Bay goes crazy for quirky bids

Rosalie Crawford says her Trade Me listing for a Papamoa log was intended as a gimmick. Photo / George Novak

A ticket to see the Eagles plus a date, a Minion letterbox and a 2015 autographed Rugby World Cup All Blacks Jersey were the most viewed Trade Me auctions in the Bay of Plenty last year.

Trade Me communications and community spokesman Logan Mudge said the ticket to the Eagles concert in Auckland - which included a date with the vendor - was listed in March and attracted 44,449 views and 183 questions. One of the commenters called it "the most entertaining listing ever" and another lamented that he was "20 years shy of the target age" but "would love to see the Eagles and meet a new friend".

The Rotorua seller called Kazza said she bought two tickets for her partner's birthday but he had since run off with a woman who owned a silver car and a very large swimming pool. She hoped to sell the extra ticket to a fun-loving, smiling man between the ages of 59 and 69.

The highest sale price from the top three items was the All Blacks jersey at $4620

A quirky item which was the fifth most popular in the Bay was "the Papamoa log" described in its June listing as "the best piece of public art that Papamoa has", urging bidders to buy it "so we can fund a landing pad for the UFOs that get stuck in the sand on the beach".

Lister Rosalie Crawford said it was intended as "a gimmick" and something fun and creative to bring the community together. Ms Crawford, who operated the local Facebook page Papamoa, New Zealand, said it showed how Papamoa people got behind something.

She did however receive Facebook messages "of consternation" from people saying that the log was not hers to sell.

Tauranga City Council communications adviser Marcel Curran said in June that there could have been Resource Management Act and cultural restrictions that would have to be taken into account if somebody wanted to remove the log.

"It did create controversy but those people didn't understand it was just a bit of fun. The $150 from the sale was used to help Papamoa Link get food parcels to struggling families, so it raised awareness for that too."

Trade Me's Mr Logan Mudge commented that popular items were often a bit off-the-wall, like the log, or entertaining, like the Eagles ticket. The Eagles ticket and the Minion Letterbox were also the seventh and the tenth most viewed listings nationally.

The number one listing nationally was an "unwanted Christmas gift", in the form of a $100 note for which bids yesterday were above $5000. The Ashburton poster listed the note as a joke on Boxing Day. There were 98 bids yesterday morning.