Auction bids surpass $1,700 for paper cup allegedly used by Elvis Presley
TULSA, Okla. -- A paper cup allegedly used by Elvis Presley six decades ago in Oklahoma is up for auction, and bids have already surpassed $1,700. It's being sold by North Carolina resident Wade Jones, a collector of all things Elvis.
He tells the Tulsa World that the crumpled blue-and-white Dixie cup was snagged by a fan in April 1956 after Elvis performed at the Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion.
Jones says the fan, a young woman named June, retrieved the cup the day after the performance, right before Elvis left town for a show in Oklahoma City. A letter accompanying the collector's item says June had asked to keep the cup "as a little memento."
Bids for the now-yellowed and flattened paper cup surpassed $1,750 on eBay by Friday afternoon.
"You are bidding on an AUTHENTIC Dixie Cup that Elvis Presley drank from on April 19th, 1956 at 10:30 am at the corner of 3rd and Boston in Tulsa, Oklahoma," the eBay listing reads.
Along with the cup and the box it's been stored in since 1956, the winning bidder will receive a packet of photos and newspaper clippings documenting the excitement surrounding Elvis' stop in Tulsa. The photos include several shots of Elvis holding a paper cup while talking to the press, but Jones says that's not actually the same cup being auctioned.
Elvis "woke up the next morning, and I guess he had breakfast and he went shopping for clothes, and that's when the cup was gotten," Jones told the Tulsa World.
Jones says the auction closes Sunday evening.
