And I thought equities trading was the fastest way to make a killer profit… boy was I wrong!

The Election 2008 morning-after print edition of the New York Times sold out of their daily edition morning paper only hours after being released.  Newspaper organizations all across the country were forced to print additional copies to satisfy the demand.

The cover story was obviously the historic election of Senator Barack Obama as our 44th President.

For those lucky enough to get their hands on a copy, and did not want to hang onto the “Obama Wins” edition as a collector’s item, quickly took to the internet to sell what turned out to be an instant collectible on sites like eBay and Craigslist.

I captured this finished eBay auction (yes it actually got bid up to this amount) where some delusional buyer paid $177.50 for a single newspaper.  The normal price of a NY Times daily edition goes for $1.50.

For a few New Yorkers, a quick early morning trip to the corner newsstand and a little pocket change turned into a nice 11733% profit.  [ ($177.50 - 1.50) / 1.5) * 100% ]

Minus the fees from eBay, it’s still not a bad for a days work.

Ironically, for a campaign that was based on “Change”, this lack of personal finance discipline certainly looks like ways of the past when credit was cheap and spendthrift habits were a way of life.

Just one more great example that a sucker is born everyday, and kudos to anyone who banked some serious coin by selling to complete idiots caught up in the emotional contagion.

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