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip got married on 20th November, 1947. Their reception has a beautiful 9-foot-tall, four-tier wedding cake designed by confectioner Fredrick Schur. Some sneaky guests decided to hold on to their slice of cake instead of eating them and boy was that a good decision? In 2013, a slice from that very same cake went up for auction at Christie’s and sold at £1,750. The slice was wrapped and placed in a box inscribed with the words “EP Buckingham Palace 20th November 1947.”
In 2015, another slice of the same cake went up for auction and sold for £500. The same thing happened in 2022 and this time the cake came with a warning for buyers that the cake was no longer edible. Edible or not, this has to be one of the weirdest auction items in history.
4. Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie’s Breath
As we’ve mentioned earlier, we understand fandom– but this? A whole new level. At the premiere of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, someone actually captured the air that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie supposedly walked through. This mason jar, allegedly filled with their exhaled carbon dioxide went up for sale on eBay with the following message:
“Be the first to own this jar of celebrity air, which may contain air molecules that came in direct contact with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt!”
This jar ended up getting sold for around $500. Even more absurd, some sources claim it fetched a jaw-dropping $75,000. Either way, both are ridiculous amounts of money for a jar of air, if you ask us.
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5. Justin Bieber’s hair
One of the strangest items sold in an auction has to be a lock of Justin Bieber’s hair—though die-hard Beliebers might beg to differ. When Justin Beiber rose to fame, his signature blonde bangs became iconic. However, in 2011, Beiber decided to shave his hair off and gave it to Ellen DeGeneres to auction it off for charity.
A single lock of his hair ended up fetching a staggering $40,668. Was it worth it? We’ll leave that for you to decide.
6. Britney Spears chewing gum
You know the saying, “one person’s trash is another’s treasure,” but someone took that very literally. Britney Spears apparently spat out a chewing gum after her concert at Wembley Arena in 2000. A fan promptly scooped it up and listed it for auction on eBay.
The winning bid? A jaw-dropping $14,000 for a piece of chewed-up gum which might just be one of the most expensive useless things to buy.
7. Elvis Presley’s Underwear
Would you ever pay for someone’s unwashed underwear? Get ready to read about one of the most bizarre auction stories.
In 2012, a pair of underwear worn by Elvis Presley during a 1977 concert went up for auction. Not only were they unwashed, but they were also soiled—yes, you read that right. The soiled garment was expected to fetch $16,000. However, the highest bid stalled at $6,600, and the item didn’t sell.
On the bright side, Elvis’ Bible, complete with handwritten notes, sold for an impressive $94,000.
8. Britney Spears’s Pregnancy Test
Britney Spears’s alleged pregnancy test went up for an auction after a radio station somehow got their hands on it. They apparently had ties to an LA hotel where the ’90s pop icon stayed at with her then-husband.
They listed the test for auction only after Britney Spears publicly confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. It sold for about $5,000 in 2005. However, there’s no concrete proof that the test actually belonged to her.
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9. Self Destructing Banksy
One of the most bizarre moments in auction history happened in 2018 when a Banksy artwork, Girl with Balloon, self-destructed right after it was sold for a staggering $1.37 million. The iconic piece was up for auction at Sotheby’s in London. Just as the sale finalised, the artwork began to pass through a shredder hidden inside its frame, shredding and destroying one of the most iconic art pieces.
Banksy later confirmed that he had hidden a shredder into the frame years before. This actually increased the artwork’s worth due to the attention it garnered. It was, without a doubt, one of the strangest and ridiculous things sold for millions in auction history.
10. John Lennon’s Toilet
A Beatles fan spent around $15,000 on John Lennon’s toilet. This porcelain throne came from an English estate that John and his wife, Yoko Ono, owned. During renovations, John had his toilet replaced and asked his contractors “to put some flowers in it or something,” as per the auction house. The builder didn’t think much of it and kept it in his shed until he died.
It was not until 2010 that the toilet went up for auction. Anne-Marie Trace, who worked at the Beatles Shop, said “I think it’s the most unusual item we’ve ever had in our auction.”
11. Queen Victoria’s underwear
Who knew underwear could be such a hot commodity at auctions—especially if it belonged to royalty? In 2015, a pair of Queen Victoria’s underwear (Queen Elizabeth’s great-great-grandmother) sold for an impressive $16,300.
It’s not everyday that you get to bid on royal undergarments, but collectors jumped at the chance to own these custom-made, embroidered panties, featuring Queen Victoria’s initials, “VR.” They were surprisingly in perfect condition, carefully preserved in tissue and kept in a temperature-controlled room.
12. Marilyn Monroe’s X-rays
This is one of the rare auction items on this. Marilyn Monroe’s x-ray images from her doctor’s visit in 1954 made headlines as they went up for auction 56 years later in 2010. Apparently, Monroe’s gynecologist kept her chest x-rays that later got in the hands of the doctor’s children. They decided to auction off these x-rays and ended up getting $45,000!
And that is why they are one of the rarest and strangest items sold in an auction, ever.
13. A Violin From The Titanic
One of the most valuable thing ever sold at an auction is a treasured item from an important chapter in history. If you have watched the movie, you will definitely remember the scene where a violinist plays on the deck of the sinking ship. Turns out, that was based on an incident that had actually happened. More than a century later, that same violin was sold in one of the most expensive auctions in the world for $1.7 million! It reportedly sold in just 10 minutes.
According to CNN, “Hartley’s body was reportedly pulled from the water days after the April 1912 sinking with his violin case still strapped to his back.”
Related Reading: Famous People Who Died On Titanic.
Conclusion: Unbelievable Auctions
What may be priceless to one person could mean absolutely nothing to another. These craziest auctions prove that the true value of an item often depends on the story tied to it.
From celebrity chewing gum to self-destructing artwork, these objects remind us that value isn’t always about practicality—it’s about the emotions and stories these valuables ignite. From this list of the strangest items sold in an auction, it is evident that in the world of auctions, even the most unexpected objects can become treasures, all thanks to the intrigue they hold.
