Mythic
07-02-2008, 09:17 PM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man who put his life up for auction on eBay found it wasn't worth quite as much as he thought when he settled for around A$100,000 ($96,000) less than his target price.
Ian Usher, 44, held the seven-day auction of all his belongings, including his three-bedroom home in the west Australian city of Perth and a trial for his job at a rug store, after the break-up of his five-year marriage.
Bids had reached as high as A$2.2 million, only for Usher to discover there had been a glitch on eBay's system which allowed the participation of non-registered bidders who had put in bogus offers.
In the end, the winning bidder agreed to pay A$399,300 ($380,286) for all of Usher's worldly goods, which also include his friends, a motorcycle and a jetski. According to the eBay website, the mystery buyer, whose user name is "mslmcc," is in Australia and has a 100 percent feedback score.
Usher, who gave regular updates on the auction on his Web site www.alife4sale.com (http://www.alife4sale.com/), now plans to travel in search of a new life.
He's not the first person to put his life on the block.
American John Freyer started All My Life For Sale (www.allmylifeforsale.com (http://www.allmylifeforsale.com/)) in 2001 and sold everything he owned on eBay, later visiting the people who bought his things.
Adam Burtle, a 20-year-old U.S. university student, offered his soul for sale on eBay in 2001, with bidding hitting $400 before eBay called it off, saying there had to be something tangible to sell. Burtle later admitted he was a bored geek.
($1 = A$1.05)
....
http://www.mattanderton.com/nasioc/teh_funnay/hly_sht_cat.JPG
Ian Usher, 44, held the seven-day auction of all his belongings, including his three-bedroom home in the west Australian city of Perth and a trial for his job at a rug store, after the break-up of his five-year marriage.
Bids had reached as high as A$2.2 million, only for Usher to discover there had been a glitch on eBay's system which allowed the participation of non-registered bidders who had put in bogus offers.
In the end, the winning bidder agreed to pay A$399,300 ($380,286) for all of Usher's worldly goods, which also include his friends, a motorcycle and a jetski. According to the eBay website, the mystery buyer, whose user name is "mslmcc," is in Australia and has a 100 percent feedback score.
Usher, who gave regular updates on the auction on his Web site www.alife4sale.com (http://www.alife4sale.com/), now plans to travel in search of a new life.
He's not the first person to put his life on the block.
American John Freyer started All My Life For Sale (www.allmylifeforsale.com (http://www.allmylifeforsale.com/)) in 2001 and sold everything he owned on eBay, later visiting the people who bought his things.
Adam Burtle, a 20-year-old U.S. university student, offered his soul for sale on eBay in 2001, with bidding hitting $400 before eBay called it off, saying there had to be something tangible to sell. Burtle later admitted he was a bored geek.
($1 = A$1.05)
....
http://www.mattanderton.com/nasioc/teh_funnay/hly_sht_cat.JPG