- NVDA
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The investable market for C-suite memorabilia may be about to heat up a lot further.
On July 17, a signed Tom Ford leather jacket worn by Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang sold at Sotheby’s for $960,000 — a staggering 16 to 24 times its pre-auction estimate of $40,000 to $60,000.
It attracted 45 bidders and 65 bids. The winning bidder has not yet been identified.
Huang wore the jacket at Foxconn Tech Day in Taipei in October 2023. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Edge Institute, a nonprofit that funds fellowships, grants, and residencies for innovators.
“I think you’re just seeing the start of this for anything that is culturally relevant. I mean, we’ve seen it with declarations of independence. You’re talking dinosaur bones too, right?” The Realest founder Scott Keeney, better known in collectible circles as DJ Skee, said on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid (video above).
“Like things that have this intrinsic value and that have cultural cachet, it’s no different than art in my eyes,” he added.
While the Huang jacket sale is noteworthy, it takes a back seat to some of the pieces tied to Apple’s (AAPL) history.
In January, a rare Apple-1 prototype board believed to have been used by co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak during the tech giant’s earliest days sold for roughly $2.7 million. It represented one of the most valuable pieces of Apple history ever auctioned.
Collectors have also paid large sums for documents tied to Apple’s founding, including one of the earliest Apple Computer checks signed by Jobs and Wozniak, which fetched about $2.4 million in January.
Other artifacts from the company’s startup era, including furniture and equipment connected to Apple’s formative years, have attracted intense bidding as investors and enthusiasts seek tangible pieces of Silicon Valley history.
Added Keeney on the broader collectibles market, “I think there might be [a bubble] in certain sectors. Like you see certain things like anything else that are overvalued, but we believe actually memorabilia is wildly undervalued.”
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Brian Sozziis Yahoo Finance’s Executive Editor, host of thePower Players with Brian Sozzipodcast, and a member of Yahoo Finance’s editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X@BrianSozzi,Instagram, andLinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email [email protected].
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