A bold $150 gamble at a blind auction led one businessman to uncover a priceless treasure: a James Bond submersible car that later sold for almost $1 million
There are people who make money by buying abandoned containers and then reselling the things they find inside.
Especially in the United States blind auctions are very popular, where buyers compete by bidding to get their hands on the contents of a container.
If you’re lucky, you can earn more than the amount you spent, but if you’re unlucky, the container could contain items of little value.
For a businessman who preferred to remain anonymous, things went very well. From a container he bought for just under $150, he ended up earning around $1 million.
The reason? Inside he found a car, but not just any car, one of those used by James Bond in a famous film from the 007 saga. Here’s the incredible story.
Buy a Container and Find James Bond’s Submersible Car
This story begins in 1989 when a businessman who preferred to remain anonymous, bought a container for just under $150 in Long Island, New York. A classic blind purchase, made as a bet with the hope that inside the container there were objects with a total value at least greater than the amount spent.
Once he opened the container he found a "special" car inside. It was a modified Lotus Esprit used by Roger Moore in the famous James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me from 1977.
In the film, James Bond, during an exciting chase on top of a mountain, descends and then launches into the ocean with the car that transforms into a submarine. The submersible car was recreated from the body of an old Lotus Esprit and cost more than $100,000 to build in the 1970s. In total, 8 Lotus Esprits were used to make the film: some were used for the chase scenes, others for underwater shots.
The man, struck by the strange shape of the car, took it to an expert who revealed its nature to him, including the fact that it could probably be worth up to $1 million. It is assumed that the container belonged to the film’s production company, which, after paying for the rental of the warehouse for 10 years, then decided to leave it there with all its contents, which then ended up at auction.
After 24 years from its discovery, in 2013, the submersible car was finally auctioned off in London. The purchase of the relic started from a starting price of $753,000. In the end, guess who got hold of it? Elon Musk who bought it for $997,000. Musk bought it in secret, only to later confess his desire to upgrade it with a Tesla electric engine, thus transforming it into a real submarine.
It is not uncommon for memorabilia belonging to the 007 and James Bond saga to sell at auction for high figures.
Original article published on Money.it Italy 2025-01-02 20:05:00. Original title: Quest’uomo ha pagato meno di $150 dollari per un misterioso container guadagnando $1 milione
