There’s no item weird enough that sports fans won’t want to buy it, if only to say that they own a piece of their favorite team’s history. It’s almost a rite of passage to spend stupid amounts of money on memorabilia, and especially if it’s unique and bizarre. Just this year, an NFL player’s dreadlock was found on the field after a game and posted on eBay. The bid eventually reached $11,000 before the listing was taken down. So, yeah. Sports fan can be convinced to buy the weirdest things.
It should then come as no surprise that, in 2013, memorabilia site Steiner Sports sold a glass ball filled with David Ortiz’s shaved beard hair from the Boston Red Sox 2013 World Series victory for a tidy sum of $10,877. The funds from the auction went to support Movember, a charity that encourages men to grow mustaches in November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, which seems like a fitting end to this facial hair story. Or, so we thought.
According to ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell, the beard ball is back on the market via Steiner Sports once again. The owner of the beard ball–what did he do with it for the last 4 years?–is looking to offload Big Papi’s beard hairs once again, so if you’re a) a massive Boston fan b) love Big Papi’s run on Fox Sports as an analyst or c) want to own a truly bizarre piece of baseball history, start ponying up the cash. You’ll likely need close to the original $11,000, if not more, to be the proud owner of the beard.