Category: Football, News Author : Chris Greenhough Posted: January 31, 2012
Tags : Arizona Cardinals, nfl, pat tillman
Pat Tillman’s autographed cleats have just popped up on eBay for a cool $3.2 million, prompting a predictable tidal wave of outrage. But they do have free shipping, which you think would calm people down.
If Tillman’s name is unfamiliar to you, his story is an interesting one. He was an Arizona Cardinals safety who rejected a $3 million-plus contract from the Cardinals and left his newlywed bride to join the U.S. Army in Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks. His service in Afghanistan ended tragically, when he was killed in a friendly fire accident in 2004, aged just 27.
And now his cleats, complete with mud and Tillman’s autograph in black Sharpie, are on eBay with a seven-figure price that the seller is refusing to budge on. These were worn by the young safety in a regular season game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2000 – he even made an interception in that game.
I’m sort of torn on this. People sell sports memorabilia all the time, including stuff that has belonged to dead people. And yes, people sell the possessions of sportsmen and sportswomen who were killed in horrible circumstances. So the whole ‘OMG WAR HERO!!!!11!’ line is sort of irrelevant in my eyes. Hey, Tillman was undoubtedly a brave bloke with way bigger cojones than most, me included. I admire that. But let’s not allow that to cloud our view here. Courageous as he was, Tillman’s not the first sportsman to be killed in a war and then have his stuff sold at auction.
HOWEVER (yeah, I’m flip-flopping a lot on this one), the whole situation gets pretty damn ghoulish when you insist on a seven-figure sum, because it’s so blatantly a cash-in on Tillman’s circumstances – particularly if you don’t intend to give a good chunk of the winning bid to a worthy cause.
I’m sure others have opinions on this anyway. Let me know down there in the comments.
Jan 31, 2012
Poor taste obviously. With the economy as it is, I can see someone doing what they can to try to make some money. I guess this is still better than stealing.
Anyway, as far as buying/saving in general $ and eBay goes:
If you send the seller a question about an item, find another of their listings, and send the question from that item page, rather than from the one that you actually want. This will add a little bit of work for the seller, if they want to add the question/answer to the item description page that you are actually interested in.
If you see an item that you want listed in auction format, send the seller a message asking if they will accept $x to end the auction early and sell the item to you. May be telling them that they would not have to wait as long to get their money (they would probably know that, but it still might help). If that does not work, use a sniping service such as Bidball.com to bid for you. It'll bid in the last few seconds, helping you to save money and avoid shill bidding.
Use a site like Ebuyersedge.com to set up saved searches. You'd get an e-mail whenever a match is listed. Especially good for "Buy It Now"s priced right.
If the item that you are looking for is difficult to spell, try a misspelling search site like Typojoe.com to hopefully find some deals with items that have main keywords misspelled in the title. Other interested buyers might never see them. Then, if the item is listed an auction format, after a few days of no bids (hopefully anyway) send the seller and offer to end the auction early and sell the item to you. They may worry that no one is interested, and take whatever they can get.
Jan 31, 2012
COME ONE COME ALL OH YE WORSHIPERS OF THE PAT TILLMANS CLEATS!