Australian eBay buyers go Bananas
Now I’ve seen it all. A 1.5 cm plastic banana painted in gold paint has sold for nearly $20,000 in Australia. The starting price was $5,400, and bidding was fierce, with five bidders.
They say you can get (almost) anything you want, on eBay — for a hefty price sometimes.
Coles Australia has been touted as the bad guys, first of all, for giving away “Little Shop” collectibles, one with each $30 spent at Coles.
The rage against Coles producing tiny plastic things was renewed recently when they announced they were now giving away fresh Stikeez, 24 little plastic things shaped like different fruits and veggies, which kids can stick onto surfaces.
The acrimony was widespread but to no avail. These limited Little Shop and Stikeez items will very likely be treasured or kept by children and even by some adults across Australia.
The timing of the Little Shop items wasn’t good, because it occurred just after Coles Australia announced it wouldn’t be using plastic shopping bags anymore, and that shoppers had to bring in their own recyclable bags.
Shouts of “hypocrites” banning plastic bags but unleashing cute, educational, tiny plastic items, which by the way, would only be collected by collectors who actually liked them, rained upon Coles.
None of this deterred avid collectors from buying complete sets on eBay or others from jumping on the band-wagon and offering theirs for sale at exorbitant prices.
Enter 100 “Golden Billy Bananas” of which each comes with a coupon to redeem $100 worth of purchases at a Coles store.
Boy, this eBay buyer really must have nothing else to spend her or his money on, when forking out $19,901 for this plastic scrap (note: the coupon was redeemed by the Seller).
It’s one of those things which aren’t supposed to be on-sold (you know, like event tickets) but people get away with these exorbitant transactions.
Hopefully, nobody buys a standard yellow Billy Banana that has been painted by an enthusiastic eBay seller.
On March 14, the News AU site declared that only 34 of the Golden Bananas had been found, leaving 66 still in circulation. The Stikeez are only being distributed up until the end of March.
Excuse me, while I head off to Coles to spend $30. ( Just joking )
