(NEWS)E-Bay(NEWS)Q7 May, 02
>>>13-year-old makes $3M in bids on eBay HADDONFIELD, N.J>.
- Andrew Tyler didn't actually have the money to buy a
1955 Ford convertible or a Van Gogh painting or an antique
bed. Or the Viking ship replica, or the Superman comic, for
that >matter.But that didn't stop the 13-year-old boy from
bidding more than $3 million for the merchandise and other
items via the Internet auction house eBay.In fact, the
eighth-grader was the winning bidder on $925,012 worth of
merchandise, including the bed, a 1971 red Corvette
and a wrestling championship belt. Then Mom and Dad
found >out what he had been up to. ''It's sort of weird that
it's so open to everyone,'' the boy said in Thursday's
Philadelphia Inquirer. ''They don't ask you for your
credit card or any proof that you're over 18.''
Andrew's shocked parents suspended his Internet
privileges after an auction house called last week to
discuss a winning $900,000 bid their son made on April 18.
''I was horrified. I said, 'I have no idea what you're
talking about,''' his mother, Ingrid, said Thursday from her
home in this Philadelphia suburb. ''I could not believe it
- until I actually talked to my son.''
Mrs. Tyler said she confronted Andrew and he admitted
placing the bids. ''To him it was like a game,'' she said.
''He really didn't know this was for real. It wasn't like it
was going to come true.''eBay said Andrew's account has been suspended and the sellers who accepted bids from Andrew have
been notified of the fictitious offers. When someone
successfully bids on something via eBay, payment and
delivery are worked about between the winning bidder
and the seller. As for eBay's security procedures, spokesman
Kevin Pursglove said the company has a strict policy against
bidding by anyone under 18. But he said eBay largely works on
the honor system - it's up to users to report deadbeat bidders.
In a three-week period, Andrew bid on 13 items, including $1.2 million for a medical office in Jacksonville, Fla., $500,000
for the Van Gogh, $120,000 for the first Superman comic book
and $35,000 for a replica of a Viking ship. >While eight of the
bids failed, Andrew had the winning bid on five items,
including the bed that belonged to Sir John A. Macdonald,
Canada's first prime minister. >The 1860s bed was put up for
auction by the Internet Auction House in Kingston, Ontario.
The bid stood at $12,000 until Andrew joined in. He offered
$900,000. ''Mr. Tyler came in with his bid and pretty much
blew everything out of the water,'' Clayton Garrett, director
of the Internet Auction House, told the Inquirer. Auction
House said it is considering legal action against eBay.
Mrs. Tyler said eBay should have tighter controls to
prevent minors from bidding on the Internet site. She also
had a warning for parents:>''Talk to your kids about what's
real and what's not real on the I nternet,'' she said. ''You
might think you know what your kids are doing on the computer
but unless you're standing right over them,you really don't.">>
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