Almost every week, we auction one of Robbi’s original illustrations. It’s fun to watch the bids roll in. We usually have informal wagers, trying to guess which ones will capture the imagination and how high the bidding will go. Often we’re completely off-base. The unloved cast-offs I have to persuade Robbi actually are good enough to post are sometimes the ones that end up selling for the big bucks. Well…relative big bucks. So far, the highest an auction has reached was $112, and that was for a landscape of Williamstown sold to a nostalgic alumna. Another item, a good-natured whale, sold for around $100 to an old friend who thought it would be just the thing for the nursery wall.

This week, we offered up this cheerful rodent on calorie overload.

Again, it was one that Robbi didn’t have much faith in. She put her guess at $23. I (ever the optimist), guessed that we could hope for something in the mid $50s.

Little did we imagine what has happened.

For reasons unknown, this week’s auction has prompted consumer frenzy. Perhaps it is the intoxicating humor of the holiday season? Or perhaps two competing bidders are both heavily intoxicated?

Or maybe, just maybe, this spike is the product of a shrewd scheme. Perhaps the world is starting to realize that getting an original Robbi Behr for less than a couple hundred bucks is a worthy investment.

Which is to say, get your bids in now.