Generic Ebay Insanity Post

Mario at Wax Heaven reports that 2008 Bowman is getting some big sales already. I wouldn't be shocked if the buyer of the LaPorta auto card was Merkle923 or another such Topps operative trying to build buzz on the new product, but hey, I'm cynical. Actually I'm just frustrated because the shop still has my car and I can't go get the first '08 Bowman pack to rip on A Pack A Day. I don't even like the stuff, but I MUST BE FIRST. Yeah, I'm kind of obsessive about that. I need a hobby or something. Oh wait.

This post isn't about '08 Bowman though. This is about an eBay auction Mario snuck into his post. Let me show you a couple of cards.

This here is a T206 card of Sherry Magee, an underrated hitter from the deadball era. He was a very good hitter for Philadelphia and some claim he should be considered for the Hall of Fame. This particular card is one of the Big Four T206 cards as it has the very rare "Magie" spelling variation. The error was apparently caught early in production and very few are now known to exist. Possibly no more than 150 copies are available for collectors of this legendary set.

This card is a 2005 Superfractor autograph of Ryan Braun. Ryan is a great young hitter who won the Rookie of the year award last year. Braun has been rewarded by the Brewers with an 8-year contract, the richest in club history. There is only one of this exact card in existence by design, however there are hundreds of Braun autographed cards from the same set available, just without the 1/1 stamp and funky shiny squares. The 2005 Bowman Chrome set is not considered particularly historically significant or groundbreaking.

If you act now though, one or both of these cards can be yours through the magic of eBay. So how much would you pay for these cardboard (or in Ryan's case, foil and assorted polymers) beauties? Fifty dollars? Eighty Dollars?? ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS??? Well if you act now, you can get both of these cards for only $19.95 plus shipping and handling! And if you call in the next twenty minutes we'll double your order FREE! That's right, TWO Sherry Magie error cards and TWO Ryan Braun 1/1 Superfractors! But that's not all! You also get the Ronco turnip twaddler ABSOLUTELY FRE- um, wait, no. They are $12,500. Each. But you get free shipping! The free shipping is important because to afford either of them I'd have to sell both my cars, steal the neighhbors' cars and pawn them to a chop shop, then maybe sell a kidney or two. No cars means I can't pick it up and it might be hard to walk after the surgery.

But which one to buy? One of the top five cards from the greatest set of all time or the hot rookie card that was made artificially scarce? To be honest I wouldn't buy either. If I'm going to sell my organs on the black market for cards, you can bet your sweet bippy I'm going for the gusto. That's right, it's Mickey my little bitches! These high dollar cards are nothing but staus symbols anyway and if I'm going to have a status symbol I want a '52 Mantle. That way I can go to the mall and wave it in the faces of all those dorks decked out in bling trying to look cool. Who's the cool one now?!? Ok, so the T206 Wagner would be the ultimate status symbol, but I'd have to sell at least one organ from every reader of this blog to afford one of those and I'm not quite ready to commit mass murder for one card just yet. I know, I'm a disgrace to our recklessly consumerist hobby, but we all have to put limits on our collecting.