Amazing 19th Century Non-Sports Auction

I was doing my weekly dig through the tobacco card listings for one of the three Allen & Ginter cards I still need. I had a golden opportunity to get one of the three last week but forgot to bid. D'oh! While I was looking I found an auction for this:

That's a pretty nifty looking card there. It's from the N219 Kinney Brothers "Harlequin" deck of cards. It was a standard deck of cards where each card had the card number incorporated into a cartoon. I'm not sure why the fez-wearing three card monte hustler there has a clockwork spade on his chest, but I suppose it meant something in 1888. If there is a 'star' card in a deck of cards, I suppose the Ace of Spades would be it, but that did prepare me for the price the card eventually sold for...

$898.88

Whoa! That dude really wanted that card! There were 22 bids although it looks like 18 of them were placed by the final winner in a 5 minute period trying to eke out the high bidder. I knew that non-sports cards were becoming more and more sought after, but wow. The Harlequin set isn't terribly rare from what I can tell, but this is a very good looking copy of the premier card in the set. This is the most expensive non-sport card I've seen so far, and it is the highest priced card in the completed Tobacco card listings and that includes a few baseball issues put in there by mistake. I was watching the aution during the last few minutes to see if a smipe war would break out and cause it to break four figures, but no dice. I'm really interested to see what this Mark Twain Duke card from the same seller goes for now. That seems like a much better card to me. Of course you all know the real reason why I'm posting this and it sure ain't about cards. Enjoy...