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brianI have bought locks of hair from Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II at auction. Looking at them and holding them in my hand gives me cold chills. I had them both framed for wall display.
Harold Shigley is supposed to have had the most famous persons locks of hair ever, and his grandson inherited them. Coincidentally, he also had a huge sportscard collection and his grandson has been selling them for years now on eBay one at a time.
John Reznikoff is listed as the most prolific collector of hair in the Guinness Book, but they must mean "living" collector since Shigley had thousands and Reznikoff's collection only numbers in the hundreds?
Not sure what you mean by the bidding being fabricated? Shill bidding?
Heritage just sold a lock of Che Guevara's hair for over 100K. As far as the hair being considered original and authentic, it is based mainly on provenance (origin). With an entire lock of hair coming from a collection like Shigley or Reznikoff, it would be highly regarded and practically a given that it was authentic. But hair sold by the "single strand" sellers are probably about as authentic as Bigfoot tracks. Also, they are now putting hair on modern insert cards like the new Allen & Ginter. The ones I saw sold on eBay went for thousands apiece.