Even before Hurricane Rita made landfall, the storm was stirring up interest on an Internet auction site.
The popular Web site eBay, where people buy and sell goods and services, currently has almost 80 Hurricane Rita-related items for sale. They range from commemorative coin sets and embroidered patches in the shape of the eye of the storm to stickers, Internet domain names and newspapers with front pages devoted to the massive evacuation.
SurfSkateBling.com, a Houston-based eBay store, is selling shirts that read, “I survived Hurricane Rita 2005” and “To hell with Hurricane Rita; I survived the 30-hour evacuation route.” The company is also offering vinyl decals and postcards with similar messages.
Julie Mabry, 31, owner of SurfSkateBling.com, said she and her sister got the idea from her family’s own experience with Rita.
“My grandparents drove from Texas City to Crockett and they were on the road for 33 hours,” Mabry said. “My mom went from her home (in Texas City) to Livingston and it took her about 27 hours. She broke down twice and my sister and I had to bring her gas, which took us about six hours.”
Mabry’s shirts are selling for $12.99. A dollar from every purchase is being donated to the American Red Cross to aid Hurricane Rita victims, she said.
“I respect anyone that went through this because it was terrible,” she said. “I am not selling the (items) to offend anyone. The evacuation is something my family and I went through, too, and it hurt us financially. This is just a way to make light of a heavy situation because the thing is the hurricane didn’t hit us, but people did sit in traffic for 30 hours.”
By Wednesday, another Hurricane Rita item up for auction was a postcard of Galveston. Jared Camarata, 17, said he placed it on eBay before the hurricane cut electricity to his home in Houston.
“I bought the postcard at Kroger in Houston and wrote ‘Stupid Hurricane Rita’ on the back,” said Camarata. “It was a slow wait waiting for Rita to come and we still had power, so I decided to post it on eBay. We didn’t evacuate because of the traffic, so this was just something to do.”
Camarata said he also tried to auction off a jar of “hurricane air and water,” but eBay removed the item before any bids were made.
“I haven’t bothered to put it back up, but I might,” he said.
More than 350 people viewed Camarata’s postcard. Wednesday afternoon, it had received three bids. The postcard was selling for less than $2.
“Hurricane Rita was covered by the national and the international news,” said Camarata. “One of the guys bidding on the postcard is from Sweden. He said he’d been watching the hurricane coverage and that’s what got him interested.”
Some of the most expensive Hurricane Rita items for sale are Internet domain names. For example, RitaAid.net was selling for $300 and GreatHurricane
.com could be purchased for $1,000. Another auctioneer was asking $1,000 for three domain names, including RitaHurricaneRelief.com and StormAid2005.com.
Other items being auctioned off are a bit more unusual. One Houston man is selling five “authentic hurricane masking tape balls.”
The balls were made from tape removed from the windows of the man’s home.
“These will make a great conversation piece on any coffee table,” he wrote. “They also make a great toy for your pet.”
