eBay's Core Auction Business Is Looking Like A Drag

World's Least Successful eBay Merchant Sells A PS2 and £44,000 For £95

from the A++++-seller-fast-shipping-and-free-pile-of-cash dept

Wed, Jul 18th 2007 8:32pm — Carlo Longino

We've had stories about the world's angriest eBay seller, but perhaps now we've found the world's worst eBay seller. A kid in England won an auction for a Playstation 2 for 95 pounds, but when it was sent to him, it also included 44,000 pounds in cash. The kid's parents have turned the money over to police, who are investigating the matter. The PS2 was also supposed to come with two games, though they weren't included -- but somehow we imagine that, even in the UK, 44 grand should be enough to pick up a few replacement copies.

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Filed Under: auctions
Companies: ebay

30 Comments

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Eric the Grey, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:20pm

Perhaps...
He thought it was packing paper...

EtG
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:21pm

"The kid's parents have turned the money over to police"

England should be bombed. Again.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:24pm

^^^ literally...
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:40pm

For you upstanding citizens who would have kept the dough:

A. If it's stolen, I'd bet even Barney Fife could follow the trail left by an Ebay auction.

B. If it isn't stolen, the family will get to keep it...unless of course the Brit cops have the same lack of moral fiber evident in this comments section.
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satan, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:40pm

why
why is he selling sh t if he has 44lbs
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Fire Carlo, 18 Jul 2007 @ 9:52pm

Rediculous
This is technical news now? 8 times out of 11 I can read a headline and I know who posted it. Congratulations, you can read Reuter's Oddly section...go find a suitable job for that.
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Jolie, 18 Jul 2007 @ 10:01pm

Surprised that a Brit rolled over like that
I'd keep the cash, spend a few bills at a time, and see what happens. If the Feds don't come knocking at my door, looking for their marked bills, then I'm home free.

On the other hand, I have read the book and seen the movie A Simple Plan, and in some ways, it's just not worth the cost to your own life, to your peace of mind, because once you spend that first bill, you can't turn back the clock.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 10:13pm

HELLO... what if the ebay seller had certain... connections. It was a smart move because who knows where this money was meant to go. If it was some big criminals money, and they came and killed your family was it worth it?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 10:34pm

Re:
If the seller had criminal connections, I don't imagine they'll be too happy about having the police looking into the situation, either.
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Shalkar, 18 Jul 2007 @ 11:41pm

Re:
If he killed my family, or killed my family AND me? And did he take the money? If he left me alive and didn't take the money, I'll buy a new family. lol j/k

Seriously though, if they had connections, then killing them would have been the duty of the guy who sent the package. In which case, he'd of had to go there himself, off thema and not get caught, then give the money and compensation to the rightful people.

All in all, the guy sending it is in the deepest water. No matter what the family did. The family would really only get in trouble if the bills were marked. It only takes one of them to be marked, but still, if they had put that in a Swiss bank account and "filtered" it through a few other similiar accounts, they'd have been free and clear as far as being marked goes.

As for that one guy who messed up big time, assuming the money IS illegal, they'd just have to be on guard for a while and when he broke in, they'd just have to shoot him. If they don't have a gun, a butcher knife would do fine. They'd be richer and happier, that guy would be dead and we'd all laugh about it! :D
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jul 2007 @ 11:56pm

Re: Re:
I take it you're not British O.o
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2007 @ 12:26am

Re:
terrorist
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Unseen Machine, 19 Jul 2007 @ 3:17am

Re:
Such comments are not applicable at any point and are classifiable as insighting terrorism. Grow up please.
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wilder_raven, 19 Jul 2007 @ 4:33am

Being from the colonies I wonder how many lbs £44,000 weighs?

It had to be shipped after all...
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2007 @ 4:56am

Re: Re: Re:
After sorting through these comments, I may have to move to England, simply out of embarrassment.
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freak3dot, 19 Jul 2007 @ 5:50am

Exchange Rate
Thats a little over $90,000.

freak3dot
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2007 @ 6:17am

Re: why
he just got a ps3?
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Fraud investigator, 19 Jul 2007 @ 6:17am

Laundry anyone?
Maybe there was an email from the seller to the buyer, saying that: I am going to give you $x,xxx if you deposit this money in your account and make a payment to me back for X services I am going to "give" you, that got lost in the way... Who knows. Anyway, the way our society is working these days, you can bet your left hand that there is a crime involved.
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Fraud investigator, 19 Jul 2007 @ 6:18am

Laundry anyone?
Maybe there was an email from the seller to the buyer, saying that: I am going to give you $x,xxx if you deposit this money in your account and make a payment to me back for X services I am going to "give" you, that got lost in the way... Who knows. Anyway, the way our society is working these days, you can bet your left hand that there is a crime involved.
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Overcast, 19 Jul 2007 @ 6:52am

unless of course the Brit cops have the same lack of moral fiber evident in this comments section.

Actually.. no..

The money was just sent to the boy through a package - no theft involved.

If the cops keep it - knowing it's clear - then that's theft.

If the boy would have simply kept it - that's not exactly theft.

If you find $50.00 on the ground at the shopping store, do you take it to the counter to find out who lost it? That would be silly.

Just more reasons to imbed electronic chips in us, eh? Why not, London's filled with cameras already (it's a big help, as we can all see) so it's the next logical step in maintaining control of the serfs.
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Not by Carl., 19 Jul 2007 @ 7:09am

Techinical Discussion.
I agree. This doesn't have anything to do with tech savvy stuff. It's not important that techdirt prints X amount of articles per day. Even if it's just 2 or 3 a day. And they remain on subject, I will be happy.

This is more and more becoming a business news backbone than it is technical.

Quit slopping business stories back and forth on your RSS feeds.

This is almost all of what Carl prints. They suck.
Fire him and move on.

Your loosing a lot of your long time readers.
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Silverwolf, 19 Jul 2007 @ 8:50am

Perhaps this was the sellers first attempt at a Nigerian scam and he wasn't aware that you're not supposed to use real money.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2007 @ 9:04am

Re: Techinical Discussion.
If the long term readers TechDirt is "loosing" are as intelligent as the people complaining about this thread, they won't be missed.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2007 @ 9:08am

I'd give him some positive feedback. Move to a new house and keep the money.
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suprspi, 19 Jul 2007 @ 9:27am

tech news how?
Reuters Oddly Enough re-rss'd to fill holes in TD does not tech news make.
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Betaflame, 19 Jul 2007 @ 1:56pm

Re: Re:
Nice way to flip out. Might I sudgest sarcasm 101? its an excellent course.
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Adam Lyttle, 19 Jul 2007 @ 5:36pm

A+++
Definitely an A+++ seller. But seriously, why would you report the money to the police?
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sandy, 20 Jul 2007 @ 5:42am

Re:
I found $30 on the floor in the grocery store. I took it to the counter. Turns out, it belonged to a 19 year old girl, a deaf student. It was all the money she had and she was using it to buy groceries for a birthday party for her roommate. Pay it Forward, people.
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|333173|3|_||3, 22 Jul 2007 @ 7:31am

FInding money
AFAIK (IANAL), under UK law if you find money somewhere then your are supposed to hand it in to the police, and if no one claims in in 2 weeks it is yours. If the money (or goods) are worth more than a certain amount, an investigation is undertaken to decide if the goods were lost or were a "treasure trove" (deliberately hidden). In one case you get to keep all the money, in the other you have to pay tax on it. If you do not report a large find, and the government find out you have failed to report it, then you can loose the whole lot and face prosecution.

I do not think that this applies in this case, but the worries about organised crime might have been a driving factor in the decison, or simply a desire not to have 44000GBP in the house.
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ebay selling tips, 17 Feb 2010 @ 8:32am

Wow
That might be the worlds worst ebayer but probably the worlds luckiest one too.
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