This morning I woke to a message from a Tim Mcguire,  a fellow affiliate from New Zealand. He sent me a link to an absolutely insane auction on Ebay.

Here are the facts:

- There is a Drylock Summer Wetsuit Medium USED for sale.

- It’s been used about 30 times.

- No one famous or notable has worn it, just a complete John Doe.

- The seller bought it new got around $ 500.

- A few signs of cosmetic wear.

How much do you think that would sell for? $ 100, $ 200, $ 300, more?

So far it is at over $ 20,000 and viewed over 500,000 times. Why? Simply because of great copywriting.

Here are a few extracts from this copywriting extravaganza:

“You’re probably thinking “People p*ss in wetsuits, I’m not sure about a second hand wetsuit”, but believe it or not I have NEVER urinated in this suit, seriously, these suits are too good to be doing such a vulgar act in, the wee just ends up staying in the suit and then when you’re sat having a post-surf pint in the pub you smell awful and girls don’t like boys that smell of p*ss  so you just sit there, alone all night, sobbing into your pint of Betty Stoggs like a lonely desperate p*ss smelling man”.

and some more…

It’s a size medium or “m”, it was the top of the range suit when I bought it, I think I paid around £300 for it, still a great warm suit that will make you surf at least 200% better. It won’t really but it will keep you warm and it’s flexible so you’ll be able to throw your arms around like Beyonce whilst you’re bouncing along a wave. People will look at you and say “f*ckin hell check that dude out, he knows what he’s doing wearing one of those Xcel suits and he’s got some fresh dance moves”. They probably won’t say this.

last one…

Why am I selling it? Well I’ve just bought a new one, as I’m a flash tw*t like that, I tend to get a new suit every season, I just like the feel of fresh neoprene on my soft skin, and well to be honest I could do with some cash to pay for prostitutes. No, that was a joke, now you’re going to think the suit is riddled with disease but it’s not as I was joking I do NOT engage with ladies of the night.

After this auction went viral the owner kindly said he would donate 95% of proceedings to Japanese earthquake and tsunami victims. Once that was said 15-20 surf related companies helped out and offered donations to push auction.

Next time you think about selling your old motorbike helmet or your good for nothing computer on Ebay try unleashing some of your creative copywriting skills.

Sorry, I had to post one more segment…

This listing for my urine-free wetsuit is getting a lot of unexpected attention which is nice but I’m feeling I should do something positive with all the ‘f*cking energy man’, so I’ve decided to give 90% of the money it makes to the Red Cross to aid their efforts in Japan. That sounds all ‘oh look at me I’m so nice I’m giving to charity’ doesn’t it… yeah well p*ss off.

This shows the crazy power of copywriting which transformed a semi useless wetsuit worth around $ 200-$ 300, into a $ 20,000+ extravaganza. All because of the boredom/creatively of a surfing chav.

I’m curious to know if anyone of you has had viral success due to mental copywriting on auctions or have seen any as successful as this one?

Mr Green

Technorati Tags: $20000+, Copywriting, Power, sell, Used, Wetsuit