The auction began on March 10 and is scheduled to run until May 9. Crocodiles are seen as highly valuable animals, with their parts used in over 100 products, including leather goods, meat, health tonics, cosmetics, and even wine.
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A court in China has launched an unusual online auction, listing 100 tons of live crocodiles for sale at four million yuan (approximately US$550,000), with the condition that buyers must collect them in person. The listing, posted on Alibaba’s Judicial Auction Platform by the Shenzhen Nanshan People’s Court, quickly attracted widespread attention on social media.
The crocodiles were part of the assets belonging to Guangdong Hongyi Crocodile Industry Company, a firm established in 2005 by Mo Junrong, who was once known as China’s “Crocodile God.” Following the company’s default on financial obligations, the court moved to liquidate its assets, including the large stock of reptiles.
The auction opened on March 10 and is scheduled to continue until May 9.
As of the latest update, more than 4,000 people had viewed the crocodile auction page on Alibaba’s Judicial Auction Platform, but no one had registered to bid. The crocodiles were previously owned by Guangdong Hongyi Crocodile Industry Company, founded in 2005 by Mo Junrong.
Mo, once dubbed the “Crocodile God”, lost ownership of the reptiles after his company defaulted on financial commitments. This led the court to move forward with liquidating the company’s assets, including the live crocodiles.
Earlier this year, the court conducted two separate auctions in January and February, starting at five million yuan and four million yuan respectively, but both failed to attract buyers. The ongoing online auction has since become a source of amusement on Chinese social media.
In a similarly quirky case last September, the Dafeng District People’s Court in Yancheng, Jiangsu province, auctioned a bottle of Sprite once owned by a bankrupt millionaire. Though typically sold for six yuan (about 80 US cents), the starting bid was set at 4.2 yuan, prompting online debates over possible misuse of judicial resources.
