Heritage Auctions currently has one of their more interesting products up for sale right now: a toothbrush used on the moon by Buzz Aldrin on the Apollo 11 Lunar mission. That’s right, for the right price, you could own a used toothbrush which cleaned an astronaut’s teeth on the moon back in 1969.
This Laconta s-19 “Tooth Tip” brush also comes with its own plastic pouch, complete with a Velcro strip on the back for easy storage during the space voyage and two pages containing information about oral hygiene from the Apollo Operations handbook are also included. This brush was one of two to have ever been used upon the moon’s surface. Part of the inscription on the auction site reads “signs of use, but very fine condition”; a letter of authenticity is also included.
You may be asking yourself: who would pay this much money for a used toothbrush? Well, apparently for the last six years or so, the price of space memorabilia has skyrocketed, and the demand keeps rising for some of these items.
Astronaut Ron Evans’ Rolex watch was sold for a shocking $137,000, and the slide rule Buzz Aldrin took with him to the moon went for $80,000 at a similar auction. Some are claiming that the toothbrush could sell for around $24,000!
Let this be a lesson that good oral hygiene is not only an important aspect of taking care of yourself; someday one of your old brushes might be worth the big bucks!
