Of the many major collectibles offered as part of Christie's "Handbags x HYPE" auction, the inimitable bulletproof DONDA vest that Kanye himself wore in a livestream was perhaps the most desirable, though who could've predicted its record-smashing gavel price?
Kanye merch is a dime a dozen these days, though it remains plenty popular with Yeezy obsessives. This vest, signed and worn by Ye himself, is arguably the ultimate collectible for fans, right up there with the LV Don sneakers and Pastelle samples.
A reseller originally acquired the DONDA vest after the DONDA concert in Atlanta, swiftly flipping it for a cool $20k.
The vest's buyer apparently sought an even bigger payday and shipped it over to Christie's for the "Handbags x HYPE" auction. Smart move, because the unique collectible — which comes with an accompanying one-of-one NFT of itself — achieved a whopping $75,000 in the sale.
It seems fair to assume that the vest's most recent owner created that 1-of-1 non-fungible token especially for this auction, which adds a kinda strange dual angle to the sale in that the person who coughed up $75k basically got both the real vest and a digital version that Kanye had nothing to do with.
Still, the sale demonstrates how deep Yeezy devotion goes, if the swarms of blacked-out Instagram avatars weren't obvious enough.
Fans were willing to shell out upwards of $500 for tickets to Kanye and Drake's Free Larry Hoover benefit concert, rather than simply simply livestreaming the affair.
Meta analysis aside, $75k is a pretty insane figure for any musician-related merch. For comparison, one of Kurt Cobain's OG cardigans went for the same sum, though the shaggy number that the Nirvana frontman wore on his iconic MTV: Unplugged appearance went for way more.
