How Bizarre! Forbes Looks at 8 Weirdest of '06

Magazine finds auction sellers "Looking to Make a Shameless Buck"

Some bizarre items were put up for auction last year, reports Forbes Magazine. Sounding almost like Dana Carvey uttering "weird, wild stuff" in his famous Saturday Night Live impersonation of Johnny Carson, writer Marina Thompson on Sunday marveled at some of the unusual items that made 2006 a newsworthy and memorable year on the auction block.

Thompson notes that last year was certainly a big one for mega-rich art collectors, like cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, who purchased Gustave Klimt's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" for $135 million. As we reported last month, the global art market has seen a 10-year tripling of contemporary prices thanks to Lauder, David Geffen, Eli Broad and Hong Kong's Joseph Lau.

But Pablo Picasso's "Dora Maar au Chat" notwithstanding, it was some of the more ephemeral stuff that made last year such a rich one for auction fans not so, well, rich. How about a toilet once in the Red Sox dugout? Or Jake the hamster's soul?

Thompson notes that GoldenPalace.com, the top Internet casino, has made a name for itself buying some truly weird items, often selling then for charity. "You might remember GoldenPalace as the proud owner of the Virgin Mary grilled cheese," she notes.

Inspired to look further, Thompson ended up on eBay, where she says she found items listed by major auction houses and "Joe Schmoes."

"Some things sold for tens of thousands of dollars, some for under $10--some not at all. A couple of the items were gross, some were morbid, but all were downright strange," she says.

After assessing her discoveries, Thompson asserts the following as a common thread:

"It seems all of our sellers were looking to make a shameless buck; and while this is a pretty commonplace endeavor on eBay, we expected a bit more class from major auction houses!"

We're not sure if we should be offended by her critique, but we're sure you'll find some of the items on her list as puzzling as "No. 5, 1948" (pictured) by Jackson Pollock, and a lot less expensive.