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 (US$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, now plans to travel in search of a new life. He’s not the first person to put his life on the block.

Adam Burtle, a 20-year-old U.S. university student, offered his soul for sale on eBay in 2001, with bidding hitting US$400 before eBay called it off, saying there had to be something tangible to sell. Burtle later admitted he was a bored geek.