The 8 Craziest Pieces Of Movie Memorabilia (That People Actually Bought)
How much would you pay for William Shatner’s kidney stone?
James Bond’s Gun
Photo by Picture Alliance/Everett Collection
What Somebody Actually Paid: $437,501
What They Got: An iconic piece of spy-movie history, right? This is the real, original Walther PPK as used by James Bond himself, Sean Connery, in From Russia With Love. The only catch? It wasn’t even used in the movie itself – just the photo shoot for the movie poster. That’s right: Some dude paid nearly half a million dollars for a gun that isn’t even real, from a movie it doesn’t even appear in.
The “Thriller” Jacket
Photo by Toshifumi Kitamura/Getty Images
What Somebody Actually Paid: $1.8 million
What They Got: A 30-year-old coat that’s only really useful on Halloween. Next to the moonwalk, the “Thriller” jacket is probably the most memorable thing Michael Jackson ever made famous, but we’re not sure nearly two million bucks is a reasonable price tag for inviting the comparison. That said, if the person who bought this thing actually went all-out and recreated the video in real life, it was definitely worth every penny.
Qui-Gon Jinn’s Lightsaber
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
What Somebody Actually Paid: $54,000
What They Got: The lightsaber used by Liam Neeson in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Well, the handle of the lightsaber, anyway – the inconvenient thing about lightsabers being the product of special effects is that this thing isn’t even useful for awesome play fights. To be fair, the lightsabers of Luke and Darth Vader were both sold at auction, too, and for a lot more than $50K. But there’s something extra lame about buying a prop used by one of the worst characters in one of the worst sequels ever made. The only thing from that movie worth $50,000 is Jar-Jar’s head on a stick.
Captain Picard’s Flute
What Somebody Actually Paid: $48,000
What They Got: You know that episode of Star Trek when Picard lives out an entire life on another planet and then learns to play the flute? No? Well, we can’t say we’re surprised. For the low, low price of just $50,000, you, too, can own the real flute from that one episode of a series that’s 20-years-old – if some nerd hadn’t already dropped the dough and grabbed it, that is. Just think: tiny particles of Patrick Stewart’s spittle may still be lodged somewhere deep within that flute!
Citizen Kane Oscar
Photo by Peter Morgan/Landov
What Somebody Actually Paid: $244,500
What They Got: Okay, we get it: everybody wants an Oscar of their own. But a quarter of a million dollars? Sure, it’s the Oscar for Best Screenplay from 1941, and it was originally awarded to Citizen Kane, but it would probably be easier (and cheaper) to work your way through Hollywood and actually win an award of your own than it would be to pay this much for a pre-existing one. Plus, with this one you don’t even get to hit the red carpet, and where’s the fun in that?
The Godfather Script
Photo by Mike Segar/Landov
What Somebody Actually Paid: $312,800
What They Got: You can find a lot of expensive screenplays on the memorabilia market – people love to own a little bit of Hollywood history in the form of a script some intern probably thumbed through or a director spilled some coffee on one time. But this is an especially insane case, because not only is this one of the original screenplays for The Godfather, it was actually owned by Marlon Brando. Hence the six-figure price tag, which, given that it includes “17 pages annotated by Brando in pencil,” according to the auction notes, makes it a steal. It was an offer somebody with way too much money couldn’t refuse.
Captain America’s Peanuts
What Somebody Actually Paid: $500
What They Got: And for the thrifty nerd collector: A package of (fake) peanuts used for about three seconds in one scene in the recent Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger. These were up for sale at an auction that also had life-sized Iron Man costumes and stuff that went for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but there’s something about dropping even a few hundred dollars on something as miniscule as a pack of peanuts that nobody could possibly recognize as Captain America-related that seems extra ridiculous.
William Shatner’s Kidney Stone
Photo by Chris Polk/Getty Images
What Somebody Actually Paid: $25,000
What They Got: …William Shatner’s kidney stone. For $25,000. For real. There’s no punchline here. That actually happened.
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