Lovell apparently signed an affidavit that asserted he owned the title to the ring-bound checklist. However, NASA says that there is no indication that Lovell was ever assigned the title to the document. NASA’s legal eagle noted that only NASA has the right to sell NASA property.

The auction firm, Heritage Auctions, is keeping the document in its vault and has suspended the sale until the legal wrangling is over. Lovell had sold the checklist at the auction house for $380,000. Apollo 13 was the moon mission that had a tank explosion 200,000 miles from Earth, which forced the crew to return home. NASA is also disputing the legal right to several other space items Heritage Auctions has sold in the past.

[via ABCNews]

Robot builder Florida Robot built all but one of these robots, which include C-3PO, R2-D2, B9 from Lost in Space, Bender and a couple of others. Robby the Robot was already built by Fred Barton, but he modified it in order to “motorize and computerize some of his systems.” Apparently in need of some extra space in his house, these robot’s creator has put the entire robo-menagerie up for sale on eBay.

As you can see in the video above, both Robby and B9 light up in sync with audio tracks from a classic episode of Lost in Space, called “War of the Robots.” C-3PO, on the other hand, seems a bit more dignified. He’s got an awesome shiny vacu-metallized finish, and his eyes LED light up when someone approaches. Despite the fact that he’s supposed to be fluent in over 6 million languages, this 3PO isn’t talking, though.

And if that’s not the only droid you’re looking for, R2 is up for sale too.

He’s completely motorized, and can be driven remotely. His dome turns, his lights work, and he even makes all sorts of appropriately droidly sounds.

Now Bender, on the other hand. He seems too busy smoking and drinking to utter a word or even move. Still, he looks pretty cool just lazing around – though you might want to keep an eye on your valuables.

Last but not least in this awesome robo-collection are these boxy ‘bots who are inspired by an image on a 1958 issue of Fantastic Universe magazine, featuring a pair of robots sitting on a bench, waiting for the bus to come.

They’re also mechanical, and their heads move back and forth and eyes blink when a motion sensor detects someone approaching. They’re also completely charming.

Wow. I am so not adding that song to iTunes. That’s what you get when you let robots sing, I suppose. That and Mr. Roboto. I think all robot videos should actually be set to ELO’s Mr. Blue Sky.

But I digress. If you’re ready to adopt this lovingly-built family of robots (or you’re readying your own robot theme park), head on over to eBay and check out the auction now. The seller says that local pickup is available in Clearwater, Florida, and I can’t imagine how you’d ship these.

Yes, you heard me right. This awesome prop, created by special effect artist Robert Haiduga of Nephalim XFX is based on the T-800′s endoskeleton arm in Terminator 2, and it actually moves. This is a custom-built animatronic arm, and each joint moves thanks to a total of 12 servos. Movements are programmed on a PC and stored on an SD card. It even comes with sound effects to make it more authentic.

Including its base, the arm measures about 43 inches long, and appears to be made using metal components to really make it look like a robot. Each finger can move individually, and the wrist and entire arm can rotate as well. In action, it’s sufficiently freaky to induce nightmares. But enough talking, it’s time for showing. Here’s a video showing one of Nephalim’s Terminator arms in action:

Pretty awesome, no? So why aren’t there 1000 people lined up to buy one? Well, since each arm takes many, many hours to build, they’re not cheap. You’ll need to pony up $3600 (USD) if you want your very own Terminator arm. And then on top of that, you’ll need to spend millions on a security system to keep Skynet from stealing it.

[via eBay]

The madness didn’t stop there: other items auctioned off by Snail Games “included a sheath for Hook of Departure which was sold for $1,600 whilst a a Lordly Spear Sheath fetched $2,500. Other relatively modest purchases were made with pre-paid time cards amounting to just $15 whilst enhancement materials went for a mere $30.Meanwhile, rare mount that characters can take advantage of in the game cost an estimated $70 during the sale.” Suddenly that Diablo 3 Auction House makes a lot more sense.

…

Seriously though, how did we get to this? Are we that bored and sheltered that our priorities are now so skewed and misplaced? Or does that sword deal one-hit kills while leaving a trail of unicorn-riding strips of bacon in its wake?

[via Daily Mail via Slash Gear]

Not because I need it, but it’s also for charity (10% of the final sale price will be donated to the American Cancer Society) and it’s pretty darned cool. Of course, if I had that much money to throw around, I could probably also just have one drawn up and made for a tiny fraction of the price from some giant dryer hose. But just for private use, because the Human Slinky is probably already patented or something.

When you purchase the costume, you will also get the rights to perform the act under agreement, in addition to the costume itself. If you’re not into that, then you can just wear it during costume parties and Halloween. Six offers have been made so far for the costume, all of which have been rejected.

[via Reddit]

If the new owner is inspired to do so, he can make a movie of his own, although I suspect it will just be displayed as a trophy. Now if only we could find the original (unaltered) movie that was made with this camera.

[via Flavorwire via Neatorama]

The checklist calculations that commander James Lovell used to work out the spacecraft’s position and the angle to entry back into Earth’s atmosphere were hand written on this chart. One miscalculation and the astronauts would have been killed, so the data on this chart was instrumental in saving the astronauts’ lives.

This authentic original checklist recently grabbed over $380,000 (USD) at auction, making it the most expensive moon mission era item to never have landed on the moon.

[via The Australian]

Apparently, the thought is the contract will fetch in the area of $100,000 to $150,000 (USD). The document will be auctioned as part of the Fine Books and Manuscripts auction on December 13, 2011 in NYC. Sotheby’s books and manuscripts head says that the document is a foundational document in terms of tech history. The contract has the signatures of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

Every time I hear the name of the third Apple founder, I feel sorry for him. Wayne gave up his shares of Apple for a mere $2,300 back in the day. The shares would be worth somewhere around $2.6 billion today. The document showing Wayne’s departure and the first $800 payment is included with the auction. He would later receive another $1500 when they converted Apple from a partnership to a corporation.

[via PCMag]

Auction house Profiles in History plans on auctioning off several awesome and iconic props from the films including one of the seven DeLoreans used on screen during the trilogy – and one of only three which survived since filming.

This particular ride was in Back to the Future III, and is pimped out with 1950s electronic upgrades, and stylish whitewalls. In addition to the DeLorean, you’ll have a chance to score Marty McFly’s hideous cowboy outfit from BTTF III, Marty’s Mattel Hoverboard from BTTF II and III, and even Biff’s bad-ass “Pitbull” hoverboard.

In all, over 100 items from the films will be up for auction, including some futuristic Pepsi and Slice bottles, and the case from the Nike self-lacing shoes – in case you need some place to put those Nike MAGS you bought on eBay earlier this year.

The DeLorean is expected to fetch about half a million bucks, while Biff’s hoverboard should go for $15k to $20k. No word on an estimated price for the Mattel Hoverboard, though, but I’m going to guess it won’t be cheap.

If you want a shot at some of these awesome props, you’ll need to head to LA between December 15th and 17th for the Icons of Hollywood Auction for a chance to bid on these valuable bits of BTTF memorabilia. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Research, so it’s for a good cause, too.

[photos: Popculturegeek/Flickr]

But if you’ve got some serious money to blow, then you might want to check out this model Lamborghini Aventador that’s priced at at a cool $4.7 million. That’s no typo; this model car retails millions more than what the actual car will cost you (FYI, the real Lamborghini Aventador just costs $379,700.)

Pictured above and below is Robert Gülpen, who spent 500 hours building the model car that’s encrusted with $2.7 million worth of precious stones and metals.

The 1:8 replica of the Lambo Aventador is being auctioned off by Sotheby’s with a starting bid of €3.5 million (equivalent to about $4,789,000.) If someone bid for my model car at that insane amount, heck, I’d be flashing a smile that’s way bigger than the one Robert’s sporting.

[via OddityCentral via Oh Gizmo!]

That’s right, this 1′ x 1′ x 1′ cardboard head has been signed by none other than the creator of Minecraft himself, Markus Persson. Owning this would be like owning a human head that’s been signed by God. Actually that’s kind of a gross image, forget I said that. Minecraft! Cardboard! Awesome!

You can bid for the Notch-signed Minecraft cardboard head on eBay. Bidding starts at $150 (USD) as of this writing, but you can also buy it outright for $495 should you be so inclined.

[via gameSniped]

You might be wondering why Pirate used an old PS3 SKU instead of one of the newer Slim models. That’s because the PS3 Slim wasn’t around when Pirate started this project way back in 2008. Ben Heck must have made a ton of PS3 laptops in between now and then, but then again none of them are liquid cooled. Speaking of which, Pirate used Feser One Cooling Fluid in this project. Other specs include a 720p/1080i screen (not sure if it’s 15″ or 17″), 4 USB ports, 500GB HDD, and built-in keyboard and speakers. Unfortunately the PSU is separate from the main unit, so minus points for portability there…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

… Not that that prevented Pirate from making a tidy sum of money out of his creation – the winning bid on eBay was $2,000 (USD). Although if you think of it, after putting in three years of blood, sweat and tears into the laptop, $2,000 sounds just about right. Check out PS3HAX and Pirate’s work log for more info.

[via HacknMod]

Attributed to Freres Rochat, a 19th century Swiss workshop specializing in automata, these “Singing Bird Pistols” are not only extremely rare – they are feats of craftsmanship and engineering.

The pistols sold for $5,841,610 on May 30, 2011, a price tag that Christie’s claims is the “highest result for an individual lot sold at any watch auction in Asia”, although I’m not sure why the pistols were included in a watch auction.

[via Boing Boing]

A wealthy collector from Asia decided that this camera was worth a lot more than its estimated price, which is between $500,000 and $650,000. The auction took just 2 minutes, and a private collector almost put down two million for this camera.

Here’s a video of the action-packed auction:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

And I thought that Hasselblads were expensive. Apparently, this camera was one of the first exported to New York in 1923.

I guess some people have money to burn, but even if I did, I’d never spend this much on a camera that will probably sit in some display case somewhere and sold once again in a few years. Ah well, the life of the rich and famous.

[via Leica Rumors]

I’m not saying that these shoes are ugly, just that the supposed crossover – the very reason why these shoes are rare – reeks of laziness. No PlayStation color scheme or graphics. Just one square patch of the classic PS Logo, which even looks out of place if you ask me.

But based on rarity alone, these are a must-have for Air Force 1 collectors or PlayStation devotees. According to the seller, these shoes never went on sale; they were released in 2006 but were given only to “Nike/Sony Friends & Family”. Only 150 pairs exist – for two big corporations, Nike and Sony sure have a small social circle. If you’re interested, be quick and head to eBay. Bidding is already up to $780 (USD) and rising.

[via GameSniped]

One of the more interesting items is a page from a Playboy calendar that flew on the moon mission as a prank. The naughty bits are blocked out above to make it safe for work, but the full version is up for auction. There are also all sorts of interesting items that are being auctioned. One of the coolest is an American flag that went to the moon with Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11.

The minimum bid for that flag, which is mounted on a card and autographed by Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, is set at $2,500. That centerfold will cost you at least $1,000. The instrument panel from a training device will set you back at least $1,000.

[via TGDaily]

From what I can tell, only about 10 of these machines were ever made, and they lived within the walls of Apple. Now, if you’ve got deep enough pockets, you could be the proud owner of one of these extreme rarities. Apparently, these machines were built for the Macintosh R&D team at Apple to verify the placement of internal components, and never were intended for production.

This particular see-through Mac SE is being offered over on eBay with a starting bid of a whopping $25,000 (USD). For that price, you could buy a pretty nice car. Or 50 iPads. And this transparent Macintosh doesn’t even boot up properly. The guy selling it says it’ll boot off of the 800k floppy drive only. And being such a rarity, I’d doubt that cracking it open and fixing the hard drive would be good for its resale value.

Imagine if they had actually released this thing back when it was made. What if it came out and bombed? Would the transparent iMac have ever seen the light of day?

It was announced today that Christie’s will be auctioning off one of these extreme rarities on November 23 in London. The particular Apple-1 system for sale is serial number 82, and includes all original packaging, instructions, a cassette interface, the sales invoice, and a “tech support” letter signed by Steve Jobs himself. The shipping box even has a return address of Jobs’ parents’ house.

Christies expects the machine to sell for somewhere between $161,000 and $242,000 (USD). Considering that the system originally sold for $666.66 back in 1976, I’d say that’s a mighty fine return on investment. Although the same amount in Apple stock purchased when they first went public would probably be worth nearly as much.

[via Pursuitist]

The entire Fortress rig is available now over on eBay. Scott built the diorama in an “L” shape, but says it could be modified to fit another setting too. It’s made from a wooden base, with three sizes of paper “crystal” tubes that slide over acrylic mounts. There are also a number of LEDs throughout the setup to make the whole thing glow.

As an added bonus, the Fotress includes a clear plastic “hologram” mask of Jor-El (or is it Marlon Brando?) to hang on your wall – or to wear on your face if you’re into such things. There are currently no bids on the Fortress, and Scott will let the whole thing go for a Buy it Now price of $450. Keep in mind that since this thing will be difficult to transport, he’d prefer a local pickup somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Check out the auction here.

Ok, not the entire store, but everything inside the store, including a veritable crap-ton of video games, accessories and display units, including “allot (sic) of vintage items that are hard to find.”

The list includes thousands of games for the NES, SNES, N64, Game Boy, GBA, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation, PS2, PS3, PSP, SEGA Genesis, Atari 2600, Xbox, Xbox 360, and Wii among others.

The guys selling this lot say there’s over $60,000 worth of inventory, and they’ll ship it up to 750 miles from its current Grand Junction, Colorado location to the winning bidder. Get in on the bidding action over on eBay now and make your best offer – or just pony up $30k now, and it’s all yours.