Ship Your Enemies Glitter revenge website sells at auction only days after launch
By RYAN GORMAN
The founder of a revenge website that went viral sold the business within days of launching it.
Mathew Carpenter auctioned off Ship Your Enemies Glitter for a tidy sum of $85,000 this week after launching the site last week and becoming swamped with orders.
The 22-year-old, from Australia, sold the site via Flippa, an online marketplace that allows people to sell start-ups, domains and other website-related tools.
Bidding hit $70,000 within hours of the site, which referred to glitter as "the herpes of the craft world," being put up for sale, according to the Guardian. It stalled and then shot up another $15,000 to the final asking price.
Carpenter claims he earned $20,000 in the short time his site was accepting orders, according to the auction listing. More than 2.5 million people visited the website in its first four days.
He soon became overwhelmed and took to the ProductHunt forum begging people to leave him alone.
"Hi guys, I'm the founder of this website. Please stop buying this horrible glitter product - I'm sick of dealing with it. Sincerely, Mat," the glitter shipper wrote.
The site was then closed for orders, but those already placed will still be fulfilled, Carpenter told the Guardian. Carpenter charged glitter bombers $9.99 per envelope.
Ship Your Enemies Glitter went viral because of hilarious marketing copy that greeted people visiting the site.
"We f*****g hate glitter," the site claims. "People call it the herpes of the craft world.
"What we hate more, though, are the soulless people who get their jollies off by sending glitter in envelopes."
Multiple testimonials claimed to show customers happy with their glitter-stuffed envelopes being sent to foes.
"I bought this for my husband, he opened the mail before work & got it everywhere! He had to change, was late for work & might be getting fired, LOL!" wrote a woman named Grandy Chambers.
Other testimonials included a man claiming his wife left him over the glitter and another saying that sniffing glitter gave him a bloody nose.
It is not known if the site will resume taking orders once it changes hands.
