No surprise, there’s a considerably large array of Wheaties boxes available for purchase on eBay. No surprise, most of them feature the athletes some of us remember from our youth or kids’ youth – to be featured on a Wheaties box has been quite the accolade in popular sports for some time. Each listing has a colorful, hopefully price-point-justifiable, story to tell. For example, an unopened encased box signed by Celtics Red Auerbach, Larry Bird, John Havlicek, Bob Cousy, Jojo White and KC Jones. Over 30 NBA titles combined, asking price $999. Question is: is there cereal in there?

For the more skeptical collectors amongst us, here’s something more guaranteed whole-grain free. And at the price of just four dollars a box…



For $10 K, you’ll receive a set of Wheaties boxes that includes 325 1993 Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl XXVIII championship editions, 125 Michael Jordan’s Comeback boxes, and 105 of those Auerbach, Bird, Hondo, etc. boxes, just to name 555 of the 2,750.

According to the listing, all the boxes are from the General Mills plant in Buffalo, NY, where the seller, ernest_orlando, went to college. Ernest says he bought them off plant employees, who were each given three boxes each time a new box was issued. So unlike what could potentially be molding inside other commemorative Wheaties memorabilia, these factory-flat boxes he guarantees have never come in contact with any sort of dietary fiber.

Currently, there are NBA memorabilia items up for auction on ebay that are both priced higher and more ridiculous – for example, a framed, vinyl-copy of the Thriller album signed by Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. However, this has to be the most curious case of trying to cash in on a superstar’s early accolades that I’ve seen since last year when I found someone selling eight scrapbooks of Lebron James complete press clippings for $250 K. For just under five grand you can purchase a set of four yearbooks from Lower Merion High School, in Ardmore Pennsylvania, from 1993-96.

It’s no coincidence, that during that four year span, the Lower Merion “Aces” varsity basketball team was led by Kobe Bryant. He was also voted to Homecoming King and Most Likely to Succeed his senior year. (A+ to the seller for including every single shot of Kobe from each book in the listing.)

Redacted: Bears mentioning that First Cuts posted this find yesterday – someone selling an 8th grade yearbook that Kobe signed for $9,995.00! His message: “Blosom, you are a good dancer and very sympathetic. Love, Kobe Bryant.” (H/T @chrislittmann)

Oh, old guys and the crazy business ventures as retirees.

Meet Grandpa Woody. He’s collected 2,500+ ticket stubs from Major League games played in by Barry Bonds. And he’ll sell you the whole lot – for the Buy It Now price of $75,000.



No surprise, the ultimate goal is to collect stubs from all 3,047 games of Barry’s MLB career (including post season and All-Star appearances). His listing also includes the 514 stubs he needs to complete the collection.

I’d love to know how many stubs Woody, a Santa Cruz-native, procured the old fashioned way – by going to the ballpark. I’m no Peter Falk, but If he’s seen even a third of Barry’s games, we could be talking about a reliable source in the Bonds investigation. (I’m clearly no Columbo.)

Woody is also working parallel paths and collecting every ticket for Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain’s games. He’s going to come after me for calling him a retiree with a crazy business venture, isn’t he?

Check out Grandpa Woody’s store on Ebay

I’m not going to lie. I was indeed looking for the truly sensationalized to post this April Fools Day. What I ended up finding – on my old stand-by for the startling, ebay – is equal parts nostalgic and…heartless?

This is not an April Fools joke.

Those dastardly auctioneers, Memory Lane Inc., are selling Thurman Munson’s pilot license for the buy it now price of $16,500.

OK. Thurman Munson died in a plane crash in 1979, at age 32 as the captain of the Yankees. He was baseball’s Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I’m not so much sickened that someone’s trying to make a buck off this (maybe because of my coarse hatred of the Yankees), but this is pretty atrocious.

When it comes to the American news cycle, there’s two can’t-fail ways to incubate a good scandal – compound lying and unabashed stupidity. For instance, going on The Today Show, wearing a temple stud and trying to convince the public that 99% of the rumors that you’re a hussy aren’t true.

Jamie Jungers may have found a way to concoct some sort of unabashed secret sauce of stupid lies, that could keep this baby cycling until we start drawing correlations between the Tiger list and the Madoff list. She’ll singularly standout once this all passes (her, jaimiee grubbs, probably if there’s a lucky #18 on the ‘on the sly’ list…), but the hustlers on Ebay trying to make a gazillion % profit off a Tiger URL that they parked on GoDaddy for $10/year are doing their part on a tier-two level of ridiculousness scope.

If you search for Tiger Woods, categories: “all categories,” and sort by priced highest, the first five and nine of the first ten items listed are Woods-related domains.

An autographed painting of what looks like Tiger with Pangaea in the background for $1,000,000 is listed for a lower price than both Tigerection.com and TigerGotWood.com.

The soft sell for some of these is truly hilarious. For instance, the merchant of Tigersharem.com would like you to let you know that TigersHarem.com would make an “Excellent Business name, especially for the Adult Porn Strip Club Market.” Or if you pick up for TailsofTigerWoods.com, which has a starting bid of $21,000,000, you get a free hat and t-shirt with purchase.

If you want to get in on the Tiger URL market but are too late to the game to get say Tiagrawoods.com, there’s always something like SteviesSeconds.com, which is not going to be great for search out of the gate.

Take it from someone who peruses frequently – there is never a shortage of asinine behavior happening on the sporting goods and sports memorabilia listings on Ebay. Take for instance, this joker, who’d ideally like you to pay $14 million dollars for an autographed pair of A-rod turf spikes. Or, if that’s too rich for your wallet, there’s a guy in Dallas who will sell you a two-field baseball complex for the Ebay buy-it-now price of $425,000.

Not far down the list from those featured items, you’ll find a serviceman from Fort Bragg, NC who, for the all-in price of $50,000 will sell you his arm - specifically, the space on it to buy advertising. This may well fit the profile of yet another dimwitted attempt at auctioneering, but at least hear this guy out…

I am trying to sell space on my arm, the complete and full arm. I have been having some small financial issues and I am really in need of some funds to help out my family and eliminate a few debts that have accumulated. My vehicle is running into the ground and I don’t make enough nor do I have the credit to just get one and start new. Please take this into consideration when reviewing this listing. I travel alot because of my job and I see many many people in many different places all over the country. But what I’m trying to accomplish here  is to just raise a little money to help out my wife and my son with a little better of a life other than living from paycheck to paycheck every month.


The buy it now is what I’m asking for the entire arm covered in your own personal art advertising your business. This is what I wish to obtain for the entire arm, total. So if you want the entire arm then we are gonna have to talk along the BUY IT NOW price. If you don’t want the entire arm, but just a portion of my arm, then email with any questions and we can quite possibly work something out about certain areas. The only thing that I ask is for you to be respectful, I WILL NOT TATTOO ANYTHING THAT IS RACIST, GANG RELATED, OR COMPLETELY DISRESPECTFUL TO INDIVIDUALS OR ANY NATION ESPECIALLY OURS. I am in the Army and I do have regulations that I have to adhere by, also being in the Army allows for mass advertisement. Every time someone you know gets new ink it is always the talk of the town. Please if you are interested send me a message and we will talk about specifics. Thank you and happy bidding or buying.

The only other hard facts we know about this guy is that the person who posted this, presumably his wife, goes by armywife8606 – and she’s received a 100% customer satisfaction rating on ebay. That, and the $50,000 is pretty much nonnegotiable if you want the whole arm, but if you only want quote: “a certain measurement of your logo to be plastered on my skin” he’s willing to discuss pricing.

I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around this guy’s desperation. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s sincere in his extreme measures – assuming such, doesn’t $50,000 for a permanent advertisement seem a little low? This is the age-old problem with buying online and ebay specifically, it’s hard to get the full-story on what you’re bidding on.

This is probably as good an example of a misuse of an e-commerce website as someone trying to sell a baseball diamond. And unfortunately, I believe that the likelihood of arm ads getting sold online is as likely as someone shilling out $15 million for that lipstick wearer’s turf shoes. Still, I won’t call your methods asinine, armywife8606′s husband. Weird, clearly. But regardless, whatever your situation I hope things start looking up for you and your family, and you can take your forearm off ebay.

That’s Scott Smith. He looks like your average white nerd, especially posing with Muhammad Ali. He’s also the Lil Wayne of sports memorabilia collecting, because I can’t tell if he’s a genius or certifiably insane.

Found on Ebay: 10,000+ signed Sports Illustrated Magazines. Starting bid: $1,999,999.

According to his website, SIkingcollection.com, In 1973, Smith’s grandmother gave him his first subscription to SI, and he’s saved every week’s issue since. In 1982, he staked out a hotel and Wayne Gretzky to sign several copies of SI. Shortly thereafter, he found himself traveling seven days a week to track down coaches, athletes and swimsuit models to sign copies of the mag. And away we go…

Scott started buying complete runs of the magazine dating back to their first issue in 1954. By his count, he’s gotten 2434 SI covers signed – 94.2% of the history of the magazine. The crew he assembled to make this happen include characters like Ace Marchant, his main magazine supplier of 20 years, who barters magazines for autographs (no money has ever exchanged hands between the two). Or Michelle X, his secret weapon…

Smith brings her along when he’s “crashing a banquet” to procure a Hancock.

Just look at her. Need I say more? When I can’t get Lance Armstrong, she gets 2. When Roger Clemens saw her, he crumbled like a little girl and signed 5 in a row. Patrick Ewing didn’t stand a chance. Michelle’s lined up to do the Heisman, Baseball Assistance Team, Boys Club, College Football HOF, Mets & Yankees Welcome Home Dinners. I’ll be more than happy to lend her out to any collector that ponies up the money! She ain’t cheap and neither is my lender fee! Her services as an aggressive collector are well worth it.

Question is now, does the high roller out there exist who’s willing to help Scott hit paydirt and take this monstrosity off his hands?

Find out more at SIkingcollection.com.

Everything must go, including a whole mess of lanyards and credentials with his goateed face laminated on them.

Former ESPN broadcaster and Detroit radio personality, Mark Wilson, is leaving town (the state of Michigan, actually). But before he goes, he needs to sell off all the memorabilia his career in sports has afforded him over the years. The stash includes autographed bats, balls, crates of baseball cards, those radio guy jackets that will never go out of style, really old golf clubs and jerseys galore. It’s not all treasure – a replica MVP trophy from the Great Lakes Hockey championship – but there are items like the signed Joe Louis boxing gloves to be had. He’s even got a Charlie O. Finley baseball – the orange ball that Finley tried to replace white Major League baseballs with. Finley also wanted to institute designated runners and a mechanical rabbit that would pop up behind home plate and deliver new balls to the umpire (I digress, but I made up none of that).

Most notably, Wilson was the co-host of the popular Detroit sports-talk radio show Parker & The Man, he was ‘The Man.’ Wilson has also worked as a sports anchor and producer in Houston, Miami and Lansing. Judging by the array of Super bowl gear in his collection- a ceramic football from Super Bowl XL designed by Steve Mariucci? – he was something of a radio row lifer superstar.

Now, say you just wanted the Louis gloves, and maybe a lanyard or two. Well, liquidation stipulation – the whole lot needs to be moved at once and the asking price for the boat is $47 K. The kicker, assuming you live in the state of Michigan,  The Man Wilson will drive all his swag to your house!

And if you talk Motor City Chiefs hockey with him, I’m sure he’ll throw in some heavy lifting too.

(some info c/o of wikipedia)

Not making any accusations, but I curiously have Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division swirling in my head while I ponder this. Just sayin…

A note to serious bidders (always wondered about how you place a non-serious, very jesting bid on one of these high priced item), he’ll also send you some of the add’l 130 photos from his collection not contained in the books.

Not swim fan enough for you yet?

The prized piece of the collection (of over 500 laminated sheets contained in eight books!) – Scrapbook #1: email sent to the Akron Beacon-Journal while Lebron was in High School asking why they weren’t covering Lebron more – it just got weird.

Via SportingHall.com…

The “repeat the three-peat” wins of the NBA finals of ‘96, ‘97, and ‘98 created a cadre of basketball superstars and characters and set the bar at a new high for the next generation of players. Now a little piece of that victory is up on the auction block. In a testament to the far reach of the recession, former Bulls guard and assistant coach to the Sacramento Kings, Randy Brown, has declared bankruptcy, and his three championship rings will be for sale to the highest bidder via online auction at WestAuction.com.

Auction is set to start May 19, bid for a ring starts at $19,000.

Wow, that is truly unfortunate news.

I haven’t worked as hard, and definitely never will, for anything in my life as hard as that guy probably worked to get three NBA titles. Would love to see this story play out where a 90′s era Bulls PR guy or Accounts Payable guy who snagged a ring by being part of the association turns one over to Brown.

Could happen, right? After all, we’ve got 284 people (who presumably weren’t players) selling various Championship rings on Ebay right now. (via SportsCollectorsDaily.com)