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Man
offers water from the cup of The King on eBay:
Wade
Jones likes Elvis, but he insists he's just a casual fan.
That's why, after watching a grilled cheese sandwich thought
to be embedded with the image of the Virgin Mary fetch $28,000
on eBay, he decided to part with three tablespoons of water
from a cup Elvis Presley used during a concert.
"It's
one thing to be an Elvis fan, but then you tell them you have
this cup and water and they think you're a fanatic," he said.
"I'm not like the people bidding on this water." The high
bid on the online auction service as of early Saturday night
was $455 (the reserve price had been met so the cup will sell).
The auction closes shortly at 4:30 p.m (USA time) Christmas
Day.
Jones
was 13 when he went to see the aging Elvis in February 1977
at the old Charlotte Coliseum, which is now Cricket Arena.
He saw the pop icon drink from the cup while he introduced
the band. Jones went up to the stage after the show to see
if he could get a souvenir, perhaps a scarf Elvis would throw
to his audience. But police guarding the stage wouldn't give
him one.
Thinking
fast, he asked for the cup, and a police officer gave it to
him. As proof of its authenticity, Jones provides photos of
Elvis during the concert in which several plastic foam cups
can be seen on a stand behind him. Another photo shows Elvis
holding a plastic foam cup.
The
cup, covered in plastic wrap, stayed in Jones' parent's deep
freezer for eight years, until he moved out. He then decided
to melt the ice and keep the water in a sealed glass vial,
while putting the cup in a trunk with other memorabilia from
his childhood. Jones isn't giving up the cup just yet.
"I'm
kind of attached to the cup," he said. "I thought it was a
little quirkier to sell the water." Jones specializes in quirky
eBay sales. He once sold a high school annual from the 1940s
that he bought for about $1 at a thrift store for about $47
to a man whose father appeared in the book. He sold a 50-cent
manual on making surf boards for about $50, he said.
And
for those with suspicious minds, Jones says it's not just
about making money. "It's nice to get the money, but it's
also nice to see things that don't mean anything to you get
into the right hands," he said. e-bay, item number 3861592313.
(News/Odd Spot, Source: Charlotte.com)
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