A Handful of Elon Musk Trinkets brought $165,000 at RR Auction on September 15th
- by Bruce E. McKinney
This image brought $9,375 at RR Auction Recently
Elon went to college at The University of Pennsylvania and left a thin scattering of mementos with a friend who recently decided to convert the car-maven’s fame into a fund to help her family to go to college. It was a marvelous idea, given the fickle nature of fame. The mean hourly wage in America, per the government’s current report, is $28.01 an hour or $58,260 for a year. By letting Elon’s trinkets go Jennifer Gwynne converted some 1994-1995 memories into 2.83 working years, giving her some time to enjoy life. Alternatively that money could buy 3 Tesla Model 3’s and one replacement battery, or pay most of a college education for her child.
Elon’s mementos included 33 items including 18 snapshots, a genuine 14-karat gold necklace with a very small emerald, a genuine slabbed note, as well as a couple of gobs of forgettables.
Which brings us to the question of the day. What will the long term chart look like for these items?
Probably not so good because it takes a certain genius to catch the attention, after which it becomes difficult to hold the audience’s focus.
Not so long ago the half-life of fame used to depend on print, later on television, and now the internet. Once, a limited number of gatekeepers controlled access. These days it’s chutzpah, style and speed that get you visibility. Then keeping the focus on you becomes a huge pressure.
Elon Musk was built for this moment.
Whether the do-dads hold their value will depend if Elon can keep the attention on himself.
Most who have experienced significant success instinctively have tried to keep it. A few succeeded but the buzz declines even as some are dying while trying. It’s obviously addictive and takes a lot to keep people’s attention.
However this works out, you’ll find the answers in Transactions+. What makes it into the rooms and what prices are paid will tell both the exhibitionists and the audiences if they are still at the top or in decline.
Net-net, I admire Jennifer Gwynne’s decision to sell. That means I suspect the next time Elan’s do-dads return to the auction rooms the prices will decline.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
