SYDNEY (AFP) — A man in Australia who was selling his "life" over the Internet -- including his home, job and the chance to meet his friends -- said Sunday he had sold the lot for 399,000 dollars (383,230 US).
British-born Ian Usher, 44, decided to sell his house in the western city of Perth along with his car, motorbike, jet ski and all his other goods as a way of moving on after breaking up with his wife.
The "life package" included not only his tangible assets such as his clothes and DVD collection but the opportunity to take on his former job as a carpet salesman and the chance to meet some of his friends.
"The final price was 399,000 Australian dollars," Usher told AFP Sunday after the seven-day sale on Internet auction site eBay ended.
Asked how he felt about the price, given that he had said earlier the near-new three-bedroom house was valued at 420,000 dollars alone and included thousands of dollars' worth of electrical goods, he said: "Pretty good."
"I thought it might have gone a bit higher at the end. But it's a sale."
Bidding on Usher's "life" opened on June 22 at one dollar and offers quickly shot up to more than 2.2 million dollars, prompting the Yorkshire-born man to break out the champagne and celebrate.
But it was not long before he realised a registration system for bidding on the site had not been activated and the highest bids were not genuine.
After the fake bids were removed, bidding went back down to 300,100 dollars. "It's been a pretty crazy week, but quite entertaining," said Usher, who has promised to retain nothing of his old life beyond his passport, wallet and the clothes on his back.
"It's not the usual week that I would have had."
He did not reveal where he planned to start his new life.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
