Culture

That Site That Totally Glitterbombed Your Newsfeed Is Now Up For Sale

"Glitter everywhere. Send help."

by Meg Watson  15 January 2015

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It’s been just over 24 hours since the idea of giving someone money to ship mean notes and fistfuls of glitter to people you dislike has been introduced to the internet. And, because the internet is nasty and novel by nature, the idea has naturally taken off in a big way.

Mere hours after launching yesterday, ‘Ship Your Enemies Glitter’ had been written about by Slate, The New York Post, The Verge, MTV, and The Washington Post just to name a few. And now, as reported by Broede Carmody for StartUp Smart, it’s up for sale.

The site’s creator, Mat Carpenter, claims he’s already made five figures, and now he’s looking to get the hell out.

Though this may seem quick, it can hardly be surprising considering the fact that some of the first words on the website include “We fucking hate glitter”, “this shit gets on everything” and “[we hate] the soulless people who get their jollies off by sending glitter in envelopes”. If you assume he has a minimum of $10,000 in sales, that means he currently has 1,000 letters sitting in front of him to pack full of “craft herpes”.

And, since the real number is almost certainly much higher than that, it’s understandable that he’s not so keen on it anymore.

In fact, Carpenter (who was approached for comment) seems to be much more into the business side of the whole thing. The 22-year-old Novacastrian has previously worked for a company that sells Facebook likes, and his Twitter bio states his interests as “business, design, SEO and social media”; it also says that he “live[s] for the moolah!”

This is convenient because he now has all of yours.

mat

This is Mat’s actual cover photo on Facebook.

With this in mind, the idea to sell is probably a very smart move. As I have no financial savvy whatsoever it’s basically impossible for me to tell for sure, but even when they go viral, novelty services like this don’t have a very long lifespan. Since the launch yesterday, a reaction site has already gone up, called ‘Don’t Ship Your Friends Glitter‘.

“This website was created in loving memory of all mail carriers who have to deal with those fucking glittery Christmas cards every year,” the site reads. As an alternative to sending glitter, the creator offers to send people “a custom email or postcard to tell them that you like them so much that you’re not sending them glitter.”

Of course, there are still a lot of crafty psychopaths out there who are still into the idea of glitter-bombing. It’s a pity that Mat Carpenter is not one of them.

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Update (15/01/15):

Mat has since responded to our request for comment confirming his intention to sell. “This was always going to be a side project for me,” he said. “I’m wanting to move onto less messy things.”

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H/t: SmartUp Smart.