Man auctions himself on the web

From dot-com gloom to dot-com groom?

QXL is rapidly turning into an online marriage bureau, as another individual has decided to offer himself in a money-for-matrimony deal on the internet auction site. Dominique Femerström from Norrköpping describes himself as a "26-year-old student looking for wife." His interests include travelling and reading books. His current condition is listed as "collectable". He adds that: "Candidates must be female, a Swedish/European/US citizen, aged 18-40, and meet basic health requirements. This is totally serious and I will marry the woman, who [is] the highest bidder. "Why am I doing this? I'm doing this because I haven't found the right woman in my life yet. I'm not selling sex, I'm selling the whole package, that includes my mood, my lifestyle, my interests, yes everything." An attached picture shows a young man with thinning light-brown hair sitting on a sofa bed, looking up at the camera with a brave attempt at a lost-little-boy expression. There is a picture on the windowsill that looks like it might be a woman. We hope she has been warned what Dominique is up to. At the end of last year a young female dot-com entrepreneur launched a cheap but successful bid for publicity by offering to marry the man who bid the most money in her QXL auction. She recently put herself back on the site after the £10m bid that ended the last auction unsurprisingly turned out to be a hoax. The idea of paying for a husband is not as new as it might seem - In many cultures it is a traditional for the bride's parents to give their daughter away with a substantial dowry, in cash, goods or cattle. The current bid for Dominique is £200,000.