Nov 10, 2008

Fun - NRI bids online, wins new car for just £6.83

Sajeda Momin

LONDON: Everyone dream of buying a car of their own and if they can get a bargain all the better. Sandeep Anatharaman had just such a dream, but the bargain he has got is beyond belief!

The 26-year-old Indian has managed to snap up a brand new Mini One car for just £6.83. For Rs 546, the converted value of the amount he paid for the car, Anatharaman couldn’t buy even a wheel of a car in India or Britain let alone a brand new Mini One.

The real price of the shiny red car in London is £12,135 but Anatharaman was able to get this amazing bargain by bidding for it on an internet auction website.

The telecom engineer who lives in Watford in Hertfordshire made 24 bids on madbid.com, an auction site where bids rise in increments of one pence. Each bid cost him £1.20 — a total of £28.80. Even with that amount added to price he paid for the car, it is a steal.

“Wow! Is it really me? That was my first reaction when I won the bid,” said

Anantharaman. “I had to pinch myself to believe that it wasn’t a dream,” he added. The auctions on the site can last two to seven minutes, but also can be as short as 30 seconds. When a bid is made, the timer restarts.

Anatharaman has become an expert at the bidding process having already bought a satellite-navigation system worth £120 for just 10 pence and an iPod Shuffle worth £32 for 6 pence.

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