“Sorry I can’t call you, you have a 4 in your phone number”

When I was looking to buy a cell phone number here in Beijing, I had been told that people will pay top dollar to buy a cell phone number that have lucky numbers such as “6”, “8” or “9” but of course if you are looking for a bargain, you can buy a cell phone number with a bunch of 4’s (an unlucky number). When I was looking to buy my cell phone number I had asked, half jokingly if I bought a number with a bunch of 4’s if people would not want to call me. I got a few laughs, but no one really answered my question….and pretty much the only people that call me are Andrea and Peter…so maybe there is something to that whole 4 business.

“Mobile Numbers for Sale = big business as the usual numbers for mobile phones in China starts with 13 (bad luck). Recently users are willing to pay high prices to purchase unique number such as numbers with 4 eights which can sell as high as 2400 to 2800 RMB and those which have no lucky or fortunate numbers can be purchased at 50 to 60 RMB. (Lucky numbers are 6, 8, and 9.)”
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=470888