It's an open secret that it's much more lucrative to be a former president than a sitting one. In addition to book tours and astronomical speaking fees, add selling "flecks of dried blood" to the list of ways to capitalize on a popular presidency. PFCAuctions, a Channel Islands-based online auction house, has listed a vial of dried blood on its Web site, claiming that the substance came from the late president Ronald Reagan and was extracted during his hospitalization in the aftermath of the 1981 assassination attempt on his life. The seller's mother allegedly took it, with permission, from a blood lab in Maryland where she worked at the time, according to the AP.
The macabre lot does not sit well with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in California. The executive director called it a "craven act" and is threating to use legal means to take it off the market. But the seller has quite the Reaganesque view on the situation. According a statement on the auction house Web site, the seller stated, "I was a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that Pres. Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it."
As we were perusing the PFCAuctions site, however, we realized that the real question here is not whether this is actually Reagan's blood, but rather, "What if this is not the strangest lot in this auction?" Also on offer is a clump of hair from tween heartthrob Justin Bieber, a painting done by rockstar Pete Doherty in blood, and — we kid you not — an actual prototype of the V2 rocket.
Click on the slide show and decide for yourself which is the weirdest item available from PFCAuctions.