Say, you have a place you would really REALLY like to be. And say, ebay was selling the right to be there and take a commemorative photo. How much would you dish out?
100 dollars? 200 dollars? Try 27,640 U.S dollars.
As some of the readers might have already read about it, the real life-size 18m Gundam built on Odaiba to commemorate the 30th anniversary for two months only has been causing quite a sensation among geeky fans, Japan enthusiasts, tourists, and well, Tokyo-ites looking for some excitement.
On July 17, 17:00, the “right to get up to the height of the Gundam’s shoulder to take pictures” was sold. As the bidding increased from 100,000 yen, 1,000,000 and soared to 2,000,000 yen (21,253 USD), different news source reported the bid price, making the readers wonder the final price.
As you know with Internet auctions, the bidding escalates, then stops, and culminates with the bidding war right before the cut-off time. At 16:00, the bidding exceeded 2,500,000 yen, and the bidding stopped around 16:37. Around 16:56, it started again, and swelled up to 2,509,000 yen, surpassed 2,60,000 yen, and finalized with 2,601,000 yen. A total of 504 bids were made.
It is good to know that there are people out there who seems to be quite unaffected by the current recession. But I guess the privilege to be the “only person to be able to come in proximity of Gundam and take a picture in the whole entire world,” was worth it.
The proceedings will be donated to the Tokyo Olympic Paralympic Invitation Committee by the GREEN TOKYO Gundam Project.
The winner of the bidding war will be able to climb up to the Gundam’s shoulder on August 1, 10:00 as a part of “Real-life size Gundam, Tokyo Olympic Invitation Logo 掲出 ceremony.”
More info and pictures can be found here:
http://news.walkerplus.com/2009/0717/30/photo01.html
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