Eggos on eBay -- for $65

The national shortage of Eggos has grabbed the blogosphere’s attention like few real crises in recent weeks. The most ridiculous thing we’ve read is this: People are selling Eggos on eBay.

Michelle Singletary, the engaging personal-finance columnist for The Washington Post, confirmed that fact after hearing rumblings on Twitter and Facebook. “One person is auctioning off a box of waffles for $49.99, another for $65. If you are a bargain shopper, you can grab a box of blueberry Eggo waffles from one seller for 99 cents,” Singletary wrote. So far no takers, suggesting that most people are still somewhat sane.

• Bing: Strangest things auctioned on eBay

Singletary also said, “The ways people try to make money never cease to amaze me.” Amen.

Flooding at an Atlanta bakery and equipment problems at one in Tennessee led to the shortage of its frozen waffles, Kellogg originally said. Not mentioned by the company was that the Atlanta plant was closed and twice sanitized after inspectors found the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Eggos, ABC News reports. Kellogg recalled 4,500 cases in early September.

The Atlanta plant is again fully operational but a few production lines in the Tennessee plant are not. Amazingly, Kellogg said the supply of Eggos and some other breakfast products won’t be back to normal until the middle of next year.

A collective angst ensued.

“By all accounts this could very well be the end of the world as we know it ... no, not the Mayan Calendar, nor the movie based on that silliness but this,” blog Cuppacafe said.

Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert said he’s putting the nation on “Waff-Con 4 and calling on President Obama to open our strategic waffle reserves.”

What other options do Eggo aficionados have until the waffle rationing is over and the supply is normal again?

Try the store brand or some other brand name. “There are in-house organic waffles sold by Jewel, Dominick's and Whole Foods. But the truth is, these other waffles don't toast to the same golden hue. And the kids pining away for Eggos say the pictures on boxes of other waffles just don't look as appetizing,” Lori Barrett wrote at Gapers Block.

Baltimore Sun blogger Kate Shatzkin advises DIY. “I'd look on it as an opportunity to make some homemade waffles. Or at least some pancakes,” she wrote. If you need a recipe for killer pancakes, look no farther than here.

Somehow we’ll all muddle through until the shortage is over. But if we have to read “Leggo my Eggo” one more time, we’ll place our head in a waffle iron.

“You know, Eggo couldn’t buy this kind of marketing, could they?” commented Off the Rack blogger Rebecca Logan at FayObserver.com.

Related reading:

• Leggo my Eggo: Kellogg’s faces waffle shortage
• It’s back on the menu: All you can eat
• Twitter your way to bargains