10 of the Most Expensive Items Ever Sold on eBay

One man’s trash is very often another man’s treasure on eBay, which has been selling head-scratching items since 1995. But eBay is a place for a lot more than just cheap, used curling irons and vintage newspapers.

There are high rollers out there, and they’ve been known to spend a king’s ransom to acquire the best luxury goods from the e-commerce site. Wondering what kind of money these people are dropping? From baseball cards to entire towns, here are 10 of the most expensive things ever sold on eBay.

Sold for: $168 million

Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire, must have been staring at an empty dock for a while now, because the 168 milly he shelled out for a 400-foot yacht is no joke. Naturally, the thing is the full pinnacle of luxury, boasting spacious decks, upscale accommodations, spas, fine dining, state-of-the-art gym equipment, and plenty more.

Sold for: $4.9 million

“Just under five million for a private business jet? Feels like a no-brainer. How are you supposed to conduct all your business if you don’t have a private jet? Meet at some local Panera like a couple of college students? No way.”

These are what I presume to be the thoughts of the buyer.

Sold for: $4.5 million

At least this one was for charity, since Warren Buffet does an annual auction for lunch. Word on the street is that you’re probably going to Smith and Wollensky for steaks, where a prime cut ain’t too far off from the price of the auction itself.

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Sold for: $3.2 million

If you’re a history buff or a lover of artifacts, the idea of a handwritten note from Albert Einstein is probably pretty appealing. This one in particular contains a whole lot of musings on religion and philosophy. A private collector dropped a pretty penny to “preserve” it.

Related: The Most Expensive Celebrity Homes of All Time

Sold for: $2.5 million

Albert, Texas, is tiny — its population was listed at a whopping seven people in 2015 — but that didn’t stop a private investor from dropping two and a half million bucks to acquire it. It’s very bizarre to live in a world where you can buy U.S. cities on the same website that you can buy a bunch of '90s Xena tapes.

Related: The Most Expensive Items at Sam's Club

Sold for: $2.1 million

Nuclear apocalypse be damned! The survival enthusiast that sold this made sure it would be ready to rock against any sort of world-ending chaos. People may have laughed when the winning bidder spent a couple million, but this was probably amazing to have during Lockdown 2020.

Sold for: $1.1 million

There were only 200 of these made, and it's often referred to as the Holy Grail of baseball cards. Apparently, these cards were produced by the American Tobacco Company until Honus Wagner took a stance against smoking. 

Sold for: $503,000

Beer isn’t like other spirits; you’re not gonna see crystal-engraved glass like you do in some of the other most expensive bottles of alcohol ever sold. It’s rare to see a beer sell for more than five grand, but it’s also rare to find a beer that was brewed in 1852 for an Arctic expedition. Yet, here we are.

Sold for: $450,000

The original Hollywood sign first went up in the late '20s, but by the end of the '70s, it was deteriorating and needed to be replaced. The city of LA sold it to raise money for restoration efforts, and as you can imagine, the bidding was fierce. Too bad the “Land,” the original end of the word, wasn’t part of it.

Sold for: $309,000

In today’s edition of things I wish I thought of, a travel writer named Ian Usher decided to “sell” his entire life on eBay, including his house, job, and possessions, in order to get a fresh start. How did that go for him, you ask? Well, he bought his own Caribbean island. So, pretty well, it seems.