Here's how Much the Famous Booth From the Last Episode of 'The Sopranos' Was Auctioned For

Sopranos is one of the best shows of the past couple of decades, and audiences are still fascinated by spinoffs and trivia about the series that showed the mob in a whole different light. Years after the show's finale was aired, a famous booth that was featured in the last few scenes of that very last episode of "The Sopranos" has recently fetched $82,600 at an auction. Turns out, the booth was not a part of the set that was designed, but rather an actual customer seating inside Holsten’s, an ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, New Jersey. The booth was put up for sale last Wednesday by the owners of Holsten. A note on the auction from eBay said that the listing was ended by the seller. There were reportedly 49 bidders on the booth with a total of 238 bids placed on it, per northjersey.com. 

The booth was sold as the ice cream parlor that owned it is now preparing for a renovation. "It’s just time to do it," the co-owner Chris Charley said in an interview. "It wasn’t a choice we took lightly or wanted to do, it was something we were sort of forced into doing," he added.

The winning bidder was set to get the booth, the table, the divided as well as the family plaque that reserved the seat for the Soprano family. The post on eBay also mentioned that it would not include the jukebox which was added by the film crew and that the buyer would have to pick it up. The burgundy booth paired with the yellow Formica tabletop's opening bid was $3,000 and Chris Charley, co-owner of the ice cream parlor, said that he was hoping to get around $10,000. Much to his surprise, the price was up to $52,000 in just 24 hours and finally sold for $82,600.

"The Sopranos" was filmed at Holsten's for more than three days in 2007 with James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and Robert Iler in the scene. Holsten talks about the amount of attention the place got for the scene in the booth. Fans still come in to dine in the booth. Mr. Carley also says that many fans take the restaurant's laminated menus home as souvenirs, one of which ended up fetching $4,150 on eBay, as per The NY Times.

"We still have people coming in asking to sit in the Soprano booth. We still get bus tours on Saturday and on-location tours. Over the summer you’ll see people taking pictures outside and people taking pictures of the booth," Carley said. "It’s not the frenzy it was when it happened 17 years ago, but it’s still quite a popular attraction."

The booth became more of a tourist attraction for fans of the show following the death of James Gandolfini who famously played the role of Tony Sopranos in the show. While the parlor is best known for their ice-creams, they are also known for their "Soprano"-famous onion rings that come with matching merchandise. 

For fans who are worried that Holsten may lose its essence post-renovation, Mr. Carley says that he's pleased to inform you that they are "simply practical" which means there will be no aesthetic change to the old-school ice cream parlor. In an Instagram post from the official page of the ice cream parlor, the company wrote that the booth installation is almost complete.