Pharrell's 'yard sale' auction — including a $2 million chain and a $45k gold-encased Blackberry - rakes in over $5 million in total sales
- Pharrell Williams announced the launch of his online auction house, Joopiter, in September.
- Among the items that went on the block were a gold-encased Blackberry that sold for $45,000 and a Louis Vuitton trunk that sold for $121,250.
Pharrell Williams' online closet clean-out racked up $5.25 million in total sales for his luxury — and quirky — "clutter" despite the site crashing on the original final day of the auction.
The music mogul announced the launch of his online auction site, Joopiter, in September, putting several personal items on the block. Some of the higher price tags included $62,500 for a pair of Oakley sunglasses, $121,250 for a Louis Vuitton trunk, and $2,184,00 for a necklace.
Bidding, which opened October 20, was scheduled to close Thursday, but hours after announcing its last call for bids via Instagram, the site reportedly shut down due to a "high volume of interest."
On Tuesday, the site reopened for final bids and closed around noon the same day.
As the hours of the online auction ticked down, the blinged-out sunglasses, a gold-encased Blackberry phone, and a diamond-encrusted dice set continued to attract top bids.
According to Joopiter's official site, most, if not all, of the items are products of Williams' years-long friendship with jeweler Jacob Arabo of Jacob & Co.
While the jewelry fetched the highest bids, even relatively mundane items — like a striped shirt Williams wore in a music video — went for no less than $1,000.
A portion of the $5 million proceeds will go to Williams' Black Ambition — a set of prizes meant to fund ideas and companies led by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs — to help launch a new business competition for Black and Latinx female business owners, according to a press release.
On Oct. 13, Williams invited famous friends to view the collection in his New York City showroom. Guests included rappers Tyler, the Creator, and Jaden Smith, and actor LaKeith Stanfield.
Williams expressed his need to declutter and begin "a new era" in a September Instagram post and in an interview with Financial Times.
"My business manager was like, 'Hey, at this point, you have 11 different storage units,'" Williams said in the interview.
In the FT report, Williams shared his plan to one day open the auction site to more collectors selling their luxury items.
"There's not really one size fits all," Williams said. "I'm not going to sell furniture on StockX. You know what I'm saying? I'm not going to sell, you know, 20-plus-carat diamond rings on (The) RealReal."