British woman auctions right to rename her on eBay for charity
As well as the usual products being offered for sale, eBay has always had those bizarre auctions that defy belief. And now we may have a new contender for the strangest auction in the site’s history. A British woman is selling the right to rename her for the Children In Need charity.
EBay has always been the place to go to find unusual items for sale as well as in demand items being sold at many times their face value. I’m talking about auctions such as the one for a Virgin Mary pretzel, and the copy of Guitar Hero III which sold for over $9,000. Just search for Wii Fit and you’ll see that the entrepreneurial spirit isn’t dead.
But not everyone is out for a fast buck, with some people auctioning items you can’t buy in shops in the name of charity. The Telegraph tells the story of Eileen De Bont, a 37-year-old woman from Denbighshire in the UK who has decided to go one step further than most in an effort to raise money for the BBC Children In Need charity.
She is currently auctioning her name on eBay. No, not Eileen De Bont, which would only likely fetch $2.50, but her future name instead. Whoever wins the auction will win the right to rename her officially for a year, though they’ll have to choose from one of 50 monikers on a shortlist.
This won’t just be a pointless exercise either because De Bont, or whatever she’s called now, will change her name by deed poll and will then have a year of problems as she tries to change her personal details with banks and billing companies. She’ll also have to persuade her friends to call her by her new joke name.
The shortlist of new monikers includes Scunthorpe Travelodge, Marge Simpson, and Pat Butcher (from Eastenders). Half of the winning bid will go to Children In Need while the rest will go to Eileen’s own children, who are obviously in need themselves having as they do such a mad mother.
The auction closes at 2:51p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16. The winning bidder is currently the UK Deed Poll Service which has pledged £4,000 to the charity if De Bont changes her name to Pudsey Bear, the one-eyed mascot of Children In Need.
November 17th, 2008
This article would be more useful with a link to the auction. Got links to everything else, but not the auction itself. Searching ebay for this is very difficult, I’m giving up, and now I’m wondering if this and the Telegraph article are hoaxes.