5 Weird Things That Have Been Listed On eBay
On eBay ( EBAY ), you can buy one year’s worth of work — to be completed in little more than four months. While that listing may be a joke — it appears not to be — over the years eBay has garnered fame and infamy for the sometimes weird items and services people have listed on the popular e-tail website. And last week was no different. On Feb. 25, a prankster listed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on the site after the president reportedly said, “By God, if it were possible for me to be sold, I would sell myself,” in an address on state television . His condition was listed as “slightly used” and the seller would not accept returns. Bidding surpassed $100,000 before eBay pulled the listing. Unlike many of eBay’s e-commerce rivals such as Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Wal-Mart ( WMT ) and even PayPal ( PYPL ), the San Jose-based company’s platform is set up in such a way that bizarre items are almost inevitable (though it is worth noting that you can buy some pretty weird stuff on Amazon as well). In that spirit, here’s a look at some of my favorite odd listings that have appeared on eBay: 1. As noted above, this one is currently live on the site . Listed is “one year of work equivalent to 2,000 hours of specialized labor over 4.25 months.” For $150,000 a “loyal, dedicated and tireless contractor” will labor 16 hours a day, seven days a week with no break or lunch — for projects like painting, light construction work and “bamboo plant propagation.” EBay spokeswoman Penny Bruce told IBD the listing is indeed in compliance with the company’s policies. 2. Another odd auction — again, completely legit — was the World’s Largest BBQ Pit offered by a Texas man for the princely sum of $350,000. The 76-foot-long truck trailer has 24 barbecue pit doors, a walk-in cooler, beer taps and a “place for stereo equipment” and TV. The truck cab was an extra $50,000. It sold. 3. In 2004, a man tried to sell an F-18 warplane via eBay for $1 million. Ultimately, the fighter jet did not sell — it used to be a Blue Angel-owned aircraft — but it did attract the attention of the FBI, which told the seller that the plane had to remain in the U.S. 4. The last of our favorite weird items sold via eBay is a letter that Nobel Prize winning physicist Albert Einstein sent to philosopher Eric Gutkind shortly before Einstein’s death. The letter references philosophical and theological themes, and expresses Einstein’s belief that God does not exist. It sold for … $3 million.