Australian offers entire life for sale on Web site

A painful breakup with his wife has prompted a man to put his entire life -- his house, his car, his job, even his friends -- up for sale online in an effort to start over.

Ian Usher, a British immigrant to Australia, said yesterday he would auction everything he owns and more on e-Bay starting June 22.

"On the day it's all sold and settled, I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other, nothing else at all," Usher says on his Web site.

Up bid is Usher's three bedroom house in the western city of Perth and everything inside it, his car, motorcycle, jet ski and parachuting gear.

In media interviews yesterday, Usher said he wants a fresh start after realizing that most things in his current life remind him of the relationship he had with the wife of five years whom he broke up with more than a year ago.

"Everything that I have -- the furniture in the house -- all has memories attached to it," Usher, 44, told Seven Network television. "It's time to shed the old, and in with the new."

Usher his life will be sold in one lot, and that bidders should expect to pay more than A$420,000 (US$390,000), which is the upper end of a realtor's valuation of his house that he has posted online.

Joy Jones, who co-owns the rug store in Perth where Usher worked as a shop assistant, said she liked the auction idea and wanted to help out. Joy Jones Rugs is offering the successful bidder a two-week trial, which could be extended for three months and then become permanent if it works out.

Usher his friends in Perth had also proved willing to be introduced to the highest bidder -- allowing him to advertise his auction as offering a complete lifestyle.

Usherplans open the auction at noon Perth time on June 22.