Queens Borough Hall's Vintage Subway Car Sold For $235,700

QUEENS, NY — Nearly 50 bids and about a quarter-million dollars later, a vintage subway car is off the market.

The last-of-its-kind subway car, dubbed Redbird Car #9075, first went on sale at the end of June in a city-organized auction.

Bids started at $6,500, but the price-tag quickly escalated as 47 people bid on the car.

Then, on July 15, a user who goes by "HOUSE32" beat out everyone else with an offer of $235,700.

Now, the winner has five business days to pay up, according to the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which is organizing the auction.

But the hefty price tag isn't the only catch: the buyer also has to pick up the 50-foot, 40-ton car and remove it from its existing home outside Queens Borough Hall within 10 days of winning the bid, auction organizers said.

Those expenses, though, are the price to pay for owning a piece of history.

Redbird Car #9075 was once used to transport New Yorkers to and from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, but retired in 2003, at which point the entire Redbird fleet was being taken offline in favor of newer stainless-steel cars.

Many Redbirds were ceremonially dumped into the Atlantic Ocean to become barrier reefs, but the one currently for sale was instead stationed outside Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.

The auction is one of dozens organized by DCAS, which handles surplus City property — ranging from office wares to public health goods.