Get a new iPad for less than $0.25?

This is interesting. A company is putting four brand new iPads up for sale on online auction site BidorBuy at a starting price of R1 (US$ 0.13).

The Notebook Company, who is behind the auction, isn’t looking to hawk base model iPads either.

According to the auction site, the iPads are 32GB and come with Wi-Fi and 4G, with the seller putting the retail price at R9699.

The bidding will reportedly start on Wednesday and opens at R1, with no reserve. That means that the items have to be sold to the highest bidder, regardless of the price achieved.

This is clearly a stunt aimed at drawing in publicity for the company in question. You might even call it cheap (unless your financial world view is informed by a journalist’s salary).

Thing is, it’s almost irresistible. These bad-boys are obviously going to go for a lot more than their opening price, but there’s still the chance of a bargain. And anyone who can resist the possibility of a good bargain either has an inhumanly strong will or has willfully adopted a life of ascetic poverty.

Okay, it might not be the most expensive, top-of-the-range model, but what does an extra 32GB matter in the face of a chance to get your grubby little mitts on that glorious Retina Display?

If I wasn’t so afraid that an auction of this kind could turn me into some kind of hideous Jekyll-and-Hyde-style creature, then I’d be preparing my bid strategy right now.

The iPad launched in the US on 16 March, and in a further 25 countries a week later. Apple CEO Tim Cook claimed that the new iPad had a record opening weekend in the US