Employees of Bear Stearns Cash-out on eBay

Tchotchkes from investment firm hitting auction site

As the stakes in the rescue plan for Bear Stearns were raised today, employees of the troubled bank have begun a rescue plan of their own, "liquidating their positions" in small but valuable assests: company collectibles. Staff at the now hard-up Wall Street firm have resorted to auctioning off Bear Stearns-branded memorabilia to raise funds, reported AFP on Friday.

Bear Stearns agreed to sell itself last Sunday to J.P. Morgan Chase for a mere $236 million dollars, after rival banks stopped trading with it. The deal shocked many of the wing-tipped shoe class. The takeover deal included Bear Stearns' corporate headquarters, which analysts believe is worth about $1 billion.

If the current bailout effort fails, many of the bank's 14,000 employees will lose their jobs. In a scenario remeniscent of the last days of Enron, many of those workers have put a range of mementos up for sale on eBay and other online auction and sales sites.

On Friday, a Bear Stearns' cafeteria card (pictured) was offered for sale on eBay at a mere 11 cents. Today, that auction is up to $1.25. The lucky winning bidder gets free shipping. Now THAT'S shopping victoriously!

We applaud the savvy market trend awareness of the stalwart employees at Bear Stearns. Perhaps they read our post last week detailing how many investors are turning to collectibles as an asset class. Replace some of the dolts in the corner offices with a few of these smart staffers and who knows? Maybe they'll actually produce a prospectus that reads: "Investing in a (Steiff) Bear Market."