Trump Bobblehead Gets No Takers on eBay
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Donald J. Trump bobblehead displayed outside the 2016 Republican National Convention was not sold during a week-long online auction.
No bids were submitted for the seven-foot-tall, 300-pound figure that was offered on eBay. The auction ended at 2:33 p.m. Tuesday. The opening bid for the figure of the Republican nominee was $20,000 with no reserve.
The 3-D printed figure of Trump and a similar one of Hillary Clinton were manufactured on behalf of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber as part of its campaign to capitalize on the RNC held in Cleveland.
The figures of the presidential nominees were designed and produced by Freshmade 3D for the chamber and “represents upwards of 300 hours of creation,” according to the item description. They were manufactured from fiberglass-reinforced sand and plastic and coated with aluminum.
“I’m a little surprised we didn’t get more traction on it, it being such a novelty,” said Stephen Poullas, co-owner of the Soap Gallery. The downtown Youngstown art gallery, where the Trump and Clinton bobbleheads have been for the past several months, offered the Trump figure on eBay on behalf of the chamber.
Poullas noted that the gallery has never offered anything on eBay before, so it didn’t have a seller rating, which might have been a factor.
“I’m not surprised at all and I’m not disappointed,” Guy Coviello, the regional chamber’s vice president for government affairs, said. “We were testing the waters. … We felt all along that we would need to do some marketing, which will provide the added benefit of earned media.”
Both bobbleheads will make public appearances in the Mahoning Valley and on social media through the end of the year, he said.
“There’s a few things in the fall that we’ll be doing with them,” including America Makes’ fall conference, Poullas affirmed. America Makes is the Youngstown-based manufacturing research hub dedicated to additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing.
“We’ll keep trying to generate some buzz,” Poullas said.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
