8:14 AM PT -- There's a happy ending for the seller after all -- he still managed to profit more than $4k on Joe's shirt.
Somebody just dropped $4,200 on the pink sequin top, and already paid Baran for it so there's no more shenanigans. All said and done, that's a 42x return on his investment. It's unclear what the new buyer plans to do with the shirt ... we can only imagine.
Joe Exotic uttered the famous line, "I am never gonna financially recover from this," on 'Tiger King' ... which is probably how the owner of one of Joe's flamboyant shirts feels after he got hoodwinked on eBay.
It was almost official -- the pink sequin button-up top Joe wore on episode 2 of the Netflix docuseries closed on the auction site Friday at $10,400 after receiving 43 bids from 21 bidders. The opening bid was $650 on April 12, but things really escalated in the final 2 days.
That probably should have been a red flag, as the shirt's seller, Vincent Baran, tells TMZ ... the winner of the auction claims he was hacked and not bidding himself, and will not be paying for the shirt.
Baran's still hoping to turn a big profit on the item, though ... he's now re-listed the piece of Exotic memorabilia at a buy-now price of $10,300 -- or best offer -- until May 17.
We broke the story ... Vince told us he came across the Exotic artifact when he noticed Joe's old stomping grounds, The Greater Wynnewood (G.W.) Zoo, was selling several of his shirts on Facebook.
Baran says he managed to buy the pink shirt from Joe's ex-business partner -- Jeff Lowe, who now runs the zoo -- for just $100, and he was initially hoping to get $650 or more for it ... based on what some other Joe Exotic wardrobe items have sold for online.
So, cashing out at above $10k would have been an unprecedented new high -- that's enough to buy a few tigers cubs, after all -- and as the saying goes ... if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Good luck, Vince.
Originally Published -- 12:50 AM PT