Jennifer Gwynne started dating Musk in 1994, and she has decided to cash in on more than 100 mementos that she kept from their one-year relationship. Currently available to bid on are dozens of photographs of a young Elon Musk, as well as gifts and cards.
The pictures are currently up for auction at $100 each, while a signed card written by Musk is expected to sell for around $10,000. Gwynne has suggested she wants to raise money to pay towards her stepson’s college tuition.
As well as putting her items up for auction, Gwynne also opened up about her breakup with Musk in 1995, explaining to The Daily Mail that they split as Musk left to pursue his career in California. The billionaire would go on to co-found PayPal before creating Tesla and SpaceX, among many other companies.
Gwynne, now 48 and living in South Carolina, opened up about the Musk she knew during their relationship at the University of Philadelphia.
“He was very intense, very focused on his studies. Back then he was always talking about electric cars… he was definitely going somewhere. He just saw school as a stepping stone,” she said.
Explaining why she decided to sell her items now, Gwynne said: “I’ve had these pictures and the notes for a long, long time. But now I’m like, ‘well the man cannot stay out of the headlines… so…’”
Eighteen pictures of Musk are available to purchase on RR Auctions. These include Musk on his own, with friends and with Gwynne. The minimum bid listed for each image is $100.
Bidding has now reached over $300 for a 14k gold necklace that Musk gave to Gwynne. The website lists the estimated price for it as $500.
The big ticket item is a birthday card Musk gave Gwynne in 1995. The bidding has already reached over $1,300, with the message inside reading “Happy Birthday Jennifer (aka, Boo-Boo) Love, Elon.” Its estimated value is $10,000.
There is also a one dollar bill signed by Musk available on the website, with the bids for that currently sitting at $2,200.
The auction for each of the items listed online by Gwynne will end on September 14. The items and photos are currently available to view on the RR Auction website. To date no one has bid on the photographs of Musk.
Musk, a regular tweeter who often makes headlines with his Twitter activity, has yet to address the auction on social media.