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Parks Memorials Are Hot Sellers on eBay

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Amber Hunt Martin, Detroit Free Press

Nov. 7--Bad news, Benjamin Henning: That Rosa Parks funeral program you bid more than $150 for on eBay soon won't be worth more than $10.

That's because Adam Shakoor -- who was appointed in 1998 as one of two trustees to handle Parks' affairs -- learned of the big bucks the 14-page programs were fetching on the online auction site and decided to try to halt the high-ticket sales.

"People are exploiting it," Shakoor said Sunday. "We are very concerned about that."

Shakoor said thousands more of the photo-filled programs will soon be printed so that they're virtually worthless for would-be entrepreneurs.

They would be sold for $5 to $10 each -- covering the cost to print them, with any extra going to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to help young people.

Henning, who goes by the online moniker bchenning2000 on eBay, was the highest bidder for one program, ultimately agreeing to pay $157.49. The seller was listed only as vrhickco, a newcomer to eBay who purported to be from Auburn Hills.

The person declined to be interviewed in an e-mail to a Free Press reporter Sunday night, saying "I would prefer not to get any publicity for selling something on eBay." EBay does not fully identify buyers and sellers online.

The same seller had two other Parks programs -- packaged with a four-page obituary and a one-sheet page on her life from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History -- up for bid. At 11 p.m., the two remaining auctions were at $152.50 and $67.99. The obituary alone was up to $76 from other sellers.

Even the Free Press' Nov. 3 eight-page memorial section dedicated to Parks was for sale, up to $5 with three days left in the auction.

In an e-mail to the Free Press on Sunday evening, Henning wrote that he wanted "this piece of history to be framed and in my personal collection to remind me daily of what Ms. Parks did for all of us."

Henning said he waited for six hours at the viewing in Washington, D.C., to pay his respects. "For years, I have attempted to make a difference as Ms. Parks so unselfishly did," he wrote.

Ten thousand of the full-color programs -- which include pictures of Parks being arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., as well as images of her later in life -- were distributed at the seven-hour funeral in Detroit on Wednesday.

Shorter programs were distributed when Parks' body traveled through Montgomery and Washington, D.C. Those also were for sale on eBay on Sunday; the highest bid for either design was $20 at 11 p.m.

Shakoor said he expected there would be a demand for the Detroit programs.

"There are many people who couldn't come to the funeral who would want that keepsake," he said. "We'd planned on printing more. We'll just jump a little sooner than we anticipated."

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EBAY,

Source: Detroit Free Press

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