Irritate your foes, confound your rivals or add some sparkle to your best friend’s day.
An Australian website that sends mail “glitter bombs” to anyone in the world has been swamped by orders since it launched on Monday, prompting the overwhelmed owner to put the business up for sale.
The site Ship Your Enemies Glitter is exactly what its name suggests. For $9.99 in Australian dollars ($9.84 Canadian), the site promises to mail anyone an anonymous envelope packed with irritating glitter that is “guaranteed to go everywhere.” The site describes glitter as “the herpes of the craft world,” and touts it as an ideal way to enrage your enemies by creating a sparkle-flecked mess.
“We’ll vomit up a ton of glitter & put it in an envelope with your recipient’s address on the front of it,” the site says. “We’ll also include a note telling the person exactly why they’re receiving this terrible gift. Hint: the glitter will be mixed in with the note thus increasing maximum spillage.”
The site went viral shortly after it launched on Monday, due in part to its popularity on the link-sharing site Reddit. A thread called “Ship Your Enemies Glitter” had over 1,200 comments after three days.
The site even caught the attention of ‘Tonight Show’ host Jimmy Fallon, who mentioned it in one of his monologues this week.
“There’s a company in Australia that will anonymously send glitter to your enemies, so they will be finding it everywhere for weeks,” Fallon said. “So if you have an enemy and you send them glitter, congratulations on being Elton John.”
Site owner Matt Carpenter says he’s received 2.5 million visits and more than $20,000 in sales in four days.
The Ship Your Enemies Glitter site reportedly crashed 24 hours after its launch due to the number of orders. It came back online with a message saying glitter purchases have been temporarily suspended.
“You guys have a sick fascination with shipping people glitter,” the message said. “We’ve received all orders & (are) working through them. There was a ton so be patient.”
The 22-year-old Australian entrepreneur behind the site says he can’t keep up with the orders, so he’s putting the whole thing up for sale to unburden himself of the glittery endeavour.
“I launched this website as a bit of a joke not expecting this level of attention,” Carpenter writes in his sale listing. “It has been stressful dealing with all of the media attention & even more so because this was only intended to be a small side project. It’s taken on a life of its own, and I want to watch it continue to grow under a new owner.”
The listing asks for a $1 opening bid, and includes everything associated with the Ship Your Enemies Glitter site, including back orders and a promise to train whoever takes over in how to manage the service.
ShipYourEnemiesGlitter with 1m visits, 270k social shares, $xx,xxx in sales, tonnes of people wanting to order. 24 hours old. For sale.
— Mathew Carpenter (@matcarpenter) January 14, 2015
The irreverent Ship Your Enemies Glitter site includes a snarky Frequently Asked Questions page, along with humorous testimonials from customers.
“I never get tired of seeing my co-workers rage when opening their glittery envelopes,” one message says.
“I bought this for my husband, he opened the mail before work & got it everywhere!” said another. “He had to change, was late for work & might be getting fired, LOL!"
