An insert card from Topps’ Allen & Ginter Baseball product that features a strand of hair from George Washington generated bids as high as $8,300 before eBay cancelled the auction.

Topps produced three Relic cards in the set with strands of Washington’s hair. One turned up on eBay in an auction that was supposed to end Wednesday night. But the item was pulled after an eBay user reportedly complained that Washington can’t be listed in the baseball card section of the auction site because he is not a baseball player. The collector who pulled the card has relisted the item.

The story of the card has generated a fair amount of publicity, including a lengthy story in Wednesday’s New York Times. The paper even quoted the senior curator of Washington’s home in Mount Vernon, Va., as saying it was “shocking” Topps would put something of such great value in its baseball card packs and expressing concern the eventual buyer “might not be a responsible custodian” for the piece.

Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi is quoted in the story as saying the company bought the hair from John Reznikoff, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the “Largest Collection of Hair from Historical Figures.”
In the Times’ story, Reznikoff said a strand of Washington’s hair has an approximate value of several hundred dollars.

While some non-card collectors will roll their eyes at the thought of a trading card with a strand of someone's hair, the fact this story garnered attention in a paper as widely read as The Times is good publicity for the hobby.