Funny Business
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Madoff—The Holiday Drink
- Drugs, Booze and Vegas
- Happy World Toilet Day
- Coffee, Tea or My Ad?
- Elvis Has Left The Building, But His Scent Remains
- I Have to Leggo My Eggo
- Wait, Texting Can Save Your Life?
- What Were The Northwest Pilots Really Doing?
- The Folly and the Ivy: Tough Times at Harvard?
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- Gold Will Collapse Like Oil Did in 2008: Charts
- China Eastern to Complete Shanghai Air Buy by End '09
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- Weak Dollar Is Golden for Mining Companies
- Revised GDP Reading Puts Growth at 2.8%; Inflation Tame
- CA "More Profitable" After Saving Energy: CEO
- The L.A. Extravaganza: A Test for Auto Shows
- 8 Stocks That Could Gain With Rising GDP
- 5 Stocks That Benefit from Health Care Legislation: Analysts
- Can Murdoch Help Bing Challenge Google and Shift the Content Equation?
- HP's Mark Hurd
- HP Comes in As Expected; Is It Time to Buy?
- 9 Stocks That Play Rising Water Costs: Strategists
- Weis' Deal Likely Won't Change Big Money Contracts
- Gold Prices Can Double in 3 Years: Portfolio Manager
- US Home Prices Up 5th Month, 2nd Straight Quarter
- Revised GDP Reading Puts Growth at 2.8%; Inflation Tame
- FDIC Insurance Fund Falls to Negative $8.2 Billion
- US Economy Mired in 'Form of Depression': Rosenberg
- Strong Banks, Weak Credit: Treasury Rethinks TARP
- Fairfax Lawsuit Keeps Heat on Chanos, SAC's Cohen
- Weak Dollar Is Golden for Mining Companies
- How Many US Consumers Will Shop this Weekend?
- Galleon's Rajaratnam Denies Inside Trading Charges
RSS FEED
Text Size 
Correspondent
It came. It disappeared. It returned.
A Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
] Xbox360 which appears to sport the autograph of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is back up on Ebay, maintaining its original asking price of $1.1 million. Thanks to Funny Business readers who alerted me.
I first reported on the autographed Xbox in August. Someone claimed that Palin signed his console--he even included a photo of him presenting her with the Xbox-and then he tried to auction it off for big bucks, just days after Palin's surprise resignation announcement. The console got a single bid, for exactly its $1.1 million asking price, when Ebay delisted the item. Ebay [EBAY
Loading...
()
] felt the console's high price raised a red flag, and so the item was removed until the autograph could be authenticated and a system could be set up to pre-qualify bidders. At the time I wrote that "both sides are working to re-list the item."
 |
Source: ebay.com Palin XBox |
In the listing, we learn the seller's name is David Morrill, a Canadian who "always wanted to drive the Alaskan highway from my home near Edmonton, Alberta, all the way to Alaska."
That's a 4,300 mile round trip, so he figured since he was going all that way, he "should try to see the most famous person from that state."
He went to then-Gov. Palin's Wasilla picnic in July and "pushed my way through the crowd to the front of the line.
When I was in front of Sarah Palin, I told her that I had traveled three days to see her and asked her to sign my Xbox360. She said it was the most extravagant thing she had ever been asked to sign."
As for the listing's resurrection, Morrill says, "Ebay DOES NOT endorse this listing in any way, but they are now, to the best of my knowledge, satisfied that all listing requirements have been met." He says the item was delisted in August because "Pay Pal is unable to process a payment of this size." The solution? Morrill says he is now using "a processor other than Pay Pal." Morrill tells me he's using Money Bookers to process any payment.
 |
Source: ebay.com Palin XBox |
As of this writing, there are no bidders, but we've got time. But the bigger question remains-what is a Sarah Palin autograph worth?
There are over 600 Palin items for sale on Ebay, and the Xbox is by far the most expensive.
By the way, still up for sale on Ebay, a "rare" painting of Palin for $5,000 which I also mentioned in the August blog.
Going, going... still going. Not gone yet. May never be gone...
UPDATE LATE MONDAY:
The Ebay listing has just been removed...AGAIN.
Ebay tells us it took the item down earlier today after determining that it was "in violation of eBay’s listing policies and therefore is being removed. We are working with the seller to re-list the item in compliance with our policies."
Meanwhile, David Morrill has relisted the item yet again.
He writes that Ebay took down the listing because "it expressed a personal view of mine and therefore was not allowed." So he has relisted it without the story of how he met Palin, hoping that will satsify the auction site.
Morrill fears it may happen again.
"Jane, Ebay has given me so many bogus reasons as to why this item can not be listed," Morrill says. "I have answered every one of them and they continue to find new reasons."
Questions? Comments? Funny Stories? Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes