Elvis collector Jim Curtin currently sells his Elvis collection trying to win back his girlfriend after she warned him, "You leave the Elvis clothes or I'll leave you." The auction house picked up 600 cartons of memorabilia from his house.
Items auctioned in Beverly Hills included three Elvis concert suits, two of which sold for $125,000 (euro103,365) and $50,000 (euro41,346), said Alan Lipkin, senior vice president of Regency-Superior, which organized the online auction. The third suit was still on the auction block.
Also sold were necklaces Elvis gave to girlfriends and friends, cufflinks he received from President Richard Nixon and belt buckles he wore, Lipkin said. About 90 percent of the keepsakes were sold by early Sunday evening, with the auction continuing into the night.
Curtin's collection also included signed records, thousands of photos and two original ticket stubs to a 1956 episode of "The Ed Sullivan Show" on which Elvis appeared. The stubs sold for $19,000 (euro15,712). An autographed 78 rpm single of "You're a Heartbreaker" sold for $10,000 at auction.
Total auction sales wouldn't be tabulated until Tuesday, but organizers estimate the take could reach $2 million (euro1.65 million).
After reading this, the girlfriend mentioned above reacted as follows:
"I saw this page and just had to post and make my peace.
I don't know how this entire scenario of "selling his collection to win back his girlfriend" and "sell or else" came about!
Believe me I am more shocked to hear about this than anyone in this entire world!!
The fans that know me, even if a little, know that I love Elvis as much as the next fan .. but Jim's collection was NEVER an issue nor the reason for my leaving him.
In fact I put myself up to help him with his archives, his books, his collection, his website among hundreds of other things.
I was the one who even initiated the ideas for several of his books believing they would be well received by the fans: me included!
My issues were with Jim personally and solely at how he was as a person in our personal relationship!
There are millions of people who have experienced breakups, separations, divorces. This is NOT a first nor will it be the last.
It was not an easy decision for me, but one I had to do for the sake of me and my sanity.
During my time with Jim, I always told him that he should go to his grave with that suit Elvis gave him.
He had his moments over the years we were together where he got fed up with how publishers and business people treated him and Elvis fans, and that discouraged him immensely.
Who was there to console him and talk him out of this thinking? ME!
There were more times than I could count, that he wanted to dump the whole collection and be gone with all the "Elvis BS" as he called it.
I told him he needed to hold onto it because it was his life and life's work.
After our split I had almost no contact with him for obvious reasons. I never knew he was selling until I heard the news the other day and it shocked me. Especially the part of him selling it for the sake of getting me "his girlfriend" back.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but after three years of being apart, a girl is no longer a girlfriend and what he does he does for himself only!
He knows that life moved on for me, and that I am happily engaged to truly a wonderful man (and he doesn't have a collection or the money Jim now has).
I will not sit back anymore and continue to read these stories about how I forced his hand to sell or else I would leave him and how I am going to spend his money!
Never once had I given or presented him with an ultimatum of selling his collection in order to keep me.
He did this over THREE years after we split and of his own accord because he was sick of being POOR and in debt when everyone in the Elvis world thought he was RICH.
I was with his during his most dire of situations, sacraficing myself entirely -- and walked out without taking or asking for one dime.
All I want is to live my life in peace, the way normal people live, and to be allowed to be happy with the choices I made (neither of which I regret)."