The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction Celebrates Car Culture in Gaming
As Grand Theft Auto VI approaches, eBay Live has unveiled a charity auction hosted by Fast & Furious star Sung Kang with a can’t-miss line of custom cars for sale.
eBay Live is expanding into automotive sales while celebrating the history of cars in video games, including titles like the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI. To commemorate this, eBay Live has unveiled its eBay Most Wanted Collection, four cars going up for auction in a livestream hosted by Fast & Furious star and noted automotive enthusiast Sung Kang alongside automotive influencer and creator Hert. With 100% of the proceeds going to charity, benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Kang’s own history shopping through eBay for his own personal car collection, hosting the event was a no-brainer.
“eBay is really important for my personal car builds because most of the cars that I mess with are pretty old and the parts are no longer offered by OEM [original equipment manufacturer]. So I use them for rare parts,” shares Kang in an interview with Den of Geek. “With eBay (and I’m not just saying this because I’m working with them), it’s 100% secure. Everyone has dreams of creating their dream build. For these rare parts, I always tell everybody to go on eBay because they’ll find it. You can find anything there and it’s always secure.”
More than just talking to Sung Kang about the eBay Most Wanted Collection event, we got to test-drive each of the four cars being sold through the auction for ourselves. The cars included in the collection are a 1975 Chevrolet Supernova, a 1992 BMW 325i convertible, a 2006 Dodge Viper, and a 2022 Chevrolet Corvette C8, each modified to be the coolest cars on the road. All four cars handled beautifully and could easily fit in the high-octane worlds of classic car games like Midnight Club or Need for Speed. Each of the auctions for the cars start at $6, making the event accessible to hardcore automotive aficionados and newcomers looking to dive into car culture alike.
In getting to drive the cars around Los Angeles streets and obstacle courses testing our skills, each of these cars handled marvelously, with the Corvette being a particular favorite of mine. Both the Corvette and the Nova have automatic transmissions while I had to remember my old manual transmission know-how to drive the BMW and Viper, having not had to drive a stick-shift for over a decade. In getting to drive these vehicles, I recalled my own love of cars, rooted in movies like Bullitt and James Bond in addition to games like Forza Horizon and, of course, Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto.
For Kang, his interest in cars began when he was a kid, struggling to fit in with his peers, before he encountered a Korean War veteran in his neighborhood who was constantly working on his 1969 Chevrolet Impala SS. The man became a mentor to Kang, patiently answering questions from the young boy visiting his garage, with Kang noting that this figure taught him to value things under the hood rather than just on the surface. These insights have informed in all walks of life as he’s grown older and into his career and something he tries to impart to others that he meets.
“Unbeknownst to me then, he was teaching me what an honor it is to be a caretaker for these old cars. That Impala was the best of him. He put his nostalgia, his history, his love, his passion into it and he was able to use it as a tool of mentorship for me,” Kang recalls. “You can apply those lessons in life, as I have as I’ve gotten older and become a filmmaker. Those are lessons that I try to pass down to other people that are getting into car culture today when I meet them.”
The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction is as inclusive as these automotive events get, serving as a full on celebration of car culture, with a particular emphasis on the legacy of cars and gaming. This intersection of passionate fandoms is what the event is all about and that its proceeds are going to a great cause makes this a can’t-miss afternoon for anyone who’s ever dreamed about driving the super stylish rides that gamers enjoy in any number of high-octane titles. It’s this celebration of the community around cars that particularly appeals to Kang, something he’s gotten to experience on a global level through his work starring in the Fast & Furious movies.
“We as humans need something to connect with,” Kang observes. “We need a community. Maybe it’s because we all have a car story. Every single human being has been in a car at one time. But as opposed to the car, it’s the memory that you have in the car. That’s something that’s just global. I’ve realized through the Fast & Furious franchise, the privilege I’ve had is that I’ve gotten to meet the global car community. I’ve got a garage clicker to everyone’s car story. It’s been really cool.”
Folks, start your engines. The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction is set to be the automotive sales event of the year with a killer starting bid.
The eBay Most Wanted Collection Auction on eBay Live at SEMA begins at 3pm ET on Thursday, November 5 through eBay Live. Those interested can check out the collection here and set a reminder.