Seized cars sold in online auction

Online buyers have bid vigorously for a car in the country's first Internet auction for property seized by the court.

The people's court of Ningbo's Beilun district in East China's Zhejiang province put a BMW sedan up for auction on Taobao at 10 am on Monday. It attracted 53 bidders who pushed the price of the car up to 330,900 yuan ($52,000) before the auction closed at 10 pm on Tuesday.

That is an increase of 131,000 yuan from the sedan's starting price of 199,900 yuan. The results have pleased the Beilun court that is acting as a testing ground for the new transparent approach to dealing with confiscated property.