Sell Me Your Watch, Please

Yet another person has decided to sell an invaluable possession on E-bay: her life. While this is not as strange as Carrie Crain’s auctioning of her soul, it is still very interesting. It seems that buyers and sellers are getting more ambitious – everyone wants to be an original seller of something. Joanne Springberg and her family are selling their life in Jacksonville, Florida. This is not to be confused with selling a life, as in slavery. No, the Springbergs mean to sell a permanent experience of living in their home. In the ad on E-Bay, Joanne is very specific about what’s incorporated in buying her life, including her board games like Balderdash and Scrabble and her kitchen items like a Crock-Pot, deep fryer and blender. Everything in the house is being sold except for Springberg’s personal computer, clothing and pets.

So far, Springberg is asking for $263,440 (starting price), but she said negotiations are welcome. Good thing, because depending on the shape of the house, location, and condition of everything else, I don’t think many people are going to be bidding above that. Really, who wants a used Scrabble board game? A buyer has yet to put a bid on Springberg’s life. If Springberg included her clothing, pets, and car it would probably be a more impressive auction and she might get more potential bidders. I would say sell the computer, too, but in this day and age that is much too risky. Basically what Springberg is doing is selling her house and having an enormous online yard sale of used gadgets and furniture and the like. Not that appealing really, besides being able to buy a furnished house.

The Springberg’s hope to start a new life if someone buys their previous one. However, I think using the phrase selling of a life is deceiving in this case because, technically, you aren’t getting anyone’s life. You are getting their old junk. If I wanted someone else’s life I would not only want their house, clothes, and car; but, I would also want their job, their friends & family, their pets, etc. I guess I would also want to look like them. After all, isn’t that what it means to want someone else’s life?? You want every possible aspect of them. This is why I don’t think the Springberg’s are going to have much luck, but if you are interested you can see Joanne Springberg’s ad here.