An online auction of items used in the Guangzhou Asian Games ended in failure Saturday, with experts blaming the result on the high reserve price as well as high transportation and storage costs.
Over 1 million items including furniture, home appliances, bedding, vehicles and office supplies used in last November's Games were auctioned as a package Saturday morning on the Guangzhou Asian Games website, the Guangzhou Daily reported.
However, at the end of the 18-minute auction, only one bidder emerged to make an offer of 16 million yuan ($2.4 million), which was much lower than the reserve price of 30 million yuan($4.5 million), resulting in no deal being made, the report said.
The bidder surnamed Zhong told the Guangzhou Daily that if he had won the auction, he would have used the assets as part of the investment for a block of student apartments.
Huang Xiaojian, a deputy chairman of the China Association of Auctioneers, told the Global Times 30 million yuan was too high a reserve price for the assets. Another reason for the failure was that the online auction was too short.
"At the same time, some items that were used by athletes are not suitable for ordinary people to use. For example, some beds used by the athletes might be too long for most people," Huang added.
This is not the first time items used in major events have been put up for auction in China. An auction was held for items used in the Beijing Olympic Games, which achieved great success.
The China Beijing Equity Exchange organized 25 auctions and sold more than 700,000 items worth 189 million yuan ($29 million) including furniture, home appliances, official cars and fou, the earthenware used for a performance in the opening ceremony.
