Ian Usher admits his life didn't quite come to as much as he expected. The eccentric Australian isn't dying or coming to the end of the road. Just the end of his old life.
We've been keeping an eye on his quest for that
new existence for months, after he decided to put his entire life up for sale on eBay. And this was one of those 'everything must go' sales.
The 44-year-old offered up his house near
Perth and all his possessions, including his car, his extensive sports equipment, his spa - even his job and his friends, who he somehow got to agree to go along with the outlandish idea.
The deadline was Sunday, and despite a number of false bids in the millions that were completely unrealistic and discounted, the man who wanted to start over after his marriage failed was finally forced to accept a bid that was about $100,000 lower than what he was looking for.
But it was still pretty good if you're trying to begin a new life.
The verified winner was a person somewhere in Australia, who put up nearly Cdn$373,000 for the whole lot. Usher admits he could probably have gotten that amount just for his house, but a deal's a deal and he took the offer. He had been hoping for at least Cdn$466,000 or more.
"I guess I'm a little bit disappointed at the final price, I'd hoped it to be a little higher than that," Usher told a local TV network. "But I am committed to selling and moving on and making a fresh start."
He refused to reveal the bidder's name, identified only by the screen moniker "mslmcc," or say exactly what he's going to do now that he no longer 'owns' his own life.
But Usher had promised that once the auction was over, he would take his wallet, his passport and his name, head to the airport and leave the country for parts unknown, an adventure made possible by the money he got from the offer.
You might want to remember his example the next time someone observes that life is cheap. It sometimes may be - but not, apparently, on the Internet.
To see some of what was sold,
click here.