[CE.cn Message] In the movie "Transformers" which was released in July this year, the protagonist Sam auctioned his great-grandfather's antique glasses online to earn money for buying a car. The glasses were not sold, but instead triggered a battle of the ages between the Autobots and the Decepticons. When Optimus Prime told Sam that they found the glasses on eBay, many viewers probably smiled knowingly and secretly marveled at how "eBay" the advertisement was - where else would you find something like a map of energy blocks burned into the glasses?
This is the impression eBay gives people; it's like a huge flea market. Diana's wedding dress, Angelina Jolie's orthodontic retainer, and a pile of chewing gum chewed by celebrities - using an internet buzzword from this year, these items are all very "Mars-like".
Perhaps the first big "Mars" item on eBay this year was Britney Spears' hair cut during her mental breakdown earlier this year, along with a series of merchandise related to "Bald Britney." Following closely was Paris Hilton, who after being released from jail, had her dog food can lids picked up from her trash bag by paparazzi and auctioned off on eBay for a high price of $350. The lunch with Warren Buffett opened the "Mars" precedent on eBay, and this year there were also projects such as "Tea with President Mandela" and "Lunch with the Gorbachev Family." Of course, more "treasures" on eBay come from the public, their "Mars-ness" surpassing even celebrities. These strange auction items have become a unique sight on eBay, so much so that eBay has specially set up a channel (bestof.ebay.com) where netizens vote for the strangest, most interesting, or one-of-a-kind items. Additionally, "e-fans" have also established websites introducing these special items, with broader collections and more comprehensive product timelines. We have selected 10 from these websites, some of which might cause discomfort, so we'll give you a heads-up.
1. A Bottle Full of Staples
This glass bottle with a capacity of 1 gallon contains countless discarded staples accumulated by the seller over 12 years, weighing about 10 pounds (approximately 9 catties). These staples come from the seller's boring job, "My daily work is to sit behind the desk and deal with documents that need to be dismantled, and I collect the staples I dismantle." As for persuading people to buy, the seller's suggestion is equally quirky, "It's the one-of-a-kind thing you're looking for in the world, making it a nice decoration for your home or office. You can even give it as a Christmas gift to a friend who is rich enough to have everything." This peculiar collection started with a bid of less than $1 and eventually sold for $31.01.
2. Hollywood Sign
As a landmark of Hollywood, those huge letters on Mount Santa Monica that we've seen countless times in movies and TV shows have never crossed our minds as belonging to someone. But the fact is, this auctioned Hollywood sign is indeed genuine, and the auction is legal. The seller is Dan Bliss, a businessman and producer. Two years ago, he bought it for a six-figure price from a man named Hank Berg.
To clarify, Dan Bliss did not buy the sign we see now, but rather the original Hollywood sign replaced in 1978, funded by film director Marc Senett and Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler in 1923. This sign was originally created to sell real estate around Hollywood, so the initial sign was not "HOLLYWOOD" but "HOLLYWOODLAND," and the "LAND" part was removed in 1949, with the sign repainted.
Dan Bliss said he is selling it because he needs money to make movies. Due to its age, the sign has been severely corroded and weathered, and parts are incomplete. As compensation, Bliss bundled the sale with a website called authentichollwood.com that belongs to him. The starting bid for the sign was $450,000, and the final selling price was $450,400.
3. William Shatner's Kidney Stone
In 2005, American actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in "Star Trek," retrieved a kidney stone from surgery and put it up for auction on eBay. He referred to this ring-sized stone as "the ultimate Star Trek collector's item." Shortly after the ad was posted, eBay removed Shatner's kidney stone because eBay explicitly prohibits the sale of human body parts. Shatner later sold it to a gambling website called GoldenPalace.com for $15,000, and all proceeds were donated to charity to build houses for the poor.
4. Cruise Daughter's Poop Sculpture
In April last year, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter Suri was born, and with her father's fame, Suri received star-level attention from birth. To protect her daughter, Cruise kept Suri out of the public eye for a long time, making it difficult for fans and paparazzi to catch a glimpse of little Suri. However, in August, they saw the sculpture photo of Suri's first poop at CaplaKesting Art Gallery in Brooklyn, New York State. The sculptor Daniel Edwards is the same person who made sculptures of Britney Spears giving birth and Paris Hilton having a cesarean section. This sculpture was placed on eBay for auction in September, and the head of CaplaKesting Art Gallery hoped it would fetch between $25,000 and $30,000, with the proceeds going to a charity organization focused on newborns. Despite this, it was still the most nauseating auction item of 2006.
5. Chestnuts from the "Anne Frank Tree"
In November this year, Dutchman Charles Piet auctioned a chestnut on eBay. This chestnut came from no ordinary tree; the chestnut tree that bore it once accompanied Anne Frank, the protagonist of "The Diary of Anne Frank," during her time hiding in the attic. She mentioned this tree several times in her diary, always seeing it through the window of the secret annex, which brought her hope. Therefore, this tree has been called the "Anne Frank Chestnut Tree" by later generations. Unfortunately, the tree has deteriorated significantly due to fungal and insect infestations, and the government has decided to cut it down. Charles Piet lives just a wall away from this chestnut tree, and to draw attention to this soon-to-be-felled tree, he came up with the idea of auctioning its fruit, hoping the buyer could use this seed to plant their own "Anne Frank Chestnut Tree." The starting bid for this chestnut was only $0.01, and seven days later, it sold for $10,240.
6. Holt's Life
At the beginning of this year, an Australian young man named Nick Holt openly claimed on eBay that he was willing to sell his entire "self." This included all his tangible property: 300 CDs, bed, clothes, snowboards, surfboards, childhood photos, backpacks, lamps given by ex-girlfriends, broken bicycles, etc. Besides tangible things, Nick also planned to sell intangible interpersonal relationships, including stories of his breakup with his ex-girlfriend, contacts of eight potential girlfriends and fifteen close friends, and approximately 170 friends. Additionally, the buyer could get a temporary job delivering fruit and a four-week free training course that includes skills like surfing, handstands, and juggling fireballs. Holt's passport, driver's license, diploma, legal identity, and inheritance rights were not included in the auction items. This transaction ultimately sold for a high price of £7,500.
7. Virgin Mary Sandwich
In 2004, half of a cheese sandwich that had been treasured for 10 years was put up for auction on eBay by a woman named Diana Duyser. She claimed that ten years ago, after taking a bite of this freshly made sandwich, she suddenly noticed that the pattern left by the baking resembled a face watching her, and the more she looked at this face, the more it reminded her of the Virgin Mary. Afterward, she stored this sandwich in a clean plastic box padded with cotton, and surprisingly, this sandwich that had been stored for 10 years did not mold at all. eBay thought Diana's auction was deliberately ridiculous and subsequently canceled the auction page, but before cancellation, it had already been visited by 100,000 people. This sacred sandwich was eventually sold on the gambling website GoldenPalast.com for a staggering price of $28,000, almost doubling the starting bid, and the proceeds were used for charity. Since then, similar auctions have appeared on eBay, including ones where both the Virgin Mary and Jesus appear simultaneously.
8. Invisibility Manual
The most magical invisibility spell isn't in Hogwarts, but on eBay. The seller "billwwilliams" claims that the invisibility spell he is selling is a mysterious spell passed down for thousands of years, currently mastered by only a few elites in the world. Currently, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and some foreign intelligence agencies are using this method. Once mastered, the buyer can disappear from people's sight at any time and place and can freely reappear anywhere (limited to the Earth range). The seller repeatedly emphasized that this is not a toy, nor magic or ninja technique, but rather mind-based invisibility. Despite all the hype, this item priced at $24.95 remains unsold.
9. Belgium
In September this year, the three regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia—were put up for auction on the Belgian branch of eBay, with a starting bid of a shocking €1. The seller, Gerrit Seix, was once a journalist in Belgium and later became a teacher. He claimed on the webpage that "you can buy the entire kingdom (not recommended)," because "its national debt is as high as €300 billion," and the king and royal family members are sold as accessories. Within a short period, 26 people bid, with the highest bid reaching €10 million. eBay then canceled this prank-like auction. The reason Gerrit Seix auctioned his own country was due to his dissatisfaction with Belgium's political situation. Coincidentally, in March this year, the Norwegian Royal Palace was also put up for auction on eBay with a base price of $1.
10. Ghost Bottle
In June 2003, a seller with the username "teajay101" put up a bottle containing a ghost for sale on eBay. The seller described the origin of the bottle in a way that sent shivers down one's spine. He claimed that in the 1980s, he dug up a nearly rotten wooden box in an abandoned cemetery, inside which were two bottles with strange words and symbols and an old diary. One of the bottles was accidentally broken by him, so he took the other bottle and the diary home. Afterwards, nightmares began. He claimed that there was something like black mist in the bottle that often came out to bother him, and the only way for him to get rid of it was to find it a new owner. A month later, the bottle was sold for $50,922. eBay then deleted the webpage. The ghost bottle later became a popular symbol on the internet, and some people even made a website ghostinjar.com for it. For a while, eBay was filled with "ghosts," including counterfeit ghost bottles and parodies like "ghost in a car" and "ghost in a bra."