July 16, 2008

Sold Out (Literally)

Allmylifeforsale follows the project of one brave soul. A guy who sold everything he owned (in the most literal sense) on Ebay. He listed every item he owned on the popular auction site with a starting bid of 99 cents. I think he must've been slightly crazy or extremely sensible. It's hard to tell which of the two. The website says:

John Freyer catalogued and sold nearly everything that he owned, from his kitchen cutlery to his personal hygiene products, his Star Wars sheets and finally even the domain name Allmylifeforsale.com itself....

To date he has sold more than 600 items including his false teeth, a full size office copier, personal photographs, and his winter coat (in the middle of the winter).

Soon his belongings were sold all over the world, with a bag of Porky's BBQ Pork Skins making its way to Japan, and a chair ending up in the Museum of Modern Art. With almost all the objects in his life now gone, he started the second phase of his journey: to visit his onetime possessions in their new homes.

Ummm? Crazy. I bet he didn't sell the $$$ in his bank account though. He had to make a killing off the revenue from his project. He got loads of publicity, and he has made a book about his misadventures too.

I still have lingering questions about his project. Like did he sell his sentimental possessions? Where did he live? What did he wear? How did he survive without, you know, stuff?

I guess that's the point though. His idea was inspired; not only as an art form, but also as a sociology study about the relationship between possessions and the self. Note my post on Pack Ratism as well as an excellent blog, The Unclutterer, for an exploration of these topics. I'm guessing Mr. Freyer is the proud owner of lots of new shiny THINGS now. I don't think it possible to not accumulate things in modern society...

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