The sale of Sharon Stone’s 1974 Corvette to benefit an AIDS charity was hyped all over the internet. Elton John stages an extravaganza for charity every year just before the Oscars, this year being no exception. The beneficiary is the Elton John Aids Foundation.

Part of the benefit is an auction, where celebrities donate objects to be auctioned to the highest bidder, proceeds to the Foundation.

Sharon Stone has put a car up for sale in the past, and it’s become something of an annual tradition at the auction.

This year, it was her 1974 Corvette being offered at auction. As it’s a Corvette and Sharon Stone’s Corvette, the auction and car received much publicity. That the ’74 was not the highlight of the Corvette lineage, what with being choked by pollution control devices and lacking the traditional small block Chevy abundance of power, was overlooked. After all, it’s Sharon Stone’s Corvette.

It turns out that Stone and the Foundation should have been getting advice from Barrett-Jackson.

(more after the jump)

Stone reportedly hoped that the car’s sale would raise $120,000, which was billed as being about three times the normal value of the car. (The notion that a ’74 Corvette is worth $40,000 is, itself, fantasy – but, hey, it’s Hollywood.

Well, the car did better than anyone could have dreamed.

The opening bid was a cool $1,000,000.

That was also the last bid, the only bid, the winning bid.

And, you see, that’s why they needed Craig Jackson. To bid at Barrett-Jackson, you have to prove you have the money.

The winning bidder for Stone’s Corvette, according to the Boston Herald’s Inside Line website, did not.

He thought it would be fun to make a big bid, and then drop out after the next bid was made. But, at that price, no one was foolish enough to be the next bid, and that meant the charade had an unhappy ending.

Stone, it is said, was not amused.

But, let’s be fair.

She hoped to sell a car for three times a price that’s probably twice what the car is worth.

She should have known better.

Only Barrett-Jackson can do that.