The first packet sent via RFC1149 avian carrier is up for auction at Christie's

peter_hansteen 63 points 13 comments October 02, 2026

onlineonly.christies.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (6 comments)

sublinear

> ... embodying the playfulness, technical ingenuity, and collaborative spirit that characterized the early Internet community. We're now considering 2001 "the early internet community"? Some people must still have whiplash from how quickly things changed. Shopping malls were already feeling the impact of ecommerce by this point. Also, in hindsight, the 2000s wasn't really all that collaborative compared to now.

etothepii

Is there a prediction market for the ultimate sale price?

noisy_boy

> One printed IP/ICMP "ping" packet sent by carrier pigeon per RFC 1149. Is that the entire packet shown in the picture frame? So the price is 1k+ USD for the frame? Because anyone can type that and get it printed/framed for considerably less. What am I missing?

PunchyHamster

Should've added a stuffed pidgeon

podunkPDX

I want this but not at the estimated final price. A girlfriend preordered the first iPhone, and when she sent me an email, I noticed the default signature, "Sent from my iPhone." I have since set my sig for email and anything else that allows it to "Sent via RFC1149" with a link the actual RFC. I've gotten a few chuckles over the years.

geerlingguy

I guess I should hold onto the SanDisk USB sticks I bundled up for a 3TB re-test in 2023 then. Didn't realize the packets were so valuable!

The first packet sent via RFC1149 avian carrier is up for auction at Christie's

Discussion Highlights (6 comments)

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