Another chapter to the scandal that rocked a nation (wherein Valleywag actually used a PR-pitched story! OMG WTF): Another pair of passes sold (a $3,000 Buy-it-Now purchase), and the auction was confirmed as real but PR-spun.

All right, I've been had by a flack. (Household hint: No cleanser can wash away the shame of using a PR piece.) A big-shot blogebrity (approval to name him pending), who probably got the eBay conference story pitch too, IMed last night:

Even in the overpriced conference world, the going price to hang out with Ballmer and Gates is cheaper than two shares of Google. An eBay bidder paid just $760 for two passes (and one hotel room — hot!) at the Microsoft MSN 7th Annual Strategic Account Summit, a 3-day, 3-night conference in Redmond, Washington.

EBay's new shopping-cart-based Express service, launched Monday, is in a "preview phase" for its first few weeks. But what's the holdup? As a reader points out, the Express idea ain't in beta. It got namedropped in a press release five years ago. Was the eBay development team in hibernation until another boom came along? Who's running the show there, Slartibartfast and the Magrethea planet-builders?

The Hollywood Valley invasion is just a swap: the Valley's taking over Hollywood, one clever indie flick at a time.

Slate published its 2005 Slate 60, the leaderboard for "competitive philanthropy." As always, the list of the top charitable donations and pledges includes a good showing from the tech industry.

Five hundred bucks is the top bid for a piece of tech history. As of press time, you have less than an hour to buy a rare...um...wristband from Infra-Strategy. Some employee at the Chicago IT company must be repurposing his schwag.

• Aren't we long overdue for a nasty celebrity sex tape? Sure, we just had Colin Farrell's taped tryst, but that was actually kind of hot. How about something to make us vomit? A video of Kid Rock and Scott Stapp engaging in some group play with the ladies would work. [Us Weekly]
• Courtney Love finally sells her Crosby Street loft; the last reported asking price was $5.25 million. And just like that, she's left us forever. [Page Six]
• Clay Aiken continues to cruise Manhunt.com for hookups, offering to reveal his identity via webcam. We can only dream of being so lucky. [R&M (2nd item)]
• Coldwell Banker broker Jason Lewis sells a chunk of record-setting NYC snow on eBay. We're sorry, but is the real estate market just not making you rich enough these days? [Lowdown (2nd item)]
• Paris Hilton uses up another Greek shipping heir, as beau Stavros Niarchos has reportedly left her. Now we can only wait, trembling with fear and anticipation, to see who she fucks next. [Page Six]
• Thankfully, Prince will remain unharmed by Paris' claws. [Scoop]

• Britney Spears claims that she drove with her infant son in her lap because the paparazzi made her do it. You see, they asked her to pose as such, and offered her $5, and she just couldn't resist. [R&M]
• Paris Hilton's testimony helps put away the man who burgularized and abused Girls Gone Wild perv Joe Francis. Poor Paris, always fighting for the wrong team. [Page Six]
• In other Paris-legal news, some poor soul has gotten a restraining order against the heiress, lest she stab him with her stiletto. [TMZ]
• Our favorite perv Vincent Gallo took to selling not only his sperm on eBay, but also his flesh. $50K was the starting bid for a night of Gallo pleasure but, alas, no one was syphilic enough to consider bidding. [Lowdown]
• Robin Byrd, Lizzie Grubman — there's less of a difference than you think. [Page Six]
• Everyone's favorite "rehab" expert, Kate Moss, counsels everyone's favorite penis, Colin Farrell, on staying "sober." [Contact Music]

In the valley, even Gawker comments have a price. [eBay]
Wifi startup FoN, on a day full of positive news, decides to waste its whuffie by lying about a deal. [Om Malik on GigaOm]
John Battelle says Lycos laid off most of its search team; haven't found any corroboration yet, but that won't keep bloggers from spreading the rumor, right? [Searchblog]
Google's London HQ isn't as snackpacked as Mountain View. [sandeeko on Flickr]
Google punishes BMW's German site; image search for "BMW" now shows happy people at Tiananmen Square. [Bloomberg on AZ Central]

Google's out to make money? Really, I had no idea. [Scripting News]
Another technology killed by the Internets: the telegram is dead. [LiveScience]
The heartwarming story of an eBay mogul sending hope to a barren people crying for help — Hollywood. [Wired]
It's FUNNY because it's a SONG PARODY. Ha. Ha. [BoingBoing]
Daddy, what does a VC do? [VentureBlog]

• Judging from her Golden Globes appearance, actress Hilary Swank is not taking her impending divorce from Chad Lowe all that well. [Go Fug Yourself]
• Before you sacrifice your soul and take that i-banking job, know your banks and the types of assholes they employ. [Brooklyn to Harlem • Jared Leto takes his craft so damn seriously, he'll eat 2847145 Twinkies if need be. [Popsugar]
• Apparently Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's sonogram made its way to eBay; the site has since removed the auction seeing as, well, even we think that shit is mildly sick. [CourtTV]
• Bucky Turco of Animal has managed to find himself in our local tabloids oh, like, 600 times now. But if they can't spell your name right, it just doesn't count. [NYDN]
• Admit it: You're totally staying in tonight to watch Skating With Celebrities. It's like Dancing With the Stars meets The Cutting Edge, and you dare to pretend that this doesn't matter? Uh, TOEPICK, bitches! [Slate]

Now that you know A Million Little Pieces certainly doesn't contain James Frey's life story, as you'd long thought it did, we can imagine you must be desperate for any sort of printed-and-bound account of Frey's real past. This is why we're pleased to direct you to America's best stomping ground for obsessive collectors of useless ephemera: eBay. Where you can now find the 1986 yearbook from Frey's high school.

We don't know how old this vintage poster for sale on eBay is, we don't know what kind of shape it's in, and we don't know if it's worth any real money. Most important, though, we also had no idea that Anderson Cooper has been doing ad campaigns for French cologne.

• Those News Corp kids sure do know how to throw an incredibly odd Christmas party. Weirdness aside, things were moments of normalcy: after the picture at right was taken, she ended up in the broom closet with dude dressed like a giant beaver-like thing.
• It was inevitable, really, that LIRR tickets ended up on eBay. Go ahead and collect your little piece of hell! [eBay]
• In the meantime, the TWU and MTA mediators are kinda passing notes back and forth, but it might not last long if the authorities jail union folk. [Gothamist]
• Tomorrow at 12:30, you should probably go meet this freak on a corner and sumo wrestle him. [Craigslist]
• The world's best Christmas list always starts with a request for one-night stands who appear with perfect boners. [NYO]
• How to kill yourself like a man. [The Best Page in the World]
• Maybe we missed something, but how, why and when the hell did the New Yorker make Bill O'Reilly's blacklist? [BillOReilly.com]
• Why Jews secretly love Christmas. [Pdhyman]
• We always knew Oprah was to blame for America's reading crisis. Bitch. [n+1]
• Pac-Manhattan hits the University of Michigan, becomes just reality Pac-Man. So that means this stuff takes approximately two years to trickle towards the Great Lakes. [Boing Boing]
• If you win a prize involving financial support from evil realtor Barbara Corcoran, is it really winning at all? [GMA]

Like drinking? (Of course you do.) Like the East Village? (Can't imagine why you wouldn't.) Have a spare $670,000 lying around? (Aha. You knew there was something.) If you answered yes to these three questions, then have we got an eBay auction for you.

While NYPD spent the early hours of this morning hunting for Braunstein in Cobble Hill, yesterday's Post revealed that former journalist and suspected fireman/molester Peter Braunstein bought 8.8 pounds of potassium nitrate (or saltpeter) on internet auction site eBay. When combined with various materials, saltpeter can be used to make anything from smoke bombs to pipe bombs — which may have been what Braunstein used to create small fires outside of him victim's apartment, or he could still be holding on to his stash for later use.

• We contacted indie filmfreak Vincent Gallo this morning for comment and have yet to hear back on the matter, but it seems that for just $1 million dollars, you can buy some of his sperm. If you're Chloe Sevigny, it's free of charge. [VG]
• It's come to our attention that all Viacom employees — i.e., roughly two-thirds of NYC — are now unable to receive IMs that contain links. The point of this? We don't really know, but golly, we're tired of the man holding you down!
• Yesterday, Radar reported that hip-hop magazine The Source has been unable to pay its rent. So are they evicted yet? [For Myself and Others]
• The seller offers no proof of authenticity, but you know you're just stupid enough to pay $1750 for a cocktail dress reportedly belonging to Paris Hilton. Helpful tip: the shame is less palpable if you do your bidding drunk. [eBay]
• Need your own militant activist to throw red paint on your enemies? PETA is auctioning off their president, Ingrid Newkirk, for an entire day of furry fun. [AdFreak]

While Britney Spears is enjoying babydaddy Kevin Federline's new demo CD on multiple levels (drink coaster, miniature ultimate frisbee tournaments, last-resort diaphragm), a stake in her own recording legacy has been put up for sale on eBay as if it were a Fiestaware soup turreen. From E! Online:

• A news article about outing people has been written — and there's is no mention Anderson "gayer-than-fauxhawks" Cooper. [AP via NYT]
• Bloomberg in High Holiday campaign calls shocker! [Politicker]
• Some sort of country singer gives us the greatest press release ever, in history. [Some Country Singer]
• There are currently 28 bids for what someone claims are Britney Spears' worn flip-flops, and we have lost just a little more faith in humanity. [eBay]