Elon Musk’s College Girlfriend Auctions Off Relationship Mementos (All’s Fair in Love and Capitalism)

In the wake of a breakup, all you really want to do with your ex’s stuff is torch it, right? Build a big bonfire, curse their name, and throw all the crap they left at your place into the blaze and watch it burn, baby, burn. But if you happen to have just cut ties with a celebrity, maybe don’t give into the impulse to set fire to all your precious memories. Just ask Jennifer Gwynne, who dated billionaire-cum-space-cowboy-cum-F-boy Elon Musk in college. She’s auctioning off memorabilia from her relationship with the tech mogul – and if all goes well, she will profit handsomely from it.

Boston-based RR Auction will be selling several items from Gywnne and Musk’s time together to the highest bidder.

According to a press release from the auction house, the pair first coupled up in 1994 while working as resident advisers in a dorm at the University of Pennsylvania, where Musk was studying economics. After graduation, Musk later enrolled in a doctoral program at Stanford, but he ended up dropping out in order to launch Zip2, his first startup.

Among the items on the auction block are 18 photos, a necklace Elon Musk gave Gwynne, and a signed birthday card – currently the item with the highest bid at $7,000, with an anticipated sale price topping $10K.

“Happy Birthday, Jennifer (aka, Boo-Boo), Love, Elon,” the inscription on the card reads.

The aforementioned necklace is gold and contains a real emerald from a Zambian mine.

“When we went to visit Elon’s mother in Toronto during the Christmas break of 1994, Elon gave me both the small ‘love, love, love’ note and the necklace,” Gwynne said in the press release. “His mom had a number of these necklaces in a case in her bedroom, and Elon told me they were from his father’s emerald mine in South Africa — he pulled one from the case. And because I had not gotten him anything as a Christmas gift (and I felt very guilty about that), he said we would consider the necklace an early birthday present for me.”

She continued: “I wore the necklace for a number of years on and off, but it’s mostly been in my jewelry box for the last ten years (always reminding me of Elon, of course).”

We don’t know if memories of dating Elon Musk are a good or a bad thing (we’re guessing bad), but there’s no shame in making a profit off them. We only wish our ex’s junk was worth something; we can’t even pay someone to take it away.

Cover Photo: CARINA JOHANSEN / Contributor (Getty Images)