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Lost in Stuff


Dharma van.JPGAh, Lost. You’re a little like fake John Locke from Season 6: Gone, but still freakily among us somehow.

ABC’s landmark show ended months ago, but with the final season now out on DVD, Losties have been able to renew their obsession. But for some folks, plunking down $40 for the season (or about $50 if you’re into Blu-ray) just doesn’t do it. They want to get closer to the show—and spend more. Lots more.

Some Lost fanatics spent significant time and money this past weekend buying scads of old television props, scripts and assorted flotsam from the Lost auction, conducted by the auction house Profiles in History. More than a thousand bits of memorabilia were sold, including the Dharma van (pictured) for $47,500 (imagine pulling up to soccer practice in that), to Faraday’s Journal for $27,500,  to the Lost finale script—signed by show masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse—for $7,500. The outfit Jack wore during his tortured last moments of life on the island fetched $10,000—not too shabby, considering most bloodstained, tattered T’s wouldn’t fetch 10 cents at a thrift store.

Some other doo-dads were less expensive … but not by much. Thought Claire’s creepy squirrel baby was kinda cute? You could’ve bought it for your own bundle of joy for a mere $2,750. Want an official Dharma lab coat? One was purchased for $2,500. Lost your copy of Watership Down? Sawyer’s fetched a paltry $3,300—quite a bit for a paperback, it’s true, but you can’t put a price on good literature.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be the proud owner of Rousseau’s original music box from the flashbacks,” one Lost buyer, known only as Jenny K., told USA Today. “I know to those who don’t watch Lost it may seem a lot to pay $1,800 for a music box, but to me it is worth every penny. When I am old and gray in a nursing home one day, just put in a Lost tape, open my music box and see me smile.”

In all this frenzy stirred by Lost memorabilia, one might detect a touch of irony: One of the lessons passengers of Oceanic flight 815 might’ve taken from the island was that relationships bring happiness—not all the other stuff we tend to surround ourselves with.

But that said, I get it. I’m a “stuff” person, too. I don’t have the cash to buy mementos from Lost, but I’ve got my share of useless gunk I’m strangely happy to have. I own a football signed by a couple of famous Denver Broncos. I have some Colorado Rockies rookie cards. I’ve got a belt buckle that says “Media Champ”—a holdover from my days covering professional rodeo. And I’ve got lots of personal things, too—far more “valuable” to me, in many respects: old college papers, friendship bracelets made by some campers when I was a counselor, Hot Wheels cars I used to race with my best friend. They’re relics of earlier days. As such, they’re important to me—even if they’d not fetch much at auction.

I don’t like throwing stuff away. The stuff in itself isn’t all that important—but it does help remind me what is.