People Pay Insane Amounts For Things Touched By Famous People
This might be a possible passive income stream…
When NFL great Tom Brady sat on a beach three days ago to announce his retirement from football after 22 seasons, I suspect that he did not think that his momentous Instagram announcement would spur some enterprising entrepreneurs into action.
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Only a few days had elapsed before EBay lit up with advertisements for bottled sand from the exact spot that he sat on while making this announcement — his second retirement from the NFL. These ranged from $0.99 to US $99,900. This second advertisement included a photo of an edition of the New York Times dated the day of his retirement (Tues. 1st February) and the jar of sand for sale at what looks like the exact spot where he sat during his announcement video.
I am not suggesting placing an order for this once-in-a-lifetime offer (which has had 124 bids at the time of writing), but this entrepreneurial approach to making a potential five-figure amount from a visit to a sandy beachy spot makes me think.
I know that there are many writers here on Medium sharing great strategies for creating income streams. How about looking to see which current NFL legends are nearing the end of their careers, following them on social media, and then, if possible, going to the exact spot they made their announcements and collecting “saleable merchandise” from it? Some suggestions might be Anthony Barr (Cowboys), Calais Campbell (Ravens), and Robbie Gould (49ers).
In India, a good strategy might be to keep an online eye on potentially-retiring cricketers like Ishant Sharma, Kedar Jadhav and maybe Shikhar Dhawan, to see if they choose publicly-accessible sites when they announce their retirements, or to look at the background where they were when their announcements are made, to see if there is a coffee cup or cutlery there which might be merchandise-worthy…
Hopefully, this would not involve entering a highly-secure estate containing 18 hungry Dobermanns (not recommended).
Insane saleable items
In 2000, a wad of Britney Spears’ used chewing gum from a concert at Wembley Stadium in London was listed for $14,000 on EBay.
Also in 2000, Justin Timberlake left behind two slices of partly-munched singed French toast after an interview at New York radio station Z-100. An opportunity was spotted by the DJ, who put the meal remains on eBay, with a young fan winning the hot bidding war. The price? US $1025.
A woman in the US, in 2004, got a sale of US $28,000 when she placed her 10-year-old grilled sandwich, with a bite taken out of it, on EBay, saying it contained an image of the Virgin Mary — she also said that, after this time, it did not contain mold. Make up your mind if it is worth this…
In 2015, a Perth (Australia) man, looking to start over after a painful marital breakup, put his entire life, including his home, car, and jet ski, up for auction on EBay, expecting to receive over $390,000 for the lot.
Closer to home (in fact in our home), our son has developed a hankering for esophagus-searing snack Takis, becoming tired of the two varieties available in our city of Adelaide (Australia). Unfortunately, ordering other volcanic flavours from the US would set us back about $73 for 1lb (0.45kg).
In conclusion
While it may be tempting to follow soon-to-retire sports stars around online and maybe try to become a DJ (good luck…), I will continue to write (something I love to do), keeping in mind that, while eBay looks like an opportunity, there are restrictions to what can be sold, as a 10-year-old girl in the UK found out in 2009, when she put her grandmother up for auction, with bids reaching £20,000. eBay informed her that it violated their policies (human trafficking). It was meant as a joke.
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