Anything that's part of you II (but only if it really is part of you)

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Well wouldn't you know it, hair authenticators can't always be trusted. Those scoundrels at Mastro Auctions (I must emphasize these are not the good people of Julien's Auctions discussed in an earlier post) have just been done for selling hair that wasn't Elvis'. They did it first in 2003, but were caught out after the buyer's DNA tests proved the hair of questionable origin. But then, they did it again in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. How much hair can one auction house questionably sell? Brings the whole hair authentication business into disrepute. Well justice is done. They face up to 20 years in prison. Well fraud is a hairy business if you cut it too fine. Even by a whisker.

Grave business

And I also reported on efforts to auction Elvis' crypt by Julien's Auctions. Uproar across the Elvis community ensued, with fans demanding the crypt be kept as a shrine to the King. Well, Darren Julien proved himself a fine kind of an auctioneer by pulling the crypt from the auction. I can report however, that the authenticated hair went for $4160 while the x-ray went for $9375, a good $3k more than expected. Unexpected hit of the day was Elvis' nice beige boxed phone which wet for $20,480, $15k more than the estimate.

Calling Elvis