U.S. Water News Online
BELMONT, N.C. -- Wade Jones likes Elvis, but he insists he's just a casual fan.
That's why, after watching a grilled cheese sandwich thought to be embedded with the image of the Virgin Mary fetch $28,000 on eBay, he decided to part with three tablespoons of water from a cup Elvis Presley used during a concert.
"It's one thing to be an Elvis fan, but then you tell them you have this cup and water and they think you're a fanatic," he said. "I'm not like the people bidding on this water."
The winning bid on the online auction service was $455.
Jones was 13 when he went to see the aging Elvis in February 1977 at the old Charlotte Coliseum, which is now Cricket Arena. He saw the pop icon drink from the cup while he introduced the band. Jones went up to the stage after the show to see if he could get a souvenir, perhaps a scarf Elvis would throw to his audience.
But police guarding the stage wouldn't give him one. Thinking fast, he asked for the cup, and a police officer gave it to him.
As proof of its authenticity, Jones provides photos of Elvis during the concert in which several plastic foam cups can be seen on a stand behind him. Another photo shows Elvis holding a plastic foam cup.
The cup, covered in plastic wrap, stayed in Jones' parent's deep freezer for eight years, until he moved out. He then decided to melt the ice and keep the water in a sealed glass vial, while putting the cup in a trunk with other memorabilia from his childhood.
Jones isn't giving up the cup just yet.
"I'm kind of attached to the cup," he said. "I thought it was a little quirkier to sell the water."
Jones specializes in quirky eBay sales.
He once sold a high school annual from the 1940s that he bought for about $1 at a thrift store for about $47 to a man whose father appeared in the book. He sold a 50-cent manual on making surf boards for about $50, he said.
And for those with suspicious minds, Jones says it's not just about making money.
"It's nice to get the money, but it's also nice to see things that don't mean anything to you get into the right hands," he said.
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