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There are a number of things one can't sell on eBay, like an immortal soul or a baby; as it turns out, one can't sell New Zealand on eBay either. Not even if the seller takes PayPal.

Fortunately, alert members of eBay Australia actively reviewed the auction as reported by TVNZ and took swift action.

"We have over 1,000 trust and safety people looking at the site and key areas, and clearly New Zealand isn't for sale," Daniel Feiler of eBay Australia said in the report.

"It is mostly household items we have for sale, but there are the occasional quirky items put up," he added. "We have a look at them and if they are OK we leave them, but if it is something that can't be sold, we take them off."

The auction received six thousand hits, and 22 bids pushed the price of the South Pacific nation to $3,000 AUS (about $2,300 USD). An entry in the CIA Fact Book described New Zealand's climate as "temperate with sharp regional contrasts."

Despite an attractive travel and tourism website, New Zealand did not impress the Australian seller who put the country on the auction block.

He was not named in reports, but said in the auction that New Zealand had "dodgiest America's Cup win ever...and very ordinary weather" based on his visit to the neighboring country.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed, judging by his media comments about the auction.

"I don't think it's fun. I think that kind of nonsensical stupidity, I'll leave to the tabloid media," he said.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.