Well, Matthew Carpenter's dream-turned-nightmare has finally become someone else's blessing or curse: He officially sold Ship Your Enemies Glitter for a whopping $85,000, or about $104,000 AUD. Although I'm sure Carpenter didn't intend his short-lived venture to be a "get rich quick" scheme (which pretty much never work, anyway)... well, let's just say that he got as close to getting rich quick as is presumably possible. Did I mention that he also generated roughly $20,000 AUD in sales in Ship Your Enemies Glitter's first few hours in existence? Because he did. Wowzers.
According to the Guardian, Ship Your Enemies went up for auction on Flippa, an online marketplace geared towards facilitating sales of websites, domains, and mobile apps. The price of Carpenter's glitter-tastic baby reached heights of about $70,000 in the auction's first few days; in the final hours, though, another $15,000 made its way onto the floor, resulting in the impressive $85,000 sale. "Included in the sale are the website and all of its files, the domain name, and I'll also forward the emails from people requesting interviews and asking when the site will be taking orders again," wrote Carpenter on the site's Flippa page. The new owner is remaining anonymous for now, but it's probably only a matter of time before a name gets attached to the deal.
Of course, although I'm pretty sure the unnamed new owner will be obligated to make good on any outstanding orders, there's nothing that says they can't turn the site into something else if they want to (or maybe there is — I'm not privy to exactly what the paperwork stipulates — but allow my imagination to run wild for a moment). I mean, obviously Ship Your Enemies Glitter's business model is a good one, so keeping it as is would be a perfectly reasonable decision... but at the same time, is it just me, or would ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com make an excellent domain name for any of the following ventures?
1. A Biting, Sarcastic Web Comic
Admittedly, The Oatmeal and Hyperbole and a Half pretty much already have the market cornered on that one — but I'm sure there are plenty of avenues left to explore in the realm of Biting, Sarcastic Web Comics. Ship Your Enemies Glitter: The Comic could takes its cues from its original source and illustrate the misadventures of someone whose life is essentially one giant envelope of glitter being opened all over him or her again and again; or, it go off in an entirely different direction. One thing's for sure, though: I'd read it.
2. An E-Retailer That Sells Everything But Glitter
Mostly because I'm tickled by the idea of a shop selling everything but the thing its name implies that it would sell. I imagine a site like this would be staffed by an army of cats in pink wigs with headsets like the one seen here.
3. An E-Retailer That Sells Metaphorical Glitter and Rainbows and Unicorns and Stuff
By which I mean a site that enables you to send random surprises to people: Cupcakes, knicknacks, and so on. Even though getting an envelope of actual glitter is painful, in theory, glitter is delightful — so maybe one could take the idea of glitter and turn it into something wonderful. It's a slightly more positive spin on the whole thing, no?
4. A News Site Devoted to Stories of Petty Revenge
Kind of like the r/PettyRevenge subreddit, but more blog-like in form. It would be perfect for those days where you need just a little bit of schadenfreude to make you feel better about yourself.
5. A Subscription Box Service
Maybe one for people who dig crafting. Or one for people who like to annoy people who hate crafting by sending them crafting-themed packages.
Images: girlwparasol/Flickr; Giphy (6)
