Sen. Eddie Goodall will trade his seat in the legislature for basketball tickets.

The Matthews Republican has put his Senate seat up for trade on the popular auction site eBay, in return for tickets to next week's Carolina-Duke game.

"I'm not sure how it works, but I'm just going by what Gov. (Rod) Blagojevich as a guideline," he said, tongue planted in cheek. "He made me aware that these seats are valuable. I don't know whatever happened with that, but it got me thinking maybe my state seat is valuable too."

Goodall went to UNC-Chapel Hill for a year in 1965, transferring to UNC-Charlotte when he didn't make the basketball team. He said he hasn't been to a game against Duke since he slept on the sidewalk overnight that year for tickets.

There are still 2 days and five hours left on the eBay auction, but Goodall was getting worried. He answered a call by immediately asking a reporter if he had tickets to the game.

If he can't trade his Senate seat, the actual chair, two part-time staffers and a volunteer treasurer for tickets, risking fines and prison time, Goodall said he'd have to watch the game from his hotel room in Raleigh after session.

He added that he hoped people understood he was kidding about the whole thing.

"If politicians could laugh at themselves more, people would laugh at them less," he said.

An N.C. State Student put her vote for sale on eBay.

Sara Yasin, a senior majoring in textiles and apparel management, made the move as a joke to show her distate for the Democratic presidential primary.

A self-described liberal, she is upset because Barack Obama supporters expect her to vote for him because her family is Palestinian, while Hillary Clinton supporters expect her vote because she's a woman.

"I was thinking this race has turned into a bidding war," Yasin said.

On Friday, she posted her vote with an opening bid of 15 cents. The State Board of Elections soon found out and warned her that it is a felony to buy or sell a vote, so she took it down on Tuesday. She will not face charges.

The bidding had reached $11.50. (N&O)

The state of North Carolina sold a 1982 Cessna for $1.3 million on eBay.

The plane had been used by the state Department of Transportation since 1989 for the aerial photography that highway engineers use to monitor construction projects.

It was sold to an Australian air charter company. On Tuesday, a Sydney pilot arrived in Raleigh to check out the plane for the nine-hour flights between California, Hawaii, Pacific islands and Australia.

"When I saw this one came up, I said, 'Hey, I know about eBay airplanes,'" he said. (N&O)