The David Ortiz Jersey: What Will It Go For?
CNBC Sports Business Reporter
I think it's pretty hard to argue now (although I know I'll still get the e-mails), the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is the greatest in sports. It's why the David Ortiz jersey--it's really a shirt if you look closely at it--pulled from the concrete at the new Yankee Stadium is a tremendous collectors item.
Kudos to the Yankees for spending some $50,000 to pull it out and making a whole publicity event out of it, as pointed out by PR guru Joe Favorito.And then taking the natural step of giving it to The Jimmy Fund to auction off for charity.
With six days left on the eBay auction, there are 100 bids and it's going for more than $30,000.
The main point of this post is for me to poll you all on how much you think this will go for (I love the wisdom of crowds thing, as you might have figured out by now). But before we get there, it's funny to consider how many things have popped up on this already.
Even though it has been very clear that the Yankees pulled this jersey out and gave it to The Jimmy Fund, someone tried to put a fake one up on eBay. Bidding got up to more than $3,000 before it was pulled from the site last night. No Jimmy Fund logos and the word "burried" should have tipped someone off.
But the creativity award has to go to the guy who made a mini replica of an Ortiz jersey stuck in concrete and put it on eBay. How awesome is this thing? Given the state of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, I have no doubt some licensee could sell 5,000 of these.
So let's get back to the Ortiz jersey. It's at $30,000 and there are six days left. My official prediction is $156,000.
Questions? Comments? SportsBiz@cnbc.com
