Man Disappointed For His Sale Price

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 (48,000 pounds) 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 malfunction 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 (190,656 pounds) for all of Usher's worldly goods, which also include his friends, a motorcycle and a jet ski. 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, now plans to travel in search of a new life. American John Freyer started All My Life for Sale 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 physical to sell. Burtle later admitted he was a bored geek.