You don't need us to tell you that there's a huge secondary market for sports memorabilia - especially old sports memorabilia. A program from a notable baseball match or Super Bowl final can be worth hundreds of dollars, and sometimes more. A ball from a famous game, a used and certified shirt or jersey, a famous boxer's gloves from a well-known match; those are the kinds of things which we expect to attract a high price. We'd probably pass on the humble old poster, though. More fool us.
The highest price we know of for a poster is $61,000. It was a very specific poster, admittedly - an ultra-rare Cracker Jack poster that had been sitting in a barn since 1915, and was still in excellent condition. The owner of the barn had a friend who collected baseball cards, and tipped him off that it was probably valuable. Even he couldn't believe the auction price it reached, though. Do you have any in the attic?
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.