Shelter in place has opened America up to some amazing online content. My wife and I binge watched Tiger King, along with many other shows on Netflix. ESPN has gifted us with the 10-hour Last Dance documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1990’s Chicago Bulls. And one of my favorite pieces of content provided recently has been Ricky O’Donnell’s online series documenting his dynasty mode in College Hoops 2K. He created a dynasty mode for my alma mater, Western Illinois, and has a goal to bring the Leathernecks a national championship. Even if WIU was not my alma mater, I would be thrilled to read each part of this series.
With all of this extra time to consume content, it has also taken me down rabbit holes. I started watching Perfect Strangers and Step by Step on Hulu. Then I read each show’s Wikipedia page, and you know how time gets away by clicking and clicking and clicking on Wikipedia.
So my latest rabbit hole was on eBay. Every now and then I get in search mode. It typically starts out with looking for any new 1954 Topps Ernie Banks rookie card listings. Then, I’ll stumble upon other random Cubs artifacts. Sometimes I’ll just make a generic “Cubs” or “Chicago Cubs” search and play with the search filters. Once such listing caught my attention when I sorted by highest price. A run of 42 Kris Bryant autographed 1 of 1’s from Topps Transcendent. The price tag – $250,000. Yikes, that’s about $6,000 per card.
Is that price ridiculous? Maybe a little bit, but nothing comparing to the next listings you see in this blog. After seeing that I typed in other search terms looking for laughable eBay listings. Let’s start with one of the more famous listings. The Jose Uribe 1990 Fleer phenomenon.
That beauty is still up for grabs at $250,000. At least it’s graded PSA 10. There are many opinions on how Uribe-mania began. My opinion is that it was a joke, and it stuck.
Jumping down the Jose Uribe rabbit hole we find a more reasonable option in this graded PSA 9. My favorite part is the $0.20 added to the $100,000 price tag. It also appears to be running at auction.
It’s not graded, but this 1990 Fleer Jose Uribe has been slabbed and confirmed authentic. You know, because there are so many counterfeits in the wild.
Not limited to 1990 Fleer, Jose Uribe listings extend to his other baseball cards. This 1988 Topps is a raw copy…but it’s on Sale!
The $7,500 price tag is because it has an “alignment mistake,” and “logo misprint.”
While we are on the topic of alignment mistakes, take a gander at this 1989 Topps Doug Sisk…or is it a Larry Owen card. Two for the price of one at the bargain price of $15,000. However, you’ll have to fork over an extra $150 for shipping. The seller must be traveling cross country to hand deliver this gem. Look no further than the date on this picture. April 20. 4/20. I think that’s all we need to explain this listing…
Moving on to 1990 Topps. Here’s a Bo Jackson error card, and apparently a 1/1.
Guessing it’s the printing error on the centering that makes this Bo a $30,000 card. Hey, free shipping!
Another 1990 Topps error. Jim Abbott has FOUR EYES. Another 1/1. Only $20,000.
Finally, I’m glad my Cubs collection is not in need of a 1994 Topps Cubs team set. It might set me back $800,000. This Cincinnati Reds team set will only set you back $800,250 and you’ll have to spring for an extra four bucks to get it shipped.
Admittedly, there are probably far more ridiculous baseball card listings on eBay. As of the writing of this piece there were over 14 million listings when you type in “baseball card” inn the eBay search bar.
Feel free to spend a few minutes in search of some more ridiculous eBay listings and share with me.
This is a wonderful piece! I’d love to see more like it!