The Famous Ebay Cornflake

From the beginning Frazzled Cat has always supported charities, apart from producing designs for the charity sector, Frazzle also offers to produce an image free of charge to a selected charity each year, this has always been a private matter which we do not use for publicity purposes. At Christmas 2004 Frazzle decided to do something a little different after reading several newspaper stories about pieces of  toast that resembled Mother Teresa or buns resembling Elvis etc., so we thought what about a totally unique cornflake, it's unique because it resembles nothing except a cornflake! We decided to auction on Ebay and give  the funds to the Dogs Trust in Leeds where we obtained our much loved friend Dino who sadly died a couple of years ago. Soon after we started getting emails from people as far afield as South Africa, Canada and Australia, it had attracted worldwide attention, bids had reached £60 with expectations that it may reach almost £1000 when without warning Ebay canceled the auction, people were furious with Ebay and we received three different explanations as to why it was canceled, a newspaper reporter received a different explanation to ours, so why it was canceled was a mystery which is unlikely ever to be solved, what is for sure is that the Dogs Trust in Leeds were deprived of much needed funds at a time of year when they need money the most.

Read The article below Courtesy of the Daily Mail

Graham Philpot PIC – Cornflake eBay & the Cornflake Daily Mail

January 3^rd, 2005

A kind-hearted animal lover’s attempts to raise cash for charity by selling a cornflake, was thwarted last night, after eBay pulled the plug in controversial circumstances.

Married housewife Rosie Greaves from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, came up with the novel idea of selling a Kellogg’s Cornflake on the internet auction site, after seeing another seller put their morning toast up for bidding.

The auction, which ran over Christmas and planned to finish on Boxing Day, was intended to raise much-needed funds for the local branch of The Dog’s Trust and to highlight their continual ‘dogs aren’t just for Christmas’ campaign.

Several years ago the family purchased Dino, an elderly Labrador, from the Leeds Trust branch. Unfortunately, he died after only ten weeks, from heart failure. During that time, The Dogs’ Trust paid for all of Dino’s veterinary bills and left Rosie indebted to their charitable care.

“He was such a wonderful dog,” said Rosie, “so we thought we'd try to pay the charity back for all they had done. The Leeds centre is very dilapidated and the staff do such a fantastic job with very little facilities.”

The bidding had reached 8500 hits, with 850 watchers, until eBay removed the auction from their website. The company informed Rosie that her cornflake had been removed for “perishable reasons”.

Rosie, 37, said: “eBay have robbed charity of a great deal of money. It was a fun idea and it captured people’s imaginations and the sense of Christmas spirit worldwide. My auction was being mentioned on TV and radio stations across the globe, and was expected to raise hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.”

The vendor, who had the full backing of Kellogg’s with her online sale, was left “upset, mystified and astounded”, and immediately attempted to make contact with the world’s biggest internet auctioneers. Several days later, she received an email, outlining eBay’s decision on perishable foods.

The response amazed Rosie, who then questioned the decision. “Do they really expect people to believe that anyone was seriously being misled by bidding for
charity on one Cornflake? Do they expect that somebody was going to bid
hundreds of pounds for one ordinary cornflake just to eat it? Ebay by their Scrooge-like actions have robbed a very needy charity of
hundreds of pounds of greatly needed funds, and in which they have acted totally against the sprit of Christmas.”

Jacqui Darlow, press officer for The Dogs’ Trust, commented: “The Dogs Trust was made aware of the fundraising activities by Rosie herself early in the bidding process. We watched in delight as the bidding rose and rose to the grand sum of £51. A great sum for a cornflake! We were disappointed to hear that the auction had been withdrawn. We cannot comment on eBay’s response but it does seem unfair as other so-called ‘perishable’ goods have gone on to be sold successfully.”

Ebay, who declined to comment despite repeated e-mails, deleted all relevant files to the auction, so unfortunately, Rosy was unable to personally thank all of her bidders.  She believes that in the act of Christmas, the company should make a goodwill gesture to the charity.

Rosie, who trades under the eBay pseudonym Copperbonce116, added: “At least now everybody knows what the ‘E’ in eBay stands for – presumably, it stands for Ebenezer!”

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