eBay for Charity has raised £62,000 through its celebrity item auction, selling off wares from the likes of Sir Paul McCartney and One Direction, to mark having raised £50m for charity since 2006.

eBay celebrated the milestone by bringing together 50 celebrities and asking them to donate one item or experience important to them. Each celebrity nominated a charity they wanted the proceeds to go to.

The highest bid was for a meet and greet with Sir Paul McCartney, which raised £14,500 for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The next highest bid was for £3,700 which confirmed a mention by name in the next Sherlock Holmes book, donated by the author Anthony Horowitz to raise funds for Kidscape.

Harry Styles, part of music band One Direction proved to have the most coveted item with his bowtie collecting 20,000 views.

Hayley Richardson, the senior fundraising executive at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, said: “This generous donation will help us with our ambition to rebuild and refurbish Great Ormond Street Hospital, provide vital –up-to-date equipment and fund research into better treatments for children.”

eBay for Charity is continuing the celebrations by running a competition during September. eBay users can win £500 PayPal credit and £1,000 for the charity of their choice by supporting their charity through eBay for Charity.

The success of eBay for Charity’s auction supports the growing popularity of using celebrities as a form of fundraising.

A list of celebrities, compiled by Bidtech compiles the top earning celebrities for charities over the past year, showing that top sporting names such as Andy Murray and Sir Alex Ferguson attract the most furious bidding at charity auctions.

Biggest Earning Celebrities for UK Charities - 2013:

1.    Andy Murray

2.    One Direction

3.    Pele

4.    Lionel Messi

5.    Rolling Stones

6.    Mohammed Ali

7.    James Gandolfini

8.    Sir Alex Ferguson

9.    Al Pacino

10. Daniel Craig