Nicolas Cage, the nephew of famed director Francis Ford Coppola, has been something of an oddity for his entire career. While the man is an undeniably talented actor, starring in films like Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas or Adaptation, he’s also proven to be an exceptionally odd person behind the scenes. He’s fascinated with the work and creation of other cultures and has a habit of being drawn to the supernatural and unpredictable. Those passions have led him to spend a lot of money on an assortment of strange and unexpected things. Seriously, Nicolas Cage has a net worth of over $25 million and ended up being spending a good chunk of that on things that most people would have never once considered buying like rare animals and even his own unique grave.

Even his more common celebrity purchases like cars, homes, and boats have been more over the top than his peers, making him one of the most eccentric men in Hollywood. Mind you, those purchases ended up having a greater cost than just money when the IRS ended up came to claim a lot of his biggest purchases, forcing him to sell them in an attempt to meet various fines. Well, at least he’ll always be able to say he once owned the skull of a dinosaur. Here are fifteen of the craziest things Nicolas Cage has bought over the years.

He Bought The First Superman Comic

Released in 1938, Action Comics #1 was the first comic to feature Superman, a.k.a. the very first superhero. He changed the face of American popular culture, in a way that’s still being felt to the modern day. So as you can imagine, the first comic he was in has become an incredibly valuable collector's item, which made it the perfect purchase for Cage.

He loves Superman (and even came close to playing him in Tim Burton's failed film), to the point that he named one of his children after the character. Cage ended up spending $150,000 on a copy of the single issue, adding it to his impressive (and insane) comic book collection, which has been estimated to be worth somewhere around $1.6 million.

He Bought A Spooky Mansion

The LaLaurie Mansion was constructed in New Orleans and belonged to the physician, Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie. More importantly, his wife Delphine was a really bad person. She was cruel and took particular fun in harming the slaves because she was actually the worst. If that story seems somewhat familiar, it’s because it was used as the inspiration for the Kathy Bates' character in American Horror Story: Coven. However, she was somehow even worse than that in real life. The mansion has been considered haunted for over a century and changed ownership many times over the years. In 2007, the supernatural-obsessed Cage bought the mansion for $3.45 million. He ended up auctioning off afterward though; perhaps he got spooked by the spirits.

He Got His Own Reptile House Worth Of Pets

People who have visited Cage’s home have noted that the actor practically has a zoo in his estate and not just with typical animals you’d expect to find. Instead, Cage has built up his own crazy personal assortment of rare pets. Among other animals (which we’ll get more into later), some of the reptiles he picked up over the years stand out as incredibly odd picks for a pet. This has included a crocodile and even a pair of albino king cobras. Oh, and he just carried around a vial of anti-venom with him in case the snakes ever bit him, which seems odd, what with his children and all, but hey! Snakes. We probably should not be surprised by the oddities that Nicolas Cage likes to purchase.

He Has Almost Twenty Cars

Plenty of celebrities end up using their newfound fame and monetary gains to go all out and buy things that they want. This usually means a luxurious car or two, maybe even a boat, but Cage kind of took it to the next level and went nuts with his car purchases. Cage has reportedly bought 19 luxury cars, an entire assortment of different rides that he can bust out whenever he wants to. If he wanted to take a drive in any of his nine Rolls-Royces, he could do it on command. He even has his own Enzo Ferrari at his disposal, on top of everything else. Seriously, the man can take a casual spin around the block in the kinds of cars the rest of us can only dream about. What's shocking is that this doesn't even include his most over-the-top car... but we’ll get to that.

He Got A Private Island

Private islands are kind of a comically, over-the-top purchase that big-name celebrities try to purchase for themselves. We are not quite sure why, but apparently it is a necessity. It’s a ridiculous purchase usually but at least some celebs, like Jay-Z and Beyoncé, have purchased islands that they've transformed into their own personal resorts. Others have purchased their own islands without doing anything to the land. Cage is one of those people, choosing to pick up an island of his own that was undeveloped and stretching out over 40-acres in the Bahamian waters. The island cost him $3 million in 2006. He had the chance to do whatever he wanted with long sandy beaches and beautiful freshwater lakes and it seems like the kind of thing you’d want to expand on but Cage didn’t ever end up doing anything with the island.

He Bought A Gulfstream Jet

Private jets are a dream for all celebrities. It is the ultimate symbol of wealth and status. A jet is usually held up as one of the biggest purchases someone can make to show that they’ve reached the kind of success that the rest of the world couldn't imagine. For a lot of celebrities, traveling on private jets is impressive enough, while others find it necessary to actually own their jet for personal use. Nic Cage picked up a Gulfstream Jet for himself during the height of his fame. While it may have seemed like a solid decision to make at the time, his continued use of the jet and his attempts to write off the trips ended up backfiring pretty hard when he got into some trouble with the IRS. Nicolas seemed to want to splurge however he could.

He Bought His Own Shark

Remember when we brought up the personal zoo that Cage has basically assembled for himself at his home? Well, the list doesn't stop at the rare snakes, he has more than just land-based animals to fill out his home. The man also has a host of aquatic animals waiting for him, too. Among them is a salt-water shark, which seems like a bit much. Keeping the shark alive and healthy requires 500 gallons of water for the shark to swim in, a move that Cage has kept up with. It may be the kind of pet that only cartoon super villains have in their homes but Cage isn’t the only celeb with a shark in his home. Ice T also famously has one and even Britney Spears’ ex-husband, Kevin Federline, boasts the ownership of a shark.

He Has Purchased Actual Castles

Driving through the star-filled hills of Los Angeles, you can see plenty of impressive homes and sterling architecture but for some, those mansions and modern marvels aren’t enough. Instead, they decide to go all out and try to go as big as possible. The ultimate fit for a king like Cage would be a castle, the kind of purchase only the super rich can really make. But Nicolas Cage, at the height of his spending, went even more overboard and bought two castles. He dropped an incredible amount of money to acquire the Midford Castle in England and the Schloss Neidstein Castle in Bavaria. Well, at least he was able to feel royal for a little while. He was forced to sell Schloss Neidstein, despite only having it for two years.

He Has A Collection That We Will Never Understand...

Above all else, Nicolas Cage has achieved a certain identity in the public eye, which is that he is kind of crazy. The actor has famously been a weirdo during interviews and behind the scenes, with his antics being unpredictable and strange. Remember, this is the guy who invented a fake, ancient African acting style that he utilized to play a guy with a burning CGI skull for a head. It should not be a surprise that the man is so enamored with the strange. He’s put together a collection of Pygmy heads over the years that are prominently displayed in his home. To his credit, Cage can at least say that his home is pretty unique, and that’s not even considering everything else he has in there.

He Bought The Skull Of A T. Rex

We can't fault Nic for this outlandish purchase – come on, owning your own dinosaur skull seems amazing! Doesn't it? And the story behind the one Cage picked up is even crazier. The actor won the piece in a Natural History Manhattan auction for $276,000. He even managed to beat out Leonardo DiCaprio for the win and took home the T. Rex skull to add to his collection. However, as it turns out, the skull was actually stolen from Mongolia by a group of smugglers. As part of an international effort between the nation and the United States, the skull (along with an assortment of other stolen pieces from the country) have been returned to Mongolia. At least Cage will always be able to say that he used to own a dinosaur skull.

He Bought Pyramid Tombstone

In ancient times, pyramids were used as ornate and powerful memorials to the rulers in Egypt. They became a symbol around the world, with the pyramids even coming to be considered one of the great wonders of the world. Laying the sick in pyramids is obviously, no longer a standard burial practice but that didn’t stop Cage from deciding that he wanted to be buried in much more than a grave. Instead, Cage has decided to do as the old pharaohs did and set up a pyramid in New Orleans to serve as his final resting place. The cemetery he’ll be buried in is famed for its notorious graves, including Marie Laveau. Although, it’s proven to be an annoying prospect for local New Orleans patrons, who are annoyed that Cage has managed to get a plot in the otherwise crowded cemetery.

He Bought An Octopus

What, you thought that we already mentioned all of the animals that Cage keeps at his house? We haven't mentioned his octopus – seriously, his octopus, as in the octopus that lives in his house. And on top of being, well, an octopus, it also proved to be crucial for Cage as an actor, apparently. He claimed the octopus, which cost him $150,000, has been an inspiration to his acting and essentially served as his acting coach in the second half of his career. This explanation wasn’t a terrific description for the United States government though, who ended up disagreeing with his concept. The government also became annoyed when he tried to write the octopus off on his taxes. He was forced to sell his newfound muse, which might actually be the saddest thing Cage has had to deal with.

He Has Purchased Fifteen Different Homes

Nicolas Cage has owned a number of different homes over the years and his taste has varied greatly in terms of the kind of homes he’s owned. The man has bought fifteen different places around the world over the years. This has included a $25 million waterfront Newport mansion and a manor in England, besides his other castle. He’s even bought mega mansions, like his $8.5 million Las Vegas-based home. Unfortunately, his troubles with the IRS ended up biting him the hardest when it came to where he lived. Many of his various houses around the world have either been sold off to make money or repossessed by the government. They at least should have let him keep his Los Angeles-based home.

He Got Four Separate Yachts

Yachts are the perfect rich purchase. What more could you desire than a luxury boat that you can control yourself? That sounds perfect. But Cage didn’t just want to have one yacht in his collection; he wanted four. He picked up four of them over the years, including a Sarita Luxury Yacht (which happens to have an onboard Jacuzzi and restaurant). On top of that, Cage went even further and had the yacht redesigned to include more bedrooms and even a new study for when he wants to sit down in his yacht and enjoy some quiet. It’s been estimated that Cage ended up dropping $20 million to fully change the yacht, which is WAY more than he spent on his private island.

He Bought A Lambo Owned Formerly Owned By The Shah Of Iran

This might be one of the craziest purchases that Cage has ever made, and look, after everything else, that’s really saying something. Following the success of Con Air, Cage ended up spending $450,000 on a Lamborghini Miura SVJ during an auction. For a man who owns so many cars, this one stands out though for both the price (he almost spent half a million dollars on this thing after all) and the notoriety that the car came with. The car actually had a prestigious owner previously. Namely, the former Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. It was a gorgeous ride and it's too bad that he ended up selling it after just a few years. Only Nic Cage would spend so much money on a car just because of its history.