Xebra sells on eBay for $10,800. Winner outbids 8,000 others?

Steve Palmer is the freshest owner of a Xebra electric vehicle after submitting the winning bid of $10,800 on a recent eBay auction. While the Xebra's actual retail price is under $10,000, the squat little EVs are only sold through authorized dealers and are not available everywhere right now. Palmer said his high bid would allow him to get the Xebra faster than through the standard channels. He claimed that he "really wanted the car so my family and I could enjoy this newest technology."
What I don't fully understand is Zap's press release announcing the auction. Zap sells the Xebra in the U.S. and claimed that Palmer outbid almost eight thousand other bidders to win the car. Excuse me? Eight thousand? Since the auction has ended, the details are no longer available on the auction site, but doesn't that seem like an awful lot of people to be bidding on one of these niche cars? I mean, the Reggie Bush exclusive NFL/Rebuild New Orleans merchandise items have between 24 and 51 bids as I write this. And that's the number of bids, not bidders. Something seems odd here. But if it's true, then Zap had better get a lot of the Xebras to market pronto, is all I'm saying. We'll let you know you if Zap clears things up.
[Source: Zapworld]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JasonH 12:23PM (10/04/2006)
They probably meant the auction had almost 8000 views.
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mark f 1:16PM (10/04/2006)
The details of the auction are stil available on the auction site for ebay members who log in and view the 'completed items' query. According to the final auction resutls there were 52 bids, which means far fewer than 52 bidders as many folks bid more than once.
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Simone 1:52PM (10/04/2006)
The counter on the page only shows 7665 hit, including hits after the auction ended. I only count 22 unique bids.
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Sebastian 2:37PM (10/04/2006)
All right, what you're all saying makes sense. I think ZAPs PR went a little overboard on this one, but hey, that's their job I guess. thanks.
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Manu Sharma 3:52AM (10/05/2006)
No wonder. I can't imagine a three-wheeled EV to be a rage. Looks like one of those autorickshaws here in Delhi, India.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big EV fan. But I have to say, that's the ugliest one around.
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