There’s no doubt that the 2014 FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest – if not THE biggest – sporting events in the history of mankind, at least in terms of how much people are talking about it. In fact, Facebook has been bragging that more people are talking about the tournament across the world than the Sochi Olympics, Super Bowl XLVIII and the Academy Awards combined. Naturally, if you’re a collector of important sports memorabilia like I am, you’re going to want to pick up a piece of World Cup history to tell your kids and their kids’ kids that you were there with this whole crazy thing went down, man.
Good news – the folks at Wholesale Clearance UK might be offering the most unusual and therefore valuable piece of World Cup merchandise on the planet. It turns out that an unnamed company in Dorset, England made a little mistake on a set of Team England coffee mugs by placing Barack Obama’s face on a mug in place of Chris Smalling. Oops?
The Dorset company in question (whose blushes we shall protect for now….maybe!) was given the seemingly easy job of sourcing royalty free pictures of each England squad player to use on the England mugs – along with other accompanying items such as England coasters, England mouse mats etc. They passed this onto to their young, bright eyed and bushy tailed new apprentice. The designs were proofed and signed off by the Boss, who had clearly had a heavy night with the lads playing poker and before he’d had his first vat of coffee the following morning. (Via Wholesale Clearance UK)
Sure, blame the intern and booze.
Due to our ongoing commitment to help local companies get their products noticed, last Wednesday 2,000 of each of the England items came into the warehouse. We eagerly unpacked them and on close inspection it turned out that the Chris Smalling cup had Barack Obama’s head on instead of Chris’s.
The apprentice claims that he used that well known search engine, Google, to source the pictures. The thing is he’s more of a rugby fan and not very clued up on football. Suffice to say that when he Google image searched ‘Chris Smalling’ he copied the first picture he liked the look of and the result was that the President of the United States has ended up on an England cup instead of the English defender.
That’s bad news for the Boss of the Dorset company in question and his dithering apprentice – but it is great news for you! You get first dibs on snatching up a piece of World Cup history.
Indeed you can snatch up this history, and for just $3,300 you can buy all 2,000 of the mugs and then do whatever the hell you want with them. Good news for the non-hoarder, though, you can purchase a single mug through the Clearance Aisle UK website. But if you’re an American, get ready to shell out about $70 for it, because shipping is more expensive than the actual item. I’m sorry, but I’m not paying $70 for something that sort of honors a guy who doesn’t believe in proper Chipotle manners.