This move left the school district with a 43,000 square foot "problem" on its hands. Wishing to get the school property off their list of liabilities, the district tried several times to turn it over to a new owner. It was offered to the town as a Community Center, but McCracken already had one. Several charities were contacted, but none were interested.

Finally, the district turned to a friend of the district secretary, who was also a very experienced eBay seller, suz_and_dermot. "The district secretary had mentioned selling it on eBay a few months earlier, but no one had taken her seriously, " recounted suz_and_dermot. Later when it was mentioned again at a board meeting, two of the board members thought it was a great idea, and they contacted suz_and_dermot, who quickly went to work preparing the Real Estate ad for eBay.

Properly listing this unique item was no small task. First suz_and_dermot had to describe and photograph the two brick buildings, enclosed breezeway, and two gymnasiums: "I wanted to highlight how interesting the building looks, especially the older part, built back in 1918. I also wanted to show the size and versatility of the classrooms, and how the smaller gym has a stage on one end, so it could be used for many purposes."

The next task was to give prospective buyers some idea of what they could do with the building and to "help others see it through the eyes of someone who knows and appreciates it!" Fortunately, a building of that size holds many possibilities.

"Some former school buildings in our state had been turned into private residences or apartment buildings. It would also be an excellent facility for a warehouse or small manufacturing operation. Many people thought it would be a great location for a hunting lodge, since people come from all over the U.S. to hunt in the surrounding area."

If none of those ideas were enough to inspire bidding, suz_and_dermot added: "I did also mention the potential for making a profit by salvaging the building."

With pictures, description, and inspiring ideas in place, the 30-day ad was now ready. Because this was a Real Estate ad format listing, there was not a set starting price on the listing. Each bidder submitted their price to suz_and_dermot and the school district, and then the district decided which bid to accept.

"We used $5000 as a target price, but the district would have sold it for ONE DOLLAR if that was all that was bid," she said.

Although the district was prepared to settle for very little just to get the building off its books, the novelty of the listing sparked the kind of excitement everyone had hoped for, and the emails from interested bidders started pouring in.

"Most bidders asked about taxes, or how far we were from a major airport. A few also wrote in asking if the price was a joke (since the ad stated the school would sell regardless of how low the final offer was)". They also received some offbeat questions, such as how far away the vet would be for a potential buyer's epileptic dog (answer: 17 miles), or how close the nearest McDonald's was (answer: 20 miles).

After the ad ended, suz_and_dermot counted the emails. " I compared notes with the secretary at the district office. She received 550, the district superintendent received an additional 300, and I received about 850. That's a total of 1700 emails in 30 days! And I'm still receiving questions from folks wondering if the school sold."

When all was said and done, 200 legitimate offers had come in, and 90 of them raised their bid a final time before the period ended. Bids came from 23 states and from countries such as the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, England, and Canada.

But member enginepowered's offer trumped them all.

"This is so awesome!" said suz_and_dermot when interviewed for this story shortly after the successful close of her unusual listing. "And here's the even better part…it's being sold to a couple of eBay members! They are from Arizona and plan to move their eBay operation here!"

Struck by the friendly residents of McCracken during a visit to check out the facilities, enginepowered, who claimed they'd been looking to make a change from city life anyway, decided to put in a bid, so they could use the school as a distribution center for their eBay business.

"We have always had a storefront, but we used to joke that for eBay the best locale for shipping would be Kansas, because it's the center of the United States. We ship A LOT of items to the East Coast. One day, my partner showed me the ad for the school. We thought about it for a week, and then decided to go take a look."

They liked what they saw, and as a result, the building that the district would've been happy to sell for $5000 brought in an impressive $49,500.

When we called enginepowered to check in, she assured us they were very happy with their purchase: "We are excited, but still busy! We don't anticipate any downtime (during the move), and we are expecting to list even more once we have moved distribution to Kansas."

The school district was happy, too! Not only did they find a happy solution to their problem, they plan to invest the unexpected proceeds into improving their other school facilities. As one board member put it in response to a question during a televised interview: "Three months ago we'd have sold it for $1 to get rid of it, but had no takers. We tried to GIVE it away locally to charity, and no one wanted it. So yes, I'd say we are VERY pleased!"