souvenir

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French Cops Seize 20 Tons of Mini Eiffel Towers

Wholesalers raided in trinket crackdown

(Newser) - French authorities have seized more than 20 tons of mini Eiffel towers as part of a crackdown on the illegal sale of souvenirs. Nine people, including wholesalers, were arrested in connection with the sale of the trinkets, which are often sold near tourist attractions in the French capital by undocumented...

Island Fights Tourists Trying to Steal Tons of Sand

Sardinia will fine you up to $3.4K if you take sand, rocks, or shells from its beaches

(Newser) - Do the crime, pay the fine—and on the island of Sardinia, the fine for collecting sand as a souvenir can be quite steep. The Telegraph reports a 40-year-old British tourist now has to fork over nearly $1,200 after local police say he was found with a plastic bottle...

How to Buy a Piece of Parisian Real Estate for $75

Old cobblestones from the city are for sale

(Newser) - Parisian streets have been paved with stones since the 12th century, and while asphalt now covers large swaths of the city, the cobblestones still adorn squares, boulevards, and alleyways. For years as the city dug them up (about 10,000 tons a year) to continue building or repaving, it paid...

Calif. Couple Jailed in Africa After Buying Souvenir

They were told the carved giraffe bone was legal

(Newser) - A California couple on safari in Africa bought a souvenir that ended up being far more expensive than they could have imagined. Jon and Linda Grant picked up the souvenir, a 15- to 18-inch giraffe bone onto which a herd of elephants had been carved, at a game reserve in...

Yours for $1,000: A Bottle of BP Gulf Oil

Relief group hopes to raise money for jobless fisherman

(Newser) - A relief organization is bottling up the gooey BP oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico and selling it—for $1,000 a pop. The nonprofit HorizonRelief.org, brainchild of a Louisiana oyster company, is selling 1,000 of the souvenir bottles and promises to give proceeds to out-of-work oyster workers...

Bizarre Collection Headed to Bush Library

From cowboy hats to swords to classified files

(Newser) - George W. Bush’s $300 million presidential library will be filled with documents, including many classified files. In all, it’ll boast roughly 68 million pages of documents, 175 million e-mails, 3,845,912 photos, and more videos than any previous president's library. But it’ll also have a wide...

Now Pitching for the Court: Chief Justice Roberts

Start collecting your baseball trading cards of the Supremes

(Newser) - On the heels of Supreme Court justice bobblehead dolls comes, of course, baseball trading cards. The first depicts Chief Justice John Roberts as the pitcher in the stance of famed fellow Indiana native Mordecai “3 Fingers” Brown, with legal stats on the reverse. Why? “First, it's fun,”...

X-Box Signed by Sarah Palin on EBay for $1.1M

Man tries for third time to unload weird, expensive souvenir

(Newser) - In what can only be described as the deal of the century, eBay user dmorrill321, aka David Morrill, is currently selling an actual “60GB, perfect-condition” X-Box 360, signed by actual unemployed person Sarah Palin, for the low-low opening bid of $1,100,000—plus shipping and handling. It’s...

'Inaugurabilia' Reaps $2M for Ceremonies

Ceremonies fully funded by trinkets, donations

(Newser) - Barack Obama's inauguration fundraisers had no problem capitalizing on a hot market for keepsakes. Obama-themed clothing, jewelry, rulers, and piggy banks raked in a grant total of $2 million for the inaugural committee. Even before the tchotchke change, the committee was already debt-free—the $53 million in individual donations disclosed...

Collectors Hunt for Obamabilia Treasures

Experts struggle to pick future keepers from sea of merchandise

(Newser) - Collectors are sifting through a sea of Barack Obama memorabilia searching for items that will be the gems of the future instead of tomorrow's junk, the Washington Post reports. Vast quantities of knick-knacks, ranging from dancing presidential dolls to Obama mints, have left even experts stumped about what to buy....

Big Day a Windfall for Newspapers

Huge demand for special editions

(Newser) - Newspapers expect a multi-million-dollar windfall in extra sales to people who want a keepsake of Inauguration Day, and publishers are gearing up to make the most of it, Bloomberg reports. The Washington Post is  jacking up its price to $2, and the New York Times, USA Today and other publications...

Bailout Bumble Sinks Mac in T-Shirt Race

DC hawker plans to ditch GOP altogether if Palin whiffs in tomorrow's debate

(Newser) - Souvenir vendors in Washington may have more vested in tomorrow’s debate than most, John Crewdson reports in the Swamp blog. If Sarah Palin doesn’t hold her own, one says he’ll return all his McCain gear to wholesalers. Sales for the maverick’s T-shirts have “tanked” since...

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