The Jeremy Lin cash machine just keeps raining money -- and others are making sure to cash in.
The NBA phenom's rookie card sold for $21,850 on eBay on Thursday, according to The New York Times. To put that into perspective, ungraded Michael Jordan rookie cards often sell for less than $600. That's not to say the newfound Knicks star has eclipsed Jordan in popularity: the sale of one Jordan card in perfect condition once fetched $100,000, according to ESPN.
Lin's successes have come highs and lows -- highs like the selling of this rookie card, and lows like the unfortunate Lin-related ESPN headline that cost one employee a job.
The seller of the Lin card, Yair Rozmaryn, netted a nearly $21,000 profit on the sale, according to the NYT. Rozmaryn made a $1,000 bet on Lin’s success two weeks ago, buying the card after Lin captivated the crowd for only two games.
Though Rozmaryn's payout may be huge, he's certainly not the first to try to profit off the Linsanity wave. Lin himself paid $1,625 to apply for a trademark on the term last week. In addition, two California men filed trademark applications for Linsanity, including one who is selling t-shirts on his site Linsanity.com -- a domain name he bought in 2010, well before the, well, Linsanity.
Big name brands are also trying to cash in on Lin's almost overnight success. Lin and his representatives have reportedly received more than 1,000 offers to endorse the star via email, although he’s largely turning them down, according to the New York Post, who cited an unnamed source. The interest is so Linsane that Lin and his representatives are beginning to find it "overwhelming," the source said.
Still, there's one endorsement deal Lin's not passing up. Nike is slated to release a shoe called the Nike Hyperfuse 2011 Linsanity PE, which will feature New York Knicks blue and orange and Lin’s name across the heel, according to ESPN Radio.
But even though Lin's overnight success drove up the average price of Knicks tickets by hundreds of dollars and pushed up the stock of Madison Square Garden Co. -- the Knicks’ owner -- the point-guard may not be a guaranteed cash-cow, experts told the Los Angeles Times.
And after Thursday's game against the Miami Heat, Lin's success as a money-maker may be a bit more in question. Lin's tendency to turn the ball over was on full display during the Knicks 102-88 loss to the Heat.
Here's to that $21,850 rookie card holding up.
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Posted: 02/24/12 09:00 AM ET | Updated: 02/24/12 01:59 PM ET