Top 10 Wii Items Listed on eBay

Hi folks! I have a feature-length blog entry today. You may have heard that Wii is was the most searched term on eBay in December. So, it’s not surprising that a couple of hundred “Wii” items were put up for sale, despite not being Wii consoles. I’ve rounded up the Top 10 Wii Ebay Items Listed on eBay for your delectation. Scams, funny stuff and any other interesting items, they’re all there. Comments appreciated!

#10

Item: Nintendo Wii Games Console (better than a PSP)!

Highest Bid: GBP 1,000,000.00

Sold? Of course not!

Well here was one eBayer trying to be a little too clever for his own good, who in the parlance of these times got owned by respectable, decent eBayers who got a little tired of this sort of nonsense. The “item” in question was nothing more the answer to this little head-scratcher (which would give you the chance of winning a Wii by dialing a premium-rate number):

What was the name of another classic Nintendo console?

(1) Nintendo 2005

(2) Nintendo 222

(3) Nintendo 64

Very difficult I’m sure you’ll agree. You can only imagine his glee when the item reached £100 turning to red-faced realisation that his little scam was rather transparent as the bids reached several hundred thousand. Funny!

#9

Item: ZELDA TWILIGHT PRINCESS STAND UP DISPLAY NINTENDO WII

Highest bid: $117.50

Sold? You betcha!

Frankly, I think this is a little silly. There may be collectors out there for this sort of thing and it may be slightly cool to have in your bedroom, buy really, $100 dollars seems a little too much to pay for a large piece of faded cardboard that’s been thrown out of a video game store.

Runner Up: SUPER COOL NEW NINTENDO WII HAT SKULL BEANIE CAP

Just as additional proof of the fact that anything with Wii on it is golden, $51.50 for a white cap with the word Wii on it. A little expensive wouldn’t you say. Ah, it’s official merchandise? Makes complete sense then!

#8

Item: NINTENDO WII CONSOLE!!!!!! Picture

Asking Price: £235.00

Sold? Nobody was that stupid!

Okay, you may get sick of all of the obvious scams in this list. And this one is as old as the hills too. Not the product, but a nice photograph. Gee thanks! A nice fellow created and account called scam_watcher666 to stop unsuspecting folk being ripped off. Too bad he wasn’t around for the fellow who forked out a few hundred for an e-mail address.

#7

Item: Nintendo Wii For FREE.....!! A Must See. Check It Out.!

Winning Bid: $350

Sold? No chance

There have been quite a few of these as well. Come on people! Stop this nasty scamming!! The seller cryptically promises:

The winner of this auction will recieve a way to get the item! Its so weird how all this works, i bet most of the people selling the item on here get there item through this...

Weird how it works, huh? I’m sure it is, and I’m sure it doesn’t! I think these guys have found up to some affiliate-based-dodgy-signup-thing (you know what I mean) similar to freeipod.com back in the day. The winning bidder here was a new (fake) member who kindly prevented some nice but gullible eBayers from being scammed. Phew!

Runner Up: NEW NINTENDO wii WHOLESALE LIST SAVE HUNDREDS

This one has been round as long as eBay has – shame on you scammers!

#6

Item: Nintendo Wii Wi Wee We Box

Highest bid: $26+$10 P&P

Sold? Most Definitely

Ok, so you probably saw this coming by now. In fact, several dozen Wii Boxes were put up on eBay to profit from the Wii hysteria over Christmas, but this is the only one I could find where a real sale seemed to take place. To be fair to the seller, he makes it very clear what he’s selling:

“a brand new mint condition empty Nintendo Wii box, this is a great collectors item for any Nintendo fan »

« NO WII INSIDE THE BOX «

Runners Up :

Wii Sports White DVD Case - Highest Quality Guaranteed

#5

Item: eBay's Most Expensive - NINTENDO Wii Auction

Asking Price: US $9,999.99

Sold? No way!

This item was listed by a power-seller who probably ought to have known better. But you have to admire the ballsy attitude of some of these guys. Rather generously, the seller promised to donate 50% of the sale to charity. And the other half? Well, that was going to make somebody’s life better (Hint: somebody=the seller). A rather amusing Q&A session followed:

Q: Why oh why, do they allow people like you out of the maternity unit? I have faith! Faith that you will always be a shmuck! Good luck on the auction. I expect their will be people queing up to participate. Mainly from padded rooms. Cretin

A: Spread the love.

#4

Item: Nintendo Wii Best Buy Receipt!

Highest Bid: $451

Sold: YES!

That’s right – not a Wii with receipt as proof of purchase but just a plain old receipt. Oh dear! Just when you thought the online charlatanism couldn’t get any more blatant.

You are bidding on original " Nintendo Wii " Best Buy Sales Receipt. Dated 11/19/2006. Receipt is from Best Buy Store#482, located at 60 West 23rd Street in New York,NY 10010. Please note i have crossed out with a blue pen my personal information on Receipt. Thanks and Happy Bidding!

Again, to be fair, it seems pretty clear what the seller was offering here. Still, quite a cruel way to ruin some inexperienced user’s Christmas.

#3

Item: A RARE EMAIL ADDRESS,

Winning Bid: $300

Sold? YES!

Well, as you may have heard there have been quite a few cheeky (evil!) sellers out there who thought selling a NINTENDO WII!!!!!!! (email) would fool buyers into paying cash for a piss poor e-mail address. And you know what, some of them did just that. Many if them didn’t sell, and some were bid up by newly registered accounts who clearly had no intention of paying, but it seems that cash did change hands for a few. This is one of the more puzzling ones, where it seems so obvious that no Wii is on offer that the mind boggles:

The buyer, who clearly had some eBay experience paid $300 for powerseller@wii-worldwide.net and not only that, received this (rather cheeky) feedback from the seller:

Great Transaction !! Fast Payment !!

But then, the buyer, who had been duped, left this for the seller:

Very good transaction, good seller.

Whats going on here? Either they negotiated something to avoid negative feedback or someone is not quite clued in to reality. Give him an e-mail to find out!

Runners up: there have been many of these auctions where it appears that large amounts of cash have changed hands, so please feel free to e-mail the following folk with your commiserations!

WeWii4Free@yahoo.com paid $379 for this address!

wiisexshop@gmail.com paid $200 for this address!

Wii_1trusted.seller@yahoo.com

nintendo-wii.seller@hotmail.co.uk

wii_gamer2007@yahoo.co.uk

Nintendos_Wii_System@yahoo.com

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hot-Nintendo-Wii-email-address-WiiCantWait-yahoo-com_W0QQitemZ120071325147QQihZ002QQcategoryZ102333QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Nintendo-wii-consoles@hotmail.com

#2

Item: Waterfront Florida Home HOUSE NINTENDO WII INCLUDED

Asking Price: $675,000

Sold: YES!NO!

Not being an estate-agent I won’t dispute whether or not this lovely Florida home on Cocoa Beach was worth a couple of hundred grand or not, but I wonder much more interest they generated by putting eBay’s most popular search term in the title of their item. Clever folk in my opinion!

Edit: Er, perhaps they weren’t so clever after all – turns out I committed the mortal sin of not properly researching my blog entry! The house didn’t sell after all. Still it was a nice idea!! Hope it doesn’t screw up the rather authoritative nature of this list!

#1

Item: Bag Of Popcorn and Empty Soda Cup with BIG RED STRAW (and a Wii)

Highest Bid: $450

Sold: YES!

This is probably my all-time favourite eBay auction and is really a wonderful case of effective viral marketing. One lady, either delusional or genius turned the entire crap-auction-item-masquerading-as-a-Wii business model on its head by using the Wii-masquerading-as-a-crap-auction-item™ model. The item description begins:

YOU ARE BIDDING ON THE ONE & ONLY BAG OF POPCORN AND EMPTY SODA CUP WITH BIG RED STRAW. FROM TARGET ON SUNDAY 8:44 am NOV.19/2006 The big release day of Nintendo Wii..NO RESERVE STARTING AT ONE PENNY! AND YES WINNER WILL NOT ONLY RECEIVE THE ONLY BAG OF POPCORN AND SODA CUP AND DON'T FORGET THE BIG RED STRAW.

Tucked away at the bottom, she mentions:

oh ya the Nintendo Wii system too GOOD LUCK ALL wish i could share popcorn with all but only one lucky bidder will get it ALL.

Within a few days, the BIG RED STRAW had become a mini-internet phenomenon (the eBay page has had over 30,000 visitors) leading to an amusing question and answer session with potential buyers, which included:

Q: Before I can bid I need to know one thing, what are the specs for the Big Red Straw? I tried finding the info on Target's website but came up with nothing...

A: HI list from hell thanks for watching, but come on we all know the BIG RED STAW specs are TOP SECRET.

Q: I was wondering aprrox. how many pieces of popcorn will be included with the bag. Thankyou and GOD BLESS!

A: I DON'T know! by the way did you see how big that BIG RED STRAW is WOW....

COMING SOON: Top 10 eBay iPhone Scams! I’ll probably have to wait a week or two before there are 10 Scams out there – so a word of warning to anyone using eBay –

Read the item description, if it seems too good to be true, it is!! Caveat emptor!

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