You liked the movie? Now buy the shoelaces

November 28, 2006 1:44 PM

What is the best way to search for Celebrity owned or worn items on Ebay?

As part of an assignment for work I'm trying to see what Celebrities I can buy things from for less than 20 bucks. And by that I mean actual items or clothing that used to be theirs. Like for shirts worn by Tom Hanks. Or a book that was in Agatha Christie's library

So aside from searching each celeb one at a time what's the best way to go about it? Should I be going to a specific section or are there specific search terms I should use?

posted by rileyray3000 to shopping (5 comments total)

It's pretty unlikely you're going to find anything of interest for less than 20 dollars. You may come across some prop items but doubtful anything personal.
"Screen Used" and "Screen Worn" are good search terms to use. And your main category to browse would be Entertainment Memorabilia.

Look at auctions for charity for items that are more likely to be personal & authentic (but they'll be pricey).

Also, know that these things are really hard to verify and the COA's (cert. of authenticity) are worthless from most sellers.
posted by krix at 2:17 PM on November 28, 2006

You could use like.com and just lie to people about the authenticity. Then you could sell the same item multiple times. And your soul, to the devil.
posted by allkindsoftime at 3:07 PM on November 28, 2006

Proving provenance will not be easy. Counterfeiting of relics is a very old and profitable business.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:19 PM on November 28, 2006

When looking for unique eBay items for work (don't ask), I search for either "owned by" or "once owned by" or "was owned by" or "previously owned by" and I search in all categories. Make sure you search both the title and description and use double quotes. That seems to do the trick and usually only yields a few pages of results to sift through.
posted by plasticbugs at 3:53 PM on November 28, 2006

Search all categories for terms like

owned
worn
signed
manuscript
script
costume

Even terms like

genuine
authentic

will turn stuff up. Sort by highest/lowest price and you will see the best and worst of it (after significant sifting.) When you get a hit check the sellers other items, they are likely to be selling bundles of crap at a time.
posted by fire&wings at 5:16 PM on November 28, 2006