Apple Store Cracked Stair Sells for $9,500 in eBay Auction

By Nicole Martinelli (7:55 am, Mar 03 2010)

The intact side of the 250lb stair from Apple's 5th Ave. store

Controversy pays: after going public about pressure from glass company Seele over the eBay sale of a fractured stair, former Apple employee Mark Burstiner sold the cracked keepsake for $9,950.

It comes from the spiral staircase in Apple’s 5th avenue store, Burstiner saved the glass heading to the trash after it was fractured by a customer’s Snapple bottle.

The final sale price is about four times what Burstiner first thought a 250lb glass stair from the staircase was worth, $2,500.

We can’t wait to hear the buyer gets the thing home and what they do with it. And whether the suits will have any more to say about it.

Stay tuned.

5 comments »

About the author

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

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Posted in Cult of Mac, Retail Stores |

Chris
Wow. I wish I had 10 grand to spend on a broken step :p
http://geekbubble.com Geekbubble
Wow, somebody actually shelled out that much for a broken shard of glass! Can’t wait to find out how they will use it.
Ryan Thompson
I think the guy played everyone. It generated far more buzz than he thought, and he realized his initial price was a little low. Interest in the item was a novelty and with the looming threat of apple legal it became a controversy. No one was bidding when it was just a step.
I could be wrong…
Don Pope
Wow, some people don’t deserve to have money.
http://ObamaPacman.com ObamaPacman
Original auction ended with 0 bids with reserve lowered to $200.