When Joe Exotic was running for governor in 2018, he appeared at a candidate forum as part of the Oklahoma Press Association’s annual summer convention.
There were 11 or 12 candidates for governor assembled, including Kevin Stitt and Drew Edmondson, but Joe stole the show.
He promised that, if elected, he would be available for interviews with all newspapers in the state “except the Daily Oklahoman” and said he was tired of the state having to pay to support children who were born - and I paraphrase here because this is a family publication - because of poor birth control practices.
He made no mention of Carole Baskin.
Afterward, the candidates hung around to grip and grin and chat with the state’s editors and reporters, so I struck up a conversation with Joe.
In case you have wondered, he is the same guy in person as he was on the Tiger King. He was wearing his Fu and his mullet, but not his pistol.
Most of the candidates or their handlers were passing out campaign cards, but Joe was passing out rolling papers with his photo and name on them.
As we talked, he handed me a pack of the papers, which I stuck in my shirt pocket. I remembered putting them somewhere when I got back to the office, but I couldn’t remember where.
Until Saturday.
I was cleaning out a cabinet drawer and - lo! - there they were. The Tiger King’s rolling papers, as crisp and pristine as when Joe handed them over.
After harharing and showing them around, I had an idea.
“I should sell these on eBay and then retire to Aruba,” I said to myself.
“Unless you’re packaging them with some Baskin’s Old-Fashioned sardine oil, you may be overshooting it with Aruba,” I replied. “But you definitely should sell them and see if you can get enough to buy something cool. Maybe a camera lens or some Diet Dew.”
So, that is how I came to be sitting at my computer Saturday night, entering information about the papers into an eBay form.
Turns out, there are more Joe Exotic papers available than you might think. I counted 10 packs for sale on eBay, with bids ranging from $25 to $51.
EBay suggested I start the bidding at $37, so that is what I did. At this writing, I have had 76 people look at my papers, but no one has bid on them.
One haggler from Illinois sent me an offer for $20.20, which was intriguing because of the .20 but not enough for me to nod at the auctioneer and make the deal final.
I remain hopeful. There are a couple of days left in the auction, so maybe someone will push the button and make me a fortyaire.
If not, I still got to meet Joe Exotic.