FOR SALE: One Slightly Used Soul
Living in these trying economic times, sometimes one who's strapped for cash has to resort to more...unorthodox methods to make a quick buck. In fact, one only need to browse the website BizarreBids to find such amusing items for sale as a phallic cheese puff and a haunted paper clip.
But a New Zealand man has decided to take a page from the ever-popular "Simpsons Did It" files and sell his soul to the highest bidder.
Walter Scott, 24, put his soul up for sale on New Zealand Internet auction site TradeMe, and so far has received more than 100 expressions of interest.
Bids in the auction, which was to close Thursday, had reached $189 late Wednesday.
With the winner receiving a framed deed of "soul ownership," Scott sees no need to hold onto the one thing keeping him from an eternity in purgatory with bills to be paid. Gas isn't getting any cheaper, folks!
"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," he said.
It was in "pretty good nick" except for a rough patch six years ago when he reached the legal drinking age, he said
Now, for those of you looking to buy your very own soulless minion to cater to your every evil whim, you're going to be disappointed. He's lawyered up.
Advice from a lawyer was that the winning bidder would not be entitled to anything but Scott's soul and would not be able to own or control him in any way, he said.
Now, the financial outlook in the South Pacific must be pretty bleak, as just last month an Australian man decided to go on eBay and sell his life.
Ian Usher, 44, held the seven-day auction of all his belongings, including his three-bedroom home in the west Australian city of Perth and a trial for his job at a rug store, after the break-up of his five-year marriage.
...
In the end, the winning bidder agreed to pay A$399,300 ($380,286) for all of Usher's worldly goods, which also include his friends, a motorcycle and a jetski.
I mean, what's next? Trying to sell your infant child as a joke? Oh, wait.
thefreak once sold his body and all he got was a mugshot and herpes. One complaint to the Better Business Bureau later, and all is well.
General Lee's $10m Sale Crashes Back to Earth
Last week, it was reported that John "Bo Duke" Schneider sold his personal General Lee for $9,900,500 on eBay. Now, even though winning bids on eBay are legal contracts, TMZ reports the bidder was a phony, and Schneider may have to settle for a meager $5-million or so. But TMZ isn't the first to break the hoax news as it so boldly claims today. SG member timirevolting suggested last week that Boss Hogg was behind this hoax. Hard to believe otherwise at this point.
General Lee's Sale Price Defies Gravity
Tom Schneider, who played Bo Duke on the Duke's of Hazard, just sold his very own 725 horsepower General Lee for $9,900,500 on Ebay. The auction closed at 1:00 pm eastern time today. The ultra-fly (albeit overpriced) ride comes complete with doors that actually open and a top speed of 200 mph. It's reported that he will use the funds to finance a new movie he's working on. All of this pending verification that the ebay bidder is real -- but it looks to be true since Ebay's winning bids are legal contracts. YEEEEEEE-HAAAAA.
Boy Wizard Vs. eBay Pirates
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, is suing eBay for allowing illegal and fraudulent copies of her works to be sold on the auction site. Rowling has managed to obtain an injunction which prevents eBay from listing illegal copies (namely e-versions) of her books, which is binding until a May 23rd hearing.
Not only is J.K. Rowling losing out from the auctioning of illegal books, but fans are also being hoodwinked and wasting their money.
Marjorie, Webmistress of the MuggleNet-affiliated collectors' advice site JKR's Army, was contacted by Neil Blair (Rowling's lawyer) who asked fans of the Boy Wizard to lend their support.
You can find more info here and the e-petition to sign here.
eBay Ends Virtual Auctions Early
Say goodbye to blending the worlds of real life money and phat lootz. Citing digital ownership as a leading factor, eBay has finally banned all auctions on virtual in game items. They had been fairly frowned upon in the past, with auctions for in-game Gold disappearing in a matter of hours. A quick search over on eBay still turns up both EverQuest and World of Warcraft accounts for sale, as well as Ultima Online Gold. It used to be considerably worse, or better depending on who you are. A year ago, one could purchase a large amount of WoW Gold for less than $50. Very quickly that cost doubled due to a proactive campaign against gold farmers by Blizzard Entertainment. Now, all you will find is 354 leveling huides.
Researcher Edward Castronova of Indiana University estimated in his book, "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games," that more than $100 million changes hands each year for these digital items a good portion of it on EBay.
Sony saw the profit to be made and launched their Station Exchange program in 2005, earning $2 million in profits since then. Users can list items, after which Sony takes a 10% cut of the sale. A brilliant move, in my opinion, from a money making standpoint. Players will always want to buy and sale in game items, why not take control of that.
eBay's policy of taking down auctions of virtual game property, which went into effect last week, does not include items from online game "Second Life," operated by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, whose investors include eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
"This policy applies to virtual game items," eBay's Durzy said. "We don't think it's appropriate to classify what happens in 'Second Life' as a game."
I'll admit I snickered at that last sentence, solely because images of giant purple dildos and scantily clad alien women getting it on come to mind.
I know, I know, that's not what Second Life is all about, and it is more than just a glorified chat room. Hey, they have concerts in there, right?
[hat tip: FTR]
EB Cancels PS3 Pre-Orders; eBay Gets Bombed
Over the weekend, PS3 pre-order winning bids on eBay soared up to $2000 a piece. I'll be honest, I was hoping to jump onto that rickety bandwagon of cash prizes and set out pre-sunrise Sunday morning to numerous Toys R Us in hopes of obtaining the coveted $50 pre-order receipt. Alas, the sleeping baggers won, and I went home with a little richer, a little sadder and with a vanilla soy latte in hand. Now, I may be glad for that, because according to Evil Avatar, EB Games stores in Canada are about to receive notice of all PS3 pre-orders sold on eBay. This unfortunate list of doom means all pre-order numbers specified are not to be honored come launch date November 17th. EB Games' move was facilitated by eBay's new policy surrounding pre-sales, which basically allows for one pre-sale per account, and a photo of the receipt must be listed.
According to frantic and furious forum posts on eBay over the weekend, PayPal accounts with money from a PS3 pre-sale were being locked in their entirety.
In possibly related news, the eBay PayPal Headquarters blew up last night. Okay, maybe a window just shattered, but there was still a bomb. At 7:31pm, authorities were called to the building after a bomb exploded outside an exit at the PayPal building. 26 employees were inside the building at the time, but thankfully no one was hurt. This is likely just an impeccable coincidence, but if I had listed a PS3 pre-order, pocketed two grand and then blew it all away on coke and hookers before even picking up the PS3, I'd certainly want to blow some shit up.
eBay Halts Auction on Peaches' Used Panties
If you hoped to receive a pair of Peaches used panties for your birthday, dont look to eBay to broker the deal. The singer placed for bid a pair of her panties, but the online auction pulled them from bidding, claiming they were unsuitable for auction. Peaches donated the drawers to raise money for a new home for Three Gut Records founder, Tyler Clark Burke.
Burke refused to let this setback affect the fundraising: shes found a way around eBays no-used-panties restriction.
"The Peaches auction was yanked because it was apparently against the eBay adult content mandate - no used underwear, no matter what. What I'm going to do is actually auction off a ball of peach yarn so eBay won't pull it again. The winner of this yarn will also get a free pair of used Peaches' thong undies, which I'll explain on my site, not on eBay. She's donated a nice pink mesh thong."
Ill take two.
Peaches + Def Leppard panties.
Tom Waits No More, Takes on Online Ticket Scalping
This is good news for anyone tired of bands selling out in 2 minutes, knowing full well a good third of those tickets will end up on eBay, craigslist, or elsewhere. This is bad news for big Tom Waits fans who shelled out bigger for the sold out tour.
Tickets for Tom Waits' first US tour in 7 years sold out immediately. No surprise. Also of little surprise was that many tickets were posted for sale through online ticket scalpers with a bit of a mark up. This pissed Tom off.
According to the BBC and NME, now all valid tickets must be picked up from the venue on the night of the show. Only the original ticket purchaser may claim the tickets with valid personal picture identification and the credit card used to purchase the tickets from an authorized seller ie. Ticketmaster.
No word on what happens to the guy and the girl who missed the announcement and got their tickets late for some serious coin from some dude on eBay. Hopefully there was a return policy.
I'm hoping this starts a trend and we can start going to shows at the posted price again. But can someone please do something about the price of shows these days? Why are we paying a hundred bucks to sit backrow at Bjork or Radiohead?
What? They paid how much?!
Photo Location
Least Desirable Celeb Porno of All Time
Of all the celebrity porn videos we dont need to see, this one might take the cake: eBay placed for auction an 8mm porno tape allegedly starring Barbara Streisand. The vintage film featured Babs full-frontal and blowing some anonymous dude. Bidding starts at $250,000, but you may want to hold off, if you canBabs addressed the issue in the 70s, claiming she watched the tape, but didnt star in it.
I couldn't resist the temptation to see what the actress looked likeand also to check out her performanceso we got a copy. The film, naturally, is very blurred. The girl has long hair, like I did back in the Sixties, although she was chubby, while I was very skinny. But the dead giveaway came when the camera zoomed in on her hands around the guy's you-know-what. There they were: short, stubby fingers! Definitely not mine. So all you would-be buyers, don't waste your money.
