Music

Ex-roommate is selling Kurt Cobain's belongings on Craigslist

by Mark Teo

While Kurt Cobain’s hometown—Aberdeen, for those wondering—is busying itself by building monuments to the late Nirvana singer, others are hoping to make buck off his demise. Yesterday, an anonymous poster (who claimed to be a one-time roommate of the “Serve the Servants” singer) appeared on Seattle’s Craigslist claiming to be hawking Cobain’s leftover belongings from the ’90s—and he’s selling memorabilia for outrageously low prices.

The merchandise in question? This set of $800 skis, which Cobain supposedly learned to ski on:

This $575 Swatch phone, which Cobain allegedly used to call record execs in L.A.:

And this $425 portable game console, which, apparently, Cobain played in his downtime.

Of course, there’s no way of verifying if Cobain actually owned these items. The anonymous poster claims that he has photos of Kurt using each of the artifacts, although we’ve still yet to see them posted publicly. It could, of course, be a Seattle-area scammer looking to hawk off his garbage for exorbitant prices.

If the items are genuine, the prices are a steal: Lest we forget, John Lennon’s tooth cost $32,000, while Freddy Mercury’s old car costs $17,000. A few hundo for Kurt’s phone seems completely reasonable.

On his end, the poster claims that he was, indeed, the onetime roommate of Cobain. In fact, the poster claims he once shared a music scene with the singer—he claims he was once a member of grunge band Gruntruck, a band who once supported Pantera on their Vulgar Display of Power tour.

The posting claims that Cobain left these items a collateral—after he came up short with rent, he left the phone, skis, and game with his roommates, to be re-purchased later. He never came back.

So, what do you think? Is dude a scammer—or would you get bidding on some real-deal Kurt Cobain memorabilia Judge for yourself. Here’s the Craigslist posting in full:

“Hey Seattle what’s up, I used to live with Kurt Cobain back in the 90s and I have been holding on to a bunch of his stuff that he left in a box when he moved out. He owed us rent and said he would get the box when he came back and gave us money but he never came back, then when he was famous he never really talked to any of us again because courtney never liked us but she’s a dick so no hard felings. 

i am sure it would be easy for you to think that this stuff is fake, but i have pictures of kurt with some of it and i have som friends that will talk to you that will say that this is kurts stuff. we lived together in capitol hill and for a short time in olympia, i was in some very popular bands back then but now i am not playing any music anymore, but if anybody reading this wants to jam, let me know heh heh.some of this stuff is pretty historical as he was using it whem he was signing his first record contracts, like the phone i know i think he used to talk on the phone to people in LA. that is why it is expensive.the Swatch phone is a twin phone which means that two people can talk on it at the same time, i remember in the commercials that two people would talk on it at the same time, like a girl would listen in while the other girl was talking, it is in really good condition and is $575.Kurt was learning to skii when i met him, we went to mount baker a few times to hit the slopes, these are his skiis but i do not have the poles or anything. the bindings are pretty loose but they are good skiis, but of course they are a lot cooler because they are kurts. They are $800This TOMY game is called “kingman” and is kindof like donkey kong. kurt liked to play this game a lot, it is in good condition but there is some corossion near the battery part. it is still cool tho, and you can have it for $425.

I am willing to meet in belltown near the croc or at the sculpture park, but you can also come to my apartment if you are interested in these items. i also have a lot more stuff of kurts, like magazine and clothes that i will be selling off soon. thank you for looking.”

UPDATE: This story has been unveiled as a delicious, elaborate joke engineered by Sub Pop’s Derek Erdman.

“Friday morning, right after I got to work. I was supposed to be working on something else that I haven’t been able to get into, so I created a diversion. Then I ignored it and went back to work,” he told Revolt. “A few hours later I did an interview with CBC radio about it. Later that night I met a TV news crew (with cameras!) at the aforementioned Safeway for an interview, but they called my bluff and asked for ID. I told them that I was a one time bass player for 90s band Gruntruck. They didn’t buy it, and they were visibly not happy about me wasting their time, I was wearing a flannel shirt though.
”

Then, asked if anyone wanted to buy the skis, he responded, “FUCK YES, THEY WANT THEM BAD. They also want that video game. I’ve gotten a lot of replies from ‘serious collectors’ and people who will pay for shipping. Have you ever shipped skis? That sounds like it would be really difficult. Not too many people wrote about the Swatch phone, which was surprising…. I don’t have that stuff, I just found those photos on the internet. If I had a Swatch phone, there’s no way that I’d sell it.”