Unwanted Christmas gift of $100 bill sells for $257.50 on Trade Me

An unwanted Christmas gift of $100 has sold for $257.50 on Trade Me.

The listing attracted more than 260,000 page views and Trade Me scrutinised and removed numerous bids when they went over $5000.

The winning bid was from the account of stu178. Stuart, from Christchurch, had his own unusual listing - a used red paper clip. A photo shows the paper clip sitting on a diary with the page opened on January 1. 2016. The goal scribbled on the page is to be a millionaire within the year.

The $100 note seller, Robbie Shefford, of Ashburton, put the note on the auction website as a joke on Boxing Day.

He was surprised by the attention and had spent his work lunch breaks answering more than 500 comments on the listing.

"I did it for a bit of a joke, for some fun and it has been great, apart from a few haters," Shefford said.

"No matter what you do there are going to be some people who pull negative out of it."

Shefford, who had run similar auctions when he was a volunteer firefighter, said he would donate anything above his $100 to charity.

"I'll keep my $100 and pay any fees but anything more than that I'm donating to Ronald McDonald House," he said.

"I did a similar thing raising money for the Fire Service by selling scrap metal when I was a volunteer at Geraldine."

There were 37 bids as at 4.57pm today, 264,854 page views and 4410 people had added the auction to their watchlist.

Shefford engaged with 500 people on the site who had asked questions about the auction.