A TradeMe auction trumpeting “John Key for sale” was doing the rounds this morning. “GFC forces reluctant sale,” it explained.

Shortly after midday, it had attracted a “bid” of $1,000,000.

But the auction, in effect an inventive protest against asset sales, had transmogrified by 1pm into – ahem – “an auction for a key named John, not for the prime minister.”

At last glance the key was rated as rather less valuable than the Key, with the current highest bid of $505.

The change was presumably motivated by the requirements of TradeMe, which – again presumably, I’m not looking up the Ts & Cs – prohibit offering other human beings for auction.

A couple of months ago, the TradeMe-Police acted swiftly when the late @drbrash put up for sale on the site the 2003 Gambling Act.