Jed sez:
For a $250 entry fee, you can enter an essay contest/raffle to win a used-book store in Roseburg, OR. Owner wants store to go to a good home. She’s received only half of the 2000 entries she was hoping for, so she’s extended the deadline another three months. My friend Ed notes that the Internet allows “odd-but-theoretically-efficient” economic models, like raffles, to work on a large scale even for someone in a small town in Oregon.
(Thanks, Jed!)