State hopes to ship ferry through eBay

The MV Tyee: Yours at the click of a mouse

When officials in Seattle, the hi-tech capital of the US Pacific Northwest, wanted to get rid of a surplus passenger ferry, they didn't want to deal with some boring old ship broker.

Instead, Washington State Department of Transportation has advertised the 94-foot catamaran MV Tyee on internet auction site eBay.

The Tyee is up for auction at a reserve price of $500,000, with a bid of $560,000 sufficient to clinch a sale.

But as of Thursday afternoon, after two days of its listing, the Tyee has yet to attract a single bid.

State your business

Washington state has frequently used eBay before to dispose of surplus property, but this is by far the biggest sale so far attempted.

In September, it sold a diesel generator for $40,000, but most of its recent deals were desks for $1 apiece.

EBay is becoming more popular among governments as a quick way of raising money, as it is one of the few ways to reach a global market at minimal expense.

Recently, the UK Ministry of Defence auctioned off nuclear shelters on eBay, and the state of California has been using the site for small surplus sales since 2000.

Bucket shop

The Tyee is far from being the biggest item ever listed on eBay.

The record sale is a Lear Jet, which went for $4.9m, but the firm says that seven-figure sales are extremely rare because of the number of frivolous bids they attract.

Last month, a bucket of Bristol tap water was bid up over £1m as part of a charity stunt, but eBay cancelled the sale on the assumption that the bidders would not pay.

Those interested in buying the Tyee have five more days to bid.

Shipping costs, eBay warns, are the buyer's responsibility.