FROM concert tickets to secondhand cars, internet surfers have become used to being able to buy almost anything on eBay.
Now bargain-hunters have the chance to bid for a 100-year-old West Lothian pipe band.
For a starting price of £20,000 the musicians will ditch the moniker Torphichen and Bathgate Pipe Band - one of the oldest and most successful in Scot
land - and adopt the name of their sponsors. Sponsorship secretary Richie Adams said the band hoped to raise money to pay for travel costs so they can take part in competitions in the UK and abroad.
He said: "No-one's ever done this before. It's a novel way of plugging into a market."
The band is hoping to sign up to a three-year sponsorship deal, but would consider a shorter period.
Depending on the level of investment, they may also perform at corporate functions. "We could offer pipe band quartets, after dinner speakers - a full package," Mr Adams said.
The sponsors' logo would feature on the band's bass drum, pipe bags and shirts. The name would also be called out whenever the band won a prize at a contest.
More than 160,000 spectators attend major piping competitions each season.
Torphichen and Bathgate finished second in the Grade Two division of pipe bands this year and hopes to be promoted to the first division in 2007, where it would compete among the top 40 bands in the world. Band leaders hope the money from the eBay auction will allow them to spend more time practising.
The full article contains 286 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
