Bongs, Virginity and Other Stuff You Can't Sell on eBay
Phelps' bong, your virginity and other stuff you can't sell on eBay.
Feb. 12, 2009— -- Got $100,000 to spare? If so, you could have scored the famous used bong that adorned Michael Phelps' lips, if you'd acted before eBay reportedly removed the auction this week.
An eBay spokesman said the bong auction was likely expunged from the site automatically, because it violated eBay's user agreement prohibiting drug paraphernalia.
We question the wisdom of the alleged auctioneer, who was reportedly arrested for trying to sell dope paraphernalia with actual marijuana residue on it. Still, there have been plenty of other questionable or not-so-questionable items on eBay that have disappeared. It's enough to make one crave a non-boring, evil version of eBay (FleaBay?) just for questionable items. (No, not Craigslist).
Here's some of the best of the banned:
A California woman (right) tried in January to sell her virginity, hoping to score $1 million, asExaminer.com put it, for her "vulva-centered mission" to pay for her education. She also said she was "hoping to meet a nice guy, too." The 22-year-old Natalie Dylan of San Diego has received offers of up to $3.7 million, with the deal now being brokered by a Nevada brothel.
Convicted hacker Kevin Mitnick's official federal-prison commissary card was barred in 2000, after bidding reached $1,000 two days into the auction. Company officials said government ID cards cannot be sold on eBay. Mitnick went on to offer it on a competing auction site.
An anonymous prankster posted an auction in December for the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, poking fun at then-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to sell the plum appointment. The auction started at 99 cents, but was promptly pulled by eBay — presumably because Senate seats can only be sold behind closed doors.
A Benton, Illinois, woman put up her 4- and 8-year-old daughters for auction In 2007. The 31-year-old woman, who suffers from depression, tolda local television station she was trying to rent them out for two days so she could get some rest. EBay yanked the auction because human trafficking is illegal.
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