Iconic Hudson's Bay wool blankets listed for eye-popping prices on eBay

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Hudson’s Bay? More like Hudson’s eBay.

Shoppers wanting to score one of Hudson’s Bay’s striped wool blankets will have to shell out a pretty penny to own what some people would describe as a piece of Canadian history.

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There has been a run on the struggling Canadian department store’s blankets after it announced that its stores will have to close unless last-minute financing comes through. Some of those new blankets are ending up on online reseller site eBay — with eye-popping markups.

One seller has listed an eight-point multistripe king blanket for sale at a whopping $3,450, while a twin blanket is listed for $2,500.

Several queen-sized blankets are going for at least three times its retail price. One multi-stripe queen blanket is going for $2,150, while a grey-and-white one would set you back about $1,850. The department store’s website listed the same blanket at $450 full price, although it’s out of stock.

Even cotton-knit blankets are showing up at inflated prices, with one listed for more than $1,700.

The Hudson’s Bay wool point blankets were first produced for the company in 1779 by a British textile mill, which used stripes or “points” to indicate the size of the blanket. The blankets were used by European settlers and Indigenous communities as bedding or for trade.

The most popular design uses multicoloured stripes of green, red, yellow and indigo that has become The Bay’s iconic colours.

The department store acknowledged its point blankets have a complicated history. The product item description on its website described the blankets as “an essential trade item, an enduring emblem of Canada, a carrier of disease and a symbol of colonialism.”

Since 2022, proceeds of point blanket sales have been donated to the Oshki Wupoowane, a fund for Indigenous cultural, artistic and educational initiatives in Canada.

Several other multistripe items, such as throws, duvet covers or scarves, were also showing as out-of-stock online.

The parent firm of Hudson’s Bay Company, which operates 80 Hudson’s Bay stores in the country including 16 in B.C., was granted creditor protection March 7. It owes more than $1.1 billion, including $724.4 million in mortgage debt on its flagship properties, such as the downtown Vancouver store on Granville and Georgia streets.

chchan@postmedia.com