A Coveted Phone Number Sells for $325K

There's a reason the 2008 Olympics in Beijing started at 8:08 on the eighth day of the eighth month, notes ChannelNewsAsia. In China, the number eight is considered lucky because it sounds much like the word for "prosperity." All of which might help explain why somebody just paid $325,000 for a phone number over the weekend at an online auction in the country. It seems the phone number in question ends in five consecutive eights.

No word on the identities of the buyer or the seller. The New York Times reports that the original owner of the number had to give it up when assets were seized for failure to comply with a court order. But few details beyond that are known about the case, including why the person was in court in the first place. If the price of $325,000 sounds crazy, keep in mind that another phone number with eight sevens sold for $560,000 in 2017. The number seven is a homonym for "life's spirit" in Mandarin. (More strange stuff stories.)