A few weeks ago I mentioned the Speyside festival and the unique whisky from 26 different distilleries. Now the one and only bottle is up on eBay for bid. Bids were originally up over $1,000 but the auction got relisted and so now the bids stand at £300 (around $547).

The auction listing cautions that "the value of the auctioned item is in the collectable container, not in its contents" and that any contents are purely incidental and are not intended for consumption" since eBay doesn't allow alcohol sales.  So remember, you are buying it for the very plain bottle not for the carefully blended creation within. This auction ends on May 1.

As an automaker best known for its voluptuous, curvy coupes, the Aston Martin Lagonda is a knife-edged enigma. The origami aggression of its exterior, its tech-laden interior, along with the sheer scale of the thing (over 17' long) must've made it look like an aluminum-skinned spaceship when it hit the show scene in 1976. Launched with a 5.3-liter Weber-carb'd V8 (and clunky Chrysler three-speed automatic), the performance didn't completely deliver on the Lagonda's avant-garde visuals, though it was allegedly capable of 140 mph. Naturally, the Lagonda's habitually troublesome electronics and quality-control issues didn't stop at least one Autoblog staffer from falling in love with its impossibly futuristic collection of angles.

It would seem that the author wasn't alone, either, as legendary stuntman Evel Knievel (best known for jumping his motorcycle over all and sundry) had a 1984 example heavily customized. Brooming the underwhelming factory drivetrain, Knievel had a 502 big-block Chevrolet V8 shoehorned into the engine bay, along with an R-700 tranny and chromed side-exit exhausts. Knievel then had the exterior redone in 'Dark Blood Maroon' and reworked the interior in cream leather with matching maroon accents, sourcing many of the bits from Rolls Royce. The result appears to be a car that rectifies the major shortcomings of the original Lagonda (relative lack of power, glitch-prone interior electrics, etc.). Of course, the reliability issue remains an open question, and Chevrolet driveline or no, we can't imagine this thing being an inexpensive proposition to sort-out if its in a bad way.

Not that it's cheap to begin with. The asking price for Evel's is a stout $149,999 on eBay. But hey, the Lagonda is arguably the Godfather of ICE (In-Car-Entertainment), having had color televisions as options (front and rear, thank you) as early as 1983, and a CRT-equipped multi-lingual talking dashboard by 1984. We're still waiting for P. Diddy to cotton on and use one in his next video.

Pricy though it may be, with the storied daredevil Knievel putting the car for sale on account of his recent stroke and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis diagnosis, perhaps the buyer will have a chance to help a legend out-- and that's got to be worth something.

"I like to collect valuable items. I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane," the newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.

It said the fighter jet, last flown in 1995, has been inspected by a museum and found to be in excellent condition.

The Beijing News quoted Zhang as saying he learned from the seller‘s son by telephone that the fighter jet was retired by the Czech military.

An operator at China‘s customs department said no one was available for comment.

Zhang was apparently referring to the Soviet-built Minsk aircraft carrier that a Chinese company bought and converted into a floating theme park in the southern city of Shenzhen. The company went bankrupt and recently put the ship up for sale.

eBay‘s government relations department didn‘t immediately respond to a reporter‘s e-mail seeking comment.

Oak Bluffs police are investigating the apparent theft of a 70-year-old town land record book that was sold last month on the electronic auction marketplace known as eBay.

Lieut. Timothy Williamson yesterday confirmed that police are looking into the disappearance of a 1926 Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company Tax Ledger from the vault at town hall on School street.

Kyle Carson, an Oak Bluffs resident who does title searches, saw the ledger listed for sale last month on eBay, according to a letter Mr. Carson sent to the Oak Bluffs police.

In the letter, Mr. Carson said he bid on the ledger but did not pursue the item after he realized the ledger was town property. Mr. Carson said a buyer who is known only by an eBay name purchased the ledger on March 15.

Although the buyer and seller might assume the ledger is a public document, Mr. Carson wrote, the ledger is part of a series of land company ledgers that were used in the town between 1920 and 1926 to record information including property assessments and taxes.

While similar information for those years is recorded elsewhere in town, Mr. Carson noted: "What is unique is that ledgers also show transfer of property from one owner to another; if there is any contradiction or confusion in ownership records or the Dukes County Registry of Deeds, then this information is critical in determining land title."

He said Oak Bluffs principal assessor Dianne Wilson is careful to make certain that an employee monitors the use of the vault by nonemployees, but that he and Ms. Wilson recently found the door to the vault standing open with no monitor present.

"These volumes contain irreplaceable ownership information," Mr. Carson wrote. "They belong in the town vault."

That's how much financial aid Winslow High School senior Justin Breton needs in order to attend Boston University, the college of his dreams.

Most students would sadly accept the financial infeasibility of such a situation and look to a more affordable backup school.

Not Breton. That's how he became an item on eBay.

"Make a student's Boston University dream come true!" is the tag line on his eBay listing.

Breton has set up a system so people can buy up to 1,000 items at $25 an item. What people get out of the purchase, Breton said, is the satisfaction of knowing they are getting an 18-year-old aspiring student $25 closer to his dream.

So far, 20 items have been purchased, giving Breton $500 toward his $44,000 shortfall.

"This is actually the first time I have sold something on eBay," Breton said, "and I'm actually not selling anything."

American hoped to make a splash by giving everyone at the Dallas Mavericks' last regular-season game a voucher good for a free round trip between Dallas Love Field and any of four other cities.

By this week, some of the 20,000 vouchers were being offered online for $15 or more.

Airlines usually prohibit customers from transferring or reselling vouchers.

"But in this case, there's not much we can do about it because we don't know who exactly was at the game and received them," American spokesman Tim Wagner told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The ticket giveaway was part of American's strategy to compete with Southwest Airlines Co., which dominates travel from Love Field near downtown Dallas. The vouchers were good for round trips between Dallas and St. Louis, Kansas City, Austin and San Antonio.

Fans had 10 days — until this coming Saturday — to redeem the vouchers for tickets, which are good until November. As of Tuesday, about 1,650 vouchers had been redeemed, according to the airline, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp.

Cory I. Paris, 34, also was ordered to pay $708,699 in restitution during sentencing Tuesday and must forfeit his downtown Dallas loft.

Paris pleaded guilty in November to six counts of wire fraud, three counts of interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of bank fraud.

Investigators say Paris and his co-conspirators were responsible for more than 30 burglaries at post offices, business and sporting good stores, and boutiques. The burglaries occurred in Dallas, Austin, Kansas City, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and their surrounding areas.

Paris previously served time in prison for bank fraud. After his release in 2001, investigators say he began selling stolen property on eBay.

Between October 2001 and July 2004, Paris and his co-conspirators received $721,453 from the sale of stolen property using 10 eBay accounts, prosecutors said. An 11th account garnered proceeds of $13,263.

Police in the Dallas suburb of Richardson arrested Paris in July 2004.

His co-defendant, Cassandra A. Clements, pleaded guilty in February to one count of wire fraud and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property. Clements, 33, is scheduled for sentencing May 15.

Florin Horicianu, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Ridgewood, N.Y., also received five months of electronic monitoring and was ordered to stay away from eBay employees and events, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco.

Horicianu pleaded guilty in May 2005 to two counts of transmitting threatening interstate communications for sending e-mails to eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman and Pierre Omidyar, the company's founder and chairman. Among the statements included in the e-mails was "I will haunt and hurt you and your family," according to court documents.

Horicianu, a computer programmer and mechanical engineer, tried to recruit thousands of Romanians to become eBay buyers and sellers. When he pleaded guilty in San Jose Federal Court, he said he spent thousands of dollars to travel to Romania, where he set up classes for local consumers and taught them how to bid for items on the online auction site.

He claimed eBay, which paid members up to $45 per recruit as part of an affiliate program, owed him as least $7,200 for his activities. He said the company refused to pay after eBay officials became suspicious about the high volume of new accounts being opened from Internet cafes throughout Romania.

Horicianu was ordered to report to prison on June 5.

Officials from San Jose-based eBay declined to comment.

EBay is a great place to find a bargain, but police say thieves are using it to sell stolen merchandise.

Police say they busted two men pulling mirrors off SUVs in the La Plaza Mall parking lot. NEWSCHANNEL 5 found out how police discovered the EBay connection.

Police tell us they caught other burglars in the past who later ratted on their friends. Men were offering to buy stolen mirrors, and them selling them online. Officers got the suspect’s EBay username and matched the stolen mirrors to the ones in the auction.

McAllen Police Sgt. Joel Morales said, “It's not as easy as you may believe but transactions are traceable on the computer and all it takes is getting the ball rolling.”

NEWSCHANNEL 5 tracked the EBay username and found it was out of business. Sales were privatized so items did not display after they were sold. It looks like he had more than 100 satisfied customers.

Police say it is hard for an EBay customer to get in trouble for buying stolen goods, but they do advise you to make sure you are buying a legitimate product. If it sounds too good to be true, it should raise a red flag.

eBay is spending around $48m on Swedish online auction outfit Tradera.com as part of a move to expand its business in Scandinavia.

Tradera.com began life in 1999 as a marketplace for auctions on items such as watches and jewellery, computers, electronics, and leisure gear. eBay, on the other hand, has only been in Sweden for 12 months.

By joining forces the two companies reckon they can cash in on the increasing popularity of online trading in Sweden. The latest stats show that business-to-consumer e-commerce in Sweden reached $4.8bn in 2005 and is expected to hit $15.7bn in 2009.

News that eBay (which owns VoIP outfit Skype) has expanded in Sweden comes amid reports that the online auction outfit is holding talks with Yahoo! and Microsoft over a possible alliance. It seems eBay is worried by the threat of Google, which with the launch of a VoIP service for instance, is trampling all over its territory.

Talks about a possible way forward kicked off last autumn, although there's no indication whether or when any deal might proceed

IronPort, San Bruno, CA, examined global e-mail traffic using its SenderBase network and found that only 20 percent of e-mail is legitimate.

Spam makes up 67 percent of e-mail, misdirected bounce e-mails make up 9 percent, viruses consist of 3 percent of e-mail and phishing attacks are less than 1 percent.

Patrick Peterson, IronPort's chief technology officer, said he was "shocked" when he first heard about the cost of bounced messages.

"This affects the biggest brands and the biggest financial institutions, such as eBay and Bank of America, but it affects everyone," he said.

More than 50 percent of Fortune 500 corporations have experienced e-mail service outages or delays because of misdirected bounces that target their networks.

However, marketers do not talk as much about the bounced-message problem as spam or phishing because "they don't want to say millions of messages are bounced back," Mr. Peterson said.

Also, handling bounced messages is such a difficult problem for both e-mail senders and ISPs that they don't know how to handle it, he said.

A SENIOR Royal Navy officer has handed terrorists a potential coup by putting his UNIFORM up for sale on eBay.

Grasping Lt Commander Paul Berry, 48, is flogging off kit including his Navy-issue jacket, beret and cap — all emblazoned with his high-ranking insignia.

The £50,000-a-year officer, who retires next month as director of fleet engineering at Portsmouth Naval Base, is also offering epaulettes and cap badges.

The base is home to warships and other prime terror targets — and last night a senior security source warned: “It’s unbelievable. With a full lieutenant commander’s uniform a bad guy could simply walk in.”

Berry boasts in the ad for his gear, which was paid for by the taxpayer: “Your chance to own a genuine Royal Navy Gortex foul weather jacket which until very recently I wore as part of my full naval uniform.

“I’m selling all my kit, so watch out for other auctions. Happy bidding!”

The Sun bought the jacket — Nato issue number 8415-99-869-4738 — and a black beret complete with crown and anchor badge after arranging to meet Berry near his home in Cosham, Portsmouth.

He pocketed £150 — crowing that he had a “trunk full” of other gear to peddle. But later he said: “I made a mistake.”

The MoD said personnel were free to sell off items of uniform — as long as they had bought it themselves.

A spokesman insisted: “The uniform itself does not give you access to the base.”

Although the stories about eBay seeking some form of combination took precedence on Friday, the firm also said at the time that it will have its long-anticipated eBay Express up and running this week. The aim of the Express site is that visitors can make fixed-price purchases.

You can beat the crowds and take a look at a preview of the site here.

A MASSIVE £7.8 billion could be made from re-selling unwanted items hoarded in the UK's attics and cupboards in a massive Spring Clean, according to research.

Auction website eBay has reported a flurry of activity in trading in unwanted items since the middle of March, which it puts down to the "Spring Clean Effect".

The website said that 12 million British people are recycling unwanted household items such as clothes, toys, old videos and CDs in a bid to make a profit this spring.

It estimates that £7.8 billion could be generated simply from clutter in the UK's attics and cupboards.

Old clothes are the number one choice for re-cycling this year, followed by toys and children's items, videos and CDs, soft furnishings/old furniture and ornaments and artwork.

Traditional

Carey Maguire from eBay said: "It's clear that there has been a sea-change regarding hoarding items, and the traditional Spring Clean season is no longer a time for spit and polish.

"Our new research shows that the nation views it as a time to recycle unwanted items, and potentially make some money from things they no longer need or want.

"In fact, eBay has seen an increase in trading in these categories since the middle of March which were attributing to the phenomenon that is the Spring Clean Effect."

The research also found that people are considering using any gains from their clearout to save for holiday breaks, home improvements and luxury items.

The survey found that those living in the South East have the most potential for making cash from the attic - a massive £1,096,102,000, with Londoners coming a close second, storing £1,017,809,000 worth of pickings.

In Scotland the potential is £720,295,600 and in Wales it is £407,123,600.

The North East stores a potential £352,318,500, the North West, £939,516,000, while Yorkshire folk store a potential £665,490,500.

The website said £7.8 billion matches the total spend by UK travellers abroad in summer 2005.

THERE WAS a time when only drug and alcohol addicts checked into rehab clinics.

But now eBay bidders, online poker players and internet junkies are also seeking help.

Women now make up a third of online poker players, although addictions can be formed to any activity or behaviour, which allows people to escape from life's problems.

This can apply to shopping, sexual activities, gambling, food or even other people.

"Addictions rely on giving you constant rewards. You don't become addicted to something unless you are constantly rewarded," says Professor Mark Griffiths, a psychologist at Nottingham Trent University and an expert on addictions.

Women are just as likely to become addicts as men, although the fact they engage in different activities will determine what they become addicted to, he explains.

"Activities such as bidding on eBay or online poker have become more socially acceptable and women who wouldn't have done those activities years ago are now getting sucked in."

Between ten and 15 per cent of us have addictive personalities, says Dr Robert Lefever, director of the Promis Recovery Centre in Kent, who himself has overcome addictions to gambling, spending and work.

"There are a lot of misconceptions about women and addiction, as if their gender makes them more addicted to particular things, but this isn't so.

"But people are born predisposed to addiction."

However, the temptations of the internet will make it easier for people with addictive tendencies, he agrees.

"EBay and online poker are very dangerous forces to addictive personalities because they enable secrecy.

People don't want to be seen," says the expert.

"Women tend to stay at home and that's where they are comfortable with their addiction.

"Something that gets into a woman's home is quite likely to trigger her addictive outlet."

Griffiths stresses, however, that there is a fine line between these activities being a hobby or an addiction.

"With an addiction, the particular activity has to be the single most important thing in that person's life, at the expense of everything else.

"They will use it as a form of escape and experience withdrawal symptoms, if they don't do it."

Griffiths' sister, for instance, goes on eBay for three to four hours most evenings, when the children are in bed.

It gives her pleasure and does not affect her family or partner, he stresses.

"Some 80 per cent of people probably spend around four hours a night watching TV, but that's their thing," he says.

"If it's not compromising your life and you feel better for it, it is not an addiction."

Lefever believes that addictions are manifested in clusters.

For instance, the eating disorders cluster - and women are more likely to have eating disorders than men - also includes shopping, spending, work, exercise and cosmetic surgery.

The hedonistic cluster includes alcohol, drugs, nicotine, caffeine, sex and risk-taking, while the relationships cluster incorporates love addiction and compulsive helping.

"Women are more likely to transfer their addiction within the same cluster, although they may be addicted to more than one cluster," he says.

Three processes are needed for someone to become addicted, he explains.

The first is the genetic potential towards having an addictive nature; the second is an emotional stimulus that sets up a craving for mood-alteration; the third is the exposure to a substance or process that has a mood-altering effect.

A slave to shopping

Compulsive or addictive shopping is a form of behaviour, designed to avoid unpleasant reality.

It's accompanied by a 'high', which causes the sufferer to lose control and buy many items they don't need.

The adrenalin rush and everything which precedes the actual spending spree all add to the sense of unreality, which brings a false sense of freedom from life's problems.

Sufferers feel an overwhelming sense of shame, remorse and guilt, as well as hopelessness and helplessness, leading to despair.

Often the sufferer's remedy for the despair is more addictive behaviour.

The consequences of shopping addiction are high levels of debt, fear of discovery and retribution leading to more denial and desperate acts to cover up the behaviour.

Netted by the Net

There is now a growing belief that a number of behaviours can be potentially addictive, such as surfing the web, playing computer games and using mobile phones.

These are, known as 'contact addictions'.

For many sufferers, the compulsion to visit online chatrooms and participate in 'virtual' relationships take precedence over working and home relationships in the real world.

Addicts may grow moody and irritable, when they are unable to go online.

Associated features of this disorder include sleep deprivation, moderate physical complaints such as backache or eye strain, and increased agitation.

How and where to get help

• Go to your GP, who will be able to refer you to a counsellor.

• Avoid situations which will lead to temptation.

• When you feel the need to indulge your addiction, do something distracting, such as phoning a friend.

GoldenPalace.com., which has made a habit out of oddball publicity stunts, submitted the winning bid of $2,550 to have its logo and Web site on Stuckenberg's car April 29 as it plunges off a cliff into a rock quarry in south Joplin.

"We like to be the first to do things and we're pretty sure the next guy who decides to auction off space on his car and drive it off a cliff will not receive nearly as much attention as the first guy to do it," said Jeff Kay, a spokesman for GoldenPalace.com.

GoldenPalace.com has already paid to have its name tattooed on the back of a prizefighter's head, bought a grilled cheese sandwich that some say has the image of the Virgin Mary on it, and bought actor William Shatner's kidney stone.

Stuckenberg decided to auction off the space on his wife's old car and drive it off a cliff after he bought her a new minivan. Two inflatable dolls named Thelma and Louise will be passengers in the car when it goes over the 150-foot cliff.

The Stuckenbergs outgrew the car when their third child was born. So, instead of selling the car for around $1,000, Stuckenberg thought he'd try to sell advertising space on the car and then let it roll to its doom.

On his eBay Web site, Stuckenberg described his plan.

"It will start with a victory lap since the car will be no good after the stunt, this is guaranteed! The car will then drive up in front of the crash-crazed crowd for Photo ops and goodbyes, also to allow the press and news crews to get their last shots of the car before it dies forever!"

He said he'll put a big brick on the gas pedal and "the rest will be American History!!"

GoldenPalace.com said in a news release that this isn't the first vehicle the Web site has used for advertising, "but it is the first one that will be destroyed in the process."

Everybody knows that the palace of the King of Rock 'n' Roll is Graceland. You can take a trip to Memphis, Tenn., and visit it, but you can't sleep there ... unless you slip away exactly five minutes before closing time and hide behind the couch in the Jungle Room until two hours after the lights are out. Even then, you'll probably be arrested and have some painful memories that really would be better to not talk about until after you retire.

Anyway. Now there' s a rare chance to own one of the other former homes of Elvis Presley. The Memphis residence at 1034 Audubon Drive is for sale on eBay. This is the home Elvis bought just before plunking down $102,500 for Graceland.

The home recently was appraised in the $300,000 range (just as if it had been owned by some run-of-the-mill podiatrist or accountant), but there is no way to know how high the final bid on May 14 will be.

It seems that everything Elvis touched is collectible. Who knows what the King's home for 13 months might bring?

Elvis bought the 1034 Audubon house on March 12, 1956, for $29,500. Six days later, he, his mother, father and grandmother moved in. Elvis modified the residence with a swimming pool and pool house, a garage for his motorcycle, and he added a brick-and-metal fence around the yard. All are still part of the property _ as are light fixtures that Elvis had installed and the bathroom tiles and fixtures that were original parts of the home.

Robert Reynolds of the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame (the touring and exhibit memorabilia company that is working with the property's owner to sell the property) calls the home "ground zero of Elvis' superstardom."

"That's the first house he owned when his career just exploded," said Reynolds.

Reynolds (a longtime memorabilia collector who is also a guitarist with the Mavericks) isn't exaggerating. Elvis called 1034 Audubon Drive home during the time that he rocked America with appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Milton Berle Show" and "The Steve Allen Show." It was the year that "Heartbreak Hotel" was declared a million-seller and "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" became No. 1 hits. It was the year that his first movie, "Love Me Tender," was filmed and released.

And during those 13 months that he lived at the residence he entertained actor friends at the home, and made time for fans in his driveway and front yard.

"There are still some people in the neighborhood who lived there when he lived there," said Reynolds. "They remember him in his yard signing autographs."

It's easy to imagine that the early part of the year at Audubon Drive would've been the happiest time of Elvis' career. However, said Reynolds, Elvis' increasing success and notoriety made it impossible for him to stay in the quiet neighborhood.

"The fans wouldn't leave him alone," said Reynolds.

Before the year was over, Elvis' cars were covered with messages written in lipstick, he was mobbed whenever he went into town and the crowd outside the home became a crush. After the move to Graceland, Presley would never again be so accessible to his fans.

That makes the house on Audubon Drive particularly noteworthy. The house was recently added to the National Historic Register of Homes.

Putting the house on eBay opens up the sale to fans all over the world.

A fan from Tokyo might move to Memphis just so he or she could gaze into the same bathroom mirror that once reflected the image of the King of Rock 'n' Roll or sleep in the same bedroom where the most iconic musician in the world thought: "Hmmm, wonder if Mom will make me a fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich when I get up?"

Jeffrey Welbaum, 38, sold six notebooks, his juror ID badge and a certificate of appreciation signed by Judge Rodney Melville in an auction that closed Monday night, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

The unidentified winner was a first-time eBay bidder, Welbaum told the newspaper.

Jackson was acquitted of the charges last June and moved with his children to Bahrain.

AUCTION website eBay Motors has teamed up with Norwich Union to provide a week's worth of insurance on cars purchased on the site.

If you successfully bid for a car, Norwich Union will provide seven days' free comprehensive car insurance. If you sell a car through the site, which sells one every two minutes, the offer is available on your next car. The offer is not available on motorcycles, vans or kit cars.

Clare Gilmartin from eBay Motors said: "This means people can drive away in their new vehicle knowing they are covered for most eventualities.''

For more details, see http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-1736786-5463217 ?loc=http" title="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-1736786-5463217 ?loc=http" target="_blank"http://www.anrdoezrs.net/clic...%3A//ebaymotors.co.uk

Mick Cheung took a hiatus from the University of Washington last summer to enter the golf business with his father, who already owned several pro shops in China.

Today, the 21-year-old averages $30,000 in monthly sales auctioning off his father's golf clubs to Americans on eBay.

"My dad had never heard of eBay," said Cheung.

The quick success of Cheung's home-based business offers a dramatic example of what's sometimes possible when a niche market, online skills, hard work and global connections converge.

When Cheung's father, Eric Cheung, contacted his son last summer about the joint venture, the talk was of opening a bricks-and-mortar store in Seattle. The younger Cheung convinced his father that eBay was a better bet.

"There's no overhead and I don't have to deal with customers face to face," Mick Cheung said, acknowledging that there are indeed minor costs that include eBay's commission and credit-card fees.

Cheung started with a personal seller's account under the username mericgolf -- which has received a 98.9 percent favorable rating from the 725 customers who have purchased clubs from him. In March, Cheung registered with eBay as a business under the username evergreengolfbytrade.

Every few weeks, Cheung receives a shipment of golf clubs to his house in Seattle from his father overseas, who purchases them directly from a warehouse.

"The U.S. profit margin is higher," Cheung said. "People in China don't want to pay too much money for something that's made in China."

While his father sells various golf products in his shops in China, the younger Cheung said he sells only the most popular clubs online. Every day Cheung puts several listings of Cleveland, Titleist, Callaway and TaylorMade iron sets, individual sand wedges and drivers on eBay. He usually sells a set of eight golf clubs for $500 to $600. His most popular item is the Cleveland set.

State investigators are probing the activities of a Brandon company accused of using an Internet version of the classic Florida swampland ruse, duping buyers who are trying to cash in on what appears to be a cheap property investment.

Landtrust Liquidators, doing business as Sanders & Harring LLC, was selling parcels on eBay auctions in and around an area of Volusia County known as University Highlands.

Volusia property appraiser records show about 40 deeds involving property transactions in the University Highlands area by the company's principals, Ryan Harring and Willis Sanders, since last fall.

In some cases, property that is assessed at $300 to $500 has been sold this year for thousands of dollars, records show.

Wrongdoing denied
Harring and Tampa attorney Bruce Plessner, who is representing the company, denied any wrongdoing by Sanders & Harring. Plessner said the company is cooperating with investigators.

A house on Comstock Place in Brandon's Homestead subdivision is listed as the company's corporate headquarters.

"To the best of my knowledge, we're not selling swampland," said Harring in a brief interview outside the house. The stocky 26-year-old refused to elaborate further on the company's business activities.

When approached outside the residence in the middle of a weekday afternoon, Harring was wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist's office received an e-mailed complaint about Sanders & Harring in February, prompting an investigation into the company's land transactions and online advertising, said Joann Carrin, a spokeswoman for Crist.

Delhi resident and eBay seller Rajat Mishra is tapping eBay buyers by offering an idea for sale. Rajat's idea listing is up for auction on eBay.in this week. It is interesting to note that Rajat sells ideas for individuals and organisations which will be customised upto the mark, practical, affordable, usable and unique.

Rajat inspires confidence in potential buyers by showcasing current clientele whom he provides ideas and solutions which range from assisting a creative director of a Californian promotions company to a concept for a new comic series to an animated series concept. Log on to eBay India to get more informations.

It had to happen. I'm surprised no one thought of it before. An alternate juror in last year's Michael Jackson child molestation trial has put his notebooks on sale on eBay.

The starting bid is $550.

Alternate juror No. 2 was Jeffrey Welbaum, a white 36-year-old male UPS truck driver who had three kids. According to his jury description, he often delivered packages to Neverland.

I do believe this is the balding guy who squinted a lot during testimony he didn't believe, and was often physically active in his seat. I know he took a lot of notes because I had a direct view of him every day of the trial.

This is how he describes his eBay item: "These are in good condition. I was alternate # 2 in the Michael Jackson Trial. I sat in the jury box for the duration of the trial. I have my original notes and badge and official certificate that says juror # 207 in the Michael Joe Jackson Trial signed by Judge Melville."

WBBM Newsradio 780's Steve Miller reports the auction is called "Everything I Own For Sale on eBay - by Cayetano Ferrer".
 
The objective is for Ferrer to move into the next phase of life with very little baggage and no debt.

For that to be accomplished, the winning bid will have to at least cover what he owes in student loans, which is his reserve price on eBay. That's the minimum price at which he'll sell.

"It's up there. I mean, school's expensive," said Ferrer.

"Everything I Own For Sale on eBay" is the title of Ferrer's page on eBay and the title of his undergraduate exhibition, which is a chest made of poplar and corrugated plastic, 5 1/2 feet by 4 feet, and about 2 1/2 feet deep.

And everything Ferrer has accumulated through most of his 24 years is in that chest.

His original artwork, a computer, a couple of rhinoceros beetles.

The auction ends Friday night. Ferrer says if somebody ends up buying it, he'll deliver it.

The crate and everything in it have been on display at the School of the Art Institute's gallery at 847 West Jackson.

Actually, Ferrer packed a camera into the top of the crate when he first set it up.

"Right in the front. When I was putting it together, I was like, oh, well, I should probably bury that camera, but then I was like... I didn't want that to dictate where I'd put things, like fear of it getting stolen. And then thought, what if it gets stolen, does that become part of the piece, too? Then it got stolen. And I actually don't care at all. I think it was kind of funny," said Ferrer.

"And I posted on the eBay page, if anybody comes forward with the camera, I'll give them an award and a $50 giant check."

At this year's Oscars, Keira Knightley looked stunning in a sexy, off-the-shoulder number by top designer Vera Wang.

Now the Pride and Prejudice star has displayed an equally impressive social conscience by giving away the deep-claret taffeta gown to Oxfam.

The dress that once graced the actress, whose playwright mother Sharman Macdonald hails from Glasgow, will be sold to the highest bidder on eBay.

All proceeds will support Oxfam's work to counter the humanitarian emergency in drought-hit East Africa.

Miss Knightley, 21, said: 'This is such an amazing dress and I am really pleased to be able to donate it to Oxfam. I have seen the TV reports on the horrendous drought in East Africa and I know how desperate things have become, so I am happy to be able to do something to help.' Bidding for the dress, now on display at the Oxfam shop in London's Notting Hill Gate, begins on April 21 and ends on April 30.

Oxfam chiefs were stunned when Miss Knightley approached them 'out of the blue' with the gift.

A spokesman said: 'I think there will be a lot of bids because she is hot and the actress of the moment.

'It is difficult to say how much we'd get for it, but these dresses cost thousands to buy and with that extra value we're optimistic of getting quite a large sum for it.' To bid for Keira's dress, log on to www.oscardress4oxfam.org

Prince Edward Island's cultural affairs minister is planning to introduce legislation to make it harder to sell Island artifacts, after learning that they have been turning up on an online auction site.

Island historians and archaeologists complained to Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Elmer MacFadyen when they discovered that hundreds of small items from P.E.I.'s past – including tools, coins, arrowheads, buttons and shards of pottery – were being sold on eBay.

According to archaeologist Scott Buchanan, hobbyists are using metal detectors to mine the Island's fields and waterways. And some of them have moved past hunting for treasure and are selling their findings online.

"They're crossing a line for financial gain, and it's our Island heritage that's being sold on the international commodities market," Buchanan said.

"We're losing the best part of 12,000 years of history in the process," he added.

"If you have to dig to find it … you're probably disturbing and potentially destroying a part of our past that we may not know anything about. It's the cultural property of all Islanders." 

Current legislation requires a permit for archaeological digs and another for the removal of artifacts from P.E.I., but the archaeologists and historians say it's difficult for local authorities to monitor sites and catch those breaking the rules.

The cultural affairs minister agrees and says he plans to strengthen the law.

"We are in the process of looking at our legislation and trying to devise legislation that if anything were detected or discovered on land it would be the property of the province," MacFadyen said.

The CBC contacted a local citizen who has sold P.E.I. artifacts on eBay. The individual, who did not want to be identified, claimed that the practice was simply a hobby and gave no further comment.

eBay invested $2 million in social networking company Meetup.com, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

The filing sheds more light on the scope of eBay's financial commitment to the company. Meetup released a statement last month revealing that a group of investors had taken a more than 10 percent stake in the company. eBay was listed among that investor group, but the size of the online auction giant's financial commitment was not disclosed at the time.

eBay stated in its SEC filing that it decided to volunteer the information because its founder and board chairman, Pierre Omidyar, holds more than a 10 percent stake in Meetup.

Last month, Meetup announced it had received investments from eBay, Omidyar Network, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Allen & Co., former Sen. Bill Bradley and Esther Dyson, which amounted to more than a 10 percent stake in the company, collectively. (Dyson is editor of Release 1.0, which is owned by News.com publisher CNET Networks).

Meetup provides an online forum for people to contact others who share their interests and then form groups to meet face-to-face. The social networking site competes with the likes of Friendster and Google's Orkut.com.

While searching across eBay a couple of weeks ago, though, Frame came across a familiar-looking car while browsing eBay. Located in Crystal River, FL, the current owner apparently (and understandably) denied that it was Frame's car. That is, until Frame popped the center caps to reveal his name and contact information.

This is the second story in a month that involves a first-gen Camaro and a father-son connection; in March, Anthony McCoy was reunited with the '69 Camaro that was built for him by his since-departed dad.

When Meg Whitman joined eBay in 1998 as its president and chief executive officer, she promptly moved into a cozy . . . cubicle.

That's right, the head of the giant online marketplace is a cube dweller, just like everyone else at the company.

"My secretary's cube is the same size as mine," Whitman said Tuesday after being named executive of the year by Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business Dean's Council of 100. advertisement 
 
Whitman, the first woman to receive the award since it was started 23 years ago, said she was shocked at first that she wasn't moving into a plush corner office.

"But now that I've been in a cube for eight and a half years, I would never go back," she said. "The signal it sends is that everyone can contribute. And people walk into the cube who would never dream of walking into a (fancy) office."

When Whitman joined San Jose-based eBay, it had $14 million in annual revenue and focused on auctions of such collectibles as Beanie Babies in the United States.

It now has $14.5 billion in annual revenue and 43,000 categories of items for sale around the world, including used cars. A car is sold every minute on eBay.

"This (eBay) turned out to be a really good idea," Whitman said.

PayPal, which has more than 10 million UK accounts, is linking up with GE Money in its first move away from online payments.

It follows the successful launch of financial service products in the United States and means customers can use the credit card to make payments through PayPal's online service.

Britons will also be able to pay for items on the high street using the card which has 12.9% APR, comes with 0% interest on balance transfers for the first six months and no annual fee.

Geoff Iddison, chief executive of PayPal Europe, said: "PayPal has an established customer base in the UK and has built a reputation as a trusted financial services brand amongst its users.

"Moving into other financial products is a natural development for the brand. The credit card is just the first of a range of new services that we have planned."

In addition to individuals, PayPal offers online payment services to Ladbrokes - the UK's largest bookmaker - and betting exchange Betfair.

It recently launched a charging system for media firms that want customers to download music clips, videos and other digital content.

PayPal said applications for the credit card would be available to everyone from the middle of next month and decisions would be made instantly online.

However, 100,000 of its UK account holders will be given the opportunity to sign up for the card as soon as this month.

GE Money, which is based in the United States and has assets of more than 150 billion US dollars (£86bn), said its partnership with PayPal was the start of a consumer drive in the UK that will see it offer a range of loans, credit cards and personal finance deals.

Copyright - Press Association 2006

 Land that was once home to the murderer whose story inspired the movie "Psycho" has been pulled from eBay.

The 40-acre property in central Wisconsin once contained Ed Gein's home and part of his farm. Gein inspired the Norman Bates character in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic "Psycho."

eBay stopped the bidding, saying the listing violates its policy against murder memorabilia. The land owner inherited the property from his grandfather, who bought it at an auction.

Gein was arrested when the body of a hardware store owner was found at his farm home. Investigators also found parts of other bodies. They concluded Gein had robbed graves and may have killed other people.

But it was withdrawn from sale after 10 days.

The vault door was offered on internet auction site eBay with a starting price of $100,000, eBay spokesman Alastair MacGibbin said.

But nobody submitted a bid, and eBay withdrew the item today as soon as it learned the door was linked to the Snowtown bodies-in-barrels murders, he said.

The disused bank vault at Snowtown, about 140km north of Adelaide, gained infamy when police discovered inside eight mutilated bodies stored in barrels.

The May 1999 discovery prompted the longest running criminal trial in South Australian history, with three men ultimately found guilty of multiple murders.

The vault was rented to two of the Snowtown killers but eBay was uncertain whether the door offered for sale was genuinely from the bank.

"There was a door that purports to be the Snowtown bank vault door offered for auction but we don't know if it actually is the door," Mr MacGibbin said.

"It's insensitive and we certainly don't want to see people profiteering from criminal events.

"eBay isn't the place for the sale of those types of items. eBay is a place where you can buy and sell everything, but that doesn't mean everything."

Apart from the eight mutilated bodies found in barrels inside the vault, four other murders were linked to the Snowtown case.

Three men - John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis - were found guilty of murder.

Bunting and Wagner were jailed for life without parole following their convictions in 2003 of 11 and 10 killings respectively.

Vlassakis confessed to four murders at his trial and was jailed for a minimum 26 years before becoming the prosecution's main witness in Bunting and Wagner's 11-month trial.

Another man, Mark Ray Haydon, was found guilty of seven counts of assisting an offender.

He was jailed for 25 years with a non-parole period of 18 years.

The bank building and surrounding property was sold to undisclosed buyers in January this year.

ABC And eBay Announces Casting Call For DREAM PROJECT - A New Show To Fulfill A Personal Dream

Do you know someone who is looking to fulfill a personal dream, but does not have the financial means to attain it?

Do they have a closet, attic or basement full of "hidden treasures", items that they are willing to place for sale on eBay?

If so, then Madison Road Entertainment, eBay and the American viewers may literally be able to make these dreams come true.

The sun is shining down on Mandy Moore, her feet planted firmly in the green lawn adjacent to a sprawling cliff-side estate hundreds of feet above the Pacific Ocean's lapping waves.
 
Straightening out her dress, she feels the eyes of more than a hundred assembled guests on her while she sneaks a glance at the three-tiered wedding cake, the awaiting band, a photographer and an officiant eager to hear "I do."

Before you go alerting the tabloids, know that her beau, Zach Braff, is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Moore is standing in the middle of this idyllic wedding scene while filming her upcoming romantic comedy, "Because I Said So."

"I haven't been to a lot of weddings in real life," the 21-year-old actress said. "For all of us girls, we get to get it out of our systems. [Movie] weddings are a little bigger and more elaborate than what we would choose to have."

Maybe so, but most girls' weddings won't have Piper Perabo ("Coyote Ugly"), Lauren Graham ("Gilmore Girls") and Oscar winner Diane Keaton in attendance. It's also doubtful their proceedings will unfold with as much clever detail and heart-tugging hilarity as "Because," the offspring of an unusual union between the writers of "Stepmom" and "Heathers" director Michael Lehmann.

"I play Milly Wilder. I have my own catering company, and God, how do I explain this?" Moore said. "Basically, I'm the youngest of three daughters and my mother, played by Diane Keaton, is really intent on trying to get me to settle down with the right guy, because I have the habit of falling for the wrong kind of men. So the movie is about her trying to find a relationship, a steady relationship, for me to be in, and she goes to great lengths to try and find these men. One route that she decides to take is Internet dating." 

The writers of the film got the idea when they saw a real-life site with a parent auctioning off an unlucky-in-love adult child. "I hope it wasn't my dad!" Perabo said. "Yikes!"

"I just really love my fake sisters, Mandy and Piper," Graham added. "We've had a really wonderful time. We talk about our eBay purchases."

"Not just do they look like they could be sisters, but they feel like they could be sisters," Lehmann said. "We've encouraged them to spend time together. Most of the time, I think they search on eBay and do shopping and discuss things that have no meaning to me whatsoever."

"I do like eBay a little bit," Perabo said. "We like all the same stuff kinda. The three of us oddly have similar tastes, so I was like, 'Oh my gosh, did you see such-and-such?' "

"I remember that being one of our first conversations where we were like, 'And do you do the thing where you watch the item?' " Graham said. "I can't tell you what [items], 'cause then other bidders will go and say, 'It's them!' and jack up the price."

In the movie, Moore's Milly endures a series of failed relationships with the help of her family, whose opinions are never more than a cell-phone conference call away. In one of today's scenes, her confused caterer phones in from a bathroom, soliciting their outrageous assessment of a potential one-night stand.

"We start the movie off on a great note," Moore said. "It's just the cute, funny rapport and conversations you have with your sisters and your mom, while sort of being appalled by what's being said."

"Lauren plays the oldest daughter, and she's the one who holds the whole family together," Perabo said. "Mandy's the youngest, and she's a little unsure of herself and is looking for a guy. ... I'm Diane's daughter May, and I'm sort of the sexy, rebel daughter. A little bit oversexed, maybe."

The stars' relationships in real life mirror what will be seen on the big screen.

"I love the mother/daughter story, and I feel like the relationship that I have with Diane in this movie echoes the relationship that I have with my mom," Moore said. "My mom's not trying to set me up with people or marry me off or anything, but this movie is great in exploring the complex relationships that are mother/daughter relationships. How sometimes your mom just makes you wanna pull your hair out, but you love her at the end of the day, and you know she really means well. It goes back and forth from being really good friends to being enemies."

Check out everything we've got on "Because I Said So."

The Wisconsin property once owned by one of America's most notorious serial killers, Ed Gein, is now for sale on eBay.

For the Waushara County village of Plainfield, the pain Ed Gein caused when he killed two people -- maybe more -- 50 years ago is still as plain as the headlines on old newspapers.

"He was a sick man and did sick things, and me as a weekly newspaper person, that's pretty difficult," said Mary Kunasch, publisher of the Waushara Argus.

That's why Kunasch says her newspaper will probably not cover the latest Gein news, that the property he once owned just outside Plainfield is up for auction. The minimum bid on the popular auction web site is $250,000.

"Putting it on eBay is just another sensationalism as far as I'm concerned," Kunasch says.

The man selling it, Mike Fisher, is the grandson of the person who bought it after Gein went to a mental hospital. Fisher told a Milwaukee newspaper he doesn't want to capitalize on anyone's sadness, but Kunasch says those feelings are still there.

"It's really sad to have the village of Plainfield, which does a lot of neat things, and anybody mentions Plainfield and then right away, what pops in their head, Ed Gein."

But at the Argus, Kunasch says for the people of Plainfield's sake, something good could come from this sale. "Maybe somebody could come in and build a new home there, and generations are going by that eventually this will come to an end."

By JOHN ASKILL

It could very well be the most expensive American Idol t-shirt ever, but the money is going to support a good cause.  American Idol finalist Taylor Hicks recruited fourteen of his fellow Idol contestants to sign an American Idol t-shirt to benefit Kid One Transport. 

Kid One Transport is a non-profit transit system providing free transportation to thousands of Alabama children and expectant mothers, who have little or no means of transportation, to needed medical appointments. This item can be found on eBay.

A German man who made a tidy $216,000 profit last year on a used Volkswagen that turned out once to have belonged to the pope said Tuesday he has used part of the money to start a foundation for terminally ill children.

Benjamin Halbe bought the 1999 VW Golf that once belonged to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for $12,000 in January last year.

He sold it last May on eBay to the Golden Palace online casino of Austin, Texas, for $228,000 after discovering the gray hatchback's heritage.

At the time of the sale, Halbe said his first priority was to buy a new car, then to take a holiday.

But he told the AP he later decided to donate $18,000 of the money to help found the Glimmer of Hope foundation.

The foundation, started in December, helps terminally ill children and their families.

Halbe said it was his way of passing along of some of his good fortune to those in need.

"I had a lot of luck," he said in a telephone interview.

eBay has officially outlawed cash payments among its 100 million members. The auction site has begun deleting listings from sellers who offer to accept cash, saying that these sellers tend to be involved in scams.

"The U.S. Postal Service tells us it's unsafe, and now eBay is telling everyone that it is unsafe," said Matt Halprin, eBay's global policy VP. "So if a seller solicits or encourages offers to accept cash, [they are] encouraging unsafe payment methods and we do remove that seller's listing."

eBay managers approved the policy in October, but the change wasn't widely publicized or enforced until this week. Recently, several longstanding PowerSellers who have traditionally accepted cash complained that eBay is trying to force them to accept PayPal. eBay purchased the payments company in 2002, and is aggressively promoting its use.

The 42-year-old - who was born in England but later moved with her family to Los Angeles - will not miss the ring as she has already been given a new one by new fiancé Michael Bolton .

The 52-year-old singer dated Nicollette during the 1990s and the couple have got back together after more than 10 years apart. Bolton, who has sold more than 50 million albums during his career, has three children from his previous marriage to Maureen McGuire.

A man in his late 20s in Jiaxing, a city near Shanghai, has attempted to sell his soul on Taobao, China's top online auction site, attracting bids from some 58 soul-searching buyers before the posting was pulled.

"We reviewed Taobao's policies and realised we had no specific policy on the selling of souls," said Porter Erisman, spokesman for Taobao's parent, Yahoo-backed Alibaba.com. "After reviewing our policies, the posting was taken down last Friday."

Erisman said Taobao wasn't opposed to the idea of soul selling online, but wanted more proof that the seller could provide the goods.

"After some discussion, we decided that we will allow the member to sell his soul on Taobao, but only if he can provide written permission from a 'higher authority'," he said.

Taobao made its decision as Chinese around the world on Wednesday observed Qing Ming, a traditional holiday where many travel to their ancestors' graves to clean them and offer gifts to the spirits.

Taobao is no stranger to odd items being put up for auction, with past sale items including advertising space on one member's forehead.

The firm's chief rival, eBay, has also hosted its share of strange items for auction, including a second-hand Volkswagen once owned by Pope Benedict and a mangrove island in Florida.