Going, going faster than his reputation - Savile memorabilia is snapped up on eBay

THE plethora of claims about Sir Jimmy Savile and his alleged catalogue of abuse appear to have had little effect on the value of his personal belongings which were auctioned off earlier this year.

Around £320,000 was raised for charity when items such as his famous tracksuits, cigars and Rolls Royce went under the hammer in Leeds in July.

The marathon 13-hour sale saw Savile’s Rolls-Royce go for £130,000, his original, red Jim’ll Fix It chair reach £8,500 and hundreds of smaller items go for hundreds of pounds each.

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But with the revelations about Savile’s alleged abuse of children, the Savile Hall conference venue where the auction took place is to be renamed, its owner Royal Armouries International has now said.

The scandal does not appear to have dampened enthusiasm for Savile memorabilia on auction website eBay, with some items from the Leeds sale earlier this year attracting bids higher than at the charity auction.

Lot 134, which consisted of three full tracksuits, a tracksuit top and a printed t-shirt, sold for £60 at the charity auction.

Now, one of the full tracksuits, a heavy-duty red Nike Air two-piece, has attracted a bid of £24 on eBay, with three days left in the sale and five bids already put forward since October 4, days after the abuse claims surfaced in the media.

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The seller, listed as rick277bikes, said it was always his intention to sell the tracksuit.

A message from the seller on the listing page read: “Regardless of the recent publicity regarding this man it was always my intention to sell on most of the items I won at the auction as it was a charity event.

“I met Jimmy many years ago and shall keep my own counsel on the matter in the news right now. Whatever has happened in the past this is part of history and the truth and all the facts will never be known and at least a charity will still benefit from part of the winning bid.”

Another tracksuit top from the same lot has attracted a £20 bid, meaning just two of the items from lot 134 will be sold for at least two-thirds of the first sale price of the entire lot which contained other items.

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The gold Ciro Citterio silk shell top has attracted one anonymous bid but there are still three days left for buyers to table an offer to the same seller as the Nike tracksuit.

The last item for sale from lot 134 are blue View From tracksuit bottoms. Their list price, from the same seller, is £20 but they have yet to attract a bid. If anyone meets the price then three items will sell for more than the whole lot sold for at the charity auction.

The seller has indicated that some of the money raised will go to charity, mentioning Help For Heroes in one listing.

Among the 277 Savile-related items listed on eBay is an authentic medal bearing the slogan “Jim Fixed It For Me” from his BBC TV show Jim’ll Fix It. The winning bid is £128, with four days left in the auction. The latest bid was placed yesterday afternoon.

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Also for sale is a paperback penned by the former DJ, entitled Love Is An Uphill Thing. It has attracted ten bids, the highest being £17.67, placed four days ago.

Novelty t-shirts are also on sale, including one bearing an image of Savile with the slogan “Jimmy So Vile” printed underneath.