The charity auction on TradeMe reached $4190 after 93 bids when it closed at 7.30pm today, but that wasn't enough to meet reserve.
The auction started bidding at $1000 when it kicked off on August 14. Profits were due to go towards the Play It Strange charity for gifted young songwriters.
Penned by Ella Yelich-O'Connor after her Grammy wins in January, the A4 sheet consists of lyrics for the chorus to Royals and is signed by both her and the song's producer, Joel Little.
Little brought Lorde's lyric sheet, written in Los Angeles, home with him after the pair collected their Grammy gongs.
The auction attracted some negative queries from auction viewers, with some questioning whether Lorde had simply signed a piece of paper with lyrics written by someone else. "Ella wrote them out specifically for us," was the reply.
Another punter asked when Lorde's next album might be out. The answer? "Don't know."
Released in 2013, Royals won the Apra Silver Scroll award and took home Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards. It spent nine weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
