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Trade Me, a New Zealand home grown auction site started 7 years ago, recently sold to an Australian company Fairfax for $700 million. "The $700 million sale of Trade Me this month shocked the industry and elevated 30-year-old founder Sam Morgan to the country's richest person in the technology sector".

I belong to auction sites eBay and Zillion but think I'll leave Zillion to the stamp collectors and limit myself to Trade Me because that's where the passionate buyers are. There is a huge variety of special, cheap, bargains and rare products that entice over 1 million buyers daily.

Sometimes I have half a dozen auctions all closing within a few minutes of one another. Watching the bidding becoming frantic gives me a tremendous surge of adrenalin.

After mother-in-law's house was sold in January this year, we decided to retrieve our own home. Sidling between piles of furniture in the lounge was difficult, though a fascinating playground for Chiquita the cat, who would pop out unexpectedly to pounce on a passing foot. Three other rooms were stuffed full of boxes too.

In three months I've used Trade Me to sell off all mother-in-laws furniture, and now I'm into the boxes. The lounge is usable again but it will be a while before I manage to empty two other rooms.
I'm staggered at what some bidders will pay for kitchen utensils, collectables and so called antiques.

The weirdest thing for auction appeared on zillion.co.nz: A "rotting goat's head", made of resin, stretched out on parchment, for $130: "On the less rotted side the eyeball protrudes and looks about to pop out. A horn sticks out from the head and nasty pointed teeth erupt from the mouth."