Tana and the Roxy handbag: The most iconic Trade Me listings of all time

Sue Langmaid, the successful bidder on the TradeMe auction for the handbag used by Tana Umaga to hit Chris Masoe, recreates the infamous scene with her partner Aaron Crapp. Photo: File

If you’re a keen bargain hunter or something of an entrepreneur, there’s no place quite like Trade Me - but it’s the weird and wonderful listings we remember.

Who could forget the plastic Pak’nSave bag, a relic of times past? Or the unlikely collaboration between David Seymour and Dame Jacinda Ardern for “pricks everywhere”? Or the humble scrap of sandpaper that symbolised the infamous ball tampering scandal of 2018?

But perhaps the most iconic Trade Me listing in the site’s 25-year history is the Roxy handbag former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga once used to whack his Hurricanes teammate Chris Masoe on the head.

The year was 2006, the place was the Jolly Poacher bar in Christchurch. Nicole Davies went out for the night, ending up at the bar at around 6am. One of her friends accidentally tripped Masoe up, and the openside flanker responded by punching them.

The Roxy handbag Tana Umaga used in the Chris Masoe incident. Photo: NZH

It was then that Umaga grabbed Masoe, pulled him to the bar and hit him repeatedly on the head with the handbag, breaking the cellphone inside it in the process.

Davies promptly listed the handbag on Trade Me, and the rest is history — it was sold for $22,750 to Susie45, a.k.a. Sue Langmaid from Whanganui, who bought it for a friend.

Speaking to the NZ Herald at the time, Davies likened it to “winning Lotto”, having only expected to sell it for about $600. The two-day auction was flooded with rogue bidders, including Auckland’s Meng Leong, who admitted his $1 million-plus bid was inspired by a few drinks.

The Herald has attempted to track down Langmaid, but it’s not clear where she is now or who has the handbag — so, has it been lost to history?

The ‘last cigarette’, pricks everywhere and Orlando Bloom’s lollipop

To mark its 25th birthday this month, Trade Me has shared its 25 most iconic listings since it first went live in 1999.

Trade Me’s Jessamy Malcolm Cowper said the listings that made the top 25 weren’t just there because of the number of views they’d had, but how memorable they were to Kiwis.

“Trade Me has this ability to reflect New Zealand back to itself. Our list includes references to events like the ban on smoking indoors, single-use plastic bags, and the impact of Covid-19. It’s a fascinating look back at moments in our collective history,” she says.

Take the “last cigarette” for instance, smoked inside Auckland’s Malt restaurant and bar before the smoke-free laws came into effect at midnight on December 9, 2004.

The Cardborghini Aventapoor, which sold for $10,420. Photo: File

Or the cricket-centred lollipop Orlando Bloom sported during the 2003 Lord of the Rings premiere in Wellington, later sold on the site for $330.

In more recent history, there’s the cardboard Lamborghini and the Sky Tower creatively made from MIQ rubbish - and of course, the timeless phallic-shaped fruit and vegetables that dominate the listings each year.

Someone even tried to auction off the country of Australia in 2006, affectionately labelled “large brown boring featureless land mass”. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t see any bids, as Australia was not for sale.

And who could forget former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calling Act party leader David Seymour an “arrogant prick” under her breath? Instead of igniting the feud further, Seymour and Ardern decided to frame the comment and auction it off to raise money for prostate cancer research — proving they could set aside their differences for a good cause. The framed transcript sold for $100,100.