You can buy the OnePlus 3 today in India, but you have to win it first

OnePlus has started a weird marketing campaign in India where they have put 5 OnePlus 3 smartphones up for auction on Droom.in.

As auctions go, the bidding starts at Rs. 1 and then increases by Rs. 5 for every next bid. The auction will go live on Droom.in today June 9th at 4PM and will be available till June 12th 4PM. A live leaderboard on the product page will show the top 10 bids, so you can see if you have a chance to get the OnePlus 3 and bid accordingly.

Once the auction closes, the top 5 bidders will get a link to purchase the phone at the bid they won but the phone will be delivered after the global June 14th launch.

To just call this weird is an understatement, but it feels OnePlus is a bit insecure about its new smartphone. They have already scheduled pop-up events to buy the phones, and were supposed to sell 1000 units in China in a flash sale before the launch. Marketing antics aside, this auction is for a good cause, all the proceeds raised would go to a charity chosen by the OnePlus community through votes. If you don't want to participate in this auction, and are willing to wait, OnePlus 3 will be going on sale in India on June 15th at 12:30 AM on Amazon.in.

Speaking on the partnership with Droom, Vikas Agarwal, OnePlus GM in India said:

We are excited by the response from the OnePlus community to our latest flagship. Through this unique smartphone auction, we want to offer our loyal fans an opportunity to get their hands on the first few OnePlus 3 smartphones in the country, even before it goes on sale while also contributing to the society