One-of-a-Kind Products Designed by Jony Ive and Designer Marc Newson Sold Off at (RED) Auction

[MacRumors]

Yesterday, the one-of-a-kind products designed by Apple's senior vice president of design Jony Ive and designer Marc Newson were sold off at Sotheby's charity auction to benefit Product (RED), with winning bids for the four products ranging from $461,000 to $1,805,000.

Most notably, the one-of-a-kind red Mac Pro designed by the duo was sold for $977,000, with the desktop computer originally estimated to sell at a max of $60,000. Additionally, the pair of solid gold Apple EarPods from the designers sold for $461,000 and was previously estimated to grab a max bid of $25,000. The special edition Leica camera and the one-of-a-kind aluminum desk sold for $1,805,000 and $1,685,000, with both originally estimated to sell at max prices of $750,000 and $500,000 respectively.

The auction also included the sale of many other items curated and in some cases customized by Ive and Newson, such as a Steinway & Sons grand piano that sold for $1,925,000 and a customized magnum of Dom Perignon 1966 with a custom red label that sold for $93,750.

Both designers have gotten a great amount of press coverage over the past few weeks leading up to the auction, with the designers being interviewed by Vanity Fair to talk about the collaborative design process and the amount of work that went into the products, as well as an interview on the Charlie Rose Show discussing their overall obsession with perfection. The two had also previously appeared in a video discussing the auction and their role in it.

In total, all of products auctioned off at the special event raised nearly $13 million. Proceeds from the auction will go to Product (RED), a longtime Apple partner. Apple has raised more than $65 million for the charity since 2006.

Article Link: One-of-a-Kind Products Designed by Jony Ive and Designer Marc Newson Sold Off at (RED) Auction

 

[jaijaibinx]

Really good cause! good on them for all participating and wow those really sold!
I wish I had some one of a kind headphones, but I wonder if after use the wires will get loose like my ones...

 

[daneoni]

Good for the cause.

On another note, some folks out there are stupendously mint.

 

[alphaod]

Damn, I was hoping to be able to afford that Mac Pro!

 

[sheareb]

Wonder if they took AppleCare!

 

[diddl14]

Why not add the $23k and make it the first ever 1m$ Mac!

 

[Parkin Pig]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

 

[elvetio]

..

i would kill for that leica

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

Damned if you do...damned if you don't.

 

[Lumpydog]

Great cause, but absolutely unreal what people will pay for some objects,,,

The red trash can is worth nearly a million dollars though. Definitely.

 

[HiRez]

Why not add the $23k and make it the first ever 1m$ Mac!

What's odd to me is the 77. I mean you are already up around a million dollars, are they really upping bids in thousand dollar increments at that point?

 

[Rocketman]

Wow. $16m in one year vs. $65m in 7 years. The 1% really are the source of all things good.

Those donations are tax deductible and the combined federal, state, city, tax rate in NYC is around 65%. Makes perfect sense.

 

[2ms]

There's way too much self-congratulatory attention to Apple design the last couple years. I think Steve must have kept a lid on things and now that he is dead people have been taking a lot of liberties. Apple doesn't have the class that they once did. The design of their products has gone downhill a lot. iOS7 would have never been approved by Steve. None of the current iPods would have been approved by him. The quality of OSX has even gone downhill, as I have had far more issues with it on my Retina MBP in 1.5 years than I did in all the rest of my 8 years of using Macs put together.

It's all just very disappointing. Seeing a company lose what was great about it. All for ego. That's how things appear, at least. This "Designed by Apple" and all the talk about the individual people who work within the company. It's just low class. The products aren't as good as they used to be, yet instead of working on that, you've got all this other kind of famous celebrity brand name designer crap.

Apple, get your act together if it's at all possible. Maybe it isn't without Steve. Maybe you guys needed him to make the right decisions. But you gotta try, because things are coming apart.

 

[9947273]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

All the rich people I am aware of aren't at all charitable and only think about themselves, just like all British people are posh and all teenagers are in gangs! Why are you complaining about something good?

 

[Freida]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

You are right, here is a good clip about it. And whilst we celebrate the awesome "RED" products to "help" we should also realise that the "help" would not be needed if the system worked better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMfCnR9DGuk

 

[NOV]

I hope they release different colors for the MacPro, white or greyish would look good on them I think.

 

[DTphonehome]

What's odd to me is the 77. I mean you are already up around a million dollars, are they really upping bids in thousand dollar increments at that point?

That price probably includes the buyer's premium, a percentage added onto the winning bid that goes to the auction house.

----------

I hope they release different colors for the MacPro, white or greyish would look good on them I think.

I'm sure Colorware will do it for a few hundred bucks. I'm betting glossy red will be the most popular color, after this auction.

 

[lexvo]

Tax deductible means: we're all paying

 

[gwelmarten]

Only the stupendously wealthy can afford to spend cash like this to buy one-off trinkets to impress their friends.
Good cause? Call me cynical, but isn't it the greed of the stupendously wealthy that causes the uneven distribution of wealth that leads to poverty and hardship in poorer parts of the world (devastation of rain forests for cattle raising, abuse of workers for cheap electronic manufacturing, private ownership of freshwater supplies etc).
The 'saintly' folk who bought these goods will no doubt get a massive tax break on these charitable purchases, and alleviate any guilty feelings (if they are indeed capable of such an emotion) connected with the origins of their income.

This is a disgusting generalisation.

 

[NachoGrande]

They donated millions and they get vilified. I guess no good deed goes unpunished. evil rich people

 

[Rogifan]

Tax deductible means: we're all paying

But everyone can deduct charitable contributions, not just wealthy people.

 

[nostresshere]

But everyone can deduct charitable contributions, not just wealthy people.

And, for those that think they get a MASSIVE tax deduction, take a moment to understand the tax system.

Assume the buyer is in the 30% tax bracket. That means when he earned $4m last year, he gets to turn over $1.2m of his earnings to the U.S. Government.

If he bought the thing for $977,000 and then reduced that to 951,000 after taking out the value of the item and auction costs, he applies $951,000 as a charity deduction on his taxes. So, now, he only pays $914,700 in taxes to the feds. Massive deduction? Not really.

(yea, these numbers are very rounded, first $100k or so are at a different rate and he could have other deductions, etc)

 

[Noctilux.95]

They donated millions and they get vilified. I guess no good deed goes unpunished. evil rich people

Every single penny will be tax deducted.

 

[Ventilatedbrain]

There's way too much self-congratulatory attention to Apple design the last couple years. I think Steve must have kept a lid on things and now that he is dead people have been taking a lot of liberties. Apple doesn't have the class that they once did. The design of their products has gone downhill a lot. iOS7 would have never been approved by Steve. None of the current iPods would have been approved by him. The quality of OSX has even gone downhill, as I have had far more issues with it on my Retina MBP in 1.5 years than I did in all the rest of my 8 years of using Macs put together.

It's all just very disappointing. Seeing a company lose what was great about it. All for ego. That's how things appear, at least. This "Designed by Apple" and all the talk about the individual people who work within the company. It's just low class. The products aren't as good as they used to be, yet instead of working on that, you've got all this other kind of famous celebrity brand name designer crap.

Apple, get your act together if it's at all possible. Maybe it isn't without Steve. Maybe you guys needed him to make the right decisions. But you gotta try, because things are coming apart.

Well let me guess what's next .."I've been an iPhone user since 2007 , lately I fell bla bla bla bla " this is for freakin charity man .. Would you feel bad if you raised that much money for products you made ? I didn't think so

 

[skinned66]

Is that a table or a ghetto drag spoiler for a mercury cougar?