CBS New York/Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images
They say one person’s trash is another one’s treasure, and that certainly seems to be true for Taylor Swift’s trash.
After Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tied the knot at their New York City wedding inside Madison Square Garden, Queens artist Justin Gignac collected discarded items from the streets surrounding the venue on July 3. He sealed the pieces of trash inside small acrylic cubes and offered them for sale for $25 each.
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They were sold out within 24 hours.
“There’s garbage on the floor after the party. Collected from the edge of a love story outside Madison Square Garden, as close to Taylor & Travis’ big day as you could’ve gotten without an invite,” his website (1) said.
What’s inside the cubes?
The collection includes everything from cigarette butts and a Ring Pop wrapper to a drinking straw, a single AirPod and even a discarded ovulation test.
Gignac told CBS News (2) he made 50 smaller “Pocket Garbage” cubes, which sold for $25 each, along with larger versions priced at $100.
He’s upfront that there’s no way to prove any of the items came from the wedding itself or were touched by Swift, Kelce or their guests. Instead, he says the appeal comes from where and when the trash was collected. Everything was picked up outside the barricades surrounding Madison Square Garden on the day of the wedding, not from inside the venue.
“I was not invited, unfortunately, so I was not able to get any of that good, good garbage from the inside,” he told the radio station Kiss 92.5 (3).
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Fans willing to pay the price
Swift’s fans have never been shy about spending money to feel closer to the singer. Her record-breaking Eras Tour sold more than 10 million tickets and generated more than $2 billion in ticket sales (4), showing just how valuable a connection to the pop star can be.
That same enthusiasm appears to extend to the wedding-day keepsakes.
“I think with Swifties, anything for Taylor Swift, people will drop a limb for it,” Midtown resident Natalia Cruz said to CBS News New York (2). “I see people buying just like a box just to have it.”
“That’s definitely New York vibes, definitely hustling,” one woman said of the artist.
For Gignac, the Swift wedding collection is just the latest addition to a business he’s built over the past 25 years.
He’s turned everything from Pinkberry frozen yogurt cups and Coca-Cola cans to trash collected after former President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration (5) and the New York Giants’ 2012 Super Bowl parade into collectibles, selling them to buyers around the world who want a small piece of history.
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Article Sources
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Justin Gignac (1), (5); CBS News (2); Instagram (3); Rolling Stone (4)
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: Trash from Taylor Swift’s wedding is selling for up to $100 thanks to one NYC artist — and fans are buying it
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