MetaFilter posts tagged with ebay

So what?

carsonb — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:28:39 -0800

STEP 1 Buy 100 pieces of crap from thrift stores and garage sales.
STEP 2 Get 100 authors to write a fiction about pieces of crap.
STEP 3 ???
STEP 4 Profit!
Significant Objects hosts the stories for all 100 pieces of crap/art, but the last six are still available for bidding: Blue Vase by Lauren Mechling, Umbrella Trinket by Bruce Holland Rogers, Lighter Shaped Like a Small Pool Ball by Rob Agredo, Bar Mitzvah Bookends by Stacey Levine, Geisha Bobblehead by Edward "ed" Champion, and Missouri Shotglass by Jonathan Lethem.

Free house plant. Not sure the variety. The pot is NOT included.

The Whelk — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:05:05 -0800

Item Not As Described: A website that explores the differences between items for sale on craigslist and the photos provided. ( via Miko via metachat )

Sound as clear as light

squalor — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:28:33 -0800

Well, I'll tell you, Yanni would sound great on this system at The Great Theater in Ephesus, Turkey. A log cabin in the Bluegrass mountains would be another perfect setting for this system. Wow - the possibilities are endless.

Want to live in a cave?

slogger — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:53:47 -0800

Want to live in a cave? Here's your chance.

The Brotherhood of the Very Expensive Pants

1f2frfbf — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:02:44 -0800

"It's like I used to enjoy firecrackers, but now it takes dynamite to get me high." Brit Eaton takes Outside magazine on a safari for vintage clothing in the wild west. (via)

A New Creation Resurrected from Obscurity

jonp72 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:46:46 -0800

The New Creation was born in 1970 when Chris Towers, an unknown guitarist from Vancouver, decided to form a Christian rock group with his mother Lorna as lead singer and their neighbor Janet Tiessen on drums. Scared by reports of the hippie excesses of the Manson/Altamont era, Lorna Towers wrote doom-laden, apocalyptic lyrics for the New Creation's aptly titled album, Troubled. The band was unpolished, yet somehow captured a unique lo-fi sound comparable to a hybrid of the Velvet Underground and the Shaggs. The group might be totally forgotten today, if an aging hippie record dealer named Ty Scammel hadn't rescued a copy from a $1 bargain bin, leading to the album's rediscovery by collectors of Christian rock and outsider music. Companion Records released a reissue CD that proved popular enough that the band not only re-formed, but released A Unique Disaster, a sequel CD inspired by the Book of Revelations and the Left Behind series. Now that an impossibly rare original copy of the New Creation's Troubled has appeared on EBay, rediscover the band once again with a great article from the Canadian blog, Alienated in Vancouver. Sound clips can be found here, and a fan video of the Status Quo Song can be found on YouTube.

Scarlett Johansson's snot for sale on eBay.

Restless Day — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:38:00 -0800

On December 17's Tonight Show With Jay Leno, featured guest Scarlett Johansson claimed she had caught a cold from Samuel L. Jackson; she said she felt that her germs were valuable, coming from Jackson, and maybe she could sell them on eBay. Jay Leno handed her a tissue, she blew her nose. The used tissue was sealed in a plastic bag, which was signed by Johansson. Proceeds go to charity. Proceeds go to charity.

But don't break anything. The furnishings are fra-gee-lay.

miss lynnster — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:40:50 -0800

Make this Christmas special. Spend it in Ralphie's house! Bunny suit and Lifebuoy soap included. For an extra fee, the owner will convince you to lick a metal pole and then shoot your eye out. Schedule & Activities

DECEMBER 23:
Winner and guests arrive in Cleveland (Time TBD)
3pm: Check into a suite at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
Visit the former Higbee’s Department Store Window (next to Renaissance Hotel)

DECEMBER 24:
10am: Personal behind-the-scenes tour of A Christmas Story House & Museum
Ride in family car (weather permitting) and receive bars of Lifebuoy Soap
Try on original costumes from the movie
Read through the costume “bible” that includes photos and notes from the production
2pm: Check into A Christmas Story House
Large FRA-GI-LE Major Award crate delivered to the front door of the house (yours to keep – provided by A Christmas Story House). Crow bar provided to open.
Go out to check the mail for Decoder pins delivered to mailbox (one for each guest and yours to keep - provided by A Christmas Story House)
Climb under the sink just like Randy
5pm: Chinese Turkey Dinner at Pearl of the Orient
7pm: Back to A Christmas Story House to watch “A Christmas Story” in the house it was filmed (25th Anniversary DVD is yours to keep; popcorn and sodas provided)
9pm: Spend the night in A Christmas Story House sleeping in Ralphie and Randy's bedroom!

DECEMBER 25:
8am: Open presents in A Christmas Story House living room
Continental breakfast basket provided by A Christmas Story House
Presents included: 2 BB guns (behind the desk), blue bowling ball, can of Simonize, and a bunny suit, 4 Christmas Story House shirts. (provided by A Christmas Story House)
Bring your own presents to unwrap as well
Shoot BB guns in the back yard (provided by A Christmas Story House)
1pm: Check out of A Christmas Story House and return to Renaissance Hotel (Room is reserved for you)
5pm: Enjoy Christmas dinner at Sans Souci, an award-winning, fine-dining restaurant in the Renaissance Hotel

DECEMBER 26:
By 12pm, check out of Renaissance Hotel
Return flight departs (Time TBD)

Ebay Art

chakalakasp — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:15:52 -0800

"What would you say if I told you that I filled my entire living room with completely original works of art for less than $300?" Andrea Dickson from Wise Bread has found an unlikely -- though, the more you think about it, almost obvious -- place to find original art from new artists: Ebay. If you can filter through the crapload of "artistic nudes", there are plenty of gems, and usually at buyers' market prices. And, as Andrea's mother mused, when it comes to decorating the house, it beats buying mass-produced art from Costco, which is about as original as a Big Mac.

The Ebay Solution?

Chinese Jet Pilot — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:41:02 -0800

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain may be computer illiterate, but his campaign does think highly of eBay. Sen. McCain and Governor Palin have each suggested eBay as a fix for the economy, tool for government reform, and strategy for homeland security. Perhaps it's because former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, in spite of disagreeing with parts of his technology platform, is co-chair of McCain's campaign?

The Dollar Auction and Swoopo

Zarkonnen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:10:53 -0800

An online auction site called Swoopo, once called TeleBid, has hit upon an ingenious way to make money. They are an auction site not entirely unlike Ebay - but using a different auction scheme. Where EBay uses a slightly modified Vickrey auction system, Swoopo uses an auction system based on the "Dollar Auction" game - with interesting results. Their system is an open auction with a very tight time limit, where each bid made increases the price by seven pence, costs the bidder fifty pence to make and increases the time limit by a couple of seconds. This might seem benign at first, until you do the maths: For example, a camera worth £679.99 was recently sold for £189.49 to someone who had made 81 bids. This particular bidder paid a mere £229.99 for the camera. But to drive up the camera's price to £189.49, some 2706 bids had to be made, at a total cost of £1353. Hence, Swoopo ended up receiving £1542.49 for a camera valued at less than half that. It's a good deal for the winner - but an even better one for the company. An even stranger kind of auction takes place on the site - a "100% off" auction, where the final price does not have to be paid. Whoever makes the final bid before the timer runs out gets the object of the auction for no additional cost beyond the bidding fees. The object of the auction is five hundred pounds. So the deal is this: keep on giving money to Swoopo in 50p increments, hoping to be the one to get the money at the end. Whenever that is. At the time of writing, there was a £500 auction that has climbed to £738.08. If it ended at that point, one of the parties would walk away with £500 in exchange for however much it cost them to bid. And the company would end up with £5272 in fees in exchange for that £500. Is this auctioning or entertainment? A clever application of game theory? Gambling? A scam? It's probably not illegal, as far as anyone can tell. The decision on its morality is left up to the reader... Previously on Everything2 and TechCrunch, including a comment from (apparently) the CEO of Swoopo.

Blouse of Cosby's

ericbop — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:29:08 -0800

Bill Cosby auctions off ic/ronic sweaters from Cosby Show for charity. This article has a nice description of the auction, the charity, and also mentions that there's a National Cosby Sweater Day!

It's not your dad's bicycle.

maudlin — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:07:59 -0800

If Wile E. Coyote entered the Tour de France, this would be his ride. Brought to you by some guy who always wanted to be a human missile. No word if he's going to move from eBay to Acme one day. (The bike running briefly at ear-shredding volume. The slightly more elegant European version. And, of course, Jeremy Clarkson on a jet-powered bike with a pretty basket in front.)

Madonna (Not Was)

carsonb — Mon, 12 May 2008 04:53:40 -0800

The story goes like this: In the early 80's Madonna sat in with Was (Not Was) to record backing vocals (to Ozzy Osbourne's main vox) for their track Shake Your Head (Let's Go To Bed). Everything was peachy until Madonna's record label, Sire, refused to grant ZE Records permission to publish her recording. So other voices sang of things that cannot be done. Fast-forward ten years and the hits collection Hello Dad, I'm In Jail included the track and, again, the Madonna vocal was not released for use. (This time Kim Basinger's new backing track got the spot.) The new Basinger-backed single peaked at #4 on the UK charts and featured a b-side remix by producer Steve 'Silk' Hurley. However, a glorious blunder resulted in a recall of the single: ZE had sent Hurley Madonna's background vocals. The mistake wasn't caught until after pressing and lo! a very few copies of the record made it out into the world. And so, music fans, for a cool G you can lay hands on your own copy of Shake Your Head (Let's Go to Bed), featuring the b-side dub, the rarest of Madonna recordings. [Mouse over links for descriptions.]

Nigerian Scammers

chuckdarwin — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:21:02 -0800

It's Now Completely Impossible To Sell a Laptop on eBay. See also: A Few Thoughts About eBay's Decline

The Auction You Missed

Fuzzy Skinner — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:48:17 -0800

You missed your chance to bid on the very last Sky Commuter Prototype in existence. The auction ended in January, but the eBay auction page is still up, with plenty of photos and info. (Final price: $131,700.)

Inflation in Zimbabwe

splatta — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:24:42 -0800

Inflation in Zimbabwe recently reached 160,000%. Get in on the ground floor now by purchasing a $50,000,000 bill (currently selling for 20,000x its value). Dare to become a millionaire!

For Sale: One Life, Used

batmonkey — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:36:20 -0800

Ian Usher's divorce prompted a decision to sell his entire life to the highest bidder. You can buy his life for A$230,000: clothes, home, vehicles - even his job & friends.

She don't... What now?

ThePinkSuperhero — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:57:49 -0800

You talked to her father, prepared a YouTube worthy proposal, gathered all your courage.... and she said no. How will your life go on? And what are you going to do with the ring? Enter I Do... Now I Don't, an auction site that caters to broken-hearted lovers such as you. Started by a fellow who has been there. Buy if you dare. Via

Jesus Christ, Ebay!

gman — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:30:27 -0800

The International Crusade For Holy Relics has been fighting (pdf) to have things like the nails used to attach J.C. to the cross removed from Ebay.

Wyclif's Bible

growabrain — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:59:16 -0800

Just ended on eBay: Auction for the Wycliffite New Testament ca. 1400. Closing bid; US $399,100.00. The seller supposedly is The Bible Museum, Inc. (according to The Little professor). More about Wycliffite editions and some choice bookbinding samples at Bridwell Library (Since eBay listing disappear after a short period of time, will somebody create a mirror to the page, please)

When you care enough to send the very bewildering.

zardoz — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:33:08 -0800

If you're looking for a good prank this holiday season, why not have someone living in Europe send cryptic, bizarre postcards to your friends. Bidding has commenced.

At least the shipping's free.

MaryDellamorte — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:22:36 -0800

You can own your very own AOL 1.0 floppy disk for the low price of $4,995.00. Think this is absurd? Well, it's been done before.

Theft recovery

tristeza — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:59:54 -0800

Juststolen.net "was created by police officers to provide the best possible asset tracking and property recovery services in the world. JustStolen.net is an innovative tool designed to easily register assets in order to facilitate their recovery if they are lost or stolen. JustStolen.net joins forces with online auctions to help identify stolen property."

feedback.

gman — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:38:50 -0800

Invest wisely. End poverty.