An Australian man who decided to auction his life on eBay after his marriage ended saw bids that reached $2.1 million in the first day of the sale.
Ian Usher, 44, said in March he was auctioning his life on eBay, that included his $420,000 three-bedroom home in Perth, along with his job at a rug store, his car, motorcycle, clothes and his friends.
Usher said he wanted to make $500,000 to start his new life but on the first day of the 7-day auction Usher knew the $2.1 million bid for his life was suspect. Usher explained on his Web site that an error had occurred that allowed non-registered users to bid on his life.
On his Web site Usher writes,” Eventually, as I worked backwards through the bids, I discovered that the highest bid from a genuinely registered bidder was down at $155,000, and I decided to delete all bids above that. I may have deleted some genuine ones, but if they want to place their bids again, they will be welcome to when they register.”
A spokeswoman for eBay, Sian Kennedy, said Usher was required to verify all the bidders before the auction to make sure they were real buyers and he could delete any he thought were bogus.
His life is under the real estate section on eBay because his house is the largest asset in the sale.
“The real estate category on eBay is a non-binding section because of the real estate laws in Australia. You need a special license to sell real estate,” Kennedy told Reuters.
“You need to get in contact with him and he has to verify you are a genuine bidder before you can bid. If he doesn’t think you are genuine he can remove your bid.”
