Gas Station Sells on eBay for $3,500
ANDERSON, S.C. -- The city here will see nearly $2,500 for the online auction of a Texaco station it was set to demolish to make way for a municipal business center, WIStv.com reported.
Resident and owner of the Drake's Texaco Service Station, Tom Gibson, had listed the gas station for sale on eBay in hopes to sell the building to the highest bidder. The opening bid was for $200 and quickly escalated over the 10 day auction. Sunday afternoon, the winning bidder, Oscar Roberts of Cleveland, Ga., purchased the station for $3,552, the Web site reported.
Gibson will receive 20 percent of the profit from the sale after paying the listing fees for the auction.
The station will be moved within 30 days, saving the city the cost of demolishing and disposing of the building.
Last year, the city purchased the site to raze the building and construct a parking lot, but Gibson wanted to sell it in efforts to be progressive and environmentally friendly, he told the Anderson Independent Mail.
The city did not protest Gibson's effort. "Really, the city doesn't expect to get much out of it," finance director Peggy Maxwell told the newspaper before the auction. "We were going to get zero. If someone wants it, they're welcome to it."
The building is made primarily from metal and Gibson likens it to an erector set. Before issuing a permit for its relocation, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will inspect the building for both lead paint and asbestos.
Gibson, an auto enthusiast, told the paper that many auto collectors seek out gas station memorabilia, called petroliana, and collectors have made it a multi-million dollar part of the car-collecting market. Texaco, in particular, has a strong following because famous industrial designer Walt Dorwin Teague designed its innovative stations in 1936, the newspaper stated.
Resident and owner of the Drake's Texaco Service Station, Tom Gibson, had listed the gas station for sale on eBay in hopes to sell the building to the highest bidder. The opening bid was for $200 and quickly escalated over the 10 day auction. Sunday afternoon, the winning bidder, Oscar Roberts of Cleveland, Ga., purchased the station for $3,552, the Web site reported.
Gibson will receive 20 percent of the profit from the sale after paying the listing fees for the auction.
The station will be moved within 30 days, saving the city the cost of demolishing and disposing of the building.
Last year, the city purchased the site to raze the building and construct a parking lot, but Gibson wanted to sell it in efforts to be progressive and environmentally friendly, he told the Anderson Independent Mail.
The city did not protest Gibson's effort. "Really, the city doesn't expect to get much out of it," finance director Peggy Maxwell told the newspaper before the auction. "We were going to get zero. If someone wants it, they're welcome to it."
The building is made primarily from metal and Gibson likens it to an erector set. Before issuing a permit for its relocation, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control will inspect the building for both lead paint and asbestos.
Gibson, an auto enthusiast, told the paper that many auto collectors seek out gas station memorabilia, called petroliana, and collectors have made it a multi-million dollar part of the car-collecting market. Texaco, in particular, has a strong following because famous industrial designer Walt Dorwin Teague designed its innovative stations in 1936, the newspaper stated.