Elvis undies, unwashed, the latest celeb pants up for sale

A pair of underpants that once belonged to Elvis Presley are expected to fetch £10,000 when they go up for auction in Manchester next month. An added bonus for the would-be buyer is that the light-blue boxers come unwashed and with genuine Elvis stains, which came when he wore them underneath a white jumpsuit, during a show in 1977.

It has been a big year in the weird world of celebrity pant collecting. In April a pair of pantaloons worn by Marilyn Monroe in the 1954 film River of No Return fetched £28,300 at an auction in LA.

The following month it transpired that you didn't need to be dead for your underwear to be of great value. A pair of Queen Elizabeth's bloomers were reportedly sold for £11,400. They were said to have been left on a plane during a trip to Chile in 1968 and had somehow made their way into the possession of the late Hungarian-born and Miami-based playboy Baron Joseph "Sepy" De Bicske Dobronyi.

And in May, a pair of monogrammed boxer shorts made in 1894 for former Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph to go riding, sold for nearly £5,000 in Vienna. At the same auction, an unused pair belonging to Franz Joseph's wife, Empress Elisabeth, only reached half that amount, suggesting that collectors prefer their celebrity undergarments worn.

In most cases these deep-pocketed winning bidders don't appear to want their name made public. But then again, who can blame them?