If the name Franklin Mint makes you think of high-priced tchotchkes and late-night television, well, you aren’t the only one. But everyone loves board games, right? Okay, almost everyone. Even if you love board games, you might not love the tacky, flimsy packaging they come with, and Franklin Mint has taken care of that.

This Collector’s Edition Monopoly set is housed in a beautifully polished all-wood case. Game tokens are accented with 24 karat gold, and the houses and hotels are beautifully designed, nothing like the cheap red and green boxes that come with the usual set. This set also boasts pull out drawers for the bank and all the pieces, and leather-bound “Real Estate Portfolio”. This is the kind of game that you can enjoy with your family now, and then pass it down to future generations.

Collaborations between carmakers and fashion design houses are nothing new. Everyone from Eddie Bauer to Hermes has put their name and logo on a car. I have to be honest, though, that this is one I didn’t see coming. Fiat and Gucci have teamed up to produce this limited edition Fiat 500.

The car features the fabulous Gucci striping on the side, and is upholstered in Guccissima-logoed leather. All of the interior details, from the safety belts to the gear shift is also green and red. The new 500 will be on display in GenevaMotor Show from March 3rd to March 13th. Customers will be able to pre-order their Fiats online beginning April 1st. Models will be in European dealerships in July, but not until the end of the year worldwide. At $17,000 euros, inch-for-inch, this might be one of the most reasonably-priced Gucci purchase you could ever make.

Fashionable Manhattanites have been praying for this moment for years: the moment that the fashion police hit the streets and finally start issuing citations. That’s right folks, watch your back if you’re in NYC for fashion week, people, because the Fashion Force is on the prowl in their Mercedes Benz CLS 63 AMGs.

Actually, I apologize for amping you up, but they won’t actually be issuing citations. The Fashion Force is there to catch people doing fashion good, not evil. What’s the reward for a fabulous outfit? A free ride. You’re only laughing if you don’t live in NYC. A free ride in NYC could be worth fifty bucks if you’re going far enough, and it could save you several blisters if your heels are high enough. Plus, you’re definitely not going to find a yellow cab this cool.

Entertainment will be provided by Tiesto a dutch DJ and electronic performer. The Magnum table comes with four magnums of Dom Perignon and four of Belvedere Vodka. Down the street at the W, tables are also running $25k, but you can invite thirty guests. Kourtney Kardashian’s shindig at the Gansevoort seems like a bargain in comparison at $650 for a table for two.

So, if you’re hanging out in Miami tonight, you have a lot of options. But be careful of hidden fees, a lot of those table fees don’t include taxes or gratuity.

Law enforcers state that the majority of the chips are also embedded with radio devices that make them easily traceable and, essentially, valueless. Unless, that is, the bandit decides to cash them in at one of the Bellagio’s sister resorts. Most chips are only redeemable at the casino in which they’re used, but Bellagio chips are famously transferable. Other speculations are that the thief was working in cahoots with another robber, who stole some very valuable Confederate money that was on display in the hotel. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but this is probably the last time I’ll get to use cahoots and bandit in the same post.

Last year’s losers won gift baskets valued at over $85,000, dubbed the “Everyone Wins At The Oscars” gift basket. Seriously! Frankly, I’d take one of those babies over a gold statue anyday, but I guess that just goes to show how little artistic integrity I really have. Once you find out what was in them, you might want to become a sellout like me.  Here are some of the amazing inclusions:

• Fancy Feast’s “Celebrate the Moment” gift package including a FlipCam Mino, Tiffany crystal-studded cat collar and an assortment of Fancy Feast Appetizers for Cats
• HGTV Green Home Mattress Collection by Serta
• $4,000 limited edition (only 125 made) luxury Leather Travel Bag from Victorinox, makers of the Original Swiss Army Knife
• Private island vacation at the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club at Ambergris Clay
• $45,000 private & exclusive use of an African Safari Lodge from Premier Tours (includes four nights at the luxurious Lion Sands Private Game Reserve in South Africa for up to 8 adults and 8 kids, all meals prepared daily by a private chef, daily private game drives in open safari vehicles and guided nature walks)
• $14,500 four-night resort stay in a seaside suite with breakfast in bed at the Monte Carlo Beach Hotel in the Principality of Monaco
• A $7,000 three-night all-inclusive rustic getaway to Winvian Luxury Hotel in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut (2009 “losing” nominees Ron Howard and Frank Langella redeemed last year)
• Professional dog studio photography package from Otis & Lucy (Paris Hilton is a fan)
• BlueFox Extreme Bluetooth headset
• A year’s supply of Altoids Smalls
• The Pig Board from Snout a Pig
• iFLY indoor skydiving experience
• Eco-friendly certified carbon free SoHo Ultra-Quiet personal shredder from GoECOlife
• La Peau Couture Organic Wrinkle Diminishing Serum (priced at $499 per jar)
• Slimware portion-control plates (used by body-conscious Hollywood stars such as Rene Russo, Kristin Chenoweth, Emily Procter and Ashlee Simpson)
• 10 personal training sessions from Huntley Drive Fitness (where previous nominees Melissa Leo and Jason Reitman train)
• One week all-inclusive fitness bootcamp from Live In Fitness Enterprise (former Oscar nominee Angela Bassett just finished the Red Carpet Bootcamp Program)

This gift doesn’t come string-free for the city of Milan, of course. The tree is a beautiful attraction for city-dwellers and visitors, and you can rest assured that Tiffany is going to take advantage of that fact. The company plans to open a special holiday pop-up store underneath the tree selling holiday gifts. Brilliant marketing, but it did suffer a few setbacks. The archpriest of Milan’s cathedral, for example, protesting against the installation of the tree on the grounds that it wasn’t in line with the religious tenor of the holidays.

The bidding ends in less than two weeks, and it’s already up to $10,000. This season of The Apprentice showcases former candidates that have lost their jobs, so it should be a pretty exciting set to visit. All three of the Trump kids are entrepreneurs, so there won’t be any shortage of conversation topics, either. Maybe you could hit them up for some business advice.

The tree itself was make of 21 karat gold. It was adorned with 21, 798 glittering diamonds 3,762 crystal beads, and 456 lights. The tree weighed in excess of 7,000 pounds and was almost 20 feet tall. Soo Kee wasn’t trying to sell the unwieldy wonder at all, it was just there to draw in customers and allow them a little taste of luxury. A sales associate at the store said, “Who in their right mind would buy that tree?” After the holiday season, the tree was broken up.

Birchbox has found a solution to your beauty product overspending problem. For ten bucks a month they send you 4-5 deluxe trial sizes of high end cosmetic products specifically chosen for you. Well, not chosen for you, personally, but tailored to your likes, more or less. The brands they include are impressive: Nars, Jurlique, and Kiehl’s, to name a few. Even if the products don’t turn out to work for you, at least you’ll know that, and won’t waste money on a full size. Also, you can buy a year gift membership for $110.