Tag: money

Categories
MLB General

Anybody looking to buy a $2 million Honus Wagner baseball card?


We’ve always know that sports memorabilia and especially sports cards were a booming market with it’s own tycoon, fanatical collectors, but this might be a little unhealthy. People are apparently spending millions of dollars for rare cards. One freakin’ card! But, hey, we certainly can’t fault this guy for cashing in on the opportunity of a lifetime.

Ray Lumbert of Lansing, Michigan, recently purchased an ultra rare 1909 Honus Wagner card that was found inside the kitchen ceiling of an old house which was being demolished. He became co-owner of the little piece of cardboard by forking over $25,000 to the original possessor and then claimed sole rights to the card by giving the man an additional $25,000 worth of sports cards.

Pretty good investment because if the card is real then ol’ Ray will probably soon be living on island in the tropics while his dopey friend is trying to retire on a couple boxes of vintage Topps cards.

Rumor has it, only a few were made and sold with cigarettes before Wagner halted production. He was against tobacco and didn’t want to be associated with the product.

Sports card dealers at Higbees cards in West Lansing, say an authentic Wagner card could be worth millions.

“The lowest grade, one that’s really beat up, I’d say would start at $100,000 and then the highest grade one recently sold for over $2 million.

Holy cow, that a lot of money! It got us to thinking; so, what’s the current market value of a mint condition Greaser Greg? We are currently taking offers if anyone is interested.

Links:

[11Alive.com]: Baseball Card May be Worth Millions

Categories
Oakland Raiders

Finally the Russell-Raider signing struggle wraps up



You better be worth it kid!

When the Raiders and the Lions played on Sunday, the second overall draft pick was in the lineup and in the endzone before the end of the day. Unfortunately, Oakland couldn’t say the same thing about the No. 1 pick in the draft, JaMarcus Russell. But it appears that the long, painful wait is over for Raider Nation.

Russell could sign a deal as early as today and reports have the deal being worth around $60 million over six years with a pocket stuffing, wallet busting $31 million in guaranteed jack. Seems like JaMarcus knew what he was doing by holding out all this time after all.

It just continues to sound like they are getting closer and closer,” (Lane) Kiffin said at his weekly news conference Monday. “It could be (Monday). You just never know. I know that the sides are as close as they’ve ever been.

Considering that Russell and the Raiders have been battling over money since late April, we’re thrilled that this dollar drama is finally coming to a close. We know that these guys gotta get the most money they can in guarantees and such, but there is absolutely nothing more disgusting than seeing a rookie who has never even taken a snap hold a professional sports franchise hostage over a couple of million bucks.

If it were up to us, we’d be as tough on our players in the real world as we are on our fellow GMs in the fantasy world.

JaMarcus: I really don’t think that’s proper value for a player of my caliber and potential.

SC: You will take what we give you!

Links:

[InsideBayArea.com]: Raiders, Russell agree in principle to deal

Categories
Miami Heat

Could VH1 be bringing The Love Shaq to a TV near you?



Hey ladies, wanna be dwarfed by
your man? Shaq’s about to be on the
man meat market.

You can add a new moniker to the ever growing list of names that Shaquille O’Neal has collected like custom cars since joining the league: the Big Bachelor. Apparently, Shaq and Shaunie O’Neal are splitting ways after five idyllic years of wedded bliss and the big fella decided to be the dumper instead of the dumpee and slapped his ol’ lady with divorce papers on Tuesday.

According to the filing, which was first reported by The Miami Herald on its Web site Tuesday night, Shaquille O’Neal is asking Shaunie O’Neal to provide a “correct accounting of all money, funds, stocks, bonds, and other securities” that she had access to or obtained during the marriage.

They are the parents of six children; Shaquille and Shaunie O’Neal had four together, and each had one other before their Dec. 26, 2002 wedding.

Damn, six kids! But at least they managed to spit four of `em out together. Are you listening Travis Henry? But back to the chedda’ chedda’; there’s no way that Shaq’s gonna get stiffed on this whole deal and he’s asking this potential gold digger to fork over some receipts. Doesn’t sound too unreasonable too us; after all, we are talking about the potential future fat face of law enforcement in Florida. He’s going to need all the campaign money he can muster up.

Links:

[MiamiHerald.com]: Heat’s Shaquille O’Neal seeking divorce

Categories
LA Lakers

Its no $4 million ring, but it’s still a pretty hefty bill

Sometimes when you’re Kobe Bryant, being Kobe Bryant just gets a little dull and when that happens, Kobe Bryant simply throws his money around and, apparently, that reminds Kobe Bryant that being Kobe Bryant is pretty freakin’ cool. Like when Kobe Bryant went to the grand opening of a flashy Las Vegas nightclub on Friday and some pathetic poker player, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari to be exact, tried to act like a baller by throwing down $2,800 for two bottles of Cristal champagne. That’s $1,400 apiece for all you non math majors out there. Well, Kobe Bryant wasn’t gonna get punk’d like that.

According to sources inside the club, Kobe wasn’t about to be shown up by some puny little card player — and kicked in for five bottles. Antonio, who’s used to upping the ante, then switched his order to ten! Go big or go home!

Kobe ended the competition when he purchased an astounding 15 bottles — and then left the club!

15 bottles! Who needs 15 bottles? Wait, they must have confused David Hasselhoff with Kobe Bryant. Easy mistake.

Links:

[TMZ]: Kobe’s $21,000 Bubbly Bill

Categories
College Football

Mack Brown gets another decade tacked onto his contract

Get ready for a whole lot more of Mack Brown wearing burnt orange because it looks like the Longhorns head coach will be receiving a new contract for an additional 10 years later today. Brown has already put in a decade of work in Austin and is currently making about $2.6 million with an even $100,000 raise per year. This new deal should vault him up into the $3 million per year range. Not too shabby for a guy who used to have a bounty on his head because he couldn’t win the big games.

Vince Young should be receiving his thank you card in the mail any day now.

Links:

[ESPN.com]: Source: Texas coach Brown to be extended through 2017

Categories
NBA General

Scottie Pippen isn’t playing but he’s still committing horrible turnovers



You know what they say about guys
with big hands…they’re horrible with
money.

It’s a good thing that basketball worked out for Scottie Pippen because he never would have made it in real-estate. Last month Pippen sold his estate in the Portland area for $2.95 million. Sounds pretty good, right? What if we told you that he paid $4 million for it? Yeah, that’s not a pretty sight.

The house is on a 2.28-acre plot of land that was purchased back in 2000 when Pip was playing for the Blazers but he moved out in 2003 when he made one of the dumbest decisions of his life and returned to a pathetic baby Bulls franchise. But when you’re as rich as Pippen, you don’t sell right away; no, you let the mansion just sit there for a good two years before putting it on the market. Scottie listed it at $3.9 million in 2005 and, obviously, they just sold it last month at a million dollar loss, so it’s pretty safe to say that Pippen didn’t exactly Flip That House. (Oh, geez, how embarrassing; did we just really reference a girly TLC show? Sorry, spent the weekend at Mom’s house.)

You’re trying to find a buyer that wants that location in a house that big,” said Veronica Story, the agent who sold the house. “Those buyers are few and far between.”

The 1996 house has a gated entrance, circular driveway and fountain. A detached building houses an indoor sports court, weight room, aerobics room, fully wired media room with a kitchen, a locker room with a steam shower and sauna.

Hopefully LeBron James doesn’t fall into the same money pit should he ever decide to split from Cleveland.

Links:

[SI.com]: Pippen takes $1M loss on Portland mansion

Categories
Oakland Raiders

Jerry Porter might be an idiot but one thing he is not is an idiot


Jerry Porter was ready to make a change in life; a fresh start and a new attitude to complete the new Randy Moss and Art Shell-less Raiders. And Porter was signifying his rebirth with a switch from jersey No. 84 to No. 81. But then he found out that it was going to cost him $210,000 and he threw on that old No. 84 quicker than you can say “I’ll shoot your motherfuckin’ ass with a blowdart, dawg.”

Turns out that there’s a whole business aspect to the NFL that Porter didn’t think about and he would have to fork over the $210,000 for the wardrobe change in order to pay back the team and Reebok for the price of all the unsold jerseys with the old number on them. Guess he figured the league would just send `em to some third world country like they do with all of the Super Bowl loser’s gear. But like any good businessman, Porter knows how far his money will stretch and the close to a quarter-of-a-million dollar penalty just didn’t seem like a fair swap for the three digit reduction.

Man, there’s a couple of nice cars I’d like to get for that money,” Porter said. “I could buy a nice vacation home, or at least go half on one with someone else.

We’re not sure exactly what kind of a vacation pad Porter is looking for but Ahman Green could probably give him the lowdown on some current prices.

But hopefully for the Raiders this doesn’t mean that he’s going to be putting off that whole attitude adjustment thing. Jamarcus Russell would probably really appreciate having a top receiver to throw to who doesn’t get suspended for insubordination. And Lane Kiffin could really do without Porter’s public trade demand stunts as he opens up his career in Oakland. But, hey, anyone who doesn’t get accused of being a kingpin of the dog fighting world gets a free pass this season.

Links:

[FoxSports.com]: Porter’s number change too expensive

Categories
General Sports

The world’s highest paid athletes 25 and under



Highest paid athlete 25 and under

Business week released their list of 27 athletes under the age of 25 who are stuffing their bank accounts. They took the top 3 earners each from nine sports and compiled a slideshow — which means you have to click next 26 times to get the full list. We hate that. So here is the list for you lazy clickers. Note that this list is based on salary and does not include endorsements.

Basketball
Joe Johnson: 25 years old, $12.7M in 2006-2007
Zach Randolph: 25 years old $12M in 2006-2007
Carlos Boozer: 25 years old $11.6M in 2006-2007. (ripped off blind man in 2004)

Football
Vince Young: 23 years old, $9.7M in 2006

Reggie Bush: 22 years old, $9M in 2006
Mario Williams: 22 years old, $9M in 2006

Tennis
Roger Federer: 25 years old, $8.3M in 2006
Justine Henin: 24 years old, $4.2M in 2006
Maria Sharapova: 20 years old, $3.8M in 2006

Soccer
Cristiano Ronaldo: 22 years old, $12.4M in 2006
Wayne Rooney: 21, $11.7M in 2007
Landon Donovan: 25, $900,000 in 2006

Formula One
Fernando Alonso: 25 years old, $20.4M in 2007
Lewis Hamilton: 22 years old, $2.8M in 2007
Heikki Kovalainen: 25 years old, $2.8M in 2007

Baseball
Carlos Zambrano: 25 years old, $6.7M in 2006
Dontrelle Willis: 25 years old, $4.35M in 2006
Francisco Rodriguez: 25 years old, $3.8M in 2006

NASCAR
Kyle Busch: 21 years old, $4.8M in 2006
Brian Vickers: 23 years old, $3.9M in 2006
Reed Sorenson: 21 years old, $3.5M in 2005

Golf
Lorena Ochoa: 25 years old, $2.6M in 2006
Camilo Villegas: 25 years old, $1.8M in 2006
Julieta Granada: 20 years old, $1.6M in 2006

Hockey
Ilya Kovalchuck: 24 years old, $5M in 2007
Rick DiPietro: 25 years old, $4.5M in 2007
Eric Staal: 22 years old, $4M in 2007

It turns out that if you want to get rich quick, the sport to play is basketball. But based on the top earning athletes without age restrictions, the long term smart bet is either Formula One (Michael Schumacher) or golf (Tiger Woods).

Links:
[Business Week]: Highest-Paid Athletes 25 and Under

Categories
NBA General

Air Jordan gets deflated by about $150 million

Michael Jordan has a lot of titles and distinctions to his name, but his latest accolade is almost certainly not going to have the greatest athlete of all time real excited. That’s because his Airness will probably lose more than $150 million to his ex-wife Juanita in what Forbes.com is calling the most costly divorce ever in their list of “The 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces.” So, do you still wanna be like Mike?

Here are the rest of big losers or winners, depending on how you want to look at things.

#10: Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall: Estimated settlement – $15 to $25 million

#9: Lionel and Diane Richie: Estimated settlement – $20 million

#8: Michael and Diandra Douglas: Estimated settlement – $45 million

#7: James Cameron and Linda Hamilton: Estimated settlement – $50 million

#6: Paul McCartney and Heater Mills: Settlement pending – Possibly more than $60 million

#5: Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva: Estimated settlement – $80 million

#4: Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison: Estimated settlement – $85 million

#3: Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving: Estimated settlement – $100 million

#2: Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphey: Estimated settlement – $150 million

#1: Michael and Juanita Jordan: Settlement pending – Possibly more than $150 million

While losing $150 million has got to suck, it’s a small price to pay to be able to do things like this…

Links:

[Forbes.com]: The 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces

Categories
General Sports

That’s a lot of precipitation



I’m rich bitch!

Most people fill out their brackets every year just so that they can enter their office’s pool and, hopefully, end the month with bragging rights and a pocket full of cash. Well, Archie Evans has proven that we shouldn’t simply limit ourselves to action on the hardwood, in fact he would probably suggest heading to your local horse track. And you don’t even have to be a high roller to walk out with some serious cash.

Across the pond in Wales, Evans picked six correct winners and won approximately $1.4 million and all he had to wager was a measly four bucks which is probably at least six dollars less than you spent on your bracket and there’s not even going to be half a million waiting for the winner.

It’s fantastic to have won and it’s so exciting to think I could be a millionaire by Saturday night. It’s a huge amount of money and if I’m honest it’s not sunk in yet.

Evan’s also said that everyone wants to know how he’s going to spend his new found wealth.

I’ve not decided yet but I know I’m going to take my wife on a bloody good holiday.

That’s one option; the other is that he pulses out a lot of cash and heads to the local gentlemen’s club where he could make it rain for days and days.

Links:

[BBC News]: PUNTER’S £700,000 WIN WITH £2 BET