Five ASU students sold an unusual type of real estate to a mortgage company Monday - their own bodies.
The students auctioned off their bodies as advertising space in an online auction to fund a trip to Mexico they're planning for spring break.
The 10-day eBay auction, which began at 99 cents, closed at $1,575 after 71 bids.
Negotiations with the top bidder, Wausau Mortgage Corporation, are not yet finalized, said Kyle Kittleson, the real estate sophomore who came up with the idea.
But Kittleson added that he and the other four men might sport temporary henna tattoos with the company's name on their chests and phone number on their arms to fulfill the deal.
"There is still so much to figure out," he said, "We'll probably have something in writing by Monday. We're open to everything."
The men said they plan to stand by the wording of their eBay auction. The auction page said the men were willing to display any means of advertising the winner wanted during their spring-break trip, as long as it didn't hurt and wasn't permanent.
Kittleson said he came up with the idea after he saw a man selling his forehead as advertising space on eBay.
"Five bodies are better than one forehead," he said.
Stephen Rehmann, a 20-year-old business student, said the friends have been planning the auction since Kittleson proposed it in August.
"I thought it was a great idea, and I thought it was going to work," he said.
Rehmann said the group views spring break as an opportunity to reward themselves for working so hard in school.
"We all have 3.5 or higher GPAs and we're really good students," he said. "[Spring break] is a good way to forget about school for a while."
The auction attracted media attention from all over the nation.
Kittleson said news agencies started calling him within minutes of the auction closing.
"About every 20 minutes a paper or a radio station or a TV station would call," he said.
Kittleson said he has seen several similar auctions on eBay since his auction closed.
"It's sort of flattering," he said. "Now they're popping up everywhere."
Though the men did not reach their initial goal of raising $5,000, Kittleson said it was a worthwhile experience.
"It was just fun seeing an idea come to life," he said.
Reach the reporter at kelsey.perry@asu.edu.
