MAN SELLS HIS SOUL IN ONLINE AUCTION

Online auctions just keep getting stranger and stranger. People seem to be getting more bizarre about what they sell online all the time. One guy sells his wife, another auctions his life, now we have a New Zealand man putting up his soul to the highest bidder. I thought you were just supposed to meet up with the devil at a crossroads or in the dead of night for that kind of transaction. Walter Scott is selling his soul online. He’s not to be confused with the 17^th century writer Sir Walter Scott, the soul’s not that cool, but he does say that it is a “merry old soul” and not a “funk soul brother” though he would like to think there is a little funk in there somewhere. 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. Hmm, a few miles on it, but overall, in reasonable condition. The thing I wonder about is what do you do with a soul after you get it. Do you become a “soul collector?” Is one soul better than another and when you buy the soul is it truly a binding contract? 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. I wonder if it will be signed in blood? TradeMe, which is the website hosting the auction, 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. Well at least you have the paperwork when all is said and done.”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. Admittedly it’s something you could brag about to your friends down at the pub. “Hey I just bought this crazy guy’s soul on the internet.”  “Wow, how much did you have to give for that?” “Just a couple of hundred.” “Does it come with a four-speed?” “No, but they do come in black.” I just can’t see doing something like this. I’ve worked hard on my soul. It’s definately been a bit used and abused but still it’s mine and I intend to keep it. I just can’t see someone else having the paperwork on it.