E-commerce - Backpage Briefing - car sells for $14 on Internet auction web site - Brief Article

Telecom Asia, Sept, 2002

Who says you can't find a good deal on the Web these days? Han Bin, a 20-year-old office worker in Shanghai, bought a second-hand Volkswagen Passat for $14--much to the surprise of the used car company that was selling it.

Yongda Automobile Sales put the Passat up for sale on Chinese auction Web site EachNet.com, which is 33% owned by US auction site eBay. Hah bid 116 yuan ($14), well under the 100,000 yuan ($12,000) market price for a second-hand Passat in Shanghai. When the auction deadline passed, Han was declared the winning bidder, since he was the only one who'd bothered to bid, according to Reuters.

Understandably, Yongda tried cancel the transaction, but Han, also understandably, says the car is his. The case was still being argued in a Shanghai district court as we went to press.

Meanwhile, Yongda is still trying to work out what went wrong--they've narrowed it down to a system error or a human glitch. Caveat emptor, indeed.