@neptune: there are people around, which are paying extreme much money for cars or other "devotionals", just because they were owned before by prominent people. or they are buying things, which were involved in a special event.
do oyu remember the abnormous price, the owner of an internet-casino had paid for the vw golf, which was owned before by pope benedetto? i dont remember the exact price, 130 000 or 170 000 euro - for just a simple vw golf mk3.
later on such a deal was tried with the former private car of pope johannes paaul, a simple 1978 ford escort. the car had a real value of just 900 euro.
dont you remember the many auctions of cars -at brooklands or sotheby's-, which were owned by prominent owners? a lot of them are getting higher price, just because of the previous owner, not because of the cars itself.
actually the cars of the collection of paul newman shall be sold at auctions.
and think about some thing, which were involved in historic events or happening. for example dishes from the "titanic", letter of the "hindenburg" zeppelin, etc.....
some years ago i had the chance to buy a nsu ro 80, former owned by that guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Kartner
...o.k., not to compare with obama and the pope, but well known in the 70ies. anyways, the car was in quite good condition and not too expensice (12 500 dutch guilders, ca.5500 euro), but i had not the money and the space for it. and a prominent previous owner is not important for me.
actually there is a german license-plate at ebay, which was formerly at a car of the south african/german singer
howard carpendale. yesterday the price was around 165 euro - for a regular, unvalid german plate without any real value.
in summer 2006, exactly to the semi-final of the soccer-worldcup there was sold at ebay for over 300 euro a pair of -old and unvalid- licence-plates, which belonged to the german coach jürgen klinsmann.