on Jun 5th, 2006
How much would you pay for this handbag?
For the past week the NZ media hasn’t had enough to say about The Handbag Incident. The abridged story goes something like:
- Wellington rugby player Chris Masoe is in a Christchurch bar following their defeat in the Super 14 tournament finals (it’s finally over).
- Masoe is pissed (in the NZ sense) and trips over an innocent bystander. Masoe then gets pissed (in the US sense) and punches the guy. The guy’s friend Nicole Davies is sitting right there.
- Masoe’s teammate Tana Umaga takes Nicole’s handbag and whacks Masoe with it, eventually making him cry and leave the bar.
- Masoe is fined $3000, Nicole’s cell phone is broken.
Enter TradeMe, the NZ eBay. Since the Incident people have wasted no time selling silly memorabilia and spending outrageous sums to buy this crap. The crown jewel is, of course, The Handbag, and that just sold for a handsome $22,000 NZD ($13,800 USD). An acrylic drawing of the handbag picture on TradeMe sold for $600. Bidding on camera footage from the bar is at around $2500. In a week I bet this stuff goes for 1/2 the price, in two weeks 1/20th. So go the opportunist!! I was impressed that Ms. Davies jumped at the chance to sell the bag while the getting was good, but then I came across this interview quote:
“She confirmed she had only traded once on [TradeMe] before – and that was to buy a DVD which claimed the Twin Towers were deliberately demolished and the September 11 attacks were a fraud.” –New Zealand Herald
Hmmm… not as impressed. OK so she’s an idiot who is $22,000 richer. Better than the “successful” bidders Sue Langmaid and Aaron Crapp (I kid you not) who have just paid 733x face value for a bag. Huge amount of media minutes/pages, lots of TradeMe junk, a $3000 fine and broken cellphone… this is a major economic event in NZ! (Dislodging the other economic story in NZ about rising petrol prices which keep people from putting food on their table… not nearly as fun and The Handbag Incident.)
One Response to “How much would you pay for this handbag?”
Wow, tough bag if it can make a man cry.
It is interesting that this kinda stuff makes the news. But then again, we have the stuff here with ebay, too. All you need is a burned toast that looks like Jesus or a potato that looks like Elvis and you can make tons of money.