The NBA and its 30 teams rarely make and sell merchandise bearing the names and numbers of players on 10-day contracts. This seems like a pretty reasonable way to do business; after all, 10-day players rarely stick with one team for even the duration of the regular season after they sign, let alone make enough of an impact on a fan base to justify the time and expense that goes into manufacturing memorabilia like jerseys, shirts and shirseys specifically celebrating a player who could be forgotten a mere week and a half after he first came into town.

Jason Collins, as you might have heard, is not your average 10-day-contract player.

[Related: Buy your Jason Collins jersey here]

Collins, a 7-foot reserve center and 13-year NBA veteran, announced last April that he is gay. His recent addition by the Brooklyn Nets makes him the first openly gay player ever to suit up for and check into an NBA game, representing a landmark occurrence in the histories of the NBA, American professional sports, the gay rights movement and multiple other broader cultural contexts. Even if he doesn't wind up sticking on the Nets roster for the remainder of the 2013-14 NBA season, the fact that he has appeared on it at all constitutes something many fans, including those who might not previously have been especially interested in purchasing team apparel, want to celebrate.

According to Seth Berkman of The New York Times, "On Monday, inquiries by those eager to buy a Nets jersey with Collins’s name started to multiply." Thus, on Tuesday, this became available:

View photos

That's a Jason Collins replica jersey, available in Brooklyn's road black and home white, selling for $69.95 on NBAstore.com. It went on sale Tuesday after what Vicky Picca, the NBA’s senior vice president for licensing and business affairs, told the Times was an “unprecedented” level of interest "from people interested in buying something with Collins’s name on it." Those inquiries were apparently backed up by purchases, according to Alex Raskin of the Wall Street Journal:

After signing a 10-day contract with the Nets on Sunday and playing in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers later that night, Collins found his No. 98 the top-selling jersey at the NBA Store and its website on Tuesday, according to a league spokesperson.

Exact sales figures were not released, but the spokesperson said the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and NBAStore.com received "hundreds of inquiries" even before Collins's jersey went on sale on Tuesday.

And it wasn't just the (comparatively) reasonably priced replicas, evidently:

Three Collins authentic jerseys purchased at the NBA Store after it went on the rack at 5. Saw them nearly get a fourth. But for $250?!?! — Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) February 26, 2014

In fairness all the #NBA had were $250 Collins authentics at their store today. No cheaper jersey options just yet. #Nets — Mike Mazzeo (@MazzESPN) February 26, 2014

That, one would suspect, will change in short order, given the high demand. It might not change immediately at the official Nets team store at Barclays Center, however; Barry Baum, the Nets’ executive vice president and chief communications officer, told the Times "that if, and when, a player became signed for the entire season — which could easily happen in Collins’s case — his merchandise would go on sale at the team store and on the team’s website." In the interim, though, it might only be available via the league's store and on the league's website, not inside the Nets' own venue, which would mean that the revenues from sales of the jerseys are split among the NBA's 30 teams, according to ESPN.com's Darren Rovell. (Might want to think about pulling the rest-of-the-season trigger, Nets.)

Story continues