Auction for Duluth's Last Place on Earth shop brings out nostalgia hunters

SUPERIOR, Wis. — The focal point of an auction featuring leftover merchandise from a notorious Duluth headshop was a 20-plus foot sign painted with a rainbow horizon and artfully drawn letters spelling out the store's name: Last Place on Earth.

It was the big-ticket item that lured Karl Rother in from the Iron Range. He had no intention of being outbid — he and his wife already had decided to hang it outside their remote cabin.

"I was leaving with it," Rother said after securing the sign for $2,000. "It's a piece of Duluth history."

Sellers Auction hosted an event Saturday night to clear out a 24-foot storage container filled with the shop's remaining stock, a collection heavy on vintage-band T-shirts, records, posters, smoking accessories and pieces that were billed as "adult items," which were saved for the end of the more than 6-hour auction.

A back table served as a makeshift bar with beer, boxed wine and Bloody Mary garnishes. Dinner options included macaroni and cheese, brats with Italian marinara and krumkake with blueberry cream filling. Something called "adult cookies" were $1 — and gluten free.

Last Place on Earth's owner Jim Carlson was openly selling synthetic drugs at his shop in 2013 when he was arrested by U.S. marshals. He eventually was convicted on 51 counts and sentenced to 17.5 years in prison. The store's property, which had been seized by authorities, was sent to a storage container. Carlson's son Joseph Gellerman stopped paying rent on the space more than two years ago, according to the owners of Sellers Auction.

The anonymous owner of the unit sought out the company to help recoup lost rent.

Despite the pandemic, more than 350 people packed into the space for the auction, where the goods were available for browsing before the start. Christina Greene, who co-owns the auction house with her husband, said typically these events draw closer to 80.

Before he started the bidding, auctioneer Mickey Greene acknowledged to the crowd that they had run out of chairs.

"I knew we were going to have a turnout," he said, then asked, "Who's never been to an auction before?"

Hands were raised around the packed room.

"Be like the Grateful Dead," he said. "Peace, love and rock 'n' roll."

Greene dashed off rolling papers, pipe cleaners, glass tubes, cash register tape, a box full of tasers and hookahs before selling boxes of records with Lionel Richie, Led Zeppelin, Shaun Cassidy, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and more for hundreds of dollars each.

Paige Bisbee, who owns the Rusty Pelican in Orr, Minn., snagged the original Last Place on Earth signage that was outside the E. Superior Street shop — a multi-panel storefront piece with bent edges and chipped paint — for $750. She doesn't have a connection to the former head shop, but she thought it would be a strong addition to her vintage store.

"Pieces like this make our little town of 300 a destination," she said.

The T-shirts with images of Johnny Cash, Kurt Cobain, The Beatles, and cheeky drawings and sayings drew a few vintage collectors, including Nick Soderstrom of St. Paul, who owns the Bearded Mermaid Bazaar. He ended up with boxes of T-shirts, including a 1993 Joe Mars print and a variety of band T-shirts. His college-aged customers "eat that up," he said.

The auction was light on competition, Soderstrom said, but one person stood out: Clayton Hayden of Superior, a tailor who grew up thrifting and making his own clothes. He found T-shirts to sell to pay for the T-shirts he keeps. There was more than enough stock to go around, he said.

"Everyone could eat."