Kim, Kanye buy mansion for $11 million: Will $3 million baby photos be down payment?

Ah, the same old family story, Kimye style.

There’s love, a baby on the way, and before you can say “refi,” there’s that dream house that needs just a little bit of renovation.

Yes, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have reportedly bought a $11 million mansion in Bel Air, and are already trying to make those needed fixes for their growing family – a gym, a movie theater, a basketball court and a salon.

All this less than a month after West announced publicly that Kardashian was pregnant.

And only a few days after celebrity “insiders” started speculating about how much the paparazzi would pay for the oh-so-public couple’s first baby photos. A number of reports – of predictably dubious nature – said that the bidding was already at $3 million, but that the couple was holding out for more. After all, we figure, they need to make that new salon nice.

We could write all of this “news” off as more celebrity vapidity, sure. But this blast of public excess got us wondering... how much are those baby photos worth for mere mortals?

The answer is easier if you are on the Hollywood A list, of course. 

According to Forbes.com, for instance, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sold photos of twins Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon for a combined $15 million in 2008.

(Their daughter, Shiloh, apparently collected only about $4.1 million two years before, but, you know, inflation.) Jolie and Pitt said they donated the money to charity. Jennifer Lopez reportedly collected $6 million.

Recently, according to celebrity watchers, more moms and dads (think Beyonce) have decided to release their newborn photos themselves, on social media or their own websites. Minimalism is in, after all.

But these celebs probably could sell their baby shots, if they wanted. The rest of us – probably not. (Heck, we can barely copyright them, if you read the fine print of Facebook, Instagram et al.)

So how much are ours worth? 

According to the ever-expanding collection of baby photographers out there, the answer ranges from a $99 package at a big box store to many hundreds – even thousands – of dollars for a personalized session with an individual photographer.

But for most parents, the answer is probably easier: priceless.

Those images of first smiles and snuggles, first breaths and steps, have been prized possessions in families for generations. They have traveled across countries and have been the first documents saved during a flood or fire. They have lived in wallets and army duffel bags, in frames and in desk drawers. The fact that they don’t have value to others, we might venture, makes them all the more intimate, more precious, to us.

So take that Kimye.  Priceless.

Of course, if anyone is interested in funding Baby Two’s college education, just give me a call.