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eBay cancels Haggard massage table auction |
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Written by Cary Leider Vogrin, MCT
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Monday, 19 March 2007 |
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Just hours before online bidding was to close on the purple massage table Mike Jones calls "the table where it all happened" with Ted Haggard, eBay removed the listing.
Jones said the online auction Web site sent him an e-mail Sunday afternoon saying the listing was removed for violating its policy for charity, an action he believes was prompted by complaints from a Delaware-based ministry called Transforming Congregations.
The group, on its Web site, had urged people to fax eBay about the listing. "If you contacted eBay to express your concerns or register a complaint, please contact them again and thank them for doing the right thing," read a message on the site Monday morning.
Haggard, founder of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and former head of the National Association of Evangelicals, is undergoing what the church calls "restoration therapy" after Jones revealed the two had a 3-year relationship.
Haggard was removed from his posts in early November after revelations of his visits with Jones, a former escort and masseur who claims Haggard paid him for sex.
Jones said he planned to give all money from the auction to Project Angel Heart, which provides services to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
Bidding on the table started at $400 and reached at least $1,275 before the item was taken off the site.
"It's just sad," Jones said Monday morning. "I wasn't going to make any money off of it. It was for a good cause. Who it hurts is Angel Heart. It doesn't hurt me."
Jones said he had chatted online with a representative of the auction site before putting the item up for sale, and no red flags or questions came up.
"They didn't say a thing," Jones said. "Nine days later, they remove it and say I violated their charity policy.
Hani Durzy, a spokesman for eBay, said the item was pulled solely because it violated the site's fund-raising policy. He said he did not know how the violation came to the auction house's attention; he said violations are reported from sellers, buyers and the site's own internal monitoring of the 100 million or so items for sale at any one time.
"That would have absolutely nothing to do with why that listing was pulled," Durzy said of the Delaware ministry. Durzy said the site does have an online platform called "Giving Works" for items being sold for charity and that it's possible Jones could relist it there. eBay works with a company called Mission Fish, which makes sure funds raised for charity go directly to the charity and not back to the seller.
Jones said the table is still sitting in his apartment.
What will come of it?
"Maybe eBay can tell me how I can do it right. Maybe I'll just hang on to it until my book comes out. Maybe I can promote it that way."
Jones has written a book about his three-year relationship with Haggard titled "I Had to Say Something — The Art of Ted Haggard's Fall." The book, being published by Seven Stories Press, is due out in June. | Only registered users can write comments.
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