Bidders snap up almost anything
Trade Me offered the weird and wonderful in 2017
Aspaceship, a rejected engagement ring, portraits of politicians and a Macca’s playground were among the Trade Me listings Kiwis were keenest on this year.
The auction site’s top 10 most popular listings in 2017 have been released, and a common thread was sellers who didn’t take themselves too seriously listing extraordinary items — or everyday goods with a weird and wonderful back story.
The most viewed listing was a retro McDonald’s playground set, which closed in early February and came with a Hamburglar dual swing set, Mayor McCheese roundabout and a Chief Big Mac climber jail.
“The listing seemed to bring back both happy memories and unfortunate incidents for many Kiwi kids of the 80s and 90s,” Trade Me spokeswoman Millie Silvester said.
“The auction had over 115,000 views before the playground items found their new home at a campground in Twizel.” They sold for $11,500. The next most-viewed listing, which attracted 54,000 views, was an engagement ring listed by a Christchurch man whose girlfriend rejected his proposal in January.
He decided he would sell the ring and use the money to buy himself a new ute.
In his words: “I’ve been working flat out like a lizard drinking to sell this so I can buy a ute and do cool stuff in it like hunting and burnouts. I know I can trust the ute to love me unconditionally.” He sold the ring for $2820. In a display of classic Kiwi ingenuity, a “Spoat” (spa and boat combo) was up for auction in May, but despite more than 32,000 views, it didn’t sell.
A 16m diameter Silverdale Spaceship sold in May for a pricey $22,360 after being listed at a $1 reserve. Nearly 40,000 people took a look at the space oddity.
The spinning ship was “surplus to requirements” at the Silverdale Adventure Park, formerly erected at the Rotorua Skyline Luge.
“No serious interest for $350,000 so now out it WILL go at $1 reserve,” the listing read.
One witty Kiwi decided to list a try on Trade Me for the British and Irish Lions.
“Unfortunately the auction must have gone to a Lions fan because they got a heck of a lot better after it sold,” Silvester said.
Portraits, one of former Prime Minister Helen Clark and a self portrait of “super ginge” pop star Ed Sheeran, sold for $1804 and $10,000 respectively.
The portrait of Clark made headlines after turning up in a Wellington tip this year.
The money from Sheeran’s self-deprecating doodle was donated to the Child Cancer Foundation and the amount raised from Clark’s to Women’s Refuge.
Meanwhile, a watercolour portrait of Opposition leader Bill English made Trade Me’s “honourable mentions” list and sold for $720.
The seller listed it saying English had declined to buy my painting “as he thinks it doesn’t look like him but you can buy it and hang it in your lounge”.
Another honourable mention was a pile of cigarette ash which, while admittedly not very functional, took the seller six months of solid smoking to accumulate.
It sold for $23 in July —what a steal.