We kid you not, former SF mayor Willie Brown is now selling his clothes on Goodwill, and you can own Da Mayor’s old clothes. There aren't any fedoras on sale, but you can buy one of his puffy Patagonia vests, and… his old coat hangers?

Willie Brown ended his tenure/reign as San Francisco mayor back in 2004, but he’s never gone away, and some say he will never stop being mayor. Whether he’s been holding court at those free Election Day lunches, writing that ethically dubious weekly Chronicle column, getting a bridge named after him, or evangelizing the deliciousness of a Subway sandwich, Da Mayor has remained a constant on the San Francisco scene, generally with a much younger lady friend in tow and donning top-notch Wilkes-Bashford men’s apparel.  

And now some of Willie’s men’s apparel can be yours. SFist nearly choked on our six-inch when we discovered that some of Willie Brown's old clothes are now for sale, via what appears to be a fundraiser for Goodwill San Francisco Bay.

“We are ecstatic to have received a donation from the legendary former Mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown!” Goodwill San Francisco Bay says in a Wednesday Instagram post. “Own a Willie Brown fashion piece by shopping the exclusive collection available online, while supplies last!”

It’s called the Willie Brown Collection, but the clothes are not for sale on the rack at your local Goodwill. They’re up for bid on eBay. And eBay is a pretty standard platform for charitable bidding fundraisers. The longtime Glide auction for lunch with Warren Buffett (which this year will be an auction for lunch with Marc Benioff) is also handled on eBay.

So what sweet threads are for sale in the Willie Brown Collection? Let's dive in!

This stuff is shockingly affordable, at least by Willie Brown standards, with items ranging from a $338 cashmere button-up shirt to Willie’s custom Nash Bridges jacket for just $34.99. (These are bids, so the prices may go up.) And one of Willie’s puffy Patagonia vests is at a bid of just $37, though it's obviously just discarded promotional schwag from a pharmaceutical company that tried to buy him off.

And we cannot believe Willie would actually part with this incredibly tacky commemorative hoodie for the Bay Bridge being named for him, for the low price of just $37. He must have like 50 of them.

Honestly, look at some of the ridiculous detail on this hoodie!

And yes, he is also selling some of his coat hangers in this sale. But some of those are Wilkes-Bashford coat hangers, with the fake gold writing and everything.

This is apparently not the first time Willie Brown has sold some of his old clothes in a Goodwill fundraiser — he did it back in 2021 as well. So maybe this latest batch of items just doesn’t fit anymore, or maybe his new sidepiece doesn’t like them.

So yes it’s great that Willie Brown is doing a charitable turn for Goodwill, but he’s still no angel. Shortly after President Biden took office, Brown teamed up to start a political consulting firm with some veterans of a pro-Trump super PAC, and apparently that's what Brown is doing these days. In San Francisco, that’s the sort of thing that burn a lot of good will.

Related: Willie Brown Doesn't Get the Drama With the City Hall Scandal, Feels Bad For Friends Facing Federal Charges [SFist]

Image: Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown introduces James Brown at "Fogg Fest" at Fort Mason on August 20, 2006 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

The S.S. Central America sunk in 1857, and 425 people did not make it off alive. But their artifacts have been recovered, and will be up for auction at a Saturday antiquities event in Reno.

When the steamer boat S.S. Central America left San Francisco for Panama in 1857, it was carrying $1.6 million worth of gold (in today’s dollars, that’s about $54.8 billion). It picked up even more gold once it hit Panama, and then headed for New York, because in those days, the quickest and most comfortable way to travel from San Francisco to New York was to sail all the way to Panama and back up to the East Coast.

The ship would not make it to New York. It sank in a hurricane off the Carolinas on September 12, 1857. Of the 578 passengers, 425 of them died, the deadliest U.S. maritime disaster to date at the time. And the loss of gold bound for New York banks fueled the Panic of 1857.

All of that treasure laid at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for 131 years, along with the artifacts of those who rode the boat. But a new AP report on KPIX informs us how many of those artifacts will be up for auction in Reno this Saturday, December 3.

“The historical booty includes an 1849 Colt pocket pistol and 1850s paper currency recovered from the purser's safe; an illustrated 1849 edition of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo; and a metal-plate daguerreotype image of an unidentified woman who became known as the ‘Mona Lisa of the Deep,’” the AP reports. “There are gold nugget stick pins, luggage tags, passenger tickets, pocket watches, brooches, bloomers, Brooks Brothers shirts, a chastity belt, and even a case of beer bottles still full of beer.”

The items expected to fetch the most at auction are the oldest known Wells Fargo treasure box, and one of the oldest pairs of Levi Strauss jeans in existence. That said, the AP reached out to Levi’s who said it was “speculation” that the jeans are actually Levi’s.

Not surprisingly, though, the proprietor of this auction disagrees. "The buttons are exactly the same - almost identical," Fred Holabird, president of Holabird Western Americana Collections in Reno. "The pattern's the same. Heavy cloth. There were no other pants like them."

But What about the gold?, you may ask. Oh, that’s quite a story too.

The gold was recovered in 1988, by a team using remote-operated vehicles, and led by treasure hunter Tommy Gregory Thompson. He immediately started selling the gold. But more than three dozen insurance companies sued him, saying it should be theirs, since they paid out insurance claims on it 130 years beforehand. In 1996, courts ruled that Thompson and his team were entitled to 90% of the gold.

But then his team’s investors and crew members sued Thompson in 2005 for not paying them out, at which point Thompson transferred millions into an offshore account in the Cook Islands, and promptly went into hiding for years. U.S. Marshals found him in 2015, and per the AP, he “has been in federal prison in Michigan since 2015.”

The S.S. Central America Gold Treasure Artifacts auction is Saturday, November 3, at Holabird Western Americana Collections in Reno, Nevada. You can view the items up for auction here.

Related: Near Old Ship Saloon, More Remnants Of Gold Rush Era Vessel Discovered [SFist]

Image: Holabird Americana

In an effort to help fund the renovation of SoMa's jarringly adorable South Park, the actual South Park sign will be available for auction. Bidding starts at $1,000!

Also, for those of you living in South Park (near SFist headquarters!), there will be an photo exhibit tonight at Kim Pfabe's Sugarcane called "Faces of South Park" featuring familiar faces around the hood. Runs from 6-8 pm. Do check it out.

This isn't a joke. A new app called LeftoverSwap, still in its beta stage, will allow you to sell/buy leftovers. Putting aside issues of health and a possible Contagion-like fallout, this here seems like... we don't know, really. How should we feel, internet? Angry? Annoyed? Pleased? Bereft? Pizza and pasta are excellent next-day items, sure; not so much, say, a sandwich from Darwin Cafe.

LeftoverSwap explains:

You hate the idea of throwing out food, but also don't want to be eating the same leftovers for the next few days. We understand. You want to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and fertilizer as well. We also understand that.

Snap a picture of what you can't eat, name a price, and share the rest of your meal. Your neighbors are hungry.

It all began after one problematic night when Seattle entrepreneur Dan Newman had too much pizza and couldn't fit it all into the fridge. 99 problems, folks. Rachel Swan of SFoodie has more:

The idea really started to take shape after Newman hosted a couch surfer in his apartment who self-identified as a "freegan" -- meaning he only feasted from other people's plates, or from the spoils of dumpster dives. "That was enough to spark initiative in me," Newman says.

Then he did a little more research into the food system, and found that humans actually do waste tons of food -- up to 40 percent of what we produce, according to stats re-purposed on his website. [...]

Interesting idea if not a touch worrisome. Is it only relegated to restaurant-bought food? If not, what if someone hawks a loogie into our Cheez Wiz? (We'd buy your Cheez Wiz, provided your didn't do that.) Or what if a scam artist shoves a couple of tuna chunks and twigs inside a won-ton wrapper and nestles it in a demitasse of Campbell's Soup broth and calls it Benu? (That actually sounds delicious.) And more importantly, if you go to Mission Chinese Food and take leftovers home, in lieu of giving them to a homeless person on 16th Street, how do you stand to look at yourself in the morning?

[SFW]

The contract that established Apple Computer Company sold at auction today for a whopping $1.59 million. Purchased via phone by an anonymous bidder, the contract was signed on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

Who was Wayne, you ask? He's one of the least economically lucky men alive, it seems, giving up his share of Apple for a total of $2,300 just eleven days after signing the contract.

Also noteworthy? Wayne is gay. According to Jobs, "It was my first encounter with someone who I knew was gay." As Wayne explained to Walter Isaacson, biographer of Jobs, "Nobody at Atari knew, and I could count on my toes and fingers the number of people I told in my whole life. But I guess it just felt right to tell him, that he would understand, and it didn't have any effect on our relationship." Aw.

How much could Wayne have in his pocket today if he held his ownership? "Based on Apple’s market capitalization today, Wayne’s 10 percent stake would be valued at more than $36 billion," notes Bloomberg.

The tent erected at the Bank of America branch on California Street during yesterday's Occupy SF protest is now up for sale on eBay. Described as a "deluxe single-family dwelling located in the heart of San Francisco’s prestigious financial district” and an "open air bungalow style residence is flexible and portable ... perfect first home for these uncertain financial times," the tent has already garnered 13 bids.

The highest bid stands at $299. For now.

"To arrange a viewing of this property, contact Bank of America, or visit 50 California Street," notes the tent;s sellers, "(While there, consider closing your account, and moving your funds to a local credit union.) Please do not disturb, harass, or arrest current residents."

All proceeds from the auction will go to the Occupy Movement.

[SF Examiner]

Wanna go on a date with an elected progressive? Well, the city's left-of-left-of-center ilk will pimp out their leaders at tomorrow night's Smokin' Hot Progressives 2nd Annual Auction. San Francisco mayoral candidates Dennis Herrera, Bevan Dufty, Leeland Yee, David Chiu, and Phil Ting will be auctioned off during a live bidding war at Public Works (161 Erie) in the Mission district. Supervisor Jane Kim and Senior Advisor to the Mayor's Office Paul Henderson will also work it for your dollars.

We think most of the stable here are partnered up with significant others, so don't expect any slap and tickle. Word of wisdom, if you will, will be the only fluid exchange.

Money will go to support the New Leaders Council (NLC) of San Francisco, "a national nonprofit whose mission is to train and support the next generation of progressive political entrepreneurs - those who are leading industries, setting trends, and building institutions that support robust civic and political life in a global America."

Find out more at Smokin' Hot Progressives 2nd Annual Auction.

Hey, you! You have a little over two hours left to bid on one of the skull-shatterinigly wonderful items that will go to benefit La Cocina, an equally astounding local food service program that helps "cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their busi­nesses by provid ing afford able commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities." Primarily, they help out women from communities of color and immigrant communities.

What's more, without La Cocina, you might never have heard about The Street Food Festival or The Creme Brulee Man. And that? Isn't a world we want to live in.

A few of the items on which you should bid during your lunch hour? Whole Animal Butchery w/ Americano's Chef Kory Stewart (fascinating!), Chef for a Day at Chez Panisse (dare you to sneak in a bag of Buegels!), Flour + Water Pasta Class and Dinner (Chef Thomas McNaughton is, in a word, hot!), Mexican Mama Tamale Making with El Buen Comer (¡Olé!), In Home Meat Class and Private Dinner w/ Fatted Calf (all kinds of amazing!), and A Very Progressive Dinner with the Tablehopper (Can you keep up?), and more.

You have until 2 p.m. today to put in your bids. There are a slew of other fun gastronomic treats from which to choose. Check out the silent auction in its entirety.

by Natalie Cadranel

One upside to a lagging economy is that it encourages people to become more resourceful and creative about how they spend their time and money. After a recent move to Oakland, we've been inspired by the many East Bay nonprofits offering training and space to work on their own projects and enjoy the gratifying feeling of learning how to do everything from wrench bikes to mend clothes or create their own holiday presents for family and friends. Not only are these hands-on activities a great chance to learn valuable skills and get involved with the community, but they also offer affordable alternatives for those with less and less disposable income.

The Bikery, a new Cycles of Change non-profit community bike shop in Oakland, opened in September. They offer a range of affordable bikes for sale, repairs, classes and community events, and open shop time where folks can come in and work on their bike, or earn one through work trade hours. Not only does this shop support great programs helping kids learn about bike safety and enter earn-a-bike programs, but it offers a space for middle and high school students to learn real-world business skills when they intern in the shop.

The Bikery is hosting two events this week that offer a great way to find a bike for the right price and more.

1) Tonight (12/16) between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. join them for a silent auction, a holiday keg of beer and other nonalcoholic drinks, and snacks and baked treats!

Silent auction items to include:

• 1 Massage ($50 value)
• Basic Tune-ups at the Bikery ($30 value)
• 1 Personalized singing telegram ($50 value)

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger -- the pilot turned hero who safely landed crippled US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River this past January, which resulted in saving the lives of all 155 people aboard -- has donated his pilot cap for auction. Sully gave up his prized hat in order to raise money for two public schools in the East Bay: Oakland’s Lockwood Elementary and San Ramon’s Dougherty Valley High School.

"Sully and I were excited by the opportunity to help these two public schools," said Lorrie Sullenberger, Sully's wife. "We were eager to make this donation to the school auction. We hope that the winner will enjoy owning Sully’s pilot’s hat, but also that they will be happy that they have helped fund two deserving educational institutions."

The winning bid will receive Sully's personal pilot's hat and, according to the eBay page, "experience great satisfaction from having made a contribution to support public education." (However, it should be noted that he was not wearing this hat on January 15, 2009, the day he safely landed the aircraft in the Hudson River; in fact, he did not wear any other pilot's cap on that trip.) The pilot's hat is autographed by Sully and sits inside a pretty protective plastic box. What's more, you'll get "a personally written note from Chesley and Lorrie Sullenberger thanking them for supporting public education."

Although it opened in 2007, Dougherty Valley High School was "ranked by the Academic Performance Index as one of the top schools in its district." Also, Lockwood Elementary is in one of the Oakland Unified School District’s poorest neighborhoods, with one of the City’s highest crime rates. So, you know, both schools could really use your help.

Anyway, if you want to give or receive the perfect Christmas gift, this is it. Bid on Sully's pilot cap on eBay. Bidding ends on Monday, December 14.

The shirt, suit, and tie donned by Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's Milk will be auctioned off online to benefit Variety - the Children's Charity of Southern California and the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School. Danny Glicker's created the outfit especially for Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic. The scene in which it is worn recreates the ensemble "November 7th, 1978, the Election Night on which he celebrated the statewide defeat of Proposition 6."

The shirt is blue and approximately 16 33/4. The suit is gray and about a 40R. It comes with a lovely royal blue tie with a light blue/gray diamond pattern, and decorative pin of sorts. The bidding is currently underway, starting at $1,000. But, no one has bid on it yet.

We bet it would get more bids if they plan on not washing it.

Bid on the suit at Clothes Off Our Back.

Now, before you go labeling Pritiklin an anti-Semite, this man is character -- a true collector and unique hoarder. His home is a mansion stocked with bizarre collectibles, SF Mayoral signatures, its own disco, and peculiar objects of history. (Like, even his doghouse is remarkable.) The globe found a fitting home at the Chenery House.

But word has it that the Chenery House is now closed to the public, which saddens us. But why? What about Labor Day? And where will Carol Channing sing? Sigh.