Trade Me's most viewed listings of 2021 revealed

Many of the top items were for charity.
Many of the top items were for charity. Photo credit: Trade Me.

From a half loaf of bread, to a cardboard Lamborghini, to a model of the Sky Tower made out of rubbish from an isolation facility, Trade Me's most popular listings of the year are full of "creativity and good old Kiwi ingenuity".

The website on Wednesday revealed the 10 listings which received the most views over the course of 2021. 

Topping the list was 'Part loaf of bread', a bag filled with five slices and 1 crust of Vogel's original mixed grain bread that seller Dave from Paraparaumu said he "no longer required as I now eat toilet paper".

The item sold for $4000 after 141 bids and 593,762 views. Goodman Fielder and Trade Me each matched the sale price with Dave donating the $12,000 to Ronald McDonald House. 

"Dave wasn’t expecting to make any dough, but Kiwis across the country rose to the challenge," said Trade Me's Millie Silvester. "Dave was kept busy during lockdown answering over 1,000 questions onsite about his half-eaten loaf."

With its more than half a million views, the half-loaf is the fourth most viewed auction of all time on Trade Me, sitting between "a scary washing machine and the chance to push the button on Christchurch's earthquake-damaged Radio Network Implosion".

Coming in second for the year was the 2021 Cardborghini Aventapoor. Not your usual supercar, this Lamborghini took two-and-a-half weeks to make out of mostly cardboard. The project was captured on camera and made into a YouTube video with nearly 2 million views.

With the added bonus of having a 10/10 fuel economy (as it does not take fuel) and 10/10 safety rating (as it does not move), the model sold for $10,420 and all proceeds went to Starship Children's Hospital. It received 211,670 views.

Third on the list is a $5 note young Zane found while "catching his last wave on his boogie board" at Sumner Beach. Hoping to buy a two-stroke motorbike, Zane put the note on Trade Me, where it reached $1000 and 177,935 views.

A creation from former Newshub Europe Correspondent and now Mediaworks radio host Lloyd Burr comes in at number four. His human-sized version of the Sky Tower was made during his two-week stint in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) using food packaging and received 136,030 views.

Burr told Newshub in August that he used "HEAPS of cardboard, one coffee cup, three toilet rolls, four plastic bottles, six coke bottle lids, seven paper pottles, eight paper bags, 21 plastic knives, 22 forks and 23 meal lids.

"There's also some paper, tissue paper, ribbon, and yoghurt containers. All held together using three bottles of PVA glue, four rolls of double-sided tape, one roll of sellotape, one glue stick, and gravity."

It auctioned off for $605, with the winning bidder being SkyCity Entertainment chief executive Michael Ahearne. The money was donated to Blind Low Vision NZ and the model now sits at the observation deck of the real Sky Tower.

Rounding out the top five, was the 'The Rescued' burger by Everybody Eats Charity. Described as a "one-of-a-kind creation consisting of a sustainably-sourced tahr patty with American cheddar, 'rescued' butter pickles, lettuce and housemade BBQ sauce in a Shelly Bay Baker bun", the burger was sold in the name of charity.

"This delicious burger is the first of its kind - you can pay whatever you like for it, with ALL the proceeds going directly to Everybody Eats, a charity helping to fight food waste, food poverty and social isolation in Aotearoa."

It sold for $1270 and was viewed 125,757 times.

Trade Me's most viewed listings of 2021 revealed
Trade Me's most viewed listings of 2021 revealed

Silvester said Trade Me is "blown away by the creativity and good old Kiwi ingenuity we see in our most popular listings of the year". She said it was particularly fitting that after a difficult year for New Zealand that most of the top listings were giving back to Kiwis in need.

"We know New Zealanders are a generous bunch, and five of the top ten most popular auctions of 2021 raised money for New Zealand charities, donating almost $70,000 to a number of worthy causes."