You can own Elvis Presley's motorcycle jacket

[Gamma68]

Well, a piece of it anyway. Bidding starts at $200.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/71093779_piece-of-elvis-leather-motorcycle-riding-jacket

 

[ProteinNerd]

...and he cut it up into small pieces to sell off individually?

Are we supposed to laugh or cry?

 

[TREEMAN]

...and he cut it up into small pieces to sell off individually?

Are we supposed to laugh or cry?

I don't think he did..........

 

[Gamma68]

Sounds like he cut it up for multiple sales. What a crime.

 

[willyto]

Errmmm nope.

I wouldn't care for it even if it was the actual jacket but this is beyond ridiculous.

 

[ton312]

I’d rather have a fat Elvis rhinestone onesie.

 

[navetsea]

the piece doesn't even have patina

 

[Just Jim]

Sounds like he cut it up for multiple sales. What a crime.

It was probably too small for him. I've got a few that I've considered doing the same thing with: wish I had as good a story behind the jacket!

 

[jacketjunkie]

I'm irritated by the greed that could someone drive to cut up a jacket like that in the hopes that single pieces make more money than the jacket as a whole.

 

[El Marro]

I'm irritated by the greed that could someone drive to cut up a jacket like that in the hopes that single pieces make more money than the jacket as a whole.

True, also the absolute stupidity of the person in question. I don’t believe that pieces of a destroyed jacket could be worth more than the complete jacket sold at auction. On the other hand I know that some fans regard Elvis as a deity and so maybe there is a market for these scraps. Either way it’s a damn shame.

 

[Lebowski]

Wrong thread, it should have been removed to
"Just when you thought you had seen it all . . . (Warning: Not for the fainthearted)" thread.
Then it might have any sense (if any).

 

[Edward]

True, also the absolute stupidity of the person in question. I don’t believe that pieces of a destroyed jacket could be worth more than the complete jacket sold at auction. On the other hand I know that some fans regard Elvis as a deity and so maybe there is a market for these scraps. Either way it’s a damn shame.

I'm reminded of the controversy some years ago when there was someone on the scene selling watch-straps made from genuine war-era issue A2s. I could see it having curio value if it had been a very badly damaged jacket that wasn't wearable - tough even then it would have been culturally, if not financially, far more valuable intact. It would have been interesting to see a photo of the actual jacket, too: I very much doubt it was the Perfecto style he wore in Roustabout - which is what is actually pictured in the frame with it. Difficult piece to authenticate I'd have thought, too...

 

[Seb Lucas]

That's really cool. I wonder if i could buy that and then get Johnson Lathers to restore it to its original look.

 

[nick123]

The hound dog chewed it up.

 

[rocketeer]

If it was a scam, how could you prove it? If it was legitimate how could you prove it? Even if the had a signed letter from the dead Pres himself how could you prove it unless the original had a noticable blemish that shows in photo's of Elvis wearing it?
If I got some similar old horse that these old Buco's or whatever maker used and cut it up, marinaded the leather in Harley chain lube I could possibly make a fortune.
P.s I know I said Buco but I don't know or care who made it, lets not go down the Brando jacket route and try carbon dating it while the Turin Shroud is having a brake from controversy

 

[rocketeer]

SACRILAGE! I have just noticed the big E is riding a Honda. Surely that makes it less valuable the a piece of the jacket he wore riding his Harley Davidson!

 

[Edward]

If it was a scam, how could you prove it? If it was legitimate how could you prove it? Even if the had a signed letter from the dead Pres himself how could you prove it unless the original had a noticable blemish that shows in photo's of Elvis wearing it?
If I got some similar old horse that these old Buco's or whatever maker used and cut it up, marinaded the leather in Harley chain lube I could possibly make a fortune.
P.s I know I said Buco but I don't know or care who made it, lets not go down the Brando jacket route and try carbon dating it while the Turin Shroud is having a brake from controversy

It is rather reminiscent of the bitsof thed Berlin wall you can still buy as tourist novelties in Berlin. It was a big wall, but by this point one rathe suspects it's been sold at least twice over....

SACRILAGE! I have just noticed the big E is riding a Honda. Surely that makes it less valuable the a piece of the jacket he wore riding his Harley Davidson!

Yes, afaik in his personal life Elvis always rode Harleys, but his character in Roustabout rides a Honda.... Hollywood, eh?

 

[rocketeer]

It is rather reminiscent of the bitsof thed Berlin wall you can still buy as tourist novelties in Berlin. It was a big wall, but by this point one rathe suspects it's been sold at least twice over....



Yes, afaik in his personal life Elvis always rode Harleys, but his character in Roustabout rides a Honda.... Hollywood, eh?

I had thought it a bit strange about the Honda, but then Japan was coming out of it's post WWII disaster and wanted to show the world what they were capable of, hence the Honda may have been a little product placing as they say these days.
Around the early 1960s we had Kyu Sakamoto singing the song Sukiyaki and the 1964 Olympic Games, a little later Bond had an updated Japan in You Only live Twice with that Toyota sports car that looked vaguely Corvette'ish.
As for the bits of the Berlin Wall haha, yes and I can't say I have not tried that but only in jest. I had a piece of railway coal from the locomotive Oliver Cromwell when it pulled into our depot. The Oliver Cromwell was to take the last scheduled passenger service before the abolition of steam traction under British Railways(sorry I won't go any further with facts on this). Under preservation it came to us for repairs and I grabbed a few bits of coal, each the size of a house brick and drilled a small hole in each. I then stuck a cocktail stick with a Union Jack flag into this hole and stuck it on my sales stand at an event with a photo of me, the fire woman(yes) with this lump of modern coal but no real details other than it came from Oliver Cromwell.
Yes it sold for a £5er believe it or not, enough for a bacon sandwich and a tea haha. But no I didn't bother repeating this as it was too dirty and messy to bother with.

 

[Edward]

One man's environmental pollutant is another's novelty souvenir... Hey, if I had Superman's grip, I'd have a regular deivery from the coalman, and my 'conflict-free' diamonds would be a thriving business....

I think the Japanese were pretty quick to jump on the post-war, product placement bandwagon. Of course, I imagnie it was also heavily aimed at the domestic market. The post war love-in for Americana among rebellious Japanese youth must have made Elvis a stellar endorsement deal for the home product ('turning rebellion into money', as a wise man would later say!). Course it was theearly seventies when the Japanese motorcycle industry really cmae into its own as an exporter, hardly a coincidence that this was also the era of signiicant decline for the British motorcycle, as well as a period acknowledge to have been one of poor QC at Harley. But then even in 1953, Brando was riding a Triumph, not a Harley, and half the BRMC were on Matchless bikes....