SHINY THING$ 0141 ✨

This past Wednesday, a Stegosaurus skeleton, nicknamed “Apex,” sold for a record $44.6M at Sotheby’s, blowing the roof off the initial $4-$6M estimate. The buyer was reported to be hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin (a man who also purchased an original copy of the US Constitution for over $40M a couple years back). 

Dinosaurs have been a central piece of the Rally portfolio with multiple examples on the platform - a unique collectible, and an even more unique “investment.” 

They have all the elements of collectibility that make them appealing to the masses: history, scarcity, and the type of universal relevance that will outlive all of us. But should they sit in the homes of billionaires, treated as a trophy? They aren’t a painting or a trading card… they were never really intended to be collected in the first place.

But thats kinda what makes them special.

In this weeks edition of Shiny Thing$, we take a look at a few very valuable items that were definitely never meant to be collected. In some cases, they’re pretty mundane every day objects. But as the prices show, the public had other ideas…

Biggie’s Plastic Crown - $595K

One of the most iconic images in music history has become the March 1997 photo of rapper The Notorious B.I.G, taken by photographer Barron Claiborne. The portrait, shot 3 days before the death of the rapper, was titled “King of New York,” and as such, Barron brought some royal props for use in the photos. He claimed to have bought the centerpiece of the portrait, the costume crown, for $5 earlier that week. 

In September 2020, Notorious B.I.G.'s plastic crown sold for $594,750 at Sotheby’s, far exceeding its low estimate of $200,000. The crown was the featured lot in Sotheby's first auction entirely dedicated to hip-hop memorabilia.

This would be the last official portrait ever taken of the Brooklyn rapper. And little known fact - Rally was the underbidder. We were really, really close. 

Marilyn Monroes X-Rays

It’s extremely rare that physicians notes or patient x-rays and information would ever leave a hospital and wind up in the hands of the public. But in 2013, a set of six x-rays and a full file of a doctor’s hand written notes with patient details and a partial medical history of Marilyn Monroe sold for $45,000 via Julien’s auction house - doubling their initial estimate. 

Of note, the medical history confirmed speculation that the star underwent cosmetic surgery after a 1945 visit to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. The procedure, an implant in Monroe’s chin, was part of fan speculation around Monroe’s appearance for years, and cosmetic surgery procedures in general were extremely rare at the time. 

Zuck’s Little League Card: $120K

Baseball cards are big business, but this one is a bit different. An 8 year old Mark Zuckerberg took it upon himself to get a custom trading card made, then signed it, then gave it to his “favorite camp counselor” at the time, Allie Tarantino of White Plains NY, in 1992.

Along with the scribbled “Mark Zuckerberg” in pen on the front, is a reverse side with the Meta founder and CEO’s stats - the 3’ 11” righty infielder batted an incredible .920 in the 1992 season, with only a single homerun to show for it. The Dobb’s Ferry Red Robins finished 8-8, and apparently made the playoffs with that .500 record. 

The card, which was graded “A” for authentic by SGC sold in September of 2022 for $120,750 at auction via ComicConnect.

14th Century Blank Paper: $14K

The average cost of a standard weight piece of writing paper today is around $.04. This sheet costs just under $14,000.

The roughly 11 inch sheet is dated to the mid 1300s - a time when paper was only available (and “affordable”) to members of the clergy. These particular sheets come from a private collection and was available starting around 2010 in a German specialties shop called The Golden Store. Each page is watermarked, and only a limited amount were available for purchase by the sheet. 

Paper production wouldn’t reach scale for over a century after these sheets were produced, when England began making large supplies of paper in the late 15th century (and supplied the US colonies). 

Until Next Week…