Auctioning Jeremy’s Tie
Tomorrow, I’ll be one of the guests on the Jeremy Vine show, appearing at 1PM to promote and discuss The eBay book. As part of the show, I’ve set up an auction for the tie that Jeremy is wearing on today’s show. I’ve just been emailed two digital photos of Jeremy wearing the tie, so I’ve begun the auction listing process…. OK, after resizing the photos, I’ve got eBay to accept them. Any moment now, the auction will be live. You can go straight to it by clicking the link here. This auction is in aid of the BBC’s official charity, Children In Need. You can listen to the show live and hear it for up to a week afterwards by clicking on this link.
There’s an entry all about The eBay book further down this page.It’s ironic, especially given the post below, that after thirty-odd books in fifteen years as a published writer, I first do live national radio to promote a non-fiction book I researched and wrote in three months, but that’s showbiz… coming up next: Turning Point
Post Script As I type, it’s 8PM and the tie auction website has had almost 30,000 hits. There were 85 bids, peaking at 950 pounds. I came home from London to a flood of emails (sorry, I can’t answer them all), including an apologetic one from ‘fluffywuffy001’, the bidder who ‘won’ the auction but was uncontactable during the show. Fluffywuffy001 emailed me while I was in London and offered to donate 500 quid to Children In Need to make up for not following through with the bid. I’ve replied, giving her/him the opportunity to follow through with this, but, sadly, heard nothing as yet. Still, we showed how easy it is to create an untraceable eBay ID – the important thing is that we got through to the second highest bidder, trader popculturedotbiz who agreed to honour his bid of 930 pounds for the tie and spoke live on air (‘the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done’ he emailed me later) and is posting a cheque tomorrow.
It was an intense day, managing the auction at the BBC office while Phil, who was looking after me, constantly handled calls, at one point breaking off: ‘I have to speak to Desmond Tutu now’. Surreal. I had a great time with Jeremy, fellow Elvis Costello fan, and a pleasant off-air chat with Steve Wright (he didn’t want his tie selling but was very interested in eBay). And on the train back I started reading an advance paperback copy of Pirates, an outstanding novel by Celia Rees who will be one of the speakers at Turning Point (PS – no, she isn’t – Celia had to pull out because of a scheduling conflict, which is a great shame, as she’s a terrific speaker). The day wasn’t over. This week, I’ve bought a new iMac with an extreme airport wireless network (not on eBay: you don’t get customer support when you buy second hand computers). When I got home, I found Antonio, a Mac wizard from the wonderful KRCS, a company I’ve been using for nine years, installing and updating my home network. If you’re reading this, he got it to work.
