The Ebay Wedding Dress Guy

[Zardiw]

17.43M now. Ya know, he might actually LOSE money on this deal.......z

[Phil(Hot Rod Chevy)]

Up to 15.57 Million hits.

Have fun,
Phil

[Phil(Hot Rod Chevy)]

Up to 12.5 Million hits.

LOL

Have fun,
Phil

[sublime]

ROTFL....that is the cat's meow...good for him! I always believe the best revenge is happiness and he's proven it :)

[teapeebubbles]

he said on tv that he had found the white gloves and wud auction them too

[Ruellit]

She had the ring, lol!

[teapeebubbles]

all's fair she got the ring

[Ruellit]

I'm waiting for his ex to find out about it!

[teapeebubbles]

u dun reel gud

[Ruellit]

LOL, and he was going to burn the dress! Ought to give his sister half of his new found fame anyway!

[Art2Gecko]

UPDATE >>> from his new website..

Big things are happening!
In Atlanta, The Punchline Comedy Club owners Jamie Bendall and Chris DiPetta are flying me out next week for a Post-Divorce Wardrobe Makeover and my stand-up comedy debut. The Today Show will be in Atlanta to follow my progress and then I will be "on the couch" with Katie, Matt, Al and Ann at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on Monday the 10th.

http://www.weddingdressguy.com/

[niz]

OT I bought the DING KING off EBAY today for $10. Does that thing actually work?

April 4th some jerkoff hits me from behind going about 30, I hit the lady in front of me. front and back damage. 1 week in the body shop, comes out brand new looking. I was happy. THE VERY NEXT Day I get my car back, some 25 year old sitting next to me at the light on my right hand side decides to be cool and rev the engine of his Harley Davidson and tries to make the jump to lightspeed to impress everyone loses control and slams right into the side of me. The damage actually was not bad, just a dent, but the insurance company is giving me a nice size check and I think the Ding King can do the job. Its worth a shot for $10.

Dont get near me on the road right now. Im a freagin magnet right now. Both times not even going anywhere and people just running into me. LOL

Thanks for the insight and hearing me vent,

THE KING DING

[Zardiw]

9.3M now. That's 2500 hits/minute.......et z

[dropdeadfred]

boggles the mind

all I can say is

only in america!

[Zardiw]

Latest: 9.27 Million hits!!.......et z

[Zardiw]

Says the SELLER ended it....et z

[Zardiw]

HEY..They can't DO that...I want that dress!!lolollollol...et z

[HabaneroDog]

We've all been screwed....Dear eBay Community Member,
The bid that you entered for the item (4147811105) has been cancelled. You can view the reason provided for the cancellation by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page.

Regards,
eBay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4147811105
Harr.....

[Zardiw]

THANKS Fda. Thought I was gonna have to actually BUY it...LOL..et z

[Art2Gecko]

He's a veritable celebrity now...lol Won't be long till he's on Leno, and Letterman.

You know he's gonna get some kind of gig out of this... not to mention his band will surely get a lot of publicity out of this... Maybe they'll all dress up in wedding gowns for their performances from now on...lol

[IRISHBULL]

they just talked about the wedding dress dude on regis lol

[fdatrader]

Good work Art! Nice way to put a the pieces together.

[Art2Gecko]

Proof that Larry isn't hurting for women..lol

http://thebuzzcuts.com/chicksthatdiglarry/chicks.html

[Art2Gecko]

Larry Star on lead Guitar. His Band - "The Buzzcuts"
http://thebuzzcuts.com

[Art2Gecko]

Wedding Dress Guy Breaks eBay Record with 6 Million Hits
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
April 29, 2004
A guitar player in a band called The Buzzcuts made eBay history this week when he auctioned his ex-wife's wedding dress. Larry Star, who said he had no idea his auction would get so much attention, started the bidding at $1. "I’m selling it hoping to get enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer," he wrote in the auction, along with an offbeat tale that revealed bitter feelings toward his ex-wife.

People began posting links to the auction on discussion forums and emailing it to friends. Star, a burly tattooed fellow, posed in the auction photos wearing the dress with his face whited out, "not to protect the ex-wife but to protect me from my bar buddies and co-workers finding out about it." He revised the auction periodically to answer questions sent to him by potential bidders and reported he had received three marriage proposals.

The auction gained the attention of the media, with Star appearing on the Today television show and CNBC. eBay's Dean of Education Jim "Griff" Griffith, whose radio show airs on Tuesdays, made a special "breaking news" segment on Wednesday to interview the eBay seller.

According to Griff, the wedding dress auction broke all eBay records for number of views with close to 6 million hits. "I've never seen anything come close to a million," Griff said. Star told Griff he hopes to get an appearance on Leno or Letterman, and is developing a Web site called WeddingDressGuy.com. (Star had revised his listing to include an announcement of the site and the URL TheeBayWeddingDressGuy.com. He later removed it. Sellers are not allowed to include links in their auction descriptions.)

Many media outlets picked up the story, and the counter continues to climb with over 6 million hits on Wednesday evening. During the course of the auction, the price reached exorbitant amounts from nuisance bidding, forcing Star to limit the sale to pre-approved bidders. The auction closed Wednesday with a final selling price of $3,850.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m04/i29/s02

[Art2Gecko]

Gauthier: Wedding blues turn green
By Deborah E. Gauthier / News Staff Writer
Thursday, April 29, 2004

It wasn't worn by Princess Diana or Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but the high bid on a slightly used wedding dress for sale on Ebay, as of 3:15 p.m. yesterday, was $15,100 with less than 3 1/2 hours to go in the auction.

The only thing we know about the woman who wore the dress once -- on what she might have described then as the happiest day of her life -- is she has since been divorced from a man who used to make her happy.

Behind the divorce probably lies a sad and sorry tale. There is always a tale of woe behind a divorce, one of the reasons the divorce rate in this country tops 50 percent. However, that's a column for another day.

The ex-husband of the former wearer of this wedding dress calls himself "horseplay publishing" for Ebay purposes, and we know from him that when she left, she took the $4,000 engagement ring he gave her, but left the $1,200 dress. He found it in the attic on the day he moved.

He says he paid for the dress with the promise of reimbursement from his then father-in-law. I won't print what he had to say about his father-in-law. He planned to burn it the day the divorce became final. Sounds bitter, doesn't he?

His sister stayed his hand. "That's such a gorgeous dress. Some lucky girl would be glad to have it. You should sell it on Ebay," he says she said. He took her advice, hoping to get enough money for some Mariners tickets and some beer.

He's in Seattle by the way, and all this information comes from the Ebay web site advertising the dress. It's probably the information -- not the dress -- that prompted more than 130 bids. According to sources, well OK, one source, the high bid was once $1 million. Evidently that person came to his or her senses and withdrew.

Horseplay's sense of humor may have had something to do with it, as well.

For instance, he models the dress. The pictures show a beefy man -- face obscured -- wearing a bead- and pearl-encrusted dress with high neck, low back, and long train. The vision is spoiled by his black T-shirt and hairy, tatooed arms. And he looks silly wearing a flowered crown and mesh veil.

He says, though, that it made him feel "very pretty."

"If it can make me feel pretty, it can make you feel pretty, especially on the most important day of your life," he writes. Later in his missive, he notes: "You may regret the dude you marry, but not the dress."

Horseplay certainly didn't expect the response he got. In addition to the 130 bids, he's received "tons" of e-mail, five of them invitations to a ballgame. Two are Little League games, but an invitation is an invitation, right?

He also got five marriage proposals, though he's not biting.

"Most were thanking me for the laugh," he writes, and to them he says, "You're entirely welcome." Others called him a "loser."

To them he says, "You've got it all wrong. I am such a winner. It isn't every day an average guy can make 50,000 people laugh. Thanks to each and every one of you from the heart of my bottom."

Yup, Horseplay is a good moniker for this funny guy. He has, by the way, a "positive" rating by Ebay which means he's bought or sold on Ebay before and promptly paid or delivered.

I don't know, at this point, how much Horseplay will eventually get for his slightly-used wedding dress. According to Ebay literature, though, anyone submitting a bid for $15,000 or more -- and remember, at this writing the bid is $15,100 -- the bidder must provide a valid credit card number.

It's serious business. Perhaps that's why the $1 million bid was withdrawn. Several withdrawals are noted on the site, many of them an "administrative cancellation."

Regardless, he'll surely get enough for a Mariners game and some beer. In return, a bride somewhere will get a dress with story to tell.

And that is a priceless opportunity.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=66968

[Art2Gecko]

Fact is, there's some fiction to man's pitch to sell his ex-wife's wedding dress on eBay
Thursday, April 29, 2004


DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Larry Star dons a bridal veil while J.F. Roberts prepares him for an interview on CNBC yesterday in Seattle.


"Uh-oh. Hang on a sec. Be right back."

That was the sound of Larry Star becoming a star. The call-waiting, the driver taking him to another TV interview. The fact that it was almost 2 p.m. yesterday and he hadn't eaten a thing.

"I don't mean to be not funny," Star said when I tracked him down yesterday. "But I am fricking exhausted."

KING-TV news. MSNBC. The "Today" show. All wanted to see the tattooed, biker-booted computer geek who found his ex-wife's wedding dress in a closet, posed in it and wrote a hilarious sales pitch for eBay, asking only for "enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer."

Star, 42, a Brooklyn native who tests software, got that all right.

When bidding on the online auction service closed yesterday, the size 12 Victoria dress ("How do you women wear this crap?" Star asked in his pitch. "I only had to walk 3 feet and I tripped twice") had sold for $3,850. And the listing was still getting some 800 hits per second.

Five women who saw Star's ad proposed marriage. He's been hearing from people all over the world. "I'm getting e-mails from Germans saying, 'Oh, ho, ho, you crazy American.' "

But what Star also discovered is that when you put a sad-sack story together with a wedding gown, people will start pulling at every thread of your life.

Interviewers queried Star about the sister who urged him to auction off the $1,200 dress, the ex-wife who had once worn it and the children whom he thanked God they never had.

And that's where his funny story started to get a little serious.




Is there a sister? I asked him yesterday.

"Let's just say we took some liberties," Star said.

OK then. No sister.

And the ex-wife?

"You're digging?" Star asked.

Yes, and it seems there's actually two. The first, Jill, married him on May 22, 1994. They separated on Oct. 12, 1996, and divorced on Jan. 13, 1998.

As for the other, the one who owned the dress, the one with the "Texas cheerleader hair" and the "drunken sot" of a father?

"No contact with the ex-wife," Star told me. "But she is in-state and I am sure I will get contacted because it is astronomical the way this thing has taken off."

For the record, her name is Janell. Star married her on March 2, 2000, in Bath, England.

Their son was born in 2000.

But on eBay?

"Thank the Lord we didn't have kids," Star wrote. "If they would have turned out like her or her family I would have slit my wrists."

Ouch.

Sorry, but there's more: In June of 2001, Star was charged with domestic-violence assault in the fourth degree, and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence.

According to the police report, Star and his wife had an argument. He said she was "stressed out." She threw something at him. He gathered up all the phones to keep her from calling the police (hence, the interfering charge).

When he turned to leave, she threw his guitar at him, breaking it. He pushed her. She fell and scraped her face.

They drove themselves to the police station to file a report, and formally separated within weeks.

The case was deferred on the condition that Star pay $150 and abide by a no-contact order. It was formally dismissed last June.

Star and his wife were divorced in Snohomish County in December.

She got the 1991 Ford Ranger and the 1993 Infiniti G20. He got the 2000 Ford Ranger and the 1981 Honda motorcycle.

She got the encyclopedias and other books. He got the personal computer and the entertainment center.

And who got the wedding dress? A winning bidder who goes by "absolutsth."

We tried to reach the former Mrs. Star, but couldn't.

"I'm not working anybody," he said. "All I want to do is make some people laugh and sell the freaking dress," he said. "I posted it last Friday and it went crazy."

Hani Durzy, spokesman for eBay, said Star wasn't the first to get swept up in the tidal wave a good eBay listing can bring. Just weeks ago, the site was barraged with traffic when it handled the auction of Bill Clinton's boyhood home.

"Larry's listing is a fascinating case study of what the Internet can bring," Durzy said. "I'm not sure that he thought it might gain this much attention.

"But people appreciate good writing and funny listings."

That's all Star really wants: to get paid to write funny things.

"I have been funny all my life," Star said, "and I have 6 zillion e-mails to confirm it."

So all this eBay exposure might do more for him than pay some bills and buy some baseball tickets and beer. It could land him a writing job.

But first, maybe one more auction.

"I found the gloves that go with the dress," he said.

And where is the famous dress for now?

"In a garbage bag. ... Oh, freak, I've got another freaking call. Hang on a sec."

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or [e-mail]. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001915316_brodeur29m.html

[fdatrader]

Have a great night Buck. I'm off before market tomorrow, so I'll catch you in the afternoon. Thanks, Frank

[HabaneroDog]

Thanks...Mama says "come to bed", so's Im off. Got one of the grandkids for the next few days and I'm making to much noise...see's ya on the rise!

[fdatrader]

You're going to make a lot of friends when that day comes. Free is a mighty fine price..:) I'm sure there is tractability so I will certainly do my part. I'll stick everything in it and only use the dog.

[HabaneroDog]

Thanks, I can't wait to give it to everyone, It will be FREE when I release it....

[fdatrader]

I can see why one would get addicted to it. I'm still checking it out and see I can drop icons into it! Be proud man, you did good.

[HabaneroDog]

My goal was to make computing easier and faster for the very beginning user to the most advanced....My brother use to call me and ask how to turn off his computer, he's addicted and so is everyone else I have using it...!

[fdatrader]

Hey, I'm the happy one! Thanks again.

[HabaneroDog]

Right on.....That makes me happy!

[fdatrader]

Heck Buck...I can dump tons of links, and favorites. Of course I'll use it for ebay, and others.

[HabaneroDog]

fd...You did notice that you could access ebay through the software, under shopping? Please use it...!

[fdatrader]

That's for sure. Everytime I turn around I see that someone is off on a fishing trip, planning one, or wishing they were on one. Me, I'm going to Clear Lake next Wednesday. Going to rip some lips off of some Largemouth Bass.
Frank

[HabaneroDog]

Get after it, there's a lot of fishermen on the hub....

[fdatrader]

ROTFLMAO!!! You got it...we'll turn it into the #1 board on IHub! Watch out Zeev's and BOT!!! :):):)

[HabaneroDog]

I see your an assistant on this board...
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/board.asp?board_id=2297

[fdatrader]

Sorry buck...just looked it up. It's your board! Well, I guess I'll have to check it out.

[fdatrader]

No...never talk to her. What is Salt Spray?

[SummerOne]

The cruelest thing of all -

That dress is too big for him!

[HabaneroDog]

I THINK missy's profile here on ihub use to say something about collecting old lures, you ever talk to her? I could be wrong....You ever post on Salt Spray?

[fdatrader]

Yeah buck...collect them, and sell them. Amazing to be holding some of them, knowing they are 100 years old. Lots of history.

[HabaneroDog]

Yo bubba...You collect old lures?

[fdatrader]

nah...that darn pennybuster took you out. But I got even with him, for you..lol

[HabaneroDog]

I just bet you are....<g>

[fdatrader]

Oh, man....sorry.
hehehehehe