Baby submits winning bid for car using dad’s eBay app, dad keeps car

By Trevor Mogg July 11, 2013

Hand your kid your smartphone and you’d better hope the parental controls are turned up to 11, for if they’re not, you might end up with a bill for in-app purchases you weren’t expecting, or worse, as Portland citizen Paul Stoute found to his cost, a 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite.

You see, Paul had handed his phone to his 14-month-old baby daughter, Sorella, apparently unaware that she was already a diehard petrolhead.

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With her father busy doing other things, little Sorella opened her dad’s eBay app and began browsing the recently viewed items, which included the Austin-Healey Sprite. So taken was Sorella by the stylish British motor that, after checking the description of the vehicle and location of the seller, she decided to put in a bid.

How the car could look once restored. — How the car could look once restored. Image used with permission by copyright holder

A short while later, Sorella’s dad received a mail congratulating him for placing the winning bid of $225. His initial reaction, he told Koin News, was “panic”.

The seller, located in nearby Tualatin, offered to cancel the deal after hearing what had happened, but after giving the situation some thought, Paul, who’d been considering buying and restoring an old motor, decided to go ahead with the transaction. He now hopes to restore the car and present it to Sorella on her 16th birthday.

Of course, it could have turned out a lot more serious for Paul. For example, had Sorella been a fan of World War II battlefield weaponry, she may have opted for the $55,000 full-scale replica of a Stuart M3A1 tank, while an early interest in aviation may have resulted in the purchase of a 1931 Sikorsky S-39 seaplane for $150,000. The wallet-friendly beat-up Austin-Healey was, it seems, a wise choice after all.

[Koin via NY Daily News] [Bottom image: Wiki]

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Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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