Handbags and Hovercrafts: Trade Me auctions

Handbags and Hovercrafts:
Trade Me’s most memorable auctions

A number of prominent auctions on the Trade Me website have caught the public imagination and taken on a life of their own – and they are now being celebrated in a new book from Random House.

Trade Me’s tagline is “Where Kiwis buy and sell” and, for more than a decade, there have been a number of memorable auctions that have provided an insight into the way New Zealanders tick.

At times intriguing, entertaining, eccentric or ingenious, Handbags & Hovercrafts sets out a selection of auctions that have become the subject of water cooler chats, TV interviews, talkback radio, online blogs or newspaper columns.

Tana Umaga’s handbag, a streaker’s infamous bikini, the Scary Washing Machine and Prime Minister John Key’s cast from his broken arm have all become woven into the history of New Zealand as auction bids for them have taken off.

Good old Kiwi ingenuity has produced a bizarre range of things being auctioned – and discussed at length – like a motorised drinking couch, an apostrophe, the infamous underarm cricket ball, a comfort hug, a feijoa kiwi and even Australia itself.

Driven by spirited exchanges between potential bidders and passionate sellers, the question and answer sections of many of these auctions are often as memorable as the items being sold.

These are the listings that attract all manner of witty and clever comments and ripostes, and they make for very entertaining reading.

This book is a tribute to the fantastic sellers that have blessed Trade Me with memorable, and occasionally eye-popping listings.

For the first time, Handbags & Hovercrafts brings the best of these ‘strange but true’ auctions together, adds all the good bits from the Q & A, and sets out the back stories explaining what really happened in the aftermath of the trade.

Handbags and Hovercrafts
Author: Trade Me Limited
RRP: $26.00
Released: 01 October 2010
Imprint: Random House NZ

This book is a fascinating insight into what goes on in Kiwi culture – and in New Zealanders’ heads, hearts and minds. We reckon it will make a perfect stocking-stuffer and be a great read for all New Zealanders.

All the profits are going to a good cause too – they’re heading the way of Duffy Books in Homes, a charity promoting literacy in New Zealand through its provision of free books to over 100,000 kids in low-decile schools across the country.

ENDS

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