The 5 Most Expensive Items Ever Sold On eBay

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With upwards of $172.4 million spent on eBay for a luxury yacht or the town of Albert in Texas being for $2.57 million, it can leave many wondering how to sell on eBay?

Over 18.3 million sellers are on eBay and put products up for sale with the American multinational ecommerce company. Although slowing down in its popularity the platform still had 138 million active users last year – and it is still a great place for high-priced items, let’s look at some for inspiration.

1. A Luxury Yacht Owned by a Chelsea Manager

White Gigayacht in the sea

Number one in the research was a Gigayacht sold for $172.4 million, to Roman Abramovich. This state-of-the-art boat comes with 16,000 nautical miles, a helicopter pad (with its own elevator), a spa, gym, swimming pool, movie theatre, and ten VIP rooms with panoramic windows. That’s not too shabby when you consider that buying a regular home in Manhattan on average costs $1.3 million.

2. A Luxury Aircraft

The second high-ticket item was the luxury aircraft Gulfstream II coming in at a far cheaper, but still eye-popping, over $5 million. Instead of grabbing a bowing flight and sitting behind children who like to kick your seat, an Africa-based charter flights firm bought this vintage 1960s designed plane via eBay. As you can imagine, it is not the peak of modern technology, with loud engines and an expensive one to maintain – particularly with fuel costs on the rise. But this roomy twelve passenger flight can be seen sold on eBay, along with others previously owned by John Travolta and even former president J.F. Kennedy.

3. Lunch with Warren Buffet

Next is our particular favorite, having lunch with Warren Buffet for $3.6 million – that’s one expensive lunch. Rub shoulders and share bread roles with the American business magnate, philanthropist, and investor – who’s been selling his lunch hour each year on eBay since 2000. Always exceeding a $2 million bid, this year nearly hitting the $4 million mark – the good news is your money doesn’t go to waste on an already rich man, but instead, all the proceeds get donated to charity.

4. Albert Einstein’s ``God Letter``

Famous letter from Albert Einstein, old paper with handwriting on it

If yachts and lunch seem excessive, here’s one that does seem actually high value – Albert Einstein’s ‘God Letter’ was sold on eBay for $3 million. The incredible mind behind the theory of relativity and a lot of our understanding of physics wrote a letter in 1954, to the philosopher Eric Gutkind. It includes his thoughts on God, Judaism, and specifically the bible.

The great thinker’s letter is one discussing his thoughts on religion with insights into his more atheist point of view. Although he did have a more intermediate view that “the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics, comes from the same source.” Now an anonymous owner has the God letter, but once it had nearly belonged to Richard Dawkins, if he had not been outbid in an auction for the letter in 2008.

5. An Entire Town in Texas

The Albert town dance hall, wooden building surrounded by dry land

Last, and least financially, but not at all least – is the town of Albert, Texas for $2.57 million. A tiny town of five residents, and smaller than your average street, was sold on eBay in 2003. Insurance broker Bobby Cave made a profit of $2.36 million on this small town all thanks to eBay bidding – proving that you can sell anything on eBay and potentially turn a high profit.

Further Information

  • Curious about whether selling your high ticket, or regular ticket items is better on Shopify or eBay?
Written by:
I’m a writer at Website Builder Guide, having joined the team in March 2022. Before joining I had my own freelance content writing business and now I work to test builders and write the content you read here on the site – so you can create a website that best suits you and your needs. Over my first year here I’ve tested all the builders you’ll read about, shaped the weekly newsletter content, written social media content, and scripted YouTube videos. I’ve also created demo websites to help showcase the builder’s capabilities so you can pick the best option. I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to pitch articles for the site like the Best Writer Websites and write guest posts for the likes of Digital Information World, using my degree expertise in Film to share tips on video optimization.

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