Why are people buying common $100 dollar bills for $125 on Ebay?

If you're in a country with high inflation and a devaluing currency, say Turkey for instance, your $100 worth of Lira today might be worth only $75 next month, and $60 the month after. So paying $125 today for a benjamin might seem like a good way to protect your savings.

Personally, I have paid well over 20 Euros recently just to get a nice example of the 20 Euro note for my collection - it is quite a beautiful banknote, you should check it out if you haven't seen one. The guy in Lithuania probably laughed at the dumb American who pays 30 Euros or more for a bill he can get at the bank for 20

 

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This is true. Around the world, many commodity trades settle in US dollars, and there are sometimes not enough dollars to go around. A Bloomberg article from March 8 says "Nigerian producers struggled to secure enough dollars to import raw materials and settle taxes... The Central Bank of Nigeria has rationed the supply of the US currency and devalued the Nigerian naira three times in the past two years."

 

If I ever get one kidding. Guess it was another way to use your travel miles. If you don’t use them then buy money with travel miles. Sorry can’t answer your question @Hiwatt

 

While Barnum is associated with the quote, he wasn't the one who said it. In the 1860s, a man named George Hull created a stone/gypsum statue, referred to as the "Cardiff (NY) Giant", promoting it as a genuine petrified human giant, and charging 25¢ to see it. In 1869, he sold it to David Hannum, who believed it was real, and who charged $1 to see it. P.T. Barnum tried to buy it, and when his offer was rejected, Barnum created his own statue, promoting IT as real, and calling Hannum's figure a fake. Referring to people who paid Barnum to see Barnum's version, Hannum said "There's a sucker born every minute". Barnum sued Hannum for defamation, at which point, Hull turned up in court and admitted he'd made the figure and that it really was a fake.