So when is the last time that an eBay auction sparked a news story? I don’t know either, but this is just straight up strange.
If you have a few extra grand laying around, you could be the owner of the master copies of every event M-1 Global held in 2008 and 2009. The bidding started at $0.01, and the shipping would set you back a cool $50k, but has since been lowered to a much more manageable $2000. The original product description has been deleted, but thank the higher power for copy and paste:
Up for bid is 171 large mouth Sony HD Cam 124 minute tapes. These tapes have one pass on them and are in EXCELLENT shape. This is the only complete completion as they are the MASTER tapes for M1 Global’s 2008 and 2009 season. These are the only copies in existence, there are no others anywhere. These are the MASTERS without any copies! You are buying these tapes as one pass stock ties and are only buying the physical video tape itself. This does not grant the license to the footage, but since they are the only MASTER tapes:) I am selling these because of non-payment for production costs. Own a piece of MMA history: M1 Global’s 2008 & 2009 MASTER library!
How cool would it be if you could tell all your friends that you own MMA footage that nobody else on the planet has? Well, it is M-1 Global, so they would probably all just give you a really funny look, then laugh at you for wasting thousands of dollars on that crap.
Now here are where things get interesting. MiddleEasy.com got in contact with the seller of the tapes, and found out they were put up for sale by former M-1 Vice President of Operations Jerry Millen. When asked why he was selling the master copies, here is what Millen had told MiddleEasy.com:
I left M1 and it was amicable, but there was a huge amount of money still owed to me for the M1 Series production. I was told I would be taken care of, and I never was. A portion of the money owed was supposed to be for the M1 commentators, Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock. They were never paid by M-1, so I paid them out of my own pocket.
“I’m selling these tapes as a way to recoup the substantial amount of money that is owed to me. M1 didn’t pay the invoices and the past year and a half they’ve been giving me BS excuses. I know financially things aren’t well for them, but this is a complete reflection of M1.
“This is not aimed to hurt Fedor Emelianenko in anyway. He’s been completely mismanaged. I hate to say that Dana White is right, but he’s 100 percent right with most of the comments he’s made towards M-1. They unfortunately ruined Fedor’s career. Can it be salvaged? Sure. But M1 as a management company is ridiculous.
“You got to remember everyone at M1 left and they put Evgeni Kogan, a translator, virtually in charge of the company. Director of Operations? What is that? When we were there, we actually had revenue coming in and was producing a product. Now they have nothing coming in and it’s in complete disarray. You can’t put a translator in charge of running a company.”
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com