The mind of a bargain shopper knows a good deal when he sees one, and if he had the resources to make a purchase, he would scoop up the said item without even thinking twice.

Well, by any standard, $700,000 is a lot of money, but if it means driving home with a slightly used Bugatti Veyron, it’s still worth the money you’ll spend for it.

Now, go to the Barrett-Jackson auction over the weekend and you’ll find out that that’s exactly what happened – except that there was a big twist at the end.

One of the car’s that was being auctioned off at the event was a 2008 Bugatti->ke16 Veyron with ‘only’ 11,800 miles on it. Surprisingly, the car was struggling to attract the high-end bidders from touching it with a 10-foot pole and a car that normally scoops up $1 million easy, was won by a man who made a bid of around $700,000. Lucky fellow? Not quite.

Continued after the jump.

After his “winning” bid, the man immediately rescinded his bet, at first saying that he never made the bid and then changing his tune afterward by telling the organizers that he was “only trying to help”. Needless to say, the organizers were none too pleased with the faux bidder, stripping him of his bidder credentials and booting him out of the premises immediately.

Barrett-Jackson CEO Craig Jackson immediately stepped up and bought the Veyron himself to avoid one heck of a PR catastrophe for the auction house. But his ownership of the supercar turned out to be short-lived as soon afterward, a buyer who saw the events unfold on TV called the event and informed the organizers that he was still interested in making the purchase for the Veyron. Wow.

Whoever said that auctions are for boring old folks with too much money and time on their hands?