November Nine’s Schwartz on eBay
The final table of the World Series of Poker is less than a month away, and the pressure is on to find sponsors to make a little more money than the $900K and the potential of more than $9 million. Yeah, life is hard.
Since the big name sponsors that they were hoping for aren’t beating down the doors of the members of the November Nine, it’s time to kick the efforts into high gear. Ylon Schwartz has proactively hired RecordWeb Communications to help with the marketing, and they issued a press release stating that sponsorship opportunities are available through eBay.
The eBay item already has one bid of $37,500 from f***2. (Would love to see what that proposed ad is…) Here is part of the page that lists what is being offered:
Ylon Schwartz is offering one lucky and smart bidder, the chance to place a 10 Square Inch patch on his arm, chest, hat or other mutually agreed upon location or a branded item to be placed on his chips or cards. Your brand will benefit from proven Nascar-style advertising as this patch or branded items will be seen by TENS OF MILLIONS of ESPN viewers…
As you can see the photos of Ylon at the poker table, his torso, head, arms, chips and cards are clearly visible to the viewer. Any time Ylon plays a hand in this event; your patch or branded item will be seen by millions of fans. Ylon is currently 5th in chips and will be in this event for a long time. The event will probably play for 15 hours more and then will be shown to a prime time viewing audience on ESPN on November 11th, 2008.
Ed says:
October 12th, 2008 at 9:23pm
So have any of the pro postpone final table until Nov folk changed their mind yet? I still think it was a stupid idea and will not help poker in any way.
donkey says:
October 12th, 2008 at 10:03pm
Jen, the Ebay auction has Free Delivery. Yea baby!
California Jen says:
October 12th, 2008 at 11:06pm
Ed, I haven’t heard a negative word about the final table delay from any of the November Nine.
donkey, I noticed the free delivery. What a bonus!
DanM says:
October 12th, 2008 at 11:58pm
Ed, you aren’t looking forward to seeing the final table!!?!!
Following it on the internet and then watching it up close a day-ish later for a two-day total poker binge?
What happened to the Ed I know?
Kevin Mathers says:
October 13th, 2008 at 6:16am
***Ylon is currently 5th in chips and will be in this event for a long time.***
I’m sure Phillip Hilm was thinking the same thing last year, and we saw how that turned out.
Dennis Phillips had also mentioned he was also going to auction off some space on Ebay with the proceeds going to charity. Wonder how the relationship with Roy Winston(?) is turning out since he hasn’t mentioned Phillips recently.
Ed says:
October 13th, 2008 at 7:29am
Not really…I now know there is no one there I really care to watch…and I still think delaying it is a stupid idea.
donkey says:
October 13th, 2008 at 9:55am
That Ebay ad is so misleading. It first says that “Ylon Schwartz is offering one lucky and smart bidder, the chance…”
Then at the bottom, it reads, “Ylon is selling other patch placements. Yours may not be the only one”
Recordweb, whose address is a PO Box, and Tumbleweed should be ashamed of themselves.
DanM says:
October 13th, 2008 at 11:07am
The coolest thing about this is that by being on eBay, it means you can make your poker investment via PayPal.
DanM says:
October 13th, 2008 at 11:10am
***Not really…I now know there is no one there I really care to watch…and I still think delaying it is a stupid idea.***
Ed, your cynicism breaks my poker heart. That’s like saying there’s no point in watching American Idol because you’ve never heard of any of the contestants.
We’ll see if you change your mind in upcoming weeks as the November 9 get more airtime on the ESPN coverage. All have just started to make appearances as their chip counts after Day 4 started to register them as contenders.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 13th, 2008 at 12:08pm
Players who still have not appeared/mentioned by ESPN at the Main Event (with under 200 left):
Phillips
Demidov
Schwartz
Kim
Eastgate
edbucks says:
October 13th, 2008 at 1:15pm
November 10, 2008, 10:00 PM FINAL TABLE (heads up)
Let’s see, the SF/ARI Monday Night Football is 8:30pm on ESPN. I guess they are going to switch over to poker in the 3rd quarter? NOT. I can’t wait to see how all this is going to play out.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 13th, 2008 at 1:39pm
The final table airs on ESPN Nov. 11. They’re not covering any part of the final table live on ESPN.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 13th, 2008 at 1:40pm
Also, MNF starts at 8:30pm ET, the final table starts at 10pm PT.
Ed says:
October 13th, 2008 at 4:02pm
Kevin = Da Man with ALL the knowledge.
“…That’s like saying there’s no point in watching American Idol because you’ve never heard of any of the contestants.”
Dan, I don’t watch American Idol because it is a stupid show. Actually caught an episode this last season when at a friends house and laughed most of the time. It was the episode where the dread head guy got the boot.
DanM says:
October 15th, 2008 at 12:27pm
I only occasionally get hooked into American Idol, so maybe not the best example.
However, yesterday I got caught up with the future of Dannity Kane on MTV’s Making the Band 4. I found their format particularly interesting … as they recorded the season, and then aired a “live” finale.
Clearly the WSOP isn’t the only one trying out such a concept. And I have a feeling a lot of non-poker people will totally stumble on the final table and watch it. Can only imagine how much exponentially greater the “sticky” factor would be had Tiffany Michelle been one of the November Nine.
DanM says:
October 15th, 2008 at 12:29pm
BTW, here’s Ylon’s personal website. Strange dude. I think I like him … not sure:
http://shipthecheese.com
Kevin Mathers says:
October 15th, 2008 at 12:43pm
The Dennis Phillips auction for MS is going to be on Ebay Thursday-Saturday.
Ylon’s auction now has 0 bids on it as f***2’s bid got removed (shocker, I know).
DanM says:
October 15th, 2008 at 1:00pm
funny. i just heard that, too, and was looking for the auction page on eBay. can’t find it yet, however.
DanM says:
October 15th, 2008 at 1:02pm
I don’t think it’s unusual to see zero bids three days before the auction.
However, it will be really interesting to see if he gets the $200k buy-it-now price. I bet not. I’m setting the over-under at $88k (for THIS auction … i think one in November gets more).
Kevin Mathers says:
October 15th, 2008 at 1:04pm
Just got in the news at Card Player at http://tinyurl.com/phillipsauction
This one may be a bit more reasonable ($3k starting bid, 10 day auction).
donkey says:
October 15th, 2008 at 7:47pm
$88k? You serious,Dan? It will end with zero bids. Marketing at big companies don’t go on Ebay, there are special agencies for that.
DanM says:
October 16th, 2008 at 1:37am
Hmm, maybe I should put a caveat in that if it gets any bids at all. I really think it will. But I could be wrong. I certainly wouldn’t put any money on that, though.
I do think Dennis Phillips’ charity spot (which is supposed to go live tomorrow) will draw some legitimate bids.
edbucks says:
October 16th, 2008 at 5:49pm
Big mistake not going “pre-approved” Bidders only. If you ever sell big ticket items on Ebay, you know what I’m talking about.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 17th, 2008 at 5:04pm
In reference to the name of the bidder, I didn’t know until I looked into it further: the bidder’s names are obscured to everyone except the bidder and whomever lists the auction.
At the moment, it’s Phillips $12,200, Schwartz $0.
donkey says:
October 17th, 2008 at 11:01pm
Those bidders are pretty suspicious, if you ask me. Looks like someone opened a couple new accounts to bid on it. I wouldn’t be surprise if Phillips is pumping his own stock.
DanM says:
October 18th, 2008 at 12:52am
No way, dude. I think this is just how eBay auctions work. It’s hardly surprising to me that the types of folks likely to bid on Dennis’ endorsement real estate might be new to eBay.
donkey says:
October 18th, 2008 at 2:19pm
Not to rain on your parade, Dan, cuz we all like to think that there is a line of people waiting to bid on Dennis for the sake of MS. I consider myself a savvy Ebay seller, and I’m guilty of having multiple Ebay accounts, mostly dummy accounts that I used to bid on my own products to either get feedbacks or to make my product looks like it’s hot. And you know it takes 2 seconds to create a bidding account, no cc needed unless you are selling. The reason it’s suspicious because of the 17 bids, s***i seems pretty anxious right out of the box to bid and outbid others. He accounts for 12 of the 17 bids. Think about it, if you are really trying to buy something, you either wait until the final day, or you place one bid just to see if anyone else bites…but you wait after that. Then you have these other zeros (probably the same person) in there outbidding each other the first two days…in the stock market, we call that market manipulation.
Of course, I’m speculating, but even if they are real bidders, as a seller, you are always nervous when a new ID bid on your products, cuz if they win and don’t pay, you are stuck with the fees, and giving them a negative rating doesn’t affect them, they can just make up a new ID.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 18th, 2008 at 2:30pm
If you bid 100k for an item, and people make bids at 5k, 12k, 15k, 20k, etc. That means you’ve made 4 bids.
At least there’s someone in Dennis’ bid history that has more than 0 feedback.
donkey says:
October 18th, 2008 at 2:43pm
Yes, that is true, Kevin, but look at his other activities after $10k. The point is that, when you look at 17 bids, you say “Wow, there’s a lot of activities”. But if you care to look into it, it’s really 1 or 2 people. And the dude with 20 feedbacks, I think that may be a real one, but I’ve called up my friends before and tell them to bid on my auction, promising them that they will be outbid. It’s all manipulation, bro.
DanM says:
October 18th, 2008 at 4:37pm
***I’m guilty of having multiple Ebay accounts***
interesting. i knew eBay could be cut throat … but is multi-accounting on eBay an offense like it is on PokerStars?
Ed says:
October 18th, 2008 at 6:00pm
It is if you get caught bidding on your own stuff. Thing is…you would have to be a complete retard to get caught.
donkey says:
October 18th, 2008 at 6:24pm
Yes, it is Dan, but only if they suspend an account for whatever reasons,they try to link other accounts based on addresses, email, and Paypal email, and suspend those accounts too.
I’ll be doing a Brian Townsend Press Monday morning.
DanM says:
October 18th, 2008 at 9:00pm
I forgive you. Jen probably doesn’t, but she’s on vacation, so I think you’re in the clear.
Kevin Mathers says:
October 20th, 2008 at 6:17am
FWIW, the auction has been relisted, but for whatever reason they decided to start the opening bid yet again at $37,500.