The many attempts at the selling of souls on eBay have seen the site’s administrators wearily intervene like long-suffering parents to remind us that the selling of “intangible services” is forbidden. Yet, in 2007 Nicael Holt, a then 24-year-old from New South Wales, put his life (name, possessions, friends and intriguingly “two nemeses”) up for sale. Amazingly, he was successful; a bidder paid AUS$7,500. Holt explained: “I did this because I was a little intrigued as to what constitutes a life” and “a little bit because I’m a socialist”: Marx must have whimpered in his grave at the notion of a life as saleable commodity Photograph: Public Domain
Heartening proof that eBay is not all celebrity ephemera and tawdry tat came in 2004 with the sale of this complete woolly mammoth skeleton. “Max”, who, at 50,000 years old, is not so woolly any more, was sold by a Dutch seller for £61,000, a bargain considering Max remains one of the best-preserved mammoth skeletons in the world. The reason his owner gave for selling him was “lack of space”. Given the size of a mammoth’s skeleton, a desire not to have it cluttering up the front room any more is pretty understandable Photograph: Public Domain
Among the many great laconic observations Salinger placed in the mouth of Holden Caulfield, the disaffected, adolescent narrator of Catcher in the Rye, is this assessment of his classmate: “That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a toilet seat.” When the late author’s very own loo was posted last month with a starting bid of $1m, its seller exclaimed, somewhat fancifully: “Who knows how many stories were thought up and written while Salinger sat on this throne?” More alarming, though, was the promise that “it will come to you uncleaned and in its original condition” Photograph: Public Domain
The most delectable item to be included in last month’s charity auction of Mad Men props and costumes (proceeds went to a lung cancer charity - grimly appropriate for a famously smoke-fugged series) has to be the pea-green shift dress, a 1960s original naturally, that graced Christina Hendricks as company secretary Joan Harris in the “lawnmower episode” - that’s Season 3 Episode 6 if you didn’t know, and shame on you if you didn’t. The dress can be bought, but the redoubtable 39-30-39 measurements required to fit it are, of course, a little harder to come by Photograph: PR
Taking that verse from Corinthians about bodies and temples and blithely effecting a capitalist reworking of it as “my body is a billboard” is one Karolyne Smith of Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2005, she auctioned her forehead as advertising space, promising to tattoo the name of the highest bidder there. As a result, her brow now proclaims “GoldenPalace.com” (a casino website) and she is $10,000 richer for it. Whether or not Golden Casino stipulated anything about her right to style her hair into a long, very thick fringe is unknown Photograph: Public Domain
Unsurprisingly, no one snapped up this not-so-little gem, which was twice put up for sale on the site – in 1999 and in 2000 – with an ambitious starting price of $1.05m. “This unique trophy of the cold war was brought to Florida at great cost and effort,” groused the seller in the description, after “75 days of the riskiest-ever transatlantic towing”. The seller also suggested it could be used for “meeting facilities” - because, after all, nothing says neutral, non-symbolically loaded meeting space quite like a vessel that was “designed for launching nuclear strikes on the US east coast cities, using four cruise missile launchers” Photograph: Public Domain
In 2000, this became the most expensive item yet to be sold on the UK arm of the site. Happily, it was also the biggest amount ever raised for charity via eBay.co.uk, with the old bag – the black Salvatore Ferragamo creation obviously, not the baroness – going for an impressive £103,000, which went to Breast Cancer Care. A Scottish businessman, Ian Rushbrook, was the triumphant bidder and promptly declared: “For 20 years, I have admired Lady Thatcher’s willpower, drive and ability.” On her taste in accessories though, he was silent Photograph: OWEN HUMPHREYS/PA
A handy foil to that nuclear submarine, should it ever find an owner (perhaps their respective sellers could have got together to do a special deal). When it was put up for sale earlier this year, the Derbyshire bunker was described as being in an “elevated position with panoramic views”, though, naturally, the views can’t be that panoramic 15 feet underground. The seller suggested the decommissioned bunker, once inhabited by members of the Royal Observer Corps, be used for “adventure holidays”, presumably the adventure being coping with a chemical lavatory and a 15ft x 7ft room accessed by a narrow metal shaft Photograph: Public Domain
“I’ll leave university £15,000 in debt. That’s why I am taking this drastic action,” said Rosie Reid, who was studying at Bristol University when she attempted to sell her virginity online in 2004. Eventually, eBay withdrew her listing. Among the other women who’ve also tried and failed to do the same through eBay is Natalie Dylan, a 22-year-old woman who, somewhat ironically, had recently graduated from a degree in women’s studies at Sacramento State when she announced the sale of her virginity in 2008. Surely the ramifications of online auctioning of virginity could form a module in her course? Photograph: Public Domain
Foremost on the ignoble pile of celebrity detritus flogged on eBay (an unedifying skipful which includes Justin Timberlake’s half-chewed French toast, Kate Garraway’s partially eaten banana and Christina Aguilera’s worn thong and dirty bathwater) is a piece of gum supposedly chewed by Britney Spears – sold on eBay in 2004 for $514 – the spitty wad eagerly plucked from the pavement by a fan outside London’s Sanderson hotel. Adding dimension to the phrase “bubblegum music”, the sale also, less fortunately, pretty much foreshadowed the princess of pop’s own experience of being chewed up and spat out Photograph: Public Domain
