Sep 4, 2008, 23:49 GMT
Taipei - A Beijing Olympics gold medal was put up for auction on a Taiwan website, but the seller or the website later removed the posting, a newspaper said on Friday.
On Sunday a man posted a message on the Yahoo.kimo website, the most popular website in Taiwan, inviting bids for a Beijing Olympics gold medal, according to the Liberty Times.
The man was asking for 999,999,999 Taiwan dollars (32 million US dollars) for the medal.
Some people asked the seller to post a photo showing the back of the gold medal. The seller refused, saying he could not, because it would reveal the sport for which the gold medal was issued, thus exposing the winner's identity.
The seller said the gold medal was in Japan and that if a buyer could prove it was a fake, he would refund the money, hold a news conference to apologize and swallow the fake gold medal.
The Liberty Times said the seller's credit rating was 92 per cent so it is unlikely that he was peddling a fake gold medal.
Yahoo.kimo operator said a seller can only put up personal items for auction on Yahoo.kimo. If the commodity comes from a suspicious source, the operator will remove it from Yahoo.kimo's auction site.
By Friday, the auction message for the gold medal has been removed from Yahoo.kimo.
The August 8-24 Beijing Olympics issued issued 302 gold medals. Japan won nine golds, including two won by swimming star Kosuke Kitajima in the men's 100m and 200m breaststroke events.
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