Marketing and all things related

Bobby Cave owns 13 acres of property not far from San Antonio, Texas.  There used to be a post office on that land, so it was considered a town.  The post office has since moved out of town, but the town's name remains as Albert, Texas.  Now, Bobby Cave wants to sell Albert, Texas, so he listed it on eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) with a reserve price of $2.5 million. 

As of today, the bids were up to just over $27 million.  Not bad for a town that boasts simply, no permanent residents but there is a tavern that Bobby Cave built from the frame of the old general store which is open on weekends. Bobby Cave also built the 'cleanest public restrooms in Texas,' in Albert, Texas as well as a pavilion, 85-year-old dance hall, tractor shed, three-bedroom house, peach orchards and pecan orchards.  The winner of the eBay auction will get the land and everything on it.

Will real estate sales change in light of the publicity generated by the eBay auction of Albert, Texas?  Bridgeville, California put the online auctioning of a town on the map (so to speak) as the first town to be auctioned on eBay, but a quick search in the real estate section on eBay shows a lot of properties available at low prices.

If nothing else, the eBay auction certainly drew a lot of publicity for Bobby Cave which inevitably helped drive the price for Albert, Texas up to $27 million with 116 bids so far and 21 days left in the auction.  Albert, Texas is just 13 acres but does boast an historic background according to the Albert, Texas website.

What do you think of auctioning property on eBay?  Publicity stunt or strategic marketing?  I suppose if the reserve price is set to a price the seller is willing to accept, there is really nothing to lose.  Is this the wave of the future?  The internet has certainly changed the way people do business in many other ways.  I'm not a real estate expert, but I guess it was just a matter of time until that industry joined the online world in more ways than regurgitating MLS listing details and virtual tours on sites like Realtor.com.