Want to spend New Year’s Eve at The Curtis? This year, it’ll cost you a minimum of $51,000.

But at least you can bring along 600 of your nearest and dearest party people to share in the experience.

The Curtis Hotel, a boutique with a mid-century modern theme and 330 rooms, has started an auction to sell its services for the night of Dec. 31.

A bidder agreed to pay $1.68 million for a steak lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction completed on Friday night on eBay.

The winning bid in the 10th annual fund-raiser fell short of last year’s record $2.11 million, paid by Hong Kong-based investor Zhao Danyang.

As in recent years, the winner and up to seven friends may dine with the world’s second-richest person at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York.

A Quebec City man with a love of hockey and history claims to have a hockey stick that dates back to the mid-17th century.

However, historians suspect the one-metre long stick was simply crafted out of a very old piece of birch wood.

Bobby Rouillard, who lives in the suburb of Boischatel, will be showing off the stick at a pond hockey tournament this weekend. Then, he says, he will put it on eBay at a starting price of $1 million.

An American has purchased a rare intense red 3.69 carat ruby on eBay India for Rs. 8,20,000 ($19,600) making it one of the most expensive jewelry items sold on the country-specific Web auction site.

Arvind Juneja, a Jaipur resident has a family business of Jewellery and registered on eBay in October 2007. He has sold more than 90 pieces of jewelry and gems since October, 2007 on the Web site. His eBay id is “Jewelsafari.”

“I am an avid collector of precious gemstones,” he said. “I wanted to trade my collection with the buyers who really understand the worth of these priceless and unique gemstones.

Here we go again, in the old tradition of selling lives, personalities and organs on ebay…

An eccentric British Lord is selling his title and property on Internet auction site eBay and has attracted bids of over three million pounds, he said Friday.

David Piper, who describes himself as “Lord of the Manor of Warleigh,” includes a nine-bedroom house in Plymouth, modern art collection and two Bentley cars in the price. Also included in the auction are six acres of freehold land at Great Warleigh Farm, Tamerton Foliot, near Plymouth.

The 58-year-old entrepreneur said he is making the sale because he wants to move to London to receive treatment for advanced prostate cancer. “I have decided, as a result of having this rather advanced prostate cancer, and not having been able to work since January 2007, to have treatment done in London.

“Therefore I will sell everything up down here and move back to London,” he said, adding that he hopes to generate up to six million pounds from the auction sale. His advertisement says the sale “can include David, the existing eccentric lord of the manor physically as well, to a suitable purchaser.”So yes, you would be able to call yourself Lord of the Manor of Warleigh should you win his auction.

It is not the first time Piper has hit the headlines : Mr Piper received widespread publicity in 2002 when he placed a lonely hearts advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, seeking a soulmate with a sense of humour, receiving over 2,000 replies.

One of them was from US estate agent Rosaura Capelleri who moved to Britain to see how their relationship developed, but left Piper’s estate after two weeks.

Best of luck to the Lord of Warleigh regarding his health (source : AFP)

The soon-to-be-disbanded Police played their final concert ever on August 7 at Madison Square Garden and to celebrate it, the band has donated a complete set of autographed instruments to be auctioned online through eBay.

The auction has been running for the last few weeks, and the band has already raised over $50,000 from the sale of VIP ticket packages to the final show. Beginning August 4, a complete set of The Police’s instruments autographed by the band will be available for bidding.

The set includes 4 instruments that are each available for bidding separately and include Sting’s Signature Bass, Sting’s Sennheiser Microphone and Stand, Andy’s Signature Fender Telecaster, and Stewart’s Tama Star Drum Set.

100% of the proceeds from the auctions will benefit Public Television Rocks!, an initiative formed between NY Public Television stations, Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21. The Police chose to support these stations in recognition of their contributions to art, music, and culture.

The auction is running on eBay until August 14.