Indianapolis Colts Owner Jim Irsay Was In An Old-fashioned Bidding War Back On May 22

De Wikifliping

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was in an old-fashioned bidding war back on May 22.  
Kurt Cobain's guitar from Nirvana's 1991 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' music video was up for auction in , where acolytes of the 62-year-old billionaire were ready spend as much as $3.75 million on the piece at Irsay's direction. 
'I got this long text: Oh my God, it was crazy,' Irsay told DailyMail.com, repeating the message he received from a conduit after the final gavel.

There was three of us bidding, going up in $250,000 increments. One guy dropped out and then the [other] guy was at [$3.25 million] and then he went to [$3.5 million], and then we went to [$3.75 million] and then silence… silence… silence…
That Irsay was actually sleeping in when he received the text message, and now has Cobain's left-handed 1969 Fender Mustang resting on his lap, sums up his life as a wealthy collector.

Irsay sets his price before the bidding even starts (in this case, $3.75 million, or $4.4 million with auction fees included) and then sits back and lets the universe take care of the rest. 
'If the [other bidder] would have gone to $4 million, I would have been out because I was asleep,' Irsay said. 
Speaking between drags of his cigarette from a midtown-Manhattan hotel room, Irsay was preparing to exhibit his extensive collection of rare music memorabilia in New York on Friday.
Jim Irsay, the billionaire Colts owner, recently spent $4.4 million for a guitar (pictured) belonging to the late Kurt Cobain
Cobain's Fender Mustang was seen in Nirvana's the 1991 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' music video (left).

Irsay's collection also includes Jerry Garcia's prized 1979 Doug Irwin 'Tiger' guitar (upper right)
The Jim Irsay collection will be shown for free in New York on Friday after stops in Washington, LA, Austin and Nashville.

If you liked this short article and you would like to obtain additional facts pertaining to hvac contractor (Stateizze.com) kindly visit our site. (From left to right) Grammy-nominated Kenny Wayne Shepherd on blues guitar, John Mellencamp guitarist Mike Wanchic, Tom Bukovac, and REM bassist Mike Mills
Irsay outbid late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for Ringo Starr's drum kit, which will be in display in New York on Friday 
The half-day event at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom is free to the public and features everything from John Lennon's piano, used to write 'A Day in the Life,' to Irsay's newly acquired Fender.

There are also other forms of rare collectibles too, like one of Jackie Robinson's game-used bats and Jack Kerouac's 'On The Road' manuscript.
Obviously the collection would be impossible without Irsay's fortune, much of which comes from his family's heating and cooling (HVAC) empire, not to mention the Colts, a team his late father bought in Baltimore in 1972 before famously moving the franchise to Indianapolis nine years later.
But the , as its known on its cross-country tour, was also made possible by his intuition — a self-professed ability to predict the market and submit the winning bid at an incrementally higher price.
'I've been doing it for 25 years, and I would say I'm one of the only people who can peg these things pretty close,' Irsay said.
RELATED ARTICLES



Share this article
Share


The strategy relies more on Irsay's own personal mysticism than any data-driven analysis.
'It's not really as much as the intellect of the mind; it's more of the spirit and what comes to me,' said Irsay, who could easily be mistaken for a country music mogul in his black sunglasses and grey Stetson.
In 2015, Irsay's personal $2.2 million limit for Ringo Starr's drum kit proved prescient.

He not only submitted the winning offer at that price, but narrowly — and unknowingly — outlasted a wealthier bidder in Paul Allen. 
The late Microsoft co-founder and Seattle Seahawks owner was a good friend of Irsay's and an accomplished collector as well.

So when the Colts boss saw Allen at an event in the following days, Irsay figured he should offer a 'thank you' to Allen, whom he mistakenly assumed had stayed out of the bidding. After all, Allen, with his $20-billion fortune, could have easily out-spent Irsay if he were so inclined.
The Jim Irsay collection can be seen at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday and will continue touring
Irsay's intuition admittedly fell short in 2019, when he paid a record $4 million for Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's 'Black Strat' (pictured) — a Fender Stratocaster that was drawing bids from 61 different countries
Bob Dylan plays a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar for the first time on stage as he performs at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965 in Newport, Rhode Island.

The moment proved to be a major turning point for rock music, and the guitar Dylan used is Irsay's favorite of his collection: 'If I had to pick one, and it's awfully hard, I would say probably Bob Dylan's Strat that he plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 and changed music, turned it electric.
Back stage, Pete Seeger was trying to cut the wires. That changed music, that brought 'Rubber Soul' with the Beatles. It just changed the world
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-d7407b40-e332-11ec-90b0-9d37aa014654" website Colts owner Jim Irsay shares collection of rare guitars