"We've taken it a long way and now it's just time to move on to a new project," said Peter Michaud, who created the site MightyBids.com in 2003 with Jeff Ramaglia.

Unlike eBay Inc., which charges sellers for listing and selling an item, Montreal-based MightyBids charges only when items sell, Michaud said.

Michaud said he came up with the idea for the site four years ago while making a living selling art on eBay. He would try to sell 50 to 100 items a month on the site and was incurring fees of about $1,200 a month, he said, even when only a few of his items actually sold.

EBay will credit users for unsold items by refunding a listing fee if the item is re-listed on the site, but there is still a charge for the second listing.

So why list on the site whose practices drove him away in the first place?

"It's marketing. It's getting a lot of attention and puts them to the test," he said.

MightyBids.com went up for auction on Thursday. As of Monday evening, 44 bids drove the purchase price of the business to $25,100 - lower than the reserve price, which Michaud won't divulge. The reserve is the minimum asking price, below which a seller is not obligated to complete the transaction.

Along with ownership of a site that Michaud said has over 100,000 registered users in the U.S., Canada and Europe, the buyer will gain the site's code and a variety of MightyBids-related domain names, according to MightyBids' eBay listing.

MightyBids isn't the first business to auction itself off on eBay. In September, domain name registrar Tucows Inc. bought online calendar company Kiko through the site for $258,100.

"There are businesses that are regularly sold on our site," eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said.

When asked if eBay might be interested in buying MightyBids, Sharpe said the company does not comment on such issues.

MightyBids is just one of many online auction sites that have arisen from discontent with eBay fees, said Rosalinda Baldwin, chief executive of The Auction Guild watchdog group.

Without looking at MightyBids' site but taking into account its user base, she estimated the site wasn't worth much more than the cost of registering its Internet address, or around $9.

"There's hundreds of thousands of them," she said of eBay alternatives. "I could start one up in five minutes."

Indeed, there are many options for those who don't want to trade with the auction giant, ranging from niche sites like music-focused Gemm.com to the more general and publicly traded uBid.com.

Michaud wouldn't say if MightyBids has been profitable, but it has been his full-time job for the past four years, he said. He maintains the company is being sold so that he and his partner can start a new business. He and Ramaglia had a staff of 22 employees, he said, but they were let go in anticipation of the sale.

They have contracted a few of their former programmers to help keep the site running, and have taken all auctions down to retool the site, he said. Michaud expects auctions to resume in a week or two - around the time the auction ends on July 1.

So far, plenty of people have contacted them expressing interest about the sale, he said.

Has eBay gotten in touch?

"Not yet," Michaud said.

Today one can go onto eBay.com and buy a Saint, or at least parts of its body. Bones and hairs of Saints have been part of a subculture and its market ever since churches collected them to be veneered. Churches exchange relics and collect them in their treasuries. Sometimes the relics go up for sale to help churches with financial burdens, but now private collectors can buy holy relics online.

EBay is generating a market for these objects; there are those who buy them and there are those who oppose this market. The International Crusade for Holy Relics is trying to stop eBay from being a platform to sell holy relics. I guess one should be free to buy and sell anything, as long as there is a buyer. In most cases I think the bones of saints are fake, so it really doesn’t matter. Or does it

EBay was the online winner this "Black Friday," data published on Saturday showed, but overall Internet traffic growth was well below last year's even as bargain hunters tracked down sought-after toys and electronics on the web before "Cyber Monday."
Overall traffic to the Nielsen/Net Ratings Holiday eShopping Index, which tracks more than 120 online retailers, rose 12% on the Friday after Thankgiving over the same day last year, according to the online audience measurement firm.
 
That was significantly below the 29% growth in overall traffic to the index from 2004 to 2005 and was more in line with 11% growth seen from 2003 to 2004.

EBay Inc had the most web traffic on "Black Friday," one of retail's busiest days, with 7.5 million unique visitors, according to the data. Amazon.com was in second place, with 3.4 million unique visitors, followed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc, with 3.2 million. There was no way to determine what percentage of Internet users were actually making web purchases.

The search for Mattel's TMX Elmo, this season's most popular and hard-to-find toy, drove much of the online traffic in advance of "Cyber Monday," the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season.

EBay reported that 2,537 TMX Elmos were sold on Friday for an average price of $70.10. The toy retails at Wal-Mart for $39.97 and can be found on Shopping.com for as much as $150.

Other popular items on eBay included Sony's PlayStation 3, 14,675 have been sold on eBay for an average price of $1,186.39 from November 17 to November 24, and the Nintendo Wii. Since that product debuted on November 19, 26,708 have been sold for an average price of $412.53.

Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.com, which allow consumers to compare deals from a variety of retailers, saw year-over-year jumps of 40% and 45%, respectively, in the volume of traffic on their sites.

If I Did It, how much would I be worth? That's the question many buyers on eBay and reporters from the Wall Street Journal are asking today. Many listings of If I Did It, OJ Simpson's supposedly hypothetical retelling of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, have already been pulled by eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) at News Corporation (NYSE:NWS)'s HarperCollins unit's request.

The bids were reportedly in the thousands before the auctions were ended, although many booksellers interviewed by the WSJ said they would put the price of the book closer to $1000 (although they'd only pay $100, buy low, sell high, anyone?). This auction ended at a whopping $8300.

Some put the book's price between $2000 and $5000, although everyone seemed to agree that such a price wouldn't be sustainable in the long run.

Instead of beating the First Amendment drum, I'll just riff on a capitalist beat: people obviously want to read the darned thing! My objection would likely be more literary snobbishness than righteous horror -- Judith Regan ain't known for her wordcraft. But if people want to read it so badly they'll pay thousands ...

The book had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following a two-part Simpson interview on Fox, but News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, canceled the project after an outcry condemning it as revolting and exploitive.

Responding to concerns from HarperCollins, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Wednesday that the online auction house has been removing offers to sell purported copies of the book from the site. In one case, bids had topped $1 million.

A phone message left for eBay representatives was not immediately returned Thursday.

Brown family attorney Natasha Roit said the site's deadline-style auctions means some transactions could finish before eBay acts. HarperCollins has said all copies of the book would be destroyed, but is always a chance some could get out.

"The voice of the American public was heard loud and clear by News Corp. and HarperCollins in recalling the books," Roit said. "We really need to stem the tide and get these books out of circulation because anything that's out there now is really hurtful to the family."

Simpson, 59, was acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995 but was later found liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Goldman's family. The former football star has not paid the $33.5 million civil judgment, and his NFL pension and Florida home cannot be seized.

In interviews with The Associated Press, Simpson denied committing the murders. He also disputed his publisher's contention that the book amounts to a confession, insisted the title was not his idea, and said the hypothetical sections were written by a ghostwriter.

News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said the company paid $880,000 to a third party in connection with the project. Of that amount, $100,000 was to go to the ghostwriter and the rest to Simpson's children.

"Absolutely no money was ever given to O.J. Simpson by us," Butcher said Wednesday.

Simpson said any profit from the book would be "blood money," but he said he needed to pay his bills.

"It's all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals," Simpson said, referring to authors of books about him. "It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead."

Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, but he said it was less than the $3.5 million that has been reported. He said the money already has been spent, some of it on tax obligations.

Butcher said News Corp. cannot recoup any of the money because Simpson honored his end of the contract by producing the book.

Simpson said he was convinced the book would have been a best-seller.

"If I Did It" cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend in prepublication sales, but by Monday, when it was canceled, the book had fallen to No. 51.

OJ SIMPSON’S scuttled book about the murder of his ex-wife attracted hot but brief bidding on eBay before being removed on Wednesday, while the former football star laughingly said he had been paid and had spent his advance.

The book, If I Did It, and an accompanying two-part television interview were dropped by media conglomerate News Corp. on Monday after an outcry from advertisers, booksellers and relatives of the dead.

The book and interview were touted as a hypothetical account of how Simpson would have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Simpson was reportedly paid a sum of $3.5m in advance.

Publishers have pledged to recall and destroy all the books but one copy appeared briefly on eBay. It got more than 50 bids, the highest of more than $1,600, in about two hours.

The former football star was acquitted in 1995 of charges he committed the bloody June 1994 murders. But a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and awarded the victims` families $33.5m in damages. Little of the judgment has been collected.

Publisher HarperCollins, part of the News Corp. group, said on Wednesday it had contacted eBay about removing the copy of If I Did It from the Web site.

An eBay spokesman said HarperCollins took action under laws governing intellectual property rights.

OJ Simpson's scuttled book about the murder of his ex-wife popped up for sale on eBay today and attracted a top bid of more than $US1,600 ($A2,080) before it was removed.

The book, If I Did It, and an accompanying two-part television interview were dropped by media conglomerate News Corp on Monday after an outcry from advertisers, booksellers and relatives of the dead.

But one copy, touted as a hypothetical account of how Simpson would have killed ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994, was offered for sale on eBay.

Publisher HarperCollins, part of the News Corp group, has pledged to recall and destroy all copies on the book that were shipped ahead of the intended November 30 publication.

"We have contacted eBay about removing the book. We are doing everything in our power to have them all destroyed," HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said.

Within three hours, If I Did It had been taken down from the site after getting more than 50 bids, the highest more than $US1,600 ($A2,080).

"Whether you think he is guilty or not a jury of his peers found him innocent, so who are we to judge? Anyway I received a true copy of this book, did not read it, do not want to read it, but want to sell it," the seller, from Texas, said in a posting.

The auction site said HarperCollins took action under laws governing intellectual property rights.

Another posting by someone eager to track down a copy of the book remained on the site, and at least two people were auctioning off OJ Simpson-related email addresses. The seller of OJ.IDidItzgmail.com described the address as a way for businesses "to profit from the resurrected OJ craze".

The former football star was acquitted in 1995 of charges he committed the bloody June 1994 murders. But a civil court jury in 1997 found him liable for the deaths and awarded the victims' families $US33.5 million ($A43.5 million) in damages. Little of the judgment has been collected.

The taped interview with Simpson, ditched this week by News Corp, also was expected to find its way onto the internet. Popular video site YouTube on Wednesday had dozens of spoof and satirical amateur videos on the topic but no authentic tape.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has been paid $100,000 in damages after settling two cases of illegal software sales.

Two defendants, Kevin Liu and G T Tian, paid a total of $100,000 in damages, as well as agreeing to stop selling illegal software, in one of the cases arising from the SIIA's Auction Litigation Programme.

Liu and Tian also provided the SIIA with records identifying their customers and suppliers of pirated software.

The suit was filed on behalf of Symantec, and was among the first under the Auction Litigation Programme.

This initiative aims to monitor popular online auction sites, identify individuals or groups selling pirated software and prosecute those pirates on behalf of the Association's member companies.

The defendants were accused in the suit of infringing copyrights and trademarks owned by Symantec in Norton PC Anywhere, Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier and Norton Ghost.

Over two years, the defendants sold $750,000 worth of software for approximately $123,000.

"Selling pirated software, especially through online auction sites, is a growing problem that hurts businesses and consumers and threatens the credibility and viability of online auctions," said Keith Kupferschmid, vice president of the SIIA's Software Anti-Piracy Division.

"Defendants Liu and Tian learned the hard way that selling pirated software does not pay."

Liu said in a statement: "If I had known the SIIA was checking eBay for software piracy, and if I had known that the software was pirated and that I'd have to pay such a high fine, I would have never sold the pirated software to begin with."

KATIE 'Jordan' Price is planning on removing and selling her G-Cup implants on ebay.

She is reportedly fed up with her really big boobs and wants to tone it down just a little.

After removing the implants she plans on selling it on ebay and donating some of the proceeds to charity.

The busty babe says, "I can't wait. I still want them to be big - they're certainly not going to be small. I just want them to be more pert.

"I'll put them on eBay and I'll want a minimum of £1 million. I'll give some of that to charity."

Sunday's launch of Nintendo's Wii console has not generated the media buzz and user frenzy of Sony's PlayStation 3, but the $250 console has generated a steady stream of e-commerce revenue, according to eBay.

The online auction firm had logged roughly 6,600 Wii sales 36 hours after the launch, selling at an average price of $435, a company spokesman told vnunet.com.

EBay completed 3,352 sales on Sunday at an average price of $482, a 93 per cent mark-up on the $249 retail price.

Buyers who waited a day to bid on a Wii found that much better deals were to be had. On Monday morning 3,245 of the consoles had sold for an average price of $387, a 55 per cent mark-up.

The Wii prices stand in stark contrast to those that followed the launch of the PlayStation 3.

About 800 Sony consoles changed hands at an average price of $2,716 in the first 12 hours after the launch on Friday, providing sellers with at least a 350 per cent mark-up based on the $599 price tag for the most expensive model.

Even on Monday PlayStation 3 systems were selling on eBay at a 125 per cent mark-up.

The price differences reflect the buzz surrounding each console's launch. Sony, facing a dramatic production shortfall, shipped only 400,000 PlayStation 3 machines.
Hard-core gamers lined up to purchase the next-gen machine days in advance, although most stores had few units on hand. The resulting frenzy produced riots and even shootings.

The Wii was rolled out with much less fanfare. Nintendo shipped over one million consoles with little incident. The Wii is aimed at the less rabid family and casual user base.

The Wii is slated for a European release on 8 December. The PlayStation 3 European release has been delayed until March 2007.

On the day of PlayStation 3's launch, it was a scalper's paradise online. Though a number of auctions were suspiciously high, it wasn't uncommon to see machines with ending bids between $2,000 and $3,000 -- likely well-worth the time spent in line over the course of several days. Since then, however, so many have flooded the market, they've driven the price down to something more based in reality.
As of this morning, there are 20,639 listings for PlayStation 3 machines. The newest auction to end has a starting bid of $2,300 and has absolutely no bidders. The one immediately below, however, is currently ending in a few minutes, yet has 15 bids, pushing the price to $1,125.

Based on our most recent search (since then, most of these auctions have ended), taking into account the 23 auctions that actually had bids placed on them, the average bidding price was only $958. Would you be willing to wait in line for days on end for a potential $400-500 profit? Not to mention profit margins appear to be dwindling at a rapid pace, even if they are ending hundreds above retail.

Chances are the prices will continue to trickle down, never quite reaching actual retail. Whenever the mythical second shipment shows up, however, scalpers could be in for a bit of a surprise -- if Sony can deliver the units soon, that is.

A "GREEDY" insurance company worker who stole promotional vouchers from her employers for sale on the eBay internet site has escaped being sent to prison.

Serene Claw, 24, a call centre worker at Liverpool Victoria, admitted theft and transferring criminal property.

Her co-defendant, Ryan Oliver, 23, of Belle Vue Road, Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to converting criminal property.

 

Prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, Michael Mackey said Claw, of Surrey Road, Bournemouth, had helped herself to Caravan Club vouchers from an unlocked stationery cupboard. They were part of a credit card scheme which entitled holders to a free stay at Caravan Club sites.

Claw gave the vouchers to Oliver, who sold them on eBay, splitting the profits between them.

A Bournemouth customer contacted Liverpool Victoria after spotting the vouchers on sale on the internet site.

Police traced Oliver, who was arrested on July 11. Seventy-two vouchers were found at the sound and lighting technician's home and another was discovered in his car.

Claw came clean the next day, telling officers she had stolen two "wedges" of vouchers and passed them on to her former school friend because they were "easy money".

Defending both Claw and Oliver, Paul Hester said they had been nave. Claw had succumbed to temptation and "acted totally out of character", losing her job when the offences came to light.

In Oliver's defence, Mr Hester said Oliver had used his own name on eBay. "If this was a serious criminal exercise this was tantamount to stupidity," he added, stressing that Oliver had taken out a £5,265 loan to repay the losers.

Judge John Harrow, who said the offences were motivated "purely by temptation and greed", sentenced Claw and Oliver to six months' imprisonment, suspended for two years. They must also complete 180 hours of unpaid community work. He told Claw: "As an employee you committed a serious breach of trust."

The crude "KKK Snowmen and Snow-women" were going for a starting bid of $13.77, the New York Daily News reported.

"He's made of clay and stands a nice size at 5" tall," the seller described one figurine. "He is in his white gown (some people like to call them sheets) and hood, which is removable for your viewing pleasure."

An eBay spokeswoman, Catherine England, told the Daily News that the site bans offensive items. But she said that with 105 million items on the site at any given time and 6 million added every day, eBay is unable to do a complete screening.

The site learned of the Klan figurines from the Daily News.

Previous KKK items that have turned up on eBay include a knife bearing a Ku Klux Klan shield, an antique hood and a T-shirt with a picture of a burning cross.

If you didn't camp out for the Sony PlayStation 3, you weren't likely to land one Friday. Well, unless you could put down plenty of cash to snag one from thousands that immediately went on sale online for three to four times the system's retail price.

The basic 20-gigabyte game console retails for $499; the more popular 60-gigabyte version sells for $599 at stores. However, one unit was going for $10,100 on eBay. Many were listed at $1,500 to $2,500.

Such stores as Toys "R" Us, Best Buy and Fry's Electronics sold out within minutes. Several retailers pre-sold systems, and some didn't get as many as expected, angering some customers. advertisement 
 
Retailers contacted couldn't say when they expect to get more units. Sony promised to ship 400,000 PS3 units for the U.S. launch Friday and 1million units by the end of the year. Sony had expected 2 million units for sale this year.

The scarcity of the game system led some diehard buyers to stand in line two and three days in advance.

You can buy almost anything on EBay.

City officials in New Bedford are hoping to use the Internet's top auction site to sell a 76-year-old Coast Guard lightship. City Councilor Joe DeMedeiros tells the Standard Times of New Bedford that the potential scrap metal value alone makes officials confident they can recoup much of the 212-thousand-dollars invested in the ship after it almost sank last summer. The city tried to auction the ship in September, but couldn't find anyone willing to pay ten-thousand-dollars and remove the historical artifacts on board.

There's no minimum bid this time, and the city removed the artifacts.The Lightship New Bedford was built by the Albina Iron Works, and is one of 13 remaining U-S lightships in the world. The auction is scheduled for December 5th through the 8th.

A woman says eBay has shut down her sale of two tickets to Saturday's Michigan-Ohio State football game that she and her husband had hoped would help them raise money to adopt a boy from Guatemala.

Kristie Sigler and her husband, Ken, put their season tickets, about 10 rows from the field, on the Internet auction site hoping the payout would help defray the $12,500 cost to begin processing their adoption paperwork.
 
But Sigler said eBay canceled the sale Wednesday, saying it violated its policy on charitable auctions.

"They never called, never e-mailed us or anything. They took it off and said because we were using the auction as fundraiser for the adoption, it violated their policy," Kristie Sigler told The Repository newspaper in Thursday's editions.

According to its Web site, eBay has specific guidelines for charitable fundraising because the area is subject to many state and federal laws. A message seeking comment from the company was left early Thursday.

The couple had been offered as much as $1,550 for the tickets by Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm most concerned that people will think we weren't being genuine," Sigler said. "We're still selling the tickets."

The tickets are now listed on the Web site dreamseats.com.

The top-ranked Buckeyes and second-ranked Wolverines are both undefeated, and the winner advances to the national championship game.

Bidding on eBay can get hot and heavy, often leaving losing bidders easy pickings for scammers.

It's called the second chance auction. It's an opportunity for bidders to get a second chance at an item they just lost. Unfortunately, it's also an opportunity for scammers to make some easy money.

The National Championship Game is college football's biggest event. Peter Comarato of Burlingame saw an opportunity on eBay to pick up four tickets. Bidding started at $1,900 dollars. Comarato bid $2,501, and within seven minutes upped his bid to $2,600 dollars.

Peter Comarato, Burlingame: "I was outbid at the last second literally by $50 dollars and I lost the tickets."

 An hour later he received an e-mail from someone posing as the seller. The author claimed the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction. If he still wanted the tickets for the game, he should wire $2,600 dollars through Western Union immediately.

Peter Comarato: "It was quick, it was quick."

He sent his money, but never got the tickets. Comarato had become a victim of the second chance auction scam.

Unfortunately police say they see scams like this alot.

Kenwade Lee, S.F. Police, Fraud Department: "If it's something that you really want, people do kind of get caught up in the moment. It's sort of like you against somebody else, and you want to win."

eBay says it posts warnings about the second chance scam on its site. eBay warns against responding to any offers not on its website or sent directly your eBay 'My Messages' folder. If you don't find the second chance offer in your folder - it's probably a scam. eBay also doesn't allow transactions through Western Union, so if you're being asked to use the money transfer service - walk away.

Comarato says the warnings need to be more prominently displayed.

Peter Comarato: "I would liken it to driving a car and a stop sign being that small, hidden behind a tree."

eBay says because Comarato responded to an offer not on its website or in his eBay my messages folder, he is not protected under the buyer protection plan. That plan offers any eBay user $200 dollars in free insurance.

The unfettered online marketplace for such items as Elvis memorabilia and Ferraris is imposing restrictions on the PS3, which is expected to become one of the hottest holiday gifts when it hits stores Friday.

Only established eBay Inc. vendors those who have racked up comments from at least 50 previous customers and have positive ratings of at least 98 out of 100 points can list PS3s before Friday. Each vendor can only list only one PS3 per eBay account.

The listing must include a photo of the pre-order receipt, and the seller must guarantee shipment within 30 days from the date of purchase. Before Friday, PS3s can be listed on eBay only in auction formats not as "buy it now" items.

Potential buyers, trying to avoid long lines, rain checks and empty-handed sales clerks on Friday, have already bid up PS3s to $2,300. The suggested retail price is $500 for a basic PS3 with a 20-gigabyte drive and $600 for a version with 60 gigabytes, built-in wireless and a Blu-ray DVD player for high-definition video.

Sony Corp., which has already delayed the PS3 launch twice, expects to have 400,000 PS3s available for its U.S. launch. EBay listed 3,144 PS3s or related items by Wednesday morning.

The restrictions, part of eBay's standing policy for all "pre-sale" items, also apply to Nintendo Co.'s competing Wii console, which goes on sale Sunday. EBay had 2,354 listings for Wiis and related items.

Microsoft Corp. launched its Xbox 360 console last year.

"We've seen a history with highly anticipated game consoles in extremely short supply during their initial launch," eBay spokeswoman Catherine England said. "With the Xbox, we saw a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet obligations due to restricted supply."

Marcus Schmit, who claims in Chris Masters' biography Jonestown to have had a relationship with the 2GB host in 2001, was hoping to sell the letters.

But after being posted online for two days, eBay removed the letters from sale, saying they were "inappropriate" .

"We looked at the item and made a call that it was inappropriate," eBay spokesman Daniel Feiler said.

He said eBay allowed people to buy and sell "practically anything, but that doesn't mean everything".

Mr Feiler said he would not go into the specifics of what eBay thought was inappropriate about the listing.

The letters are believed to have had a starting price of $1200 but had not received any bids when they were pulled this morning.

Mr Schmit said he posted the letters online after a friend suggested it would be a good way to make some money.

He said he came to know Mr Jones by writing to him and classified him as a friend but only knew him for three to four months before he moved away.

"I wanted a career, I hadn't been to university, I hadn't even finished high school, I wanted to do something with my life and I thought Alan could offer me an opportunity," he said on ABC radio.

"I didn't necessarily contact him in regards to offering sex in exchange for a job, he was just, I thought, a valuable contact.

"The relationship started off as one of friendship, we'd be with each other once or twice a week, we'd talk on the phone every day, we'd go for dinner."

Before being removed, the on-line description is reported to have read: "I can only presume that this auction may cause many conservative, white, middle-upper class, ivory tower owners upset and result in aggressive and abusive messages from fans, supporters and possibly friends of Alan Jones."

Mr Schmit also wrote he was presenting an "opportunity for those who feel strongly against offering such a letter for auction - an offer to enable me to withdraw this letter from public bid".

eBay said people do occasionally relist items after they had been pulled down and they would deal with that issue if Mr Schmit relisted it.

Mr Jones declined to comment.

A Quakertown man used eBay to defraud online customers out of about $18,000, federal authorities said yesterday.

Todd Rabenold, 38, was indicted on six counts of mail fraud stemming from the transactions on the Internet auction site.

U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said Rabenold offered old and rare coins on eBay between April 2003 and April 2005, but never sent the coins after bidders mailed payment. According to the indictment, Rabenold offered his merchandise using the names Wholesalecoinsales, Hoogercoins, Westpenncoins, mary6020, Internet Sales Morgans, Easy Pages Internet Sales, Antique's Discounters, and Poconocoins. More than 50 victims were involved.

There was no telephone listing in Quakertown for Rabenold and he could not immediately be reached for comment. It was unclear whether he had an attorney

Alice Cooper is a serious car guy, and as you might expect, his garage has seen its share of cool toys pass through. Those who watched this past January's Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale may remember Cooper's sublime '39 Lincoln Zephyr, which changed hands for $248,000. Well, Matt over at MustangBlog shot us a note letting us know that another one of Alice's machines is on the block, this time over at the virtual auction house for everyman: eBay.

The car in question is a black 2005 Mustang GT pushing out over 500 horsepower (535, according to a graphic on the car itself) with a little help from things like a Paxton blower and intercooler and Billy Boat exhaust. An automatic transmission tackles the duty of wrangling those ponies to the rear wheels. It looks good too, sporting a Shaker hood (very sweet), red racing stripe, and red line tires that look right at home on the neo-retro Mustang.

"No More Mr. Nice Guy," the title of one of the well-known songs off the rocker's Billion Dollar Babies album, is emblazoned on the quarter panels under the "GT" badging. Those who don't heed the subtle warning may find themselves getting dusted should they decide to get frisky with the car at a stoplight. If you're interested, head on over to eBay and check it out. Bidding starts at $30,000 and yes, there is a reserve to meet.