Prometheus 6   

Just let me win Lotto this weekend and I'll snap it up

Town 'sold' on EBay up for sale in usual way
Online buyers backed out after seeing Bridgeville
Pamela J. Podger, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, December 27, 2003

It was a year ago this weekend that a tiny spot on the map in Humboldt County became, for a brief moment, the brightest star in the firmament of cyberspace.

Days of bidding on the online auction site EBay for ownership of the entire town of Bridgeville -- what there is of it -- ended when someone pledged $1.77 million. In the end, however, the high-tech hoopla amounted to zilch, and the town is still looking for a buyer. A solid one.

This time, Bridgeville's current owner, Elizabeth Lapple, has chosen the conventional multiple-listing service for local real estate sales.

Agent Denise Stuart said the $850,000 price tag will tantalize a buyer -- and leave ample spare change for improvements at a place that has more twinkle than townsfolk.

"I've been very up-front with people that it will take a healthy chunk of money," to restore the hamlet's luster, Stuart said. "They aren't making any more land in Humboldt County."

The EBay auction for Bridgeville, touted as a place ripe for a private retreat or family compound "basking in the glory of the redwoods," transfixed holiday shoppers in December 2002. There were more than the 136,000 hits for the faded little town, on Highway 36 about 260 miles north of San Francisco.

In all, there were 249 bids for the town's 82 acres, 10 houses, four cabins, a tractor, a cemetery, one mile or so of river frontage, some Quonset huts and a building leased to the U.S. Postal Service.

Not included in the sale were two bridges, an elementary school, a Pacific Bell office and the county road department's yard.

Several of the 20 or so townsfolk say the diamond in the rough that is Bridgeville was overblown in the EBay description. No wonder the bidders got cold feet, they said.

"I wasn't a bit surprised because the town was grossly misrepresented," Jessie Wheeler said. "The houses are barely habitable, it is overgrown everywhere, and the cafe and store were both shut down years ago.''