MrBeast, top YouTube stars sell their scraps in online auction

Bidders accustomed to buying prized art or luxury goods were recently introduced to a new category of coveted items at auction: mementoes from the world’s most popular internet stars.

Personal belongings from YouTube sensations like MrBeast, 16-year-old beauty mogul Salish Matter and FaZe Rug, a former member of the influencer group FaZe Clan, were sold in June in an online bidding frenzy hosted by Goldin.

One buyer paid US$7,000 (S$9,000) for a half-eaten In-N-Out Double-Double burger from FaZe Rug, who has nearly 30 million YouTube subscribers and whose real name is Brian Awadis. The burger, preserved in resin to prevent mould and decay, was mounted on a wooden plaque in an acrylic case to make it display-ready.

A well-worn Yankees hat, Nike sneakers and T-shirts belonging to MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber on the planet, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, drew more than 100 bids and generated nearly US$8,000 in sales. A hooded sweatshirt belonging to Matter, who doodled her name across the chest, sold for more than US$1,500. 

While still a pittance compared with the millions spent on other tech-related prizes in recent years, including a rare copy of a Super Mario Bros video game and a non-fungible token of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet, the market for old hamburgers and worn-out clothing offers further evidence that YouTube, in particular, has minted a new generation of celebrities with serious star power. 

“People are buying this for the conversational value, for the social media value, for the clout among their friends,” said Ken Goldin, founder of the auction house bearing his name, which was acquired by eBay in 2024. 

Goldin’s first YouTubers live auction was held in partnership with Airrack – another top YouTube creator whose real name is Eric Decker – who took the objects while shooting a viral video in which he purportedly breaks into the homes of fellow YouTube stars as a prank.

Airrack auctioned off his own personal Pizza Hut card for nearly US$4,500, a one-of-a-kind card awarded to him for breaking the Guinness World Record for making the world’s largest pizza and granting him unlimited pies for life.

For years, auction houses like Julien’s, Heritage and Pharrell Williams’ Joopiter have tried to differentiate themselves from more traditional rivals like Sotheby’s and Christie’s by focusing on celebrities, pop culture or sports memorabilia.

Selling items from YouTube creators offers a slight twist that Goldin believes could be the start of an entirely new collectible category. 

YouTubers, especially those who do long-form videos, represent a new form of talent akin to what television actors and movie stars meant to prior generations, Goldin said. Auctioning coveted objects that appear in YouTube videos from creators with millions of followers, or billions of views, is not all that different from selling the clothes that Matthew Broderick wore in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), he added.

“I honestly think this stuff is going to be treated like if somebody went to an NBA game and got a hat signed by Jalen Brunson, or was given a signed basketball,” said Goldin, who stars in the Netflix series King Of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch (2023). He envisions collectors using a display case for MrBeast’s tattered Yankees cap or FaZe Rug’s dishevelled meat patty, which he called “the ultimate conversation piece”.

The auction garnered around US$25,000 on just a handful of items during a two-week run in June, and the proceeds were donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It was a “very small test” that could be a template for future creator-driven auctions and inspire competitors to follow suit in an emerging genre, Goldin said. 

Goldin is already on the hunt for the next iteration of FaZe Rug’s partially nibbled In-N-Out burger. He is now working with Logan Paul, the influencer and pro wrestler who is an investor in the auction house, and told Bloomberg that he recently presented Paul with a pitch. 

“I said, I’m going to need you to take a bite out of a cheesesteak, and I’m going to have to petrify it and sell it,” Goldin said. He may not be joking. BLOOMBERG