Gawker: for sale

Life-Auctioning Man is Making a Killing

ian spiegelman — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:55:13 EDT

When Ian Usher separated from his wife, he figured he might as well walk away from his home, his job, his friends, and all his worldly possessions while he was at it. So he put the whole damn works up for grabs on Ebay and the bidding, which started this morning, is through the roof. "The British immigrant to Australia, who said the trigger for his bold offer was the break-up with his wife, had hoped he would attract a bid of 500,000 dollars (477,000 US). Shortly after the seven-day auction began Sunday, a bid of 300,100 dollars for 44-year-old Ian Usher's Perth-based lifestyle was listed on the Internet auction site eBay. By late afternoon, some 40 bids had been made with the highest offer at 650,000 dollars. 'I brought out the champagne at three o'clock when it passed the 400,000-dollar mark,' Usher told the Australian news agency AAP. 'It's unbelievable that it's going up like this so early in the auction.'"

"Usher has promised to introduce the winning bidder to his friends and hand over his 420,000-dollar house and his hobbies. The winner will also secure Usher's job as a rug store assistant for two weeks initially, but this could be extended depending on the store owner's agreement.

"Usher will retain only his passport, wallet and the clothes on his back if the deal goes ahead. He said he decided to start a new life after separating from his wife Laura just over two years ago, and selling all his worldly goods seemed like a logical step to take.

"'The separation from my wife was the initial trigger for what I'm doing, especially living in the house that was built for the both of us and being surrounded by our furniture,' he said. 'It's part of the moving on process. I guess this is the last step before making a fresh start.'" [AFP]

Can We Interest You In A TV Guide?

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:34:45 EDT

TV Guide, one of America's biggest magazines, was sold a few days ago. Now it's for sale again! Well, not the parts of the brand that have some actual value (the website and the cable program guides and on-demand technology). Rather, new owner Macrovision is looking for a sharp business entity that would like to take the print magazine off of its hands. Cheaply, no doubt! And to the skeptics who might say that buying the money-losing print version of TV Guide without the accompanying web brand would be like buying a cow without milk, consider this: the new editor is looking to achieve "topicality and newsiness, urgency." By doing things like reviewing YouTube videos!

"There's more of a need for this magazine than ever, given the explosion in the number of TV channels," said Debra Birnbaum, a TV Guide editor who was promoted to editor in chief on Tuesday.

[STIFLED LAUGHTER]

The new TV Guide editor, Ms. Birnbaum, 37, has been a top editor of TV Guide, the celebrity magazine Life & Style and Inside TV, a short-lived spinoff of TV Guide. She said her mission was to continue TV Guide's transition to being an entertainment magazine and a critical filter for viewers overwhelmed by choices. And she said she wanted to include Web sites like YouTube.

Yes: because when savvy online users want to know what to watch on YouTube, they turn to TV Guide's print version. Not to TVGuide.com, which will be owned by another company.

Interested buyers contact Macrovision now!

Getty Images: Not A Pretty Picture

Joshua David Stein — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:23:29 EST

In the advent of the internets, cellphone cameras and perfidious board members, Getty Images is putting itself up on the auction block. After the jump, germane keywords. [NYT]

One of the nicer things about Getty images is that the images come with a slew of searchable keywords. For this image of a business man crying which we found on Getty, nearly every keyword used could also be used to describe the fortunes of the company. Well, especially "failure" and "sadness."

For sale: Maspeth diner. Low rent, high...

Pareene — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 11:20:05 EST

For sale: Maspeth diner. Low rent, high breakfast/lunch traffic, full inventory included. "Increase earning potential by adding pork products such as ham." Seems like a steal to us! Only real risk is the angry wrath of vengeful G-d. [Rumproast]

Are the Forbes family and Bono's Elevation...

abalk — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:20:43 EDT

Are the Forbes family and Bono's Elevation Partners looking to cash out on Forbes? [NYP]

Feedpass sells absolutely nothing

Nick Douglas — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:33:15 EDT

Feedpass, the RSS feed creator that does absolutely nothing according to tech reviewer TechCrunch, is selling the farm on eBay.

So far, the entirety of Feedpass's assets — the feedpass.com domain, the code, the database, and all the rest — has fetched under $400. Hard to imagine it pulling in a much higher bid in the next five days. After all, who wants to be known as the entrepreneur who couldn't even build his own Feedburner clone?

Auction: Feedpass.com DOMAIN and Code [eBay]