Trade Me's top marketplace listings of 2021

The most popular auction of 2021 was a half-eaten bag of Vogel’s bread listed during August’s Alert Level 4 lockdown. Dave, the seller, wasn’t expecting to make any dough from the listing, but Kiwi across the country rose to the challenge. What started off as a laugh kept Dave very busy during isolation when the listing Q&A blew up with over 1,000 questions about his half-eaten loaf.

After fetching a winning bid of $4,000, the auction raised a total of $12,000 for Ronald McDonald House and I Am Hope, with Goodman Fielder and Trade Me both matching the sale price. The Vogel’s loaf is now officially baked into Trade Me’s hall of fame as the fourth most viewed auction of all time, with a whopping 593,762 views.

Pulling up in second place in the race for Trade Me’s most popular items of 2021 was a DIY cardboard Lamborghini Aventador made by 22-year-old David from Auckland. After David checked his bank account to confirm that an $800,000 Lamborghini was out of his budget, he started a two-and-a-half-week mission to make his own – out of cardboard.

David’s world-first ‘Cardborghini’ took him on the ride of a lifetime before he decided to pay it forward to Starship Children’s Hospital. The auction closed with a mammoth bid of $10,420 and picked up 211,670 views onsite.

Seven-year-old Zayne spotted the third most popular Trade Me listing of the year when a flash of orange caught his eye while he was catching the last wave of the day. He reached out and grabbed a mildewed $5 note out of the water at Christchurch’s Sumner Beach.

Zayne couldn’t wait to put the money towards his dream – a two-stroke motorbike. His dad convinced him to pop the note up on Trade Me instead, bagging Zayne $1,000 for his savings and fetching 177,935 views.

The fourth most popular Trade Me listing of the year will come as no surprise to those familiar with the four walls of MIQ.

With two weeks to spare, Lloyd began saving up his MIQ rubbish and repurposed it into an Auckland city treasure, a brilliant 2.3m tall Sky Tower. The tower sold for $605 which Lloyd donated to Blind Low Vision NZ after the auction was viewed 136,030 times.

Also making the top ten most viewed marketplace auctions of 2021 was ‘The Rescued’ burger by Everybody Eats, a New Zealand charity fighting food poverty in Aotearoa.

This delicious one-of-a-kind burger consisted of a sustainably-sourced tahr patty with American cheddar, 'rescued' butter pickles, lettuce and housemade BBQ sauce in a Shelly Bay Baker bun. This tasty lunch sold for $1,270 after clocking up 125,757 views.