A late night decision to list a tractor for auction on TradeMe and throw in a free farm has meant a very busy week for one Southland couple.
Shelley and Alan Holland have had to spend hours a day hunched over the computer, answering pages of questions from the public.
"Well right at the beginning when somebody said 'are you going to answer all the questions', and I said 'yes', I wasn't actually anticipating more than really a dozen or so," says Mrs Holland.
Mrs Holland has typed almost 120,000 words in response to the 2,000-odd questions.
The auction has had over 310,000 page views, making it the site's second most popular auction, behind Tana Umaga's handbag.
TradeMe Business Manager Mike O'Donnell says the success of the auction has a lot to do with the couple's attitude.
"What's happened here is the sellers have engaged with the online community," Mr O'Donnell says. "They've injected humour and they've injected humanitarism into the way that they answer questions."
The Hollands say the public's response to the auction has blown them away.
"Some of it's very, very humbling," Mrs Holland says. "There's just been so many amazing comments. Some of it's very inspirational."
The auction has already spawned a few copycats, but it is the personal touch that has garnered invitations for the Hollands to stay with members all over the country.
"We'd like to go round and catch up with everyone," Mrs Holland says. "We'd like to sort of do something like a little documentary or something and find out what people… meet the people who put bids on, meet the people who've done the comments."
The Hollands are planning to donate $10,000 to charity, including helping a young boy with medical treatment in America. But in the meantime, they are planning a champagne party around the bonfire to celebrate with family and friends.
The auction is due to close at 10:30pm tonight and a team from TradeMe will keep an eye out for any spoiler bids.
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