Lance Bass celebrated his birthday a week early this year -- like a BOSS -- treating himself and several friends to a lavish, alcohol-fueled trip to the Caribbean ... and TMZ has learned Lance paid for the entire thing.

A rep for Lance tells TMZ, the former 'N Sync singer flew his boyfriend (above) and 10 friends to St. Martin from last Thursday to Sunday -- and stayed in a luxury villa at the island's La Samanna Resort & Hotel that ran $4,000-a-night.

Lance also sprung for a day of jet skiing at $100/hour ... got a private V.I.P. table Saturday night at Tantra nightclub.



We're told the final bill totaled $20,000 -- but the hotel stepped in and comped a bunch of stuff, including the hotel room. Still, Lance sprung to cover the balance ... which wasn't too shabby ... and his friends didn't have to pay a dime.

Even rich people like free stuff.

From his lips to God's ears.

The questionable "Checking the Oil" wrestling move is NOT A MYTH ... so says Hulk Hogan -- who tells TMZ he was once on the wrong end of the violating technique from 7'4" Andre the Giant!!!



Hulk's story backs up the claim made by TMZ's Mike Walters -- that wrestlers will press a finger on the bottom end of an opponent in an effort to throw them off their game ... aka "Checking the Oil."

According to Hulk, who was at LAX yesterday, Andre would oil-check people "all the time" -- and the worst part about it ... HIS FINGERS WERE HUGE!!!

Joey Fatone is saying bye, bye, bye to the contents of his Orlando home -- in the form of a MASSIVE estate sale this weekend -- featuring all sorts of awesome crap ... like the SWORD OF OMENS!


TMZ has learned the Fatone family is moving and EVERYTHING must go -- including Joey's Death Star replica, his personal Sword of Omens from Thundercats, arcade games, furniture, art, dishes, grill utensils ... all the way down to his clothes and shoes.

In fact ... since everything in the house is marked with price tags -- it looks like the only thing not included in the sale is the kitchen sink.

... unless the price is right.

*NSYNC star Joey Fatone is good at getting rid of excess baggage -- he's dropped a ton of lbs over the years -- and now he's getting rid of some other unwanted stuff ... in the form of a yard sale.


Fatone put a bunch of old stuff up for sale outside his home in Windermere, FL. There wasn't a lot of *NSYNC memorabilia up for sale, except for a few generic items. Our guy on the scene bought a puzzle (above bottom) for $5.00 and had Joey sign it for another $10.

Money well spent.