Welcome to the Online Auctioneer, better known as Don Fluckinger. Each week in Sports Collectors Digest, Don compiles tidbits from the online sports collecting world, from highest bids to oddball sightings.

Here is the latest installment from the April 3, 2009, issue of SCD:

SCHADENFREUDE: That’s German for “taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others,” which most of Major League Baseball fandom does when something unfortunate happens to the Yankees or Red Sox (similar to the NFL’s Raiders and Cowboys, two loved and hated teams). This week, eBay watchers who aren’t Bronx Bombers fans got served a delicious
Schadenfreude sandwich when that $9,300 Babe Ruth ball went off. Not that the ball sold for less than 10  grand – in healthier markets we’ve seen balls that nice sell for $15,000-plus – but that the seller threw in, at no extra charge, a Topps certified 1/1 A-Rod autograph card. Between the dalliance with Madonna and resulting divorce train wreck, multiple steroids confessions, the Selena Roberts accusations, cruising around spring training with “Cousin Boley,” the hip cyst that turned into a torn labrum and two months on the disabled list, A-Rod’s autograph at this point in time really is worth nothing but a throw-in riding the Babe’s coattails.

Jordan Rules: Two hot Michael Jordan auto cards went head-to-head last week, to interesting results. The seller of the 1984-85 Star Jordan Auto Rookie made some excellent points about his card, calling it the “gem of all Jordan auto rookies,” which is an apt description. It featured a true rookie sig, before he developed the polished “UDA style,” as the seller put it. That great card went up against a 2006-07 Upper Deck “UDA Style” Jordan “Buyback Rookie,” numbered No 1/23. Perhaps because of its rarity or perhaps because of the seller – the well-known Dave & Adam’s Card World – the newer Upper Deck card blew by the Star, selling for about $6,500 or 30 percent more than the gem of all Jordan rookies. How do these two ungraded cards stack up against a Gem graded, unautographed Jordan Fleer rookie? We’re glad you asked for that tidbit of market knowledge, because one of those happened to sell this week on eBay, too. And the answer is between the Star and Upper Deck buyback, at $5,600.

Rethinking Yankees Cards: So, with A-Rod down for the count, no championships since 2000, Joe Torre off to Mannywood, Jason Giambi back in Oakland and Derek Jeter on the downside of his career and journalists focusing on his “leadership skills” more than how well he swings the bat, what are Yankees collectors to do in this post-steroid era? Focus on the future, which is Joba Chamberlain and Robbie Cano, and concentrate on the next Hall of Famers, most likely Jeter and Mariano Rivera. With all the late-’90s championships and the Stadium change breeding so much memorabilia, however, the market for current Yankee stuff might have reached saturation already. That means that looking back to the 20th century greats becomes the order of the day, too. This week, Mantle and the Babe took center stage in the Top 10, and just missing the cut (it sold a day too early) was a MintXpress sale of a PSA 9 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson, which closed for $4,501.

Quick Quiz: Name the NBA comeback player of the year Dwayne Wade’s top-selling item ($300) this week on eBay:
1. 2003-04 SP Auto, BGS 9.5
2. 2003-04 SPx Red Jersey Auto
3. LeBron/Carmelo/Dwayne signed 16-by-20 GAI photo
4. 2003-04 Topps Chrome Auto, BGS 9.5
5. 2003-04 Topps Finest Auto Refractor, BGS 9.5.

If you went with that phat picture autographed by the NBA’s three young kings, you are right on the money.

Top 10:
1.  $11,200: 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, SGC 50
2.      9,300: Babe Ruth single-signed auto ball, PSA/DNA
3.      6,481: 2006-07 UD Michael Jordan 1986-87 Fleer Buyback Auto Rookie, No. 1/23
4.      5,600: 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan, BGS 9.5
5.      5,000: 1971 World Series (Pirates) trophy, 12-inch player version
6.      5,000: 1984-85 Star Michael Jordan Auto BGS/JSA authenticated
7.      4,800: 2001 UD SP Authentic Tiger Woods Auto BGS 9.5
8.      4,650: 1961 Topps Baseball set, one card short of complete
9.      4,500: 2002 Montreal Alouettes CFL championship player’s ring
10.    4,000: 1911 T3 Turkey Red Walter Johnson