"12 Days of Christmas" for $75,000? Not on eBay

While the average shopper will spend hundreds of dollars on gifts this year, a bank in Pittsburgh says it'll cost almost $19,000 to buy each item just once from "The 12 Days of Christmas" song. And the big spenders who buy all 364 items from the song's verses will fork over $75,122, a 3.5 increase from last year. Apparently, wages for skilled workers like dancers, leapers, drummers and pipers have gone up.

But before you starting a buying frenzy, first consider having to deal with all that stuff. Partridge, dove and bird cages everywhere, all that racket from the drummers and pipers, and lords and ladies leaping and dancing, respectively. And don’t even start with the geese, swans and hens, and what they leave in their collective wake. Perhaps the eight maids a-milking could be redeployed.

There is a better way, people – and it’ll save you a bundle. Try buying the 12 Days of Christmas on eBay. To make this a glorious, yet practical, exercise, we turned to tree decorations representing the 12 Days, locating the highest priced ornaments sold on eBay over the past two weeks.

The 12 items total cost was $2757 (excluding shipping costs), with the highest priced ornament – a dazzling Seven Swans A-Swimming centerpiece bowl from Fritz & Floyd – selling for $611. That was followed by an eye-catching Christopher Radko Partridge in a Pear Tree ornament for $500 and a crystal Swarovski Amour ornament for $425. And finally, 12 Drummers Drumming is represented through a very cool Jerry Garcia original watercolor limited edition Iris print for $305, pictured. (ok, hanging a print on the tree is terrible feng shui but way better than picking up after six geese a-laying).