Buzz Aldrin's Congressional Gold Medal gets auctioned off, 7/26/22

Buzz Aldrin just auctioned off a bunch of stuff at Sotheby's today. Aldrin over the decades has been the Pete Rose of the space artifact field, e.g. selling everything, and allegedly claiming items to be flown that allegedly are not. However, just looking at his age, 92, and the contents of the auction, it appears to me that the items that were just auctioned off were the most important remaining parts of his collection.

Amongst the items auctioned off today were Aldrin's New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal, one of four in existence. The other three were given to Apollo 11 crewmates Armstrong and Collins, and the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn. The estimate was $20,000 - $30,000. With commission it went for $226,800. Here's the link to the Lot, with assorted pictures:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auc...w-frontier-congressional-gold-medal?locale=en

 

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Holy smokes! The 226k hammer wasn’t your buddy was it, Sky?

 

Why would the low end estimate be less than melt value??

 

He was betting on baseball from the moon??

Just kidding, couldn't resist.

 

???

The LOW end estimate was $20,000.

 

Not quite...

My eldest got married in late April. Needless to say, a wedding chews up your disposable income (and savings) quite nicely.

She asked me to wear my kilt to the wedding...

 

16 oz of gold at $1700 is over $20k, unless I’m reading the description wrong, which I probably am due to exhaustion and beer…

 

I also read it as 16+ oz of 22kt AU.

 

I'm getting married in October.... should have just eloped. The cost is ridiculous and so is the stress!

 

Nice story! I met Buzz once. He had no idea who I was! But now I can always say "Hey Buzz" from across the room when (if) I ever see him again!!!

Nice kilt!!! Beautiful wedding pic for your daughter! Congrats.

@Evan8 congrats too. You'll rebuild that savings account in no time! Eloping just results in delaying the cost - you'll eventually have a formal party to celebrate anyway and that'll cost ya!!!

 

3" diameter works out to exactly correct for 16.43 ounces of gold if it's 1cm thick - I had to check if the weight was off. I scrolled through some of the other items and quite a few of them went for 10x the estimate. His medal of freedom had the same 20-30k estimate range and sold for $277,200.

 

@hotwheelsearl @masterswimmer @KBBPLL You all are right!!! For some reason I missed the 1 in front of the 6.43 ounces. Sorry!!! Ahhh, the joys of senility...