Nostalgic to cheeky, goods from the former notorious Duluth head shop will be auctioned

While Federal agents seized all of these drugs, as well as many of Carlson’s other assets, some less illegal goods and signs remained. When the dust settled and the agents finished their work, Carlson’s son Joseph Gellerman collected this stuff and put it in a storage room.

But after a while he stopped paying the warehouse and Gellerman was formally asked to either settle the contents of his warehouse unit or to expire it.

The memorabilia and merchandise will be auctioned off January 8 at 5:00 p.m. at the Sellers Auction in Superior, Wisconsin.

Christina Greene, who runs the auction house, said the sale will be an adult-only event due to the nature of some of the items that are about to be on offer. She said it just wasn’t appropriate to have kids in the mix when bongs, other smoking paraphernalia, and sex toys were on sale.

Greene said the storage unit was large and its contents filled a 24-foot trailer from top to bottom.

“We have hundreds of albums, everything from 70s rock to disco and whatever else they had with them. I know for a fact that there are lots of adult items and all smokers’ items too, as well as items like Bob Marley t-shirts, throwing stars, black lights, and posters. But most of it is crated right now in a 40-foot container behind our building. So we won’t know exactly what we’re selling until next Thursday, when we unpack everything and set it up, ”she said.

Sellers Auction has two intermediate auctions that precede the Last Place on Earth event.

Last Place on Earth owner Jim Carlson of Duluth reacts after the Duluth Police Department issued search warrants on his shop in downtown Duluth in September 2011. Synthetic drugs, cash and 31 weapons were seized from the store. Clint Austin / Files / Duluth News Tribune

“We’re going to have a party. I’ll get a barrel and some champagne. We call it Date Night. We sell all PG items first. Then we need about 15 minutes.” So if someone isn’t comfortable staying for the other stuff, they can go, “Greene said.

“What else are you going to do on a freezing Saturday evening in January?”

Some people still get nostalgic about Last Place on Earth in the days before the synthetic drug trade began. It is therefore not surprising to Greene that the interest in the upcoming auction is so great.

“We’re not trying at all to make the situation easy. I didn’t live here at the time, but I understand there were people who died from synthetic drugs. It was a tragic turn, and that’s why he (Carlson) is where he is now. We obviously had nothing to do with it, just trying to help the owner of a warehouse who got stuck with all that stuff, “Greene said.

At the business owner’s request, Greene declined to reveal the operator’s name.