#Sopranos #Booth #Sells #82K #eBay #WorthPoint
Image credit: HBO/Everett Collection via CNN
The restaurant booth where Mafia boss Tony Soprano and his family sat in the last jaw-dropping episode of The Sopranos was recently sold on eBay. The auction received 238 bids, and the final selling price was $82,600.
It is eBay’s policy to keep the names or locations of winning bidders private, and the usernames of bidders are redacted on the site, so the winning bidder is unknown as of March 6, 2024. However, the owner has indicated that the buyer may want to come forward and speak about the sale in the future.
The iconic series finale of the hit HBO drama aired on June 10, 2007, and stunned most viewers with its mysterious ending. The actors filmed the scene in Holsten’s, an “old-fashioned” ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, New Jersey. And, one week ago, the restaurant owners placed the booth up for auction on eBay, citing the desire to renovate its building with newer, safer booths for its patrons. After sixty years of heavy use and repairs, said the owners, the booth was structurally unsafe.
“It’s not that we wanted to do it. We were forced to do it,” Holsten’s co-owner Chris Carley stated in a New York Post article. “The booths were all breaking down. They were installed in 1976. That’s how old they are. That’s how much wear and tear they’ve had.”
Initial reactions to the sale of the booth, which has drawn Sopranos fans to the restaurant for years, were mixed. Some Facebook users expressed disappointment that the booth would no longer be at the location. Other comments asked about donating the booth to the Smithsonian, much like “Fonzie’s” jacket and Archie Bunker’s beloved armchair.
Holsten’s assured customers that the replacement booth would be a very close replica, but keeping the original booth was not an option, as it would eventually fall into disrepair.
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Brenda Kelley Kim lives in the Boston area. She is the author of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep End of Everywhere and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly News/Essex Media Group. When not writing or walking her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard sales, flea markets, and badminton.
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