Student's gamble on 700 cans of drink pays off

An enterprising marketing student stripped a supermarket's shelves of more than 700 cans of Coca-Cola to win £6,000 in an online auction.

An enterprising marketing student stripped a supermarket's shelves of more than 700 cans of Coca-Cola to win £6,000 in an online auction.

Alan Evans, aged 20, claimed the top prize - a year's university tuition fees and £5,000 in living expenses, in a Coca-Cola online auction, which involved people collecting ring pulls in exchange for points.

Mr Evans, who is at Swansea University, paid out £200 for a stockpile of the drink worth more than 70,000 bidding points. He waited until the last minute of the internet auction and outbid the next highest offer by more than 30,000 points. Mr Evans, who has been struggling to pay for accommodation in the Uplands district of the city, said: "I saw an advert in the papers and thought it was worth a gamble.

"There have been panic buyers snapping up bread and milk but I think I must have been the only person whose panic bought cans of cola.

"With a couple of mates we managed to get the ring pulls off without opening the cans, so at least I didn't have to drink them all at once."

He added that he was considering taking a masters degree course, which he would now be able to afford.