What are the most expensive items sold on eBay? If you want to make a fortune, you usually have to be creative, and some of the best salespeople are now turning towards online marketplaces seeking for greater profits. This is where eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) makes its grand entry.
Browsing through eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), I have come across loads of different –and amazing- things for sale, from Britney Spears’ hair for $1 million, to an island on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia for $790,000, to used breast implants for just $1. You want it, you name it! It will most likely be on eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) already.
Wonder how much does a lunch with legendary investor Warren Buffett cost? And what about a man’s entire life? Or a whole town? Find out below: in this list, we will look into five weird, great, and definitely cool things sold on eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) for big sums of money.
Most Expensive Item Sold on eBay: Lunch With Warren Buffett
Sold for: $2.62 Million
Every year, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett hosts a lunch, which is auctioned in order to raise money for the Glide Memorial Church, a San Francisco church that works feeding those in need. As you might figure, there are loads of people interested in having lunch with the one-and-only investment Guru; so several auctions have already surpassed the $2 million threshold.
The record was set in 2011, when an anonymous bidder offered $2.62 million for the lunch date. What’s interesting about this record is that the bidding had originally closed at $2.34 million, which was not an all-time high. Once the auction closed, the winning bidder raised his offer to establish a new best, surpassing the $2.6 million reached in 2010. In 2009, Canadian investment firm Salida Capital had paid $1.68 million for this privilege, and in 2008, a Chinese fund manager had expended $2.11 million.
Mr. Buffett usually spends several hours with the winner and seven friends discussing the topics of their choice, typically, at New York’s Smith and Wollensky steak house. The only off-boundaries subjects are, of course, Mr. Buffett’s future investments -if he did share this information, we should definitely start pooling our money for the next lunch!
Ian Usher’s Entire Life (for Real!)
Sold for: $309,292
This one requires a story: Ian Usher, a British salesman and skydiver living in Perth, Australia, was left by his wife in 2006. Facing a midlife crisis, he decided to put his “life” up for sale on eBay in 2008. The offer included his three-bedroom house in Perth, an old Mazda, parachuting gear, a motorbike, a jet-ski, personal introductions to his friends, and his job (actually, a trial position as a sales assistant at the rug shop where he worked).
A few years later, Mr. Usher told Britain’s Daily Mail that he had bought an island in the Caribbean (Panama, to be accurate) and fallen in love with a Canadian woman, but not before traveling around the globe. His journey started in Dubai; ever since, he has run with bulls, dived with great white sharks and even joined the Mile High Club (you might want to do a little research on this club, it might surprise you).
The Town of Bridgeville, California
Sold for: $1.77 million
Believe it or not, towns in the U.S. can be bought, apparently. Bridgeville was the first town to be sold on eBay, in 2002, but not the only one. Albert, Texas can join this list; it was sold for $2.5 Million.
Bridgeville had about 30 inhabitants, 8 houses, a café and a post office by the time it was sold. The 83-acre town was actually sold to Bruce Krall, a banker from Orange County, California, for $700,000, after the original bidder backed out. The town was then resold, when Mr. Krall realized that it would cost too much to fix it up. It was repurchased on 2006, for $1.25 million, by Daniel La Paille, a 25-year-old entertainment manager from Los Angeles who committed suicide a few months later. The town is still up for sale; interested?
A Bottle of Beer (Samuel Allsopp’s Arctic Ale Circa 1852)
Sold for: $503,300
This next case will definitely teach you to do your research correctly –and in depth- before selling anything. The bottle was first sold by its owner –who had misspelled the name and only added three pictures- for $304; the buyer took better photos, found more information on its history and relisted it on eBay, and ended up getting more than half a million for it in 2007. But what was so special about this beer?
The Artic Ale was especially brewed for Sir Edward Belcher’s 1852 Artic Expedition. It was sealed and kept in immaculate, accompanies by a handwritten note that explained its history.
A Meteorite
Sold for: $450,000
Not a lot of Martian meteorites hit earth, so owning one is quite special. However, I did not imagine that it was this special (meaning $450,000 worth of special).
The Zagami Martian Meteorite (a rare 1.3 Billion year old piece of Mars) landed in Nigeria in 1962. Its largest piece was the one sold for almost half a million dollars –I’m wondering if it has some secret magical powers we haven’t heard about.
