eBay – the place on the internet where you can just about buy or sell anything, even eBay’s first sale was obscure as a broken laser pointer sold for $14.83. Astonished, that somebody would pay that much the seller contacted the winning bidder to ask if they understood that the laser pointer was broken. The responding email to the seller of the eBay listings for the printer, explained: “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.” But as they do say, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
Since eBay was founded in 1996, the online auction and shopping website has hosted billions of online bidding wars and sales from all around the globe. The most expensive item to ever be sold on the platform was a $168 million, 405-foot yacht in 2006, purchased by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich who owns Chelsea Football Club. However, the auction technically ended at $85 million, but this figure acted as the deposit on the yacht. In recent years, with the rise of mobile technology, we have seen mobile purchases on Ebay listings going through the roof with one of the most expensive items to date purchased via a mobile device being a $265,000 PA-46-310P Malibu airplane.
eBay’s rise to global success included the accusation of a few companies along the way. The company bought online payments giant, PayPal for £980million in 2002. Today, Paypal has 169 million users worldwide and since being spun off from eBay into a separate company in July, it is estimated to be worth £32.4billion in its own right – far more than its former parent! Subsequently, they bought Skype in 2005 and expanded its customer base to 480 million registered users worldwide but sold 70 per cent of it four years later for £1.8billion. In 2011 Microsoft ended up buying eBay for £5.5billion.
In this article we have looked at the weirdest and most bizarre eBay listings that have ever existed. From the meaning of life that fetched $3.26, to a man’s life that included his house, belongings, a trial at his job and even an introduction to his friends that sold for $384,000. Believe it or not someone attempted to sell a whole country and the bid reached $2,370, however, once eBay realised, they obviously shut the bid down! You can sell just about anything as long as you have the right buyer! As someone found when they sold a few tablespoons of water from a cup that Elvis Presley drank from in 1977. See other weird and wonderful things eBay listings of items that have actually sold on eBay below...
