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This little piggy went to eBay auction
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Rick Ivey, original owner of the barbecue restaurant, perches on the pig statue in this 2004 photograph. The pig is on eBay.
FILE/DAVIS TURNER/THE FREE LANCE-STAR
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Stafford County restaurant owner will auction his fiberglass Hampshire Hog for charity because he can't display it at the eatery
By MEGHANN COTTER
Date published: 7/28/2006
By MEGHANN COTTER
The notorious Virginia Barbeque piggy went to market yesterday.
Except this time she's what's for sale, not the homemade concoctions of the North Stafford eatery she has brought attention to for almost three years.
Ramco-Gershenson Inc., which manages the restaurant's Aquia Towne Center building, has asked business owner Frank Sopko to send the little piggy all the way home.
But Sopko, who relocated his shop from the other side of U.S. 1 just four months ago, put the 4-foot-tall fiberglass creature up for auction on eBay instead.
"I can't risk losing the business over that pig," he said.
Michael Sullivan, senior vice president of asset management for Ramco-Gershenson, said his firm had heard vague stories about the pig's controversial history when Sopko signed a five-year lease. But his company didn't know the statue would be moving with the restaurant until other tenants in the shopping center started to complain it was blocking walkways.
The building's lease requires businesses to comply with the landlord's sign requirements, which prohibit structures in common areas used by other tenants.
Sopko suggested moving the pig out near U.S. 1, but that requires county and VDOT approval. He also considered taking it to one of his other stores. But the one in Culpeper is too small. And another he plans to open in Spotsylvania's Southpoint II won't be ready until September.
So the pig had to go.
Bette Ann German, owner of Snappy Auctions on Garrisonville Road, is helping him sell the statue on eBay's online auction block. Her drop center helps people post, monitor and ship items for a percentage of the profit.
She said the pig will be listed for 10 days. She expects it to sell for about $800 to $1,000. Sopko paid $1,500 for it in 2003.
Snappy Auctions typically collects a 25 percent to 35 percent commission from all sales. But all proceeds from the pig will be donated to Stafford Emergency Relief Through Volunteer Effort Inc., which provides emergency food, clothing, utility and rent assistance to Fredericksburg-area residents.
"With the history of this little guy I'm hoping we will be able to generate the interest," German said.
The animal has sat in the lobby of her store for the past few weeks. And many people have asked about it.
"People are bothered that they have all come to know where it is and see it. They want to make sure its going somewhere they are going to know about," German said. "Bringing it over on the back of a pickup truck, you should have seen the looks. People knew it was the Virginia Barbeque pig."
The porker, named Barbie Q Queen in a drawing last spring, earned her fame shortly after the restaurant's 2003 Stafford opening.
Date published: 7/28/2006
Most recent reader comments:
1 comments have been posted.
I think it is a shame that the Stafford County Supervisors don't have bigger things to worry about than a restaurants decorations. I say the pig should stay and the supervisors should worry about things such as roads and schools.
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Poor Little Piggie
(posted by
shelbybrynn
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
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