Bruce Schneier
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August 18, 2007
DefCon Badge Auction
I am auctioning my DefCon speaker badge on eBay.
The curious phrasing -- "upon completion of this auction, Schneier will donate an amount equal to the purchase price to the Electronic Privacy Information Center" -- is because eBay has complex rules for charity auctions. So, technically, I am not donating the proceeds of the auction; I am donating a completely different pile of money equal to the proceeds of the auction.
EDITED TO ADD (8/22): Sold for $335. Thank you all.
Posted on August 18, 2007 at 10:57 AM • 18 Comments
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Oh yeah, he's going to give a sample of his signature out to a bunch of hackers. ROTFL!
Posted by: Yagottabekiddinme at August 18, 2007 1:07 PM
Hmm, your comments about signing just gave me an idea for eBay to help solve items posted using hacked accounts.
Require a password for users to post auctions, make this different from their login password. Even if someone falls for a phish the attacker still won't be able to use that account to post fraudulent auctions.
Of course this would likely cause a lot of user confusion.
Posted by: Aaron Luchko at August 18, 2007 1:52 PM
By the way, the badge is blue, not black. Black badges are for lifetime passes.
And are you going to use a proxy to mail it or are you going o give out your address, or at a minimum your postal code (from the canceled stamp)?
Posted by: B-Con at August 18, 2007 2:56 PM
Damn, that would fit nice on my altar - ahem - I mean in my office ;)
Posted by: Kaukomieli at August 18, 2007 4:50 PM
That badge is close to $300. Is it the defcon novelty of the item or the smell of Bruce Schneier's sweat that has geeks salivating. Inquiring minds want to know.
its like a security Horcrux - harry potter joke
Posted by: schneier's cryptological penis at August 18, 2007 9:31 PM
@rolf: His signature is illegible. You'd just think that someone tried to get their pen to write, using this as scratch paper.
Posted by: Roxanne at August 19, 2007 5:02 AM
"So, technically, I am not donating the proceeds of the auction; I am donating a completely different pile of money equal to the proceeds of the auction."
Money being, of course, not fungible.
Posted by: Tom Brandt at August 19, 2007 3:04 PM
I must be confused. Isn't DefCon over? Of what value is a used speaker badge?
Posted by: Jim Shapiro at August 19, 2007 5:36 PM
Bruce, if you sign if, ensure there are some good fingerprints, and add your social security number the price might go up!
Posted by: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business at August 20, 2007 12:32 AM
"So, technically, I am not donating the proceeds of the auction; I am donating a completely different pile of money equal to the proceeds of the auction."
I don't know much about your IRS, but UK tax laws would not charge any tax to you on the sale but allow you to claim 'Gift Aid' on your donation. (This allows the recipient charity to claim the income tax you would have paid on that sum)
Posted by: Andrew Gumbrell at August 20, 2007 4:10 AM
Eeek there's only $200 of Paypal buyer protection and it's upto $300, do I trust Bruce??
Posted by: Alex at August 20, 2007 5:41 AM
I have several inscribed copies of Bruce's books. His signature isn't scarce.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 20, 2007 3:03 PM
"Why do people collect old baseball cards?"
To cut out and play paper dolls with?
Posted by: Anonymous at August 20, 2007 3:04 PM
B-Con, I suspect Bruce will shred the badge along with several other less-interesting DefCon badges, mix the pieces, divide them into three piles and send each one to the winner via a chain of anonymous drop-boxes. The winner will then use a complicated algorithm to discard the pieces of the "chaff" badges and re-assemble the real badge into its original form.
Posted by: Wim at August 21, 2007 3:12 AM
Bruce, please ask somebody from EPIC to do a spell-check of their site.
E.g., "Amendmen" is mis-spelled in one of the meta tags on the front page.
Posted by: Anonymous at August 22, 2007 2:49 AM
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