Soul belongs to Hell?

[Neetz]

New Zealand man puts up his soul for auction
(07-02) 13:12 PDT WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) --

A New Zealand man has put his soul up for auction to the highest bidder, noting that it is "a merry old soul" rather than a "funk soul brother" but that he would "would like to think there is a bit of funk in there somewhere."

Walter Scott, 24, put his soul up for sale on New Zealand Internet auction site TradeMe, and so far has received more than 100 expressions of interest.

Bids in the auction, which was to close Thursday, had reached $189 late Wednesday.

Scott said he had been thinking about selling his soul for ages.

"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," he said.

It was in "pretty good nick" except for a rough patch six years ago when he reached the legal drinking age, he said.

Advice from a lawyer was that the winning bidder would not be entitled to anything but Scott's soul and would not be able to own or control him in any way, he said.

The successful bidder will receive a framed deed of "soul ownership," Scott said.

TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said the auction complied with the site's rules because a physical object — the deed of ownership — would change hands.

"I think he has entered into the spirit of the (online) community (and) he's also responded to our request to have a physical thing for sale and he's put together a nice looking deed for ownership," O'Donnell said.

"He's answered the questions in a straightforward manner and with humor and personally. I think it's unlikely that anyone's going to be misled by that auction," he told the Stuff Web site.

In 2001, 20-year-old U.S. university student Adam Burtle tried unsuccessfully to sell his soul on auction Web site eBay.

Bidding had reached $400 before the auction was pulled from the site, with the company ruling something tangible needed to swap hands.

Last month an Australian man sold his entire life including his house and a trial at his job after the break up of his five-year marriage for $383,200.


On the Net:

TradeMe Site: [Dear Guest/Member, to see the link you must post to the thread Click Here to Register]



He sold it!

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand man has sold his soul to hell -- Hell Pizza, that is.

The New Zealand pizza chain said Thursday it had struck a deal with Walter Scott, 24, to buy a deed to his soul, shortly after an online auction site that initially agreed to the sale withdrew it from the Internet because of complaints it was in bad taste.

Scott offered his soul on the TradeMe site on Wednesday, saying he had not found it to be much use.

"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," Scott, 24, said on the sale site.

The auction attracted more than 32,000 hits and more than 100 bids before it was taken down.

TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said the company had received an "overwhelming number of complaints from the TradeMe community."

"A lot of people felt it was offensive even though we thought it was there for good fun," he told The Associated Press. "So the compliance team pulled it."

He said the auction had also attracted many bogus bids -- while the last bid on the site was listed as $3,799, the last genuine bid was $456.

Rachael Allison, head of marketing for Hell Pizza, which has outlets across New Zealand and trades on a naughty image, said the company contacted Scott shortly after the auction was removed and offered him $3,800.

"The soul belongs to Hell, there is simply no better place for it," Allison told The Associated Press. "He was pretty delighted."

O'Donnell had said on Wednesday that Scott's auction complied with TradeMe's rules because a physical object -- the deed of ownership -- would change hands.

In 2001, 20-year-old U.S. university student Adam Burtle tried to sell his soul on eBay, but the auction was pulled after the company ruling that something tangible needed to be exchanged for a viable sale.

Allison said she would fly to Scott's home town of Wanganui on North Island Friday "to pick up the soul -- or at least the deed of ownership."

The deed would be hung on a wall at the company's headquarters in the northern city of Auckland and an image of it posted on the company's Web site.

"We'd love to get his soul in the virtual world -- to keep it immortal," she said.

[indecentspeech]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome!

[Neetz]

haha did u read my tags. LOOOL..I was shocked it wasn't a Floridian!

[indecentspeech]

haha nice tags

but ya thats like the utlimate capitalism. selling something so immaterial and useless!

[Neetz]

I wanna know what douchebag bought that Australian dude's life.

[indecentspeech]

McCain's wife

[milanpatel]

saw this on cnn....reminds me of when bart sold his soul to millhouse for 5 bux

[rumor]

lol...too funny.

[reshma]

man this reminds of the dude who sold his life on ebay