What would you pay for an American Express card signed by Michael Jordan that expired seven years ago but very well may have been used to purchase everything required to start a superbike racing company, or at the very least more cigars than is advisable to smoke? I know this sounds like a Zen koan or an inscrutable riddle, but it's a question you can actually literally answer on Oct. 10, when Goldin Auctions puts the Hall of Famer's past-date plastic up for bid as part of the West Berlin, N.J.-based company's inaugural fall auction.

I mean, you can answer it so long as the answer is, "More than $1,000," which is the listed opening bid for the card. But I think we were all expecting that. After all, an MJ-signed '97-'98 Bulls season ticket will run you $20,000, and that never even got used to buy the DVDs of all six seasons of "Sanford and Son," which is Michael's favorite TV show, according to the reputable website 23 Michael Jordan Facts. This feels like a much more historic treasure, and for a significantly lesser price. Personally, though, I'm holding out a few years, because I figure an MJ credit card that expired somewhere around 2011 had to have been used to pay a portion of Matt Carroll's salary, right?

[Also: Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose breaks down in tears while discussing injury rehab]

If having yet another credit card you can't/shouldn't use isn't your brand of vodka, you can still get your MJ bidding on by throwing your hat into the ring for a home white Bulls jersey that Jordan reportedly wore during Chicago's legendary 72-10 1995-96 season. That one'll kick off at $2,500, but at least you'll probably get some Jordan sweat in the bargain, and with what science can do nowadays, who knows how many clones you can make?

Other items up for bid in the October auction will reportedly include a game ball signed by the 1934 New York Yankees and a 1986 New York Mets World Series ring, as well as ho-hum stuff like a Civil War military appointment signed in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln. Wonder what sap'll go in for that.

Hat-tip to ESPN.com's Darren Rovell.

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