The iconic booth featured in the final scene of The Sopranos sold at auction for over $80,000 on eBay on Monday. The scene was filmed at Holsten’s, an ice cream parlor and restaurant in New Jersey and they were starting renovations.
The booth is where Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) was seated with his family in the show’s final moments, before the screen cut to black, leaving Tony’s fate heavily debated among fans.
The eBay auction had 49 bidders, eventually placing 238 bids. The opening asking price was an astonishingly low offer of $3,000.
The booth sale included both seats, the table, and the divider wall with the plaque that reads “Reserved for the Soprano family.” The owners of the restaurant made sure to let fans know it was time to let the booths go and the place needed heavy work.
“Please understand that we don’t want to do this. But the integrity of the booths are now compromised. They have been repaired many times and this furniture is over 60 years old,” Holsten’s said in a Facebook post last week. “Obviously, we do not want to do this, however it has come to a point where they are structurally not safe anymore as a whole and we need to think about the safety of our patrons first.”
Due to the booth’s weight and measurements, it was available for pickup only.
Seven years after the series ended, Gandolfini suddenly passed away at the age of 51. The restaurant became a spot to memorialize him, with fans dropping off letters and tokens of appreciation since.
