Elvis embalming tools no longer up for auction in Chicago

Yes, you read the headline correct. Embalming tools used on Elvis Presley were set to go to the highest bidder later this summer. The Chicago based, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers were all ready to let bidders and Elvis fans duke it out for a chance to take home: rubber gloves, forceps, lip brushes, a comb and eyeliner and needle injectors. The auction house was set to start the bidding on August 12th and estimated the bidding for the tools to start around $8,000 dollars. Idol worshippers briefly entertained thoughts of draining their bank accounts to take home genuine Elvis souvenirs.

But, bad news Elvis fans, the King and his tools have left the building.

According to an official press release from Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, the authenticity of the tools has been called into question, forcing those items to be removed from the block. This decision was not made by the auction house, but by the owner of the instruments, a former senior embalmer at the Memphis Funeral Home. The former embalmer and his son, the owners of the tools, have decided to return the instruments back to the the Memphis Funeral Home and it's parent company Service Corporation International. By doing this, the two hope the company will donate the tools to a worthy cause.

This isn't the first time a rather strange item of the King's went for auction. In October of 2009 fans had a chance to bid of snippets of the Elvis' hair disgarded upon his entrance to the military.