For those who hate the jellybean, cookie-cutter styling of today's vehicles, have we got something unique for you. Straight from the world's largest automotive auction website comes a chance to own a piece of automotive history. A little slice of life from a time when bigger was better and too much was never enough. Over the top styling once owned by one of the most over the top characters from a bygone era. Of course, we are referring to Liberace's Kanzler Coupe. We had never heard of it either. But we had heard of Liberace, and so we thought we'd clue you all in to this item.

Apparently this is one of only 2 known Kanzlers known to exist. It was designed by Ernest Kanzler, the son of a 1920's Ford Motor Co. executive. It was produced by Newport Beach Coachworks, which closed in 1979. The Kanzler was based on a 1979 Mercury Cougar and features a 351 mated to a 3-speed automatic. An inch longer and narrower than an Expedition with only 4420 pounds of craptastic elegant styling to push around, this Coupe promises performance numbers as grand as the previous owner himself. After Liberace's death in 1987, the car was willed to his domestic partner, Cary James, and is now available on eBay. With just over a day left, the top bid is only US $23,409.00.

Singer PAULA ABDUL's foray into the world of eBay has ended without success - after an auction to win a day with the AMERICAN IDOL judge received no bids. Fox TV executives had hoped for a bidding war over the VIP package, which included two first-class tickets to Los Angeles, a GBP1,200 ($2,225) shopping spree, and a backstage meeting with the star.

The auction was intended to raise money for multiple sclerosis charities, but the GBP14,000 ($26,000) asking price proved such a deterrent that the listing was removed from the site after four days. An eBay spokesperson says, "This sort of charity auction usually makes a mint. It's kind of sad that nobody wanted to bid on Paula."

Suspects in an alleged plot to blow up flights from Britain to the US helped finance their operation by buying and selling items on internet auction site eBay, the American ABC News reported today.

An intelligence report cited by the US television network says that a suspect, Assad Sarwar, 26, "used eBay extensively" to raise funds for the plot.

"It is believed they would sell and purchase items to make a profit to fund (the) plot," it said.

The report said Sarwar also surfed the internet to price and purchase supplies, including 20 litres of hydrogen peroxide, bought online from a hydroponic gardening centre.

Hydrogen peroxide is a critical ingredient in several types of homemade explosives.

British authorities arrested two-dozen people in an August raid to foil the alleged plot to bomb airliners using liquid explosives.

ABC News reported that according to the intelligence report, the suspects hollowed out AA batteries and experimented with filling them with a small amount of homemade explosives and other components.

Several AA batteries were seized at a house in High Wycombe, Britain, that investigators describe as "the bomb factory", ABC News said.

The intelligence report says video secretly recorded at that location allegedly shows two suspects drilling small holes in the bottom of plastic juice drinks.

"They would then drain the liquid and replace this with (a homemade explosive) mixture," the intelligence document says.

Seventeen people who were arrested in the August raid have been charged with terrorism-related offences in connection with the alleged plot, while the remaining eight have been released.

Police in Michigan are trying to trace the origins of a mummified human skeleton that was recently advertised for sale on eBay.

The St. Clair county medical examiner's office confiscated the skeleton earlier this week from the home of Claire Sterling.

Sterling, 45, told police she got the remains from a friend who said he had found them 30 years earlier in a Detroit school that was being torn down. 

"It's an anatomical, medical-use skeleton," Sterling told a local newspaper. "I would never have put in on [eBay] if I thought it was anything other than an anatomical, medical thing."

Police say Sterling is unlikely to face charges, but the remains will be sent to an anthropologist for further examination.

Medical examiner Daniel Spitz said the skeleton was largely intact with mummified tissues, and appeared to be that of a child.

"It's very, very old," he said, "… probably some sort of anatomical dissection that was part of an anatomy class and got into the hands of somebody in the general public."

Ebay spokeswoman Catherine England said the posting was removed after a single day because it violated a policy against selling human remains that are not for medical use.

At least one bid was recorded before the sale was withdrawn.

Someone who styled themselves "Satan's Child" offered $560 for the skeleton.

In fact, it is considered as the lifeblood of almost all kinds of businesses. That's why sellers and entrepreneur wannabes on eBay understand the impact of an effective advertising technique on their items listing.

Basically, the sale of any item on eBay is dependent on eBay keyword program. This program asserts the fact that the probability of an item to be sold is based on the keyword used by the seller.

The eBay keyword program suggests that the maximum number of keywords to be used in an eBay ad is 100, the least is 50. This is because the essence of the description of the product or the ability of the ad to promote the item against a thousand similar items is lessened.

This does not necessarily mean that the sellers will also limit the amount of keywords that they will use. The eBay keyword program further suggests that the number of keywords should be congruent to the identity of the product. That is, it should be very specific even down to the last details of the product.

For example, one seller may make his or her descriptive title and ad using the word "DVD movie". Then, another seller posts the same item but used the words "sci-fi DVD movie". And lastly, another seller does the same but used the words "Starship Troopers DVD". Applying the keyword principle, the third seller will most likely gain more exposure than the other two, such that when a person search for starship troopers DVD, that person will most likely be lead to the third seller's listing.

Choosing the best category for the product is another effective advertising technique.

There are those online shoppers who search items on the category first. The reason behind this is that they don't have any specific product in mind. For example, a buyer may be looking for a DVD but doesn't know what are the DVD movies he/she wants. So, it's a must that the seller places his or her item in a category that is active or is frequented by most buyers.

So how do you know which categories are active? One easy way is to look at the number of listings in that category. Generally, anything less than 1000 means there are not many visitors to that category.

You can use attention grabbing power words such as STOP, WOW, YOU etc. Such power words have been used in the offline world for decades. Look around you, check out that ad on TV, on newspaper, on magazines. Learn and see what words grab your attention.

Dan Lim is an avid ebay fanatic who has been quietly earning a comfortable living online. For more ebay selling secrets and strategies, visit bestnzb.com.

But you can just call him a tenacious Internet gumshoe.

Last week, Pitman solved a nearly two-year-old theft with a couple clicks of a mouse and a few e-mails. He tracked down a stolen Miller XMT 304 commercial welder through a virtual ad on the eBay site.

The welder - which is about the size of a suitcase - was valued at around $7,000. Its recovery was the first domino to drop.

Pitman's Internet find led to the arrest of a suspect, Brian Berggren, and the recovery of a tool chest valued at $3,000.

"God gives you one once in a while," Pitman said. "We got lucky and recovered a couple of very expensive pieces of equipment."

Like many a good mystery, this story starts with burglary.

"This story really starts in December of 2004," said Bill Gohring, a Midstate employee. "We had a big welder - valued at about $7,000 - stolen and a large toolbox taken sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas of that year."

Gohring said Midstate reported the theft to the Galesburg Police Department. And Gohring said Midstate had a suspect.

"We got an anonymous letter saying an employee took the stuff," Gohring said. "And it was someone we considered as a suspect."

That someone was 21-year-old Berggren, who was employed at Midstate from March 2004 to August 2004 as a temporary worker. He was made a regular employee in August 2004 and was fired May 15, 2005.

Gohring said Berggren's termination "had nothing to do with the theft of the welder. It was for other matters."

Pitman said he didn't know why Berggren decided to pull the welder-and-toolbox heist, but said he might have gotten away with it if Pitman didn't regularly cruise eBay.

"We've been hiring a lot of welders, so I'm always looking for equipment," Pitman said. "I was looking one day last week and I saw a commercial welder that was exactly like the one we use. I clicked on it and it turned out the seller was in Alexis.

"That made me suspicious right off the bat. That was a little too good to be true - that a used commercial welder would be that close to us."

Pitman inquired about the welder and even exchanged a few e-mails with Berggren.

"Of course, I was working with the police on this the whole time," Pitman said. "I think Berggren figured out who I was, so I told the police to pick him up. I did that after I bought the welder.

"We had already been reimbursed by insurance, but I figured I'd get the equipment back."

The Galesburg Police Department staked out Berggren's North Henderson address, but couldn't find the suspect.

"They found him over in Warren County court," Pitman said. "He was over there on other charges."

After Pitman was arraigned on charges of breaking and entering, he was taken to the Knox County Courthouse and charged with two counts of burglary. His bond was set at $5,000.

Once Berggren was in custody of the Galesburg Police, he spilled his guts.

And that's where this story takes one last twist.

The police located the missing tool chest right where Berggren said it would be - under a bridge out in the country.

"The police took pictures of the equipment, but by the time we went out there to get it on Friday, it was gone," Pitman said. "So we had to think of another way."

Pitman put an advertisement in Tuesday's edition of The Register-Mail asking for help locating the chest and the tools.

"We got a call from a guy in Alexis just this (Wednesday) morning," Pitman said. "The tools were returned to us this morning. It took a while, but we got it all back."

Spoken like a tenacious Internet gumshoe.

A WORLD War I Military Cross won by a Warrnambool man has sold for more than $4500.

The bravery medal was awarded to Warrnambool-born Lieutenant Adam Bruce Mackay, who was killed in action, aged 32, in France in 1918.

It sold on eBay last night for $4551 to an Australian buyer

The cross was sold with a victory medal, photo of Lieutenant Mackay, two hand-written letters and a death scroll.

Melbourne-based seller Bluevenom00, also sold a death plaque, grave photo, newspaper clipping and photo of Lieutenant Mackay's brother, Acting Corporal Alec Auld Mackay, who was also  killed in action in France.

The items sold for $445 to the same Australian buyer. Bluevenom00 said the items were bought from the family.

Lieutenant Mackay received the Military Cross ``for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty'' after braving machine-gun fire to establish communications with a platoon that had become detached from its battalion.

A butcher knife. A corkscrew. A chain saw. These are just a few of the hundreds of items discarded at the security checkpoints of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that will go on sale starting Monday at new state government thrift stores in Tucker, Americus and Swainsboro.

They are among thousands of items — from pocketknifes to power tools — banned from being taken aboard aircraft and accumulated at security checkpoints at the state's commercial airports. Now they can be yours for the right price, with the proceeds going to Georgia.

 Each month, the federal Transportation Security Administration sends the state a pallet of government-issue plastic vats full of knives, scissors, baseball bats, barbells, toy guns and other items discarded or confiscated at airports.

"There's too much of it," said Steve Ekin, director of the Georgia Surplus Property Division.

The division can sell the items because a new law signed by the governor in April paved the way for the state-operated thrift stores to sell items without going through a bidding process.

State officials haven't priced the items yet, but Ekin promises they'll be inexpensive — anything from 50 cents to $5, depending on the quality and brand. The money will go toward operating the state Surplus Property Division, which primarily is a self-supporting arm of the state government, Ekin added.

Other states have profited from the sale of castoff items. Pennsylvania accepts discarded checkpoint items from security contractors at 12 airports in five states — from Ohio to Massachusetts — and sells them to the highest bidders on the online auction site eBay.

Kentucky and Alabama state employees travel to Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Miami international airports to pick up discarded items. Kentucky sells the items on eBay; Alabama tries to sell them cheap to nonprofit groups before offering them to the public at live auctions and soon may turn to eBay as well.

Prior to the thrift store sale, the division offered schools across the state the chance to take some of the items, such as the dozens of scissors.

Ekin said if anyone can identify a specific item that was taken from them, such as a discarded pocketknife, it will be returned to them for free, provided that person is able to find it amid the thousands of other discarded items at the division's thrift store.

"It's really bad when you get a kid's teddy bear, you just feel some family is hating their vacation right now," Ekin said.

The tension was almost unbearable. Emotionally, you go from the lowest lows to the highest highs and back again, howling and cursing, palms sweating, wondering why you put yourself through this.

That’s right, I just made my first buy on eBay. How do I feel? I feel like I need a drink. And it’s only 10 in the morning.

The item bought, by the way, was a gently used 460-cc Nike driver. I was looking for a new driver because, like many other golfers, I am delusional. Somehow, I had convinced myself that a new driver would save me a half-dozen strokes per round. Only I wasn’t about to go into a store and hand over $300 or so to get one.

So I turned to eBay.

Since this was my first time using “The World’s Online Marketplace,” I enlisted the help of my oldest son, who is 24 and sees himself as the Obi-Wan Kenobi of eBay. Right. The kid almost drove me nuts with his, ahem, “eBay philosophy,” which is to put in a bid only at the last minute.

So here we were with an hour to go before the bidding closes, staring at the computer screen. The price for the Nike driver was going up and up. It passed $80. And what we were doing was this: Nothing.

Instead, Obi-Wan Kenobi was leaning back in his chair, hands clasped behind his neck with a serene look on his face.

“Shouldn’t we do something?” I kept saying.

“Like what?” he’d say.

“Like, I don’t know, bid.”

But he’d just shake his head and give me that all-knowing smile, the Jedi Master, working his magic.

(If you’re not familiar with eBay bidding – and that might be a good thing for your mental health – it’s done auction-style. You enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay, and the bidding increases incrementally until, oh, the top of your head blows off.)

Anyway, with the minutes ticking down, I found myself having a nervous breakdown – mainly because the Jedi Master seemed to be taking a Jedi Nap on me. But finally, with exactly one minute left in the bidding and with hands poised over the keyboard, the kid said quietly: “It’s showtime.”

Then he furiously typed in our maximum amount and clicked on “Confirm Bid.”

Now for about 45 seconds, we just stared at the screen. And let me tell you something: It was a lo-o-o-ng 45 seconds.

“Can you feel it?!” my son crowed. “That’s the eBay rush, baby!”

I was feeling something more like the eBay coronary coming on.

As the seconds ticked down, all these crazy thoughts ran through my head: Did we get it?! Oh, God, we’re not going to get it! Some loser in North Dakota is going to get my driver, and he doesn’t even really want the damn thing!

And suddenly a message popped up on the screen: “Congratulations, the item is yours. Please pay now!”

Our winning price: $103. Plus $15 for shipping. I could have kissed the Jedi Master.

Right now, though, I think I’m going to lie down for a while.

Rachel and Jack Neal of Sleaford say their young son, Jack, recently purchased $17,106.00 for a Barbie pink Nissan Figaro off the auction site, the Sun reports.

The Neals found out about Jack's endeavor when they received a congratulatory message.

"We couldn't understand. So we checked and saw it was the Barbie pink car which we'd bought," Rachel Neal said.

Since Jack was sleeping at the time, the Neals had to wait until the next morning to ask him what he did.

"I've bought a car," he happily told his parents.

The Neals say Jack has been using the Internet since he was 2 and apparently got hold of his mother's eBay password.

After the Neals explained the situation, the seller has agreed to re-advertise the car.