Today's winner is a used car dealership in New Zealand.
A BMW for $1. Sounds too good to be true, but for one Trade Me buyer it was obviously his lucky day.
The 1994 blue BMW 320i was listed yesterday morning with a $1 reserve by Christchurch car dealership Stadium Cars.
Before lunchtime, it had been snapped up by a bidder ... He clicked on 'buy now' and within seconds was the proud new owner of a tidy, second-hand European car.
Stadium Cars manager Mike Nokes said the $1 buy now was an error.
Each week the dealership put up cars for auction on the site with $1 reserve. However, the buy now option was mistakenly added to the latest one.
"I thought, 'Whoops', but it is what it is. You can only laugh about it."
. . .
The car probably would have sold for $3000 if the auction had run as planned.
There's more at the link.
Doofus award aside, full marks to the dealership for honoring the sale, despite their mistake, and letting the buyer drive away in the car! I know many dealerships here in the USA who'd simply refuse to go through with it.
Peter
Well, I hate to spoil a good story, but as a Kiwi who observed the auction and the following "flack" and comments, I make the point that the "Buyer" who was brand new with no trading history on the website snapped up the buy now within seconds of the auction being created and then mysteriously was subsequently removed from the web site as a participant. The general feeling is that the buyer and seller were one and the same and the amount of publicity "Doofuss's gave to the seller was more than that which they could ever afford.........
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