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A football club owner is to put it on eBay after his attempts to give it away failed.

Dinel Staicu, owner of Romanian second division side Universitatea Craiova, tried to give the club to his local council.

He sent officials the ownership papers together with a covering letter saying he had had enough of being the butt of people's jokes.

But the council wrote back and said they were not interested now the once successful club had been relegated.

Town mayor, Antonie Soloman, said: "The biggest problem is that we simply do not have the money to finance a struggling team. The budget has been set for the year already and there is no extra cash for football.

"It is true that we offered to buy the club from him before Christmas, but at that time he did not want to part with it. Now it's in the second division he can't wait to get rid of it."

Staicu said: "The only thing I can think of doing now is putting it on eBay and seeing if I can find someone to take it over."

MARS BLUFF, S.C. - (KRT) - Clyde Gregg won't show them off. They might be his big-money ticket to retire from pig farming. They might be duds on eBay, but Gregg is determined to know for sure.

So a week or two ago - he's not sure precisely when but it was recently - Gregg took his fragments from the most remarkable event in the history of this tiny community and gave them to friends for safekeeping.

That way, he won't be lying if he says he can't help some government investigator who shows up at his doorstep and demands those fragments from the partially armed nuclear bomb that fell on his community 47 years ago.

Usually, people in Mars Bluff don't talk much about that warm March Tuesday in 1958 when an Air Force B-47 accidentally dropped a bomb on this rural speck of Florence County.

The bomb's TNT trigger exploded on impact, but the bomb had no nuclear capsule so there was no nuclear explosion. As it was, six people were hurt, homes and a local church were seriously damaged and a little community known mostly for its rural character had experienced a signature event.

There was a big to-do seven years ago, on the 40th anniversary of the accident.

Mizpah Baptist Church, where benches and pillars were damaged when the bomb landed a quarter-mile away, held an event to commemorate the accident. But most days, the accident is just something the older people in the area know about and remember.

They're talking about it again now, though, because Esquire magazine did a big story on it, including a color picture of Gregg standing hip-deep in the water-filled crater left by the blast.

When another reporter showed up, unannounced, at Gregg's home to ask about the accident, Gregg was welcoming and generous, his easy, knowing laugh part of his warm greeting. But he was cagey on details about the bomb fragments.

"I'm going to see if it's worth anything," he said.

Efforts to reach the Air Force - for comment on whether it had any interest in Gregg's fragments - were unsuccessful.

On the worldwide market that is eBay, who knows who might bite?

Those fragments, wherever they are, are a link to Mars Bluff's past, when people accepted what the federal government told them.

They are a link to a time when that government first saw nuclear weapons as the way to protect the small-town way of life embraced in communities like this. And they are proof of the risks inherent in any reliance on nuclear weapons.

The Department of Defense acknowledges that, between 1950 and 1980, there were 32 serious accidents involving U.S. nuclear weapons - "broken arrows" the government calls them.

A lot of arrows were broken in 1958. There were five nuclear accidents that year, including the Mars Bluff event.

Robert Norris, a senior research associate with the Natural Resources Defense Council - a New York-based environmental group that has studied nuclear issues - said hundreds of planes took part in test missions that involved nuclear weapons.

"Given the numbers that we had over the years, I sometimes wonder why we didn't have more (accidents)," Norris said.

Just a month before the Mars Bluff accident, on Feb. 5, 1958, two military planes, including one carrying a nuclear weapon, collided in midair near Savannah, Ga.

The plane with the nuclear weapon, which, like the one that would fall on Mars Bluff, had no nuclear capsule, tried three times to land at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia.

But because the damaged plane's speed could not be reduced enough to guarantee a safe landing, the military decided to jettison the bomb into the Atlantic Ocean a few miles from the mouth of the Savannah River.

While the February accident occurred just before 4 a.m. over the ocean, the Mars Bluff accident a month later took place in broad daylight, around 4 p.m.

Clyde Gregg was 6 years old. He missed school that day and was not where he often could be found after the school's bell rang - playing with pals on a mound of sawdust less than 50 yards from where the bomb fell.

Instead, Gregg was at home with his mother and father, who had come in for a coffee break from plowing, when they all heard a loud boom.

"We thought it was a plane breaking the sound barrier," Gregg said. "My daddy said a few choice words. It felt like the house lifted up and came back down."

But in keeping with the stoic nature of the men of his generation, Clyde Gregg Sr. put his coffee cup down and returned to his plow.

The sirens let him know the sound that had roared through Mars Bluff wasn't a fast plane on a test run. Something else had happened. Something terrible and terrifying.

Not far away, less than 100 yards from the bombsite, another Gregg household, the home of young Clyde's uncle, had come close to taking a direct hit.

Something inside the house smashed onto the head of Clyde's aunt. One young cousin, playing in the yard with other relatives, was gashed by falling debris. Other cousins in the yard were cut, too.

Bed-wetting and nightmares would dog the children for years, said Walter Gregg Sr., Clyde's uncle.

Tom Gandy, who was 16 when the bomb fell, said his grandfather was riding a mule-pulled wagon loaded with bales of hay. The concussion of the blast frightened the animal, which bolted, tossing Gandy's grandfather back between the bales and injuring his back.

That injury never quite healed, Gandy said.

Neither have other wounds from that day, said Walter Gregg Sr.

An 84-year old retired railroad conductor who still lives in the Mars Bluff area, Walter Gregg said he served in the military in France during World War II. He said the government paid him about $28,000 for damage to his farm, a car and a home he could no longer live in.

He got nothing as compensation for the trauma he and his family endured. It took him nearly two years to get another house.

Government officials don't make his list of favorite people.

"I ain't got nothing good to say about 'em," he said.

The Gregg family gave some pieces of the bomb, recovered in the weeks after it fell, to the Florence (S.C.) Museum.

Today the pieces sit in a display case that includes a piece of the chandelier from Walter Gregg's home and a copy of the Florence Morning News telling readers with a banner headline about the bomb.

The bomb display usually gets a strong reaction from visitors, said Betsy Olsen, the museum's director.

"They're astounded," she said.

The bomb damaged Clyde Gregg Sr.'s home. Windows were smashed. The commode and plaster walls were cracked.

"My daddy, he didn't ask for anything, not that I know of anyway," the younger Clyde Gregg said. "They didn't give him anything."

That, Clyde Gregg said, is where eBay comes in. He found the bomb pieces a couple weeks after it fell and kept them through the decades.

A physics professor at Francis Marion University tested them and found that they did contain uranium, though it's possible that the uranium may be the result of the materials used to house the bomb.

That test is enough for Clyde Gregg. For him, it's proof that he has some unique pieces of history.

In Mars Bluff, at the Gregg household, that history is for sale.

Mayor fumes as 'pigs' grab free tickets to July 2 event on Web site, then offer them on eBay for hundreds of dollars

Happy 100th birthday, Las Vegas. Here's your present: a brand-new scandal.

OK, it's not a scandal at this point. But a brouhaha has broken out over the city's centennial concert on July 2, starring the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Weezer.

Nearly 50,000 free tickets to the event were snapped up Monday through a Ticketmaster Web site. Since then, dozens of people have been trying to sell their tickets online on eBay for as much as $359 for a set of four.

On Thursday, the situation incited Mayor Oscar Goodman to lash out and threaten litigation.

"Whoever takes advantage of the largesse and good will of the city is a bum," a seething Goodman said. "Real pigs."

Goodman has instructed the city attorney to investigate whether the scalpers can be charged with a crime.

An additional 5,000 tickets will be released May 16, but at that time, tickets must be picked up in person at participating Ticketmaster outlets and not just plucked off the company's Web site by any capitalist in the world.

Goodman said kids and adults have been e-mailing him, virtually begging for tickets. He echoed the sentiments of some of those constituents.

"It's so unfair because the centennial committee wanted to present this very special event available to everybody free of charge," Goodman said.

Ardent Chili Peppers fan Sara Tobin agreed.

"It was really lame that people would ruin a free show by taking advantage of it," said Tobin, 17, a junior at Bonanza High School.

Tobin's mother and some of her work colleagues all logged onto the Ticketmaster site at noon Monday, but they could score only a single ticket among them.

"So I only have one, and if we don't get another so my dad can go with me, I can't go," Tobin said. "I'm pretty upset."

Then again, the centennial committee did have, as one goal of the concert, to draw tourists, and that idea might be working, at least partially. Figures show that 46 percent of the tickets distributed Monday went to Las Vegans and about one-third to Californians.

Asked for his own reaction to the drama, City Councilman Larry Brown launched into the chorus of a 1991 Chili Peppers smash hit: "Give it away, give it away, give it away now."

Asked for further, actual comment, the three-term councilman said he believes the scalping could not have been prevented.

"Hopefully, no one will be gouged," Brown said.

Even though some city residents' sour grapes have turned to whine, taxpayers are not paying a dime for the concert, which is set for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority parking lot at Paradise Road and Convention Center Drive.

Show promoter Clear Channel is picking up the tab for the event. Consequently, the city will not profit from it, but Clear Channel will profit from the sales of concessions and merchandise.

The bulk of ticket scalping online seems to be from individuals who were among at least 11,250 people who got on Ticketmaster.com fast enough Monday to snag four tickets per person.

Ken Solky, president of the ticket-broker company Nevada Ticket Services, said Thursday he has none of the tickets in his inventory.

"We always try to assist our clients in whatever they're looking for," he said, but "we've yet to have a client ask for the free show."

Solky, a two-decade veteran of acquiring tickets to popular shows, was not shocked that a few thousand people rapidly acquired tickets before the rest of the city's population did.

"Quite frankly, we have a community of, what, a million-six and growing? And a weekly tourist count of probably a quarter of a million or more that recycles twice a week," Solky said.

"It doesn't surprise me at all" that all the tickets went so fast.

Solky, who is also the vice president of the National Association of Ticket Brokers, does have advice for people who are thinking of buying scalped tickets: Know your ticket dealer.

The Ticketmaster tickets, which bear bar codes that will be scanned at the concert gate, are printable at home. They even can be e-mailed around. This could increase the odds that scalpers will sell fake tickets.

Solky put it this way:

"Here's the deal. If you're dealing with just anybody, then you really don't know when you get to the show if you're gonna get in because a bar code can be duplicated with the stroke of a photocopy machine. And the first person to enter the grounds using that bar code gets in. Any subsequent person who shows up with the same bar code gets turned away."

But Solky, a self-described optimist, said the Fourth of July weekend concert should be fine, regardless of the traffic of 50,000 people trying to park and gain admission to an event that hardly could end up as controversial as the city it was designed to commemorate.

"I like to accentuate the positive," he said.

"This is America's party. This is Las Vegas' party. ... If they were lucky enough to get online early and get their tickets, they're really gonna enjoy themselves."

Review-Journal writer J.M. Kalil contributed to this report.

FOUR pioneering young Bahrainis have set up the country's first online auction room, selling anything from tower blocks to parrots. If it's legal, then you can put it under the virtual hammer or bid for it on www.soogon.com

The electronic auction is the brainchild of Sager Al Khalifa, aged 25, Tariq Al Gosaibi, Fahad Sarwani and Ehsan Al Kooheji, all aged 24.

They are childhood friends who saw windows of opportunity in Bahrain's growing business market.

"We have all been close friends since childhood, but took different paths after graduating from high school, to join universities in Bahrain, US, Saudi Arabia and UAE," said Mr Al Khalifa.

Each of the website partners studied different fields, but their paths crossed again after graduating from university.

"Every one of us saw a possibility in creating a business together, each contributing through their field of study - Tariq in finance, Fahad in accounting, Ehsan in computers and me in political science," said Mr Al Khalifa.

Whenever they met, the main topic of discussion was how to succeed by creating their own original business.

"We started seeing new projects being created in Bahrain and saw ourselves in the midst of development that we wanted to contribute to," said Mr Al Khalifa.

"We wanted to find our place by coming up with a number of ideas for businesses that can be successful."

The idea for the website came about less than a year ago, when Mr Al Khalifa was looking to sell his car.

"I wanted to sell my car as soon as possible and get the highest price for it," he said.

"The solution was to show my car to as many people as possible in Bahrain, the Gulf and the Arab region, to receive the highest price."

That is when Mr Khalifa got the idea of creating the website, to auction his car and anything anyone else wanted to sell to the highest bidder.

"There are other similar websites elsewhere that all of us have used and we believed that it was a good idea for Bahrain," he said.

"Each one of us was able to contribute to how the website would be created, based on their educational background."

One potential obstacle was whether the Bahrain market was ready for electronic trading of this kind.

"However, we believed that the mentality in Bahrain was beginning to change and people are beginning to trust such transactions," said Mr Al Khalifa. A key step was to come up with a name that was easy to remember and would send a clear message.

"After going through various names, we decided to call it soogon - soog (suq or market) and on (online)," he said.

The next step was to make the website as user friendly as possible.

"We exerted efforts to make it less complicated and put enough information on there - not too much and not too little," said Mr Al Khalifa.

The website went live with a soft launch last month and a building in Seef has already changed hands for BD1.2 million through the electronic auction room.

Now the four entrepreneurs are working on marketing the site throughout the region.

"Soogon provides a friendly interface for buyers and sellers by making it easy for anyone to post any kind of item free," said Mr Al Khalifa.

Though the site is free, there are additional features to promote the item, which the seller is charged for.

After the auction is closed, buyer and seller details are sent to each other and they can make the necessary arrangements between them for payment and delivery.

The categories on the website include antiques and art, baby items, boats and jet skis, books and magazines, businesses for sale, car numbers, cars, motorcycles and parts, clothing, computers, cosmetics and perfumes.

Other items include electronics, furniture, games, jewellery and watches, music, pets, phones and phone numbers, real estate, sports items, tickets and travel, toys, TV and movies and women's items, among others.

Some of the interesting items that have been auctioned so far include a parrot, gas mask and meat grinder.

Items posted on the website must not violate any laws, said Mr Al Khalifa

The black Range Rover - which comes with a "massive" stereo system and registration number J5 STUD - has been put up for sale on eBay.

The pop star paid £50,000 for the top-of-the-range model in 1991.

It has recently been kept at his father's stud farm in Cyprus, hence the registration. The ad on eBay describes the sale as a "unique opportunity".

The advert adds: "It is without question a one-off, as this gentleman's vehicles never see the private ad columns and would normally be handed down to family or friends."

A spokesman for the singer said: "George has decided to sell the car to raise money for his favourite charities."

So far the vehicle has attracted a highest bid of £4,800. Bidding closes on 26 April.

Online hawkers rush to auction charms, signed photographs of newly elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Tuesday's announcement of a new pope could usher in a new era in the Roman Catholic Church -- and a business opportunity for online vendors already racing to sell fridge magnets, prayer cards and clocks bearing the likeness of Pope Benedict XVI.

Since the announcement that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger will be the 265th pope of the Catholic Church came at 11:50 a.m. ET, auction sites such as eBay have started featuring items bearing his name or signature.

Ebay already has at least 68 items up for sale, with one seller asking $2,499 for an autographed photo of Ratzinger taken in 1978.

"It was almost immediate that we started to see Pope Benedict items and memorabilia come onto the site," said Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, which is located in San Jose, California. "Right now, much of the world's attention is on Pope Benedict and so it is not a surprise for us to see numerous Pope Benedict listings on the site."

Durzy, whose company witnessed approximately 10,000 items posted following the death of Pope John Paul II, could not say whether the new pope would match his predecessor.

Not all pope-related merchandise bears such a hefty price tag, and the offerings range from reverent to camp. As of Tuesday afternoon, a few clicks of the mouse could net shoppers a Ratzinger fridge magnet for $1.99, a "Pope Joseph Ratzinger" custom Italian charm for $6.99 or a prayer card with the pontiff's arms outstretched for $1.19.

The items receiving the most bids so far appear to be photographs with Ratzinger's autograph and books he has authored.

Once the archbishop of Munich, Germany, Ratzinger, 78, was already one of the most powerful men in the Vatican before his election, and is widely acknowledged as a leading theologian.

It is a novel approach to tackling the scourge of abandoned cars littering London's streets.

A council has begun selling off vehicles on auction website eBay.

It has already sold a smart Range Rover for £6,600 and plans to advertise scores more. ster council, which is thought to be the first local authority to get rid of unwanted cars on the net, said the technique was much cheaper than a conventional auction.

Westminster council, which is thought to be the first local authority to get rid of unwanted cars on the net, said the technique was much cheaper than a conventional auction.

A spokesman said: "We have dozens of cars every year left in our car parks. Often they are very nice and in good condition. A lot of people will pay for parking spaces and leave cars there while they jet around the world. It seems to be a sign of our throw-away society. Some people simply have more money than they know what to do with."

On average, 30 cars a year are left in Westminster's car parks.

And unlike wrecks abandoned on the roadside, they tend to be roadworthy and highly saleable.

Legally, if a car is taking up a space which would otherwise earn the council money, it can be sold to recoup the losses.

Westminster is now selling a vintage Rover with a blueblooded pedigree. The 1962 model was owned by Countess Ren饠de Vismes, a European aristocrat. It had been in the Chiltern Street car park since she died six years ago, and was seized after payments stopped.

Her son Henry de Vismes, 58, is the former managing director of Citigroup Asset Management in New York.

He said: "She was very fond of that car. My father bought it and she loved driving it after he passed away."

London-wide, more than 200 vehicles are abandoned each day at an annual clean-up cost of more than ?6.6 million.

A report from Keep Britain Tidy and the Home Office shows London is Britain's car-dumping centre, accounting for two out of five abandoned vehicles.

Q. What is happening with eBay Inc.? It was once such a strong stock but hasn't done well lately.

A. Wall Street sometimes has great expectations.

When this online auction powerhouse acknowledged that it wouldn't meet analyst expectations, investors made it pay the price. Its projection of sales between $4.25 billion and $4.35 billion this year didn't meet the consensus analyst estimate of $4.37 billion.

In addition, after meeting or beating Wall Street profit expectations in all but one quarter since 2001, it missed by a penny in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Such signs of slowing down sent shock waves. Shares of eBay are down 40 percent this year after gains of 80 percent last year and 91 percent in 2003.

At least its chief executive remains on board. Though she interviewed for the top job at Walt Disney Co., eBay CEO Meg Whitman quickly withdrew her name. Whitman received a salary of $995,052 last year, plus a $1.55 million bonus.

The company's traditional collectibles sales base is being expanded to include big-ticket items, and its fixed-price sales are growing. It made a smart move in acquiring the PayPal online payment system in 2002.

With users of its online service in about 150 countries, eBay plans to increase investment spending to $300 million this year from $200 million. The larger amount will be used to expand efforts in China, where it has 10 million registered users.

After its purchase of a 25 percent stake in craigslist.org, a network of online community sites, the company launched Kijiji.com, a place for international users to buy and sell goods that are difficult to ship.

Recommendations on eBay stock vary because of its uncertainties, but the consensus is midway between "buy" and "hold," according to the First Call research firm. That consists of four "strong buys," nine "buys," nine "holds" and two "strong sells."

Q. What is your opinion of Oppenheimer Growth Fund? I own it outside my retirement account, but I'm not sure if I should keep it.

- D.R., via the Internet

A. It has been bouncing down a rocky road.

The $1 billion Oppenheimer Growth Fund (OPPSX) is down 4 percent over the past 12 months and had a three-year annualized decline of 3.3 percent. Both results place it within the lowest 15 percent of large growth funds.

Portfolio manager David Poiesz, in charge since mid-2004, obviously hasn't put up dazzling numbers. However, he did have a solid record compiled over two decades at other funds.

"I'm not strongly recommending this fund, but I think it is OK and might be worth owning as a reasonable large growth choice," said David Kathman, ananalyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. "It owns a lot of technology stocks that haven't done all that great, which is a reason why the fund has not done well compared to its peers in its category, but Poiesz still believes in them."

Investors shouldn't be alarmed about recent results because Poiesz has had little time to prove himself, Kathman said.

Diocese Says Wafer's Been Disposed Of Properly

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- A controversy over a Holy Communion wafer allegedly blessed by Pope John Paul II that was put on eBay is over.

Going once...going twice...SOLD to the little green fellow in the back! Okay, everybody, get out your credit cards and get ready to do some bidding! The folks over at NYLine.org will be holding an online auction from April 21 to May 17 to raise funds for the charity they are lining up for, The Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. The proceeds of this event will go towards the purchase of fun centers to provide entertainment for children who are hospitilized.

But hold on, this isn’t just any old auction, this is a Star Wars auction that is NOT TO BE MISSED! There will be dozens of must-have Star Wars collectibles, exclusive Star Wars items only found through this auction, and many, many other goodies that any Star Wars fanatic would love to get their paws on.

Well it's no wonder that alternative auction venues such as Squeagle.com, Romahawk and CountryOwlSales are flourishing...

With sellers protesting fee hikes and customers fretting about scams, firm's fast rate of growth questioned The open revolt began almost instantly among eBay's sellers - a hodgepodge of hobbyists, slick entrepreneurs and quirky collectors who conduct daily virtual auctions of everything from samurai swords and refrigerator magnets to an unread copy of an "Archie and Veronica" comic book (Volume 55).

In January, eBay announced steep fee increases, which took effect last month, prompting sellers to post caustic comments on community bulletin boards both on and off the company's Web site. Petitions have been circulated, sellers have debated an eBay boycott and those unhappy with the company seem evenly split over whether "FeeBay" or "GreedBay" is the most apt epithet for it.

More...

Unlike many college students, E.J. Rouzin-Moy actually follows the news, especially the death of Pope John Paul II.

You could say Rouzin-Moy is keeping abreast of the situation.

And after making a mental connection between his chicken dinner and the late pontiff, Rouzin-Moy hatched an idea.

"With all that stupid stuff they put on eBay, I figured I might as well give it a shot," he said.

Thus, to the humor of some and the outrage of others, the Eastern Illinois University student is selling a baked chicken breast he swears looks like John Paul, who died April 2.

As of press time Tuesday, the on-line auction site eBay listed the current bid for Rouzin-Moy's so-called "relic" at $17.50, with the sale ending at 5 p.m. April 21. Four people have bid on the item so far.

He has sold other items like comic books on eBay, "but nothing like this," he said.

This is actually the second time Rouzin-Moy posted the meaty profile, which he discovered a week ago while dining in the Thomas Hall cafeteria on the Charleston campus.

"I noticed the nose right off the bat," he said. "The more I stared at it ... I finally deducted it looks kind of like the Pope."

The first go-round, eBay deleted the item after it received more than 8,000 inquiries, said Rouzin-Moy.

Officials with eBay did not give him an explanation, but they told the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune that the college student had failed to list the piece of chicken as a "collectible."

After correcting the error, Rouzin-Moy resubmitted the chicken breast Monday night.

He has kept it in a plastic bag in his dorm room freezer. So far, it has remained intact.

Under the eBay alias nfgpunk119, Rouzin-Moy said he is willing to discuss shipping options with the winning bidder.

"I have the utmost respect for Pope John Paul II, and I could not believe the resemblance I saw between my piece of chicken breast and him," Rouzin-Moy said on his eBay listing.

"I am deeply touched that I was chosen to receive this possible visit from the Holy Father."

Rouzin-Moy has received only two comments from eBay users. He said one praised his effort, while another said it was "tasteless."

Obviously, that person has also eaten dorm food.

An eBay spokesman explained Wednesday why the online auction site allowed the sale of a Holy Communion wafer allegedly blessed by the late Pope John Paul II in 1998 at his 20th anniversary Mass.

The wafer was offered on Saturday by a seller in Sloan, Iowa, and sold on Monday for $2,000 to a man in Cupertino, Calif.

The Diocese of Sioux City let it be known Tuesday that is was offended by the item's listing.

Hani Durzy of eBay said the listing "kicked up a minor controversy at eBay," as well. But, he said, it was determined that the listing did not violate eBay's policy of what can be posted.

The company does not review listings before they are posted, Durzy said, but with 135 million registered users around the world, eBay is quickly alerted to any offensive material. Then the item is reviewed.

"We certainly looked at this one," he said, after getting "a handful" of phone calls and e-mails.

Durzy said while eBay "completely respects" the people who complained, it was determined that the sale of the Eucharist did not violate company policies.

"Our basic policy is, if it's illegal to sell off of eBay, it can't be sold on eBay," Durzy said. "Selling the (wafer) itself is not illegal. Above and beyond the law, we have a list of prohibited and restricted items. A classic example is guns -- no guns, no prescription drugs, limits on travel packages, alcohol and a number of other things."

In addition, he said, eBay has an "offensive materials policy" concerning race, religion, memorabilia owned by murderers and Nazi memorabilia. He said the policy allows eBay to pull listings promoting hatred or violence against an individual or group.

"If the listing doesn't explicitly do that, and this one didn't -- there was nothing in the images or text that promoted hatred or violence toward the Catholic Church in our estimation -- we're not going to pull the listing," Durzy said.

He explained that eBay does not sell anything, rather it provides the electronic marketplace where 40 million items are listed for sale at any given time, offered by millions of sellers. He said the site's 135 million users are in virtually every country in the world and represent every religion, race and social strata.

"That diversity extends to religion and beliefs," he said. "We knew there were going to be folks that were deeply offended. In fact, there may be many people here who share their distaste. However, we do our best to tolerate the many viewpoints held by our worldwide community.

"We hope that people understand that in a diverse community, that all opinions must be respected and we're not going to play the morality police," Durzy said. "If people are really, really offended by something on the site, they probably shouldn't bid on it."

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. Police are still looking into the sale of stolen bank computers on the Internet auction site e-Bay.

EVERETT -- Police say a Lake Stevens High School senior has stolen $30,000 in school property since his freshman year and has been selling the equipment on eBay.

The suspect, 18, was arrested March 31 for investigation of theft and burglary, Lake Stevens police Chief Randy Celori said.

At the student's home, officers recovered more than 100 items believed to have been stolen from Lake Stevens High School. They also seized $3,000 from his bank account.

The student had a master key to the school's doors and knew how the alarm system worked, Celori said.

The suspect told police he went through teachers' desks and stole keys. He came into the school after hours and removed projectors, high-end calculators and other property, Celori said.

He also opened padlocks in the boys locker room and stole wallets, money and gift cards, Celori said.

The case was cracked last week after a teacher overheard the student talking about selling equipment online, Celori said. The teacher searched eBay and found property that had been reported stolen.

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine - Margaret Rogosienski has seen the future for getting rid of old stuff: It's an 1,100 square-foot retail store on a busy stretch of Broadway. The store, C-it-Sell, is thought to be the first in Maine devoted solely to selling items on eBay for customers. Nationwide and overseas, hundreds of eBay drop-off stores are popping up in strip malls and on street corners from Maine to California, and beyond.

For Americans with jewelry, electronics, clothing, collectibles or any of thousands of other unwanted items, these shops have become 21st-century consignment stores.

Rogosienski, 52, of Portland, brought an old brass railroad lantern to C-it-Sell because she felt she could get a better price on eBay than at a live auction or an antiques store. But she didn't want to go through the hassle of putting it on eBay herself.

"I don't want to make a business out of it," she said. "I'd have to buy a camera, take a digital picture, research the item. They were an agent for me. It's the same reason I wouldn't sell my own house, I'd hire a real estate agent."

The lantern sold for $355, and Rogosienski later used C-it-Sell to auction two vintage men's vests and an old mink stole.

C-it-Sell was formed by Rich Cady, his brother-in-law, Jeff Ornstein, and their wives. They'll take an item, research how similar things have sold on eBay, photograph and catalog it, and post it on eBay.

If the item sells, they send you a check. Their fee is 35 percent for the first $300 and 25 percent for the balance, plus eBay's fees.

Ornstein and Cady say they sell more than two-thirds of the 300 items they list each month. The average sale is about $100.

"People have come in here and said they would sell to a local consignment store, but that limits their exposure to the Portland area," Cady said. "Whereas on eBay, they're being exposed to 134 million registered users."

Even before the store opened last Nov. 26, they had people knocking on the door, ready to bring in their stuff.

The first item they listed was a radio-controlled airplane with a 65-inch wingspan that sold for $200. Two novelty Sumo wrestling suits were bought by a Colorado bar for $910, and a 700-pound industrial food mixer sold for $2,000. They're now listing a 1988 black Silver Spur Rolls Royce owned by a Cape Elizabeth man. Minimum bid: $19,999.

What's billed as the first eBay consignment store opened in San Carlos, Calif., in March 2003. Randy Adams, who grew up in Northeast Harbor, Maine, got the idea when his wife asked him to clean out the garage and he ended up with a load of goods to sell.

Adams didn't want to put the items on eBay Inc. himself - too much time and effort - and figured there must be a retail outlet somewhere that would do it for him.

When he came up empty, he suspected he was on to something.

He raised money through investors and opened an eBay drop-off store of his own, calling it AuctionDrop. Last June, the company entered into a partnership with UPS so customers can drop off items at the 3,800 UPS Stores nationwide. The UPS Stores then ship the items to AuctionDrop's processing plant in Fremont, Calif., where they are processed for sale on eBay.

QuikDrop, based in Carson City, Nev., opened its first eBay drop-off store in February 2004 and now has 41 franchises in some 15 states with contracts for another 550 stores. It opened a store in China last month.

iSold It, based in Pasadena, Calif., opened its first store in December 2003 and now has 50 franchises in 21 states with another 400 under contract.

The companies are confident that eBay drop-off centers in time will become ubiquitous.

After all, Americans have a lot of stuff. A recent A.C. Nielsen study found the typical U.S. household has unused items laying around that were purchased for about $2,222 and have current value of about $1,000.

And eBay transactions continue their upward climb. In 2004, $34.2 billion worth of merchandise was sold on eBay, up from $24 billion in 2003 and $15 billion in 2002.

But success won't come overnight.

AuctionDrop needs 10,000 transactions a month to become profitable, Adams said. The company is now doing about 3,000 a month, a threefold increase from a year ago.

At QuikDrop, co-founder Jack Reynolds said while eBay is the focus of the business model, the stores also have fax and copy machines, appraisals, and videotape conversion services to create other revenue streams.

"On a pure drop-off model, there's not enough business to be profitable, so it's important to have these other revenue streams," he said. "You can't make it on eBay alone - at this point."

At C-it-Sell, the store is already breaking even and Ornstein and Cady hope to eventually open more stores. Business can only go up, they say, as more people learn that there is an easy way to cash in on their unwanted stuff.

The eBay retail store concept is still in its infancy, and most agree that the industry is likely to expand and consolidate before it matures.

"The company that gets this right is going to become a big company," Adams said. "This is a big market."

Stolen pacemakers sold on Web site

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Vintage party dress. Antique lamp. Pacemaker?

Medtronic Inc. recently discovered that one of its pacemakers was stolen from a California hospital, sold on eBay and then implanted in an Arizona man.

The unusual case highlights the growing online market for prescription medical devices and how these sophisticated products are tracked by manufacturers such as Fridley-based Medtronic, hospitals and federal regulators.

The case surfaced in early March when police in Sacramento, Calif., arrested a 21-year-old woman on an embezzlement charge. Amber Bowen, a nurse's aide at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, also ran an Internet medical supply business on the side called Body Fantasy Inc., according to Sacramento police.

Bowen allegedly stole two Medtronic pacemakers from the hospital in October 2004 and then posted them for sale on eBay, the online marketplace. Typically, a pacemaker costs about $6,000, but Bowen sold them for $255 each, police said.

The buyer was Greg Etts, a purchasing manager for a large cardiac practice based in the Phoenix area called Advanced Cardiac Specialists, according to a report issued by the Arizona Medical Board. Etts later admitted to board officials that he knew the pacemakers were stolen when he bought them and that he often purchased devices on eBay.

In December, a male cardiac patient, who has not been publicly identified, had his pacemaker battery replaced at Mesa General Hospital. Implanted in the chest, pacemakers treat hearts that beat too slowly, and their batteries need to be replaced after several years of use.

Dr. Ashok Garg, a physician with Advanced Cardiac Specialists, implanted the stolen pacemaker in the patient and then paged a Medtronic sales representative, according to the medical board. The board is investigating Garg's role in the matter and could revoke his license as a result.

It's common in the medical device industry for a company sales rep to be in the operating room when a device is implanted to help the doctor program it, Medtronic spokesman Rich Fischer said.

The Medtronic rep later told Garg that the pacemaker was purchased on eBay and was probably stolen, the report said. Garg told board officials that the news surprised him, and that he didn't quite believe it.

The report also indicates that the medical board had previously received information that Dr. Garg had implanted a Medtronic pacemaker in 2003 that was "mysteriously obtained from Utah."

Garg could not be reached for comment this week. When Advanced Cardiac Specialists was asked to comment, a spokeswoman said, "Since you're in Medtronic's hometown, we prefer not to comment."

Because Medtronic maintains a shipping record of all devices that are delivered to hospitals, a red flag went up when there was a discrepancy between where this particular pacemaker was sold -- California -- and Arizona, where it was implanted and registered.

"It was our current system that led to the discovery of the missing pacemakers," Fischer said.

Medtronic notified Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento, which contacted police when it discovered the pacemakers were missing. (The patient implanted with the device is reportedly doing well.)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires manufacturers like Medtronic to track devices to the patient level in case there is a problem with the product, said Gladys Rodriguez, director of division of enforcement B, in the FDA's Office of Compliance at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

It is not illegal for a company to post prescription medical devices on eBay, and the sale of products such as contact lenses and external defibrillators is quite common -- if the prescription can be verified, said Chris Donlay, a spokesman for the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

But since this "delivery was outside of normal channels, a manufacturer could not guarantee the product's viability," Medtronic's Fischer said. Typically, sophisticated devices like pacemakers are sold by the manufacturer to a hospital or clinic.

The fact that these particular pacemakers were purchased on eBay at drastically reduced prices raises some ethical issues, as well, said Steven Miles, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics.

"One issue is just the ethics of profiteering," he said. "The second is the integrity of packaging throughout the process" -- once the device leaves the medical system, it could be tampered with. (Garg reportedly told the medical board that the disputed pacemaker he implanted had a serial number and was sealed in original packaging.)

Fischer said Medtronic has periodically alerted eBay about removing potentially problematic listings of its devices. And eBay officials are apparently happy to comply.

While eBay does not screen items before they are posted on its Web site, "if we find listings that are not appropriate, then we take them down," Donlay said.

But some items apparently slip through. A quick perusal of eBay's site late Thursday found several devices for sale, including Medtronic's external defibrillator, which needs a prescription. And the sale of these devices is certainly not limited to Medtronic products; in one case a single size DD silicone breast implant was being sold for $22 by a seller in Texas.

An extremely personal item of Kelly Clarkson's has gone up for sale on the internet - her DNA.

While fans have so far only been offered the chance to bid on the "American Idol" winner's music and official merchandise, an anonymous seller in Ames, Iowa, has logged onto auction website eBAY to list "Kelly Clarkson's Used Bottled Water from Omaha Concert".

The merchant says on the site, "I am auctioning off (1) 16.9 fluid ounce bottle of Dasani bottled water that Kelly Clarkson drank out of during her concert on April 2... Do you want to own some Kelly Clarkson DNA, then this is your chance.

"I was sitting in row 1, seat 14, literally 3 feet away from Kelly most of the night. After the second or third song she cracked open this Dasani and took a sip of it to restore her throat. Her lips touched this bottle!!!

"There is still a bunch of water in it, so you can drink the rest if you wish."

A local nonprofit group's eBay auction is steaming right along.

Friends of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum placed five pieces of railroad art on the cyberspace supermarket April 1 to raise money for the museum. The works are among 150 donated to the museum by Union Pacific Railroad last fall.

Traffic on the museum's site has been good, said Don Bowerman, a member of the Friends Board's art committee and coordinator of the online sale.

"We're sitting on probably 900 hits on our site," he said. "In my opinion, that's quite a few."

Bids on two of the pictures have already matched or exceeded the "reserve price" - a hidden target price that must be met before items are sold, Bowerman said. Higher bids could still roll in.

 
"All of these items had a reserve on them," he said. "We weren't going to sell these for $10," which was the minimum bid.

Bowerman said he does not know whether any of the bidders are local residents.

"Everybody's identity in the eBay process is hidden until the process is over," he said.

Bids on two of the items are still surprisingly low, but Bowerman is "optimistic." The auction continues through midday Monday.

"My experience with eBay is, people will kind of feel the items out," he said. "The last few days and the last few hours, you'll usually see a flurry of activity, and the price will go up and up and up."

It remains to be seen whether any of the other art given to the museum will be sold on eBay, museum director Beth Lindquist said.

"We're doing this auction as kind of a test to see if we want to feature more of them" on eBay, she said.

Those not sold online will likely be offered in a live auction in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area, Bowerman said.

The sale looks like it will be a success, said Brenda Mainwaring, director of corporate relations for Union Pacific Railroad.

"I anticipate that there will be more items put on eBay over the summer, and then we'll have a local auction this fall," she said.

The Friends won't try to put all of the art on eBay, Mainwaring said.

"It's a lengthy, time-consuming process to put items on with the pictures and descriptions and everything," she said. "To put a couple hundred paintings on the Web would be a daunting proposition."

The 21-year-old must also pay $118,000 in restitution

APRIL 07, 2005 A 21-year-old man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Maine to more than six years in prison for perpetrating an extensive Internet fraud scheme, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Maine.

Charles Stergios, of Brunswick, Maine, and also of Memphis, was ordered to pay nearly $118,000 in restitution to his victims, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank.

Frank said the sentence handed down was more than he requested. The federal prosecutor had asked that Stergio be sentenced to prison for 60 months, which was the result of a plea bargain. However, Judge George Singal, who was not bound by the agreement, decided on a harsher sentence.

"There were a number of reasons the judge decided not to follow it, but one of them was he did not think that the defendant had sufficiently accepted responsibility," Frank said.

During his sentencing, Stergios threw a pitcher of water at Frank, but Frank said he didn't think that entered into the judge's decision.

In pronouncing sentence, Singal said that in addition to harming his victims financially and emotionally, the defendant's crimes put a dent into the trust that is the basis for society in general and the Internet in particular, Halsey said.

Stergios pleaded guilty to three consolidated counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and bank fraud.

Between about April 2003 and about January 2004, Stergios tried to fraudulently buy and sell merchandise, including jewelry, watches and computers, over the Internet through online auction Web site eBay.

Stergios engaged in the fraudulent transactions with at least 321 victims, Frank said. Stergios tried to trick his victims out of around $420,000, but the actual loss was closer to $120,000 because some of the transactions weren't completed.

In these transactions, Stergios would obtain either valuable merchandise for which he did not pay full value, or he would accept personal checks, bank checks, money orders, wire transfer payments and PayPal payments for merchandise that he did not deliver, and he would not provide refunds, Frank said.

In addition, Frank said Stergios would bid on items such as jewelry, watches and computers, accept delivery of the merchandise and then pay with a check from a nonexistent account at Border Trust in South China, Maine.

Border Trust received about 176 fraudulent bank checks for a total of more than $200,000, written on behalf of Stergios, Evolve Ent. Inc., Utopia Gifts, Draco Products and Thomas Brooks. Those persons or entities did not have accounts with Border Trust and the checks were not legitimate, Frank said.

While not going into detail, an eBay spokesman said the company's fraud investigation team worked with Maine authorities and provided them with information they needed to apprehend Stergios.

"We're glad he's going to jail," the spokesman said.

The takeover battle for QXL Ricardo took another turn yesterday as Florissant's bid for the online auction site failed to win enough support.

Florissant, which last month paid £6.9m for a 28.4pc holding in the former dotcom darling, said the offer had lapsed after it received acceptances from other shareholders representing 10.2pc. It needed acceptances worth 75pc for its £14 recommended cash offer to become unconditional.

However, Izaki, a group of Israeli investors who have aggressively been buying shares over the past fortnight, said it had further increased its stake yesterday.

Spokesman Yair Tauman said: "We bought about 75,000 shares at £16 and now own about 21pc of QXL. I am hoping to meet with management in London this weekend and see how we can proceed further."

QXL, which was dragged into a bidding war last November after management pitched an offer at 700p a share, rose 11p to £15.68. A QXL spokesman said "We look forward to engaging constructively with both Florissant and Izaki, our new major shareholder groups."

The benchmark FTSE 100 rose 29.6 to 4977.0, while the FTSE 250 edged up 22.0 to 7239.5.

Firmer oil prices caused BG to rise 10¾ to 430¼p and BP to advance 10 to 570p.

Shell, up 12 to 496p, and Sibir Energy, improving 11½ to 207½p, said they had shipped the first oil from the Salym field in western Siberia.

Advertising giant WPP Group, 12 better at 618½p, said it would form a new agency called 2MV with Havas to develop the two companies' business media activities. Dealers speculated the venture was formed solely to pitch for a large contract across eight countries to be awarded this year by Peugeot.

Merrill Lynch added Barclays to its Europe One List and repeated its buy rating on the stock and 684p price target. Dealers also gossiped that Barclays may be considering a tie-up with Italian bank Unicredito, after an Italian press report that Barclays chief John Varley and Unicredito chief Alessandro Profumo met earlier this week. Barclays shares rose 2 to 553p.

Rumours that Barclays may buy the Khoo Teck Puat family's 13.4pc stake in Standard Chartered persisted as criminal charges were filed against two leading family members. Standard Chartered rose 6 to 972½p.

Smith & Nephew gained 9½ to 528p on renewed takeover speculation.

P&O edged up 4¼ to 292p on twice the usual daily volume on talk from Norwegian institutions that a shipping line company is considering paying €50 a share for P&O Nedlloyd, in which it holds a 25pc stake.

A profit warning from Corn Products International, the second-biggest US producer of high-fructose syrup, rattled sugar group Tate & Lyle, down 15 to 512½p.

Logistics company Exel initially rose up to 905p on continued hopes of a bid, possibly from Deutsche Post. The stock later fell 9½ to 888p after a Deutsche Post board member said the group was looking to acquire small and medium-size companies in America and Asia.

Water company East Surrey Holdings was the main riser in the FTSE 250, up 48 to 523p on confirmation it is in talks about a possible offer.

Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of software company Isoft with an overweight recommendation and 520p price target. The shares rose 13¾ to 376½p.

Pubs group JD Wetherspoon bought back 1m shares for cancellation at 266p each. The stock advanced 7 to 273p.

Easyjet delivered strong traffic figures, showing last month it carried 28.9pc more passengers than the previous year. Shares in the airline were lifted 9¼ to 224p.

Signet, the Ernest Jones and H Samuel jewellery stores group, fell 2¾ to 112p. Citigroup downgraded the stock from buy to hold and cut its target price by 15p to 115p after Tuesday's full-year results.

Computer games group Eidos confirmed it is now supporting SCI Entertainments' offer for the company. The board had been recommending a rival offer from Elevation Partners. Eidos fell 7¼ to 69½p and SCI retreated 26½ to 410p.

Rumours of corporate activity surrounded Ulster TV, causing the Belfast-based television and radio group to rise 15 to an all-time high of 538½p.

Minnow defence group Chemring gained 16 to 473½p after announcing one of its subsidiaries had secured $41m of new orders.

IT services and training group FDM came to Aim at 78p and closed at 83½p.

Shares in cash shell Concateno were placed at 100p and ended the session at 142½p. Keith Tozzi, former chairman of Mid Kent Water, is chief executive.

A company that hosts Web sites will give Matthew Jean Rouse a new middle name.The 31-year-old used eBay to auction the right to pick him a new middle name that would replace the despised "Jean.''

The bidding was cut off Monday when LucaHost.com agreed to the $8,000 "Buy It Now'' price.The company has not yet told him his new name."I'm guessing it will be LucaHost.com,'' he said.

Rouse undertook the move to rid himself of the moniker Jean — after his grandfather, Jean Stelter — because the two didn't get along.

Just short of 40 bids were made before the bidding was cut off. The highest bid was $3,250, which eclipsed the top bid of $1,500 from Rouse's brother, Bill, who wanted his sibling to keep Jean."I guess I'm just surprised that this would generate that much interest,'' Rouse said.

Luke Padgett, VP Business Development Auctionliquidator.com stated, "This marks a significant milestone in the short life of Auctionliquidator.com. By surpassing our 1000th successful auction and achieving a 99.7% eBay Positive Customer Feedback Rating, we believe that our model is evolving out of the proof in concept stage." He added, "We are continuing with our innovation of the 'auction drop-off' concept which we believe we will ultimately develop into the industry standard. Our goal is for Auction Liquidator to become a significant contributor to NeWave's total revenues within the next twelve months."

Well the largest Online Auction Directory on the web is now up and running at The Auction Board This directory will help people navigate through the never ending list of auction sites, new and old alike.

If you have an auction site that isn't listed there send me an email and I'll add you to the list.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Officials of on-line auction site e-Bay say a Tennessee law affecting small businesses that rely on the site is unfair and a threat to commerce.

CLEVELAND - The home where the classic holiday movie "A Christmas Story" was filmed has been purchased on eBay by a California man for $150,000. Brian Jones could not resist when his wife told him eBay was offering the Cleveland home where the film family lived in the 1940s and the main character, a boy named Ralphie, daydreamed of shooting bad guys with a BB gun he hoped to get for Christmas.

The starting bid for the four-bedroom house was $99,999.

Jones, 29, of San Diego, plans to restore the home's exterior to the deep yellow with green-trimmed windows it had in the movie and revamp the interior to resemble its movie appearance.

He also wants to create a museum in the home and open a gift store selling items linked to the movie, including Ovaltine, Little Orphan Annie decoder rings and "leg lamps" like the one Ralphie's father proudly displayed in the front window of his family's house.

Two years ago, Jones started a Web site and began selling 45-inch-tall lamps of a woman's leg in a fishnet stocking and high-heel shoe.

"A Christmas Story," is based on the writing of Jean Shepherd, who died in 1999.

The movie was filmed in 1983. It is Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. property, and the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, in Clark, N.J., holds a license for marketing products from the film, including the lamps.

Warner Bros. had no comment on Jones' museum proposal or any property rights involved, a studio spokesman said last week. NECA did not respond to a message last week

Teresa Rayburn recalls the story of a Connecticut couple who gave up professional careers -- one as an attorney -- to peddle new Nike and Timberland shoes on the Internet auction site eBay.

"It started catching on and now their full-time income comes from eBay," she said.

Rayburn, a consultant with the University of Georgia's Small Business Development Center in Albany, also has her sob stories. A recent client saw a television infomercial on how to make gobs of money via eBay by selling products offered by drop-ship manufacturers and importers. In essence, it was a scheme, Rayburn said.

"Bless his heart, he didn't even own a computer," she said of the client. "I'm trying to work with him, but he's computer challenged. It breaks my heart when honest, hard-working people get taken in by someone who's telling them to get rich quick."

Those stark contrasts in eBay salesmanship and potential will be among the points made by Rayburn during a seminar scheduled Wednesday at the John Cunningham Conference Center at Columbus State University. The three-hour workshop is geared primarily toward business owners, managers and company sales people rather than casual collectors emptying an attic, she said.

"Maybe they have a retail store and they need a means to get rid of discontinued items or seasonal merchandise," Rayburn said. "Just because a winter coat is not in season here, there's somewhere in the world that it is. So there's a market for that."

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay bills itself as a "community of users" that is "the largest and one of the most loyal online trading communities on the Internet." That self-description in the company's recent 2004 filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission is made despite a rift with some sellers upset over rising fees charged by eBay.

No doubt about it, the online auction pioneer is huge. eBay has grown from 2 million registered users in 1998 to more than 135 million at the end of December, according to the SEC filing. There are 56 million active users, which includes anyone who listed, bid on or bought an item in the last year. That is up from 41 million active users in 2003.

You name it -- from trading cards and automobiles to a partially eaten grilled-cheese sandwich purportedly featuring an image of the Virgin Mary -- and it has been sold on the auction site. The format has powered eBay into the financial stratosphere. The company reported $48 million in net income on $431 million in revenue in 2000. Profit jumped to $778 million on sales of nearly $3.3 billion last year.

The online marketplace has a presence in nearly three dozen countries. That, Rayburn said, makes it a potentially lucrative opportunity for any business, large or small. But it's not easy money, said the consultant, who has sold about 300 items herself on the site.

"It's hard work," she said. "You have to have dedication and time to research and do it correctly. It's about carving out a niche and finding something that sells well."