Mark Zuckerberg donated one of his gold chains to a charity auction organized by his sister.
The anonymous winner bid $40,500 — but Aaron White was close with his $38,000 bid.
The chain was gold-plated, not even solid gold.
Zuckerberg donated one of his gold chains — specifically the one he wore at his well-photographed 40th birthday party — to a charity auction run by his sister.
While the auction website estimated the market value of the gold-plated (not even solid gold!) necklace at $425, the winning bid came in at $40,500.
The winner was an anonymous bidder whose username was simply “near.” The runner-up went by the username “ElonRWA (Bureau of Internet Culture) (Crypto bros with infinite money).”
The money went to Inflection Grants, an organization run by two Silicon Valley venture capitalists that gives small grants to young people. The auction ran as part of a charity poker tournament organized by Arielle Zuckerberg. Other auction items included 49ers tickets and a wine tasting with their father, Edward Zuckerberg.
I might not have been able to track down the anonymous winner or runner-up (I asked one of the charity’s organizers whether their payment actually came through but didn’t hear back), but I did get hold of the person who came in third in the bidding for Zuck’s necklace. He’s a real person — a real person who is incredibly sad to be missing out on a chain once worn by a man who wore his own name in a Latin idiom on a T-shirt to a company event.
Aaron White, the founder of AppyPeople, an AI startup, bid $38,000 on the necklace. Almost enough to win, but he lost out at the last second.
But … why bid?
“Zuck, at this point, is a historical business figure by any measure,” he told Business Insider. “So it’s a tiny, tiny slice of some form of American history.”
Aaron White bid $38,000 but says he would’ve bid up to $45,000 for Zuckerberg’s gold-plated chain. Aaron White
White was willing to make such a large offer because he approved of the charity’s mission. “It’s for a good cause, showing people who want to build … they can! And they can have an impact!” he wrote. “I donate money to similar causes — this is another way to do that but also get that little tiny history slice in the process.”
Tragically, White could’ve bid more — his absolute ceiling was $45,000 — but he didn’t want to go all in all at once. And then he ran out of time after the anonymous $40,500 bidder swooped in at the last second.
White has a shared history with Zuckerberg: They both attended Phillips Exeter Academy for high school. White was a few grades older, and while they didn’t overlap, White said they had friends in common — and said Zuckerberg joined the same computer club that White had been president of during his time at the school.
Of course, the question is: If you owned Mark Zuckerberg’s used gold chain, would you actually wear it?
“One-hundred percent yes — I would’ve worn it in all my video content/Zooms and around town,” White said. “I live in Miami, no one would even notice.”
