The Ebay Wedding Dress Guy

[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