A son, a mum and the saucy Trade Me images

Shots of Jennifer the mum in underwear were up for auction on TradeMe. Photo / Supplied

Most people would shudder at the thought of seeing photos of their mother in lacy underwear and suspenders.

Not Auckland student Michael - who twice tried to auction such saucy shots on Trade Me.

The first time was to annoy his mother Jennifer after an argument.

Her instruction to clear out the garage and sell unwanted items on Trade Me backfired when Michael started an auction titled "5 naked photos of my mum".

It was removed by Trade Me the day after, but the 18-year-old posted a second series of "glamour photos" last Sunday - with Jennifer's approval.

Although she was wearing more clothing, one was an underwear shot. The auction had more than 11,000 views before Trade Me removed it on Friday.

Michael said the first auction was "a bit of a joke".

"I did it a bit sneakily but she found out. At first she was was pretty shocked, but then she went along with it. I just wanted a bit of extra cash, we're not rich or anything."

Jennifer, 44, who didn't want their surnames printed, was "pretty annoyed" when she found out.

"He was quite naughty ... I thought 'you cheeky little git', but at least he'd been a bit creative about it."

But she was annoyed Trade Me pulled the second set of photos, which had her approval.

"I insisted Michael show me first, the little bugger. They are quite artistic. There is nothing dodgy about them. They were taken by a family friend about eight years ago.

"I wanted 50 per cent of the sale, but more than that I miss the nice comments."

Trade Me spokesman Jon Macdonald said both auctions were pulled because of "inappropriate" photos.

Michael was free to auction the glamour shots but further auctions featuring underwear photos would be removed.

"We don't really want to be the place where people list photos of their mums in their underwear."

Trade Me removes about 500 of 200,000 listings each day.

Michael's was the first auction featuring photos of a mother in underwear.