Collectibles Site Under Fire Over Disney ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ Hangman’s Noose Necklace

Disney is under fire for movie merchandise from 2006 as TMZ slammed a Pirates of the Caribbean hangman’s noose gold plated necklace that was sold as part of Disney’s Couture jewelry line.

When Disney’s summer blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest came out in 2006, its Disney Couture jewelry line pumped out a series of necklaces, pins, rings and other items linked to the movie. Disney Coutre’s Dead Man’s Chest line included little gold flintlock pistols, fishermen’s hooks, a cutlass, a skull, and others items linked to scenes in the film. But what caught the eye of TMZ was the 14k gold-plated hangman’s noose necklace.

The noose, which harkens to the movie scenes where Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow, is set to be hanged as a criminal pirate, came in a Disney Coutre velvet pouch and carried the Disney Coutre oval tag near the clasp.

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Criticism of the noose necklace is not new. Some complained at the time that the noose necklace was tone deaf. Despite the scene in the movie, some felt noose necklace merchandise was just not a good idea.

Flash forward fourteen years and entertainment site TMZ discovered that a collectibles tracking website called WorthPoint had featured a sale of one of the 2006 noose necklaces. TMZ published an article attacking WorthPoint for archiving the sale.

Here’s how TMZ put it:

Now, back to the real issue … how something so racially charged could’ve ever found its way to the marketplace? We reached out to Disney … radio silence.

…

Still, the move to sell noose-related products whatsoever is so obviously a bad one — and it comes off as especially tone deaf in 2020.

WorthPoint is a tracking service that archives sales on eBay. It is used by collectors to find out what things have sold for in the past so they can get a handle on how the market is pricing antiques and collectibles. WorthPoint does not sell products, nor is it responsible for the original eBay auctions it archives. All WothPoint does is chronicle the auctions and sales so that people can track pricing.

Regardless, WorthPoint pulled the archived listing of the eBay sale of the Disney noose after TMZ’s article appeared.

Disney’s Dead Man’s Chest collectibles line was limited and mostly sold out during the year after the movie’s debut. The items sold online as well as in stores such as Nordstrom, Fred Segal, and Kitson.

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