Gas station sold for $1.1 mln in Taobao auction  

网友以689万元在淘宝拍下河南一加油站(图)

Photo of the gas station on Taobao.

Photo of the gas station on Taobao.

(ECNS) -- A gas station in central China's Henan province sold at an online judicial auction Tuesday for 6.89 million yuan ($1.1 million).

The auction of the station, located in Gongyi city near the No. 310 State Road, started at 10am Monday, with a starting price of 1.65 million yuan.

The online auction attracted 22 bidders. After 26 hours, the gas station sold for more than three times its starting bid, the highest rate ever for an online judicial auction in Henan.

The auction also saved the buyer a large number of commissions, equal to about 344,500 yuan ($55,287).

The former owner, a local petrochemical company, had borrowed money but failed to pay it off, so the court put the gas station up for auction.

About two years ago, courts in Zhejiang province started exploring judicial auctions on China's largest online shopping platform Taobao, which was considered a way to make legal work more transparent.

Unlike ordinary online auctions, the identities of the bidders for judicial auctions are verified in advance. Bidders must submit deposits using their real names through Alipay, an online payment service.