Prototype Macbook Air from mid-2007 surfaces on eBay

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I can’t make up my mind whether Macrumours forum member Brett33 is lucky or not. He bought an ‘as is’ Macbook Air off eBay, and it showed up with a black aluminium base and no ‘Macbook Air’ written on the bezel of the display. On further investigation, Brett discovered that it was a very early prototype of the device, built in May 2007.

The laptop was running a build of OS X 10.5, and the device was produced six months before it was announced to the public. It’s rather unusual to see one of these prototypes in the wild, given how secretive Apple is as a company. If I were Brett, I’d stick it straight back on eBay at double the price.

Forum thread (via Macrumours)

Related posts: Apple beefs up MacBook Air with more storage and better graphics, but it’s still thin | What’s this? A Macbook Nano? Er…

Do your Christmas shopping on a budget with Local Bargain Finder

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Ignore the rather utilitarian design on localbargainfinder.co.uk – what’s behind the site is surprisingly powerful. It’s a set of custom eBay searches that allow you to find auctions near your geographical location, as well as check for negative feedback on bidders and check commonly misspelled variants of your search items.

The service is designed mainly for big bulky stuff, like fridges, etc, that are a pain to ship across the country, but there’s plenty of money-saving application here for Christmas, too. I can tell you right now that someone I know might be getting a Retro TV stand (pictured) or a Silver Ford Focus bonnet in their stocking this year. It’s amazing how much stuff is listed as ‘Pickup only’. If you find any bargains, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.

Local Bargain Finder

Related posts: Credit Crunch Bargains – gadgets for under £50 | Sony adds local garage petrol prices to its satnav displays

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Woman selling her own name. Winning bidder gets to call her MRS STUPID

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We’d better not be too scathing of this lady’s plans, as this one’s for charity. If you’re rude about charity you go to the same part of Hell as Gary Glitter.

37-year-old Eileen De Bont, from St Asaph, Denbighshire, is putting her name up on eBay as a Children in Need stunt. The winning bidder gets to choose her name, so if David Beckham wants a bit of positive PR, he could put in a massive bid and have the poor lady renamed to VICTORIA IS LOVELY for the next year.

The kind-hearted MILF told The Telegraph “It’s all very silly but I’m deadly serious about changing it. I’ll even call myself Scunthorpe Travelodge if it’s the winning bid, so watch out Paris Hilton…

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Anyone paying $100 for one of yesterday's Barack Obama-themed newspapers

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Yesterday’s American newspapers, all of which carried various combinations of the words “Obama” and “wins” and “change” on their covers, are selling on eBay for vast sums today thanks to the whole incredible level of excitement surrounding the election of America’s first ever president.

Copies of the New York Times, pictured left, which led with the simple headline “Obama,” are currently fetching around $100 each on eBay, despite the NYT hurriedly printing an extra 75,000 copies to meet demand on the day as desperate punters tried to grab themselves a piece of history…

eBay Nutcase of the Week: American town attempts to sell massive steel bridge

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If you happen to be in the market for a massive, ready-made steel bridge, the mayor of Winchendon, Massachusetts has a deal for you.

He’s stuck the local bridge on eBay, for a starting price of $100. If you have the relevant insurance and equipment to move a 90-foot steel bridge, it’s yours. Winchendon doesn’t need it any more as it’s fixing up the area…

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Bigfoot hoaxers sell their fake rubber suit and accompanying chest freezer

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Remember the latest Bigfoot hoax that tricked a few extremely gullible conspiracy theorists on the internet a few months back?

Well, you can now purchase a very special souvenir of the event – the actual rubber suit shown off to the world as a discovered Bigfoot corpse. You also get the original chest freezer the body was shown in, like it’s a big toy in a presentation case…

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Woman buys house she hasn't seen for $1.75

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No, that is not an error. We didn’t mean $1.75m. We really do mean $1.75, as in about 90p at today’s rapidly-plummeting exchange rate. Less eBay fees and PayPal commission, of course, but they won’t be that crippling considering the buyer’s getting an entire house.

The woman in question is mature student Joanne Smith. She was browsing eBay for “PlayStations,” when she noticed an alert for a house on sale with no starting price. So she placed a bid of $20 – eventually winning the auction for $1.75…

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Any American trying to sell Yankee Stadium cup holders

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If you’re (a) American or (b) Japanese and are into baseball, you may be tempted to get yourself a “vial of actual infield soil taken from Yankee Stadium” – yours for around $70.

If you’re too worried to buy unofficial dirt, plenty of official dirt – with certificates of authenticity – is also available…