Mathew Carpenter’s creation is up for auction as he pleads with potential customers to ‘stop buying this horrible product’

The founder of Ship Your Enemies Glitter, an Australian website that lets anyone in the world ship their enemies bags of glitter – the most irritating party product yet invented – has put his company up for sale, after begging potential customers to stop using his website.

Mathew Carpenter’s creation is up for auction on startup marketplace Flippa, with a starting bid of just $1, boasting of the site’s “$20,000+ in sales and 2.5m visits in four days”.

But, he says, the site was a joke that got out of hand. “I launched this website as a bit of a joke not expecting this level of attention. Heck, I launched this website while I was on holiday!

“For the past few days it has been stressful dealing with all of the media attention and 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 sale comes days after Carpenter, 22, took to start-up website Product Hunt, where his creation had racked up almost a thousand votes, to ask potential users to just not.

“Hi guys, I’m the founder of this website. Please stop buying this horrible glitter product — I’m sick of dealing with it. Sincerely, Mat.”

Since schadenfreude is the internet’s mother tongue, the replies were less than sympathetic. “You have made your glitter-coated bed and I’m afraid you will have to lie in it,” read one.

It’s certainly a lucrative business. Carpenter’s details the profit margin for potential buyers: “Each purchase is worth $9.99AUD. I’ve calculated that the total cost of shipping an envelope filled with the glitter & the A4 letter to most places in the world from Australia ranges anywhere from $2-$4. That leaves $5.99 to $7.99 profit on each order.”

“Somewhat overwhelmed… I decided to take the ability to order down, despite receiving thousands of emails & tweets from people wanting to purchase.”

For what it’s worth, Carpenter is willing to sign a three-year non-compete clause with any potential buyer, meaning that if a follow-up website – say, ShipYourEnemiesConfetti.com – does get made, it won’t come from him.