Hebdo fever spreads online
Copies sold for many times the cover price as some cash in on demand for “survivors’ edition” of satirical weekly
EVEN as would-be buyers queued outside newsstands in Paris and across the world for their copies of the survivors’ edition of Charlie Hebdo, copies were being sold on auction sites on the internet for sums far in excess of the €3 cover price.
Yesterday, the day issue 1178 hit the streets, copies were being posted for sale on eBay with bid-stopping “buy now” prices of €25,000, €75,000 or even as high as €100,000, according to reports.
By the end of the day, more than 500 listings featuring the magazine had been posted on eBay. The auction site issued a statement in which it said that any commission it earns on sales of the magazine will be “paid back” to the satirical weekly.
PriceMinister and Le Bon Coin had both announced they would refuse to accept ads selling the issue.
Illegal digital versions of the were also being offered for sale.
Other Charlie Hebdo collectables were also being snapped up. Back issues have been selling for as much as €500, and signed issues were being snapped up for €14,000. Badges, hats and other items were also being offered for sale.
One ebay user, seopro1, who has been an ebay seller since November 2004, is offering I Am Charlie domain names for prices starting at $45,000, claiming it to be the “domain name of the century”. So far, no bids have been placed.
The magazine, which has a usual print-run of 60,000, had an initially planned to distribute 3million copies of the latest issue in several languages. This has been increased to 5million as demand soared. It will be on sale for two weeks.
Photo: Laurent Valdiguié / Twitter
