[HOAX REVEALED] Kurt Cobain’s Ex-Roomate Peddling His Abandoned Junk on Craigslist

UPDATE!

Yesterday, we “reported” about a poorly written Craigslist ad posted by a guy who was claiming to be Kurt Cobain’s ex-roommate selling some of his old shit that had been left behind. We, of course, made sure to use such words as “claims,” “apparently,” and “supposedly,” to be on the safe side, just because the whole ad was so terribly constructed and questionable.  Well… it has just been revealed that the whole thing was a “hoax” started by Sub Pop records receptionist, Stranger writer, and painter, Derek Erdman (aka Rapmaster Maurice).  Well, you’ve wasted enough of my time Derek, so I’m not really going to delve into much more about it. The basics are simply that he made a fake ad, because it is/was pretty amusing.  So that answers the question about if it was an ad by a guy who was full of shit and being a jokester, or if it was posted by a guy who was full of shit and being a trixter (a slight difference).  You can read about this sham over at NME by clicking HERE.  In the end, it just shows how much hype Cobain is still capable of generating two decades after his death.  Nice work Erdman… and thanks again for the Dock Ellis drawing.  It’s around here somewhere.

Read our original post below…

What do the pastel Atomic Arc skis with the loose bindings featured in the top right of the image above have in common with the portable knock-off Donkey Kong mini-arcade game with the partially corroded battery compartment in the bottom right and the transparent pink plastic Swatch phone pictured between them?  The answer is that they are all objects that were, supposedly, left behind in a home that late Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain, once lived in, before he become a larger-than-life, international, Rock n Roll big shot.  What else do they have in common?  They’re all currently listed for sale on Craigslist by an admitted former short-term Gruntruck bassist that claims to have lived with him.

According to the ad (found here), the gent that’s listing this stuff, apparently, used to live with Kurt “back in the 90s” — both in Olympia and in the Capital Hill district of Seattle — and has been holding onto a box of shit that was left behind by Cobain, after he moved out.  My guess is that this dude has finally gotten tired of waiting for him to come back and retrieve it.  [Just to be on the safe side, it might be better not to break the unfortunate news, if you do, in fact, decide to contact him.]

Below are the descriptions that are supplied for each of the items listed.  The quoted text will simply be cut and pasted straight across, so any grammatical errors that may be present, are exactly as they appear on the source page.

The Skis

“Kurt was learning to skii when i met him, we went to mount baker a few times to hit the slopes, these are his skiis but i do not have the poles or anything. the bindings are pretty loose but they are good skiis, but of course they are a lot cooler because they are kurts. They are $80”

The Game

“This TOMY game is called “kingman” and is kindof like donkey kong. kurt liked to play this game a lot, it is in good condition but there is some corossion near the battery part. it is still cool tho, and you can have it for $25.”

The Phone

“the Swatch phone is a twin phone which means that two people can talk on it at the same time, i remember in the commercials that two people would talk on it at the same time, like a girl would listen in while the other girl was talking, it is in really good condition and is $55.”

The interesting thing about the items is how random they are, not to mention how arbitrary the pricing seems.  The value appears to be marked up, but still only moderately so.  To address both the significance of the goods and their cost, the ad explains the following…

“some of this stuff is pretty historical as he was using it whem he was signing his first record contracts, like the phone i know i think he used to talk on the phone to people in LA. that is why it is expensive.“

All that I need to hear from anyone is the phrase “i know i think” and any potential concerns fly right out the window.  Plus, if this stuff actually was legit, the phone really isn’t all that expensive, considering how much some diehard fan will pay for items like that.  And the seller is no fool, oblivious to the reality that, without proof, it’s easy for people to assume that the items might be “fake.”  His hopes are that the following statement will alleviate such skepticism.

“i have pictures of kurt with some of it and i have som friends that will talk to you that will say that this is kurts stuff“

Of course, he’s absolutely right; it is difficult to simply take a stranger’s claims at face value.  But with photoshop, these days… I don’t know… photographs can be doctored — and why wouldn’t someone put in all of that effort to doctor images, so that they could pull in extra grocery money by selling a few mildly damaged wares for a modest sum?  What truly sets me at ease, however, is that, although I don’t know this cat in the slightest, the word of his random, anonymous friends do seem like something that I can rely on in lieu of a COA.

But, in all seriousness folks, the one statement that really does sound the most authentic to me comes in when the seller explains why exactly he wound up with Cobain‘s possessions, in the first place.

“He owed us rent and said he would get the box when he came back and gave us money but he never came back, then when he was famous he never really talked to any of us again because courtney never liked us but she’s a dick so no hard felings.”

In fact, back in 2007 there was a ton of articles out there about Courtney Love getting ready to auction off a ton of Kurt’s clothing and belonging — including clippings of his air — for millions of dollars.  I’m not sure what came of that and I’m not sure of everything that was to be included, but I’ve also seen footage where she’s showing off what she claims to be the jacket that he “killed himself in.”

Beyond the 3 items listed here, the seller in this Craigslist ad mentions that he’s in possession of  “a lot more stuff of kurts, like magazine and clothes” that he plans to be “selling off soon.”  If those other items are sold in the same manner as these, then there will, most likely, not be some huge auction involved and very minimal effort put into it at all.  This guy really doesn’t seem like he’s trying to exploit the situation to any large degree and is getting rid of what he has with fairly limited fanfare — just locally through Craigslist.  To pick the goods up and do this transaction, you’d just meet him in the Belltown area of Seattle, at the sculpture park, or at his apartment (never advised).  As of today, (Monday, March 3rd, 2014) the phone, skis, and game are all supposed to still be available.  If you tried to contact the seller over the weekend, he’s added an update explaining that he was “away from email all weekend” and now that it is Monday, he is “back at work and [has] email, so [he] can respond.”  [Maybe he lost his library card.]  If you’re a big fan of Kurt Cobain and want to own some of his old possessions, then I say go ahead, hit this guy up, try to get your hands on some one-of-a-kind memorabilia, and put some scratch in this character’s pocket.  That way, maybe he can eventually go get himself a cheap laptop, or, if nothing else, his share of the rent money.