My eBay listing violated some of eBay’s policy so it had to be removed. Any charity auctions that are listed on eBay must be done through Mission Fish or the auction itself must be pre-approved by eBay.

I could have left Cambodia on December 5, but decided to stay until December 16 to do some voluntary work for the Cambodia Support Group.

I will be home for Christmas!

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As you might know me from last year, I was the guy who sold a $1700 PlayStation 3 for $1 to help spread the word of giving.

So this year, to kick off the holiday spirit, I am doing something totally different - selling my “Plane Ticket Back Home” on eBay .

As of right now I am sitting at an internet shop in my homeland country, Cambodia. Cambodia is a poor and developing country that was torn apart by a nasty war in the 1970’s. People here do not have privileges and luxury as we are used to in Canada, or the USA or any rich-economic countries. Poverty still exists all over Cambodia. My visit here with my girlfriend made us realize how lucky we are to be living in Canada.

During the war, my mom and dad fled to Thailand where camps were set up for Cambodian Refugees. I was born in a refugee camp along with my two younger sisters and my older brother. After the war was over in the 1980’s, many refugees were sent back to Cambodia to start their lives over again.

My family were among the lucky few, to be sponsored to Canada, with the help of the Cambodia Support Group (Canadian Non-Profit Charity) which resettled over 200 refugees to Canada. The CSG supports the culturally-sensitive reconstruction of Cambodia, aids in the economic and social adaptation of immigrants to Canada and shares expertise and resources to promote peace and cross-cultural understanding.

I owe so much to this organization that has given my family a better life.

So what I am selling, is my plane ticket back home, a ticket with no value, but so much meaning to it. 100% of the money I make from this auction will be donated to the CSG.

How will I be getting back home?

The plane ticket is going to cost me $850. I can’t buy another plane ticket with my own money because I only have $100 left on my trip. I can’t use my Visa Card because I don’t have it with me. People have asked to help pay for my plane ticket, but I rather they donate it to the CSG. Cambodia needs it more than me.

So what I must do is work as a local motor taxi driver (Tuk Tuk) and save $850 to buy my plane ticket back home. This can be a hard one considering some people are lucky to make $1 US/day.

My flight leaves on December 5 (3:30 pm Cambodia Time). What I will do is go to the airport that day, check in to get my boarding pass. I will not board the airplane

I will frame the boarding pass with Cambodian Art and mail it to the lucky winner. It’s a great piece of history because something like this has never been done before. Hang this showpiece on your wall with pride, and show that you have helped a great cause.

After my PlayStation 3 auction, I received many emails from people all around the world telling that I have inspired them to give, inspired them to be a better person and it also made them view life differently. So I hope this auction will have the same effect.

I will try to do a video blog to update my readers on the status of my whole journey.

Wish me luck guys and hope everyone have a happy holiday.

Click here to check out my eBay auction

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The Angkor Wat Temple, which was built by King Suryavaman II in the early 12th century is a popular tourist stop in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world known today.

Angkor Wat was built facing the west as a dedication to Vishnu. The temple is very old and fragile and is being restored with foreign aid.

This was the second time seeing the temple for me, and after seeing it for hours, it still amazes me. So if you are planning to visit Southeast Asia, make sure you make a stop in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to see the Seventh Wonders of the World.

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Visiting Cambodia is not complete until you visit the beautiful white sandy beaches in Sihanoukville. The city is about 250km (4 hour bus ride) away from the capital, Phnom Penh.

 My girlfriend and I stayed in a 5 star resort at the Sokha Hotel Beach Resort which is owned by a local Khmer bussinessman. The price may be expensive ($100/night) to be paying in the third world country, but I had to treat my girlfriend to a nice vacation.

I laid at the beach soaking the sun and sipping on a fresh coconut drink, while my girlfriend spent the day at the spa getting a nice relaxing massage and manicure. This is the life….

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My girlfriend and I arrived in Cambodia on November 5. I brought her back with me to show her how people really live here in Cambodia. She didn’t believe me how poor the country was; how people are using car batteries as their power source; how they still live in straw huts; and how they do not have proper running water.

When I took her back to my mom’s side in the country side, she saw it all. She was shocked and later understood how lucky we are to being in a developed country, Canada.

Just being from the outside world, she now appreciates every little detail when she go back to Canada.

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I’ve just book my flight to Cambodia and will be leaving on November 4. I will be staying down there for one month but possibly for two months if a project falls through.

If you haven’t been to Cambodia, you should try to visit the country at least once in your life. Cambodia is a hot tourist spot and is well known for the Ancient Angkor Wat Temples.

 For fifty cents, you can buy a good meal and you can also stay at a nice 4 star hotels for $15/night. The last time I been there (a year ago), a $1US exchanges for $4000 Riel (Cambodian Money).

I’ll be visiting my relatives in the country side where they have no electricity or clean water. My relatives are very poor where most of them are lucky to make $1/day. I will bring my girlfriend with me to visit my relatives to show her how lucky we are to be living in Canada. I think it would definitely change her life.

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I am having a logo design contest on Digital Point. The winner of the logo contest will get $20.

Here are some of the submissions we have so far….Tell  me which one you like the best!

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Life seem to be going so fast and next thing you know it my baby sister graduated from high school. I remember arriving in Canada in ’89 and my baby sister was only two months old.

My little sister graduated with flying colors earning herself four scholarships that can’t make the family any prouder. I was so proud of her that I bought a 30 GB Ipod video for her graduation gift.

She is planning to attend post secondary school this fall to pursue a career in nursing. When she does finish college, she will be the first of the “Ouchs” family to finish college education. Way to go Sis!

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As the saying goes, if you do something good, something good will happen to you in return. When I sold my $1700 PS3 for $1 on eBay, donated $1000 to the Salvation Army (from ad revenue on onedollarplaystation3.com), and also raised $250 (sold the one dollar bill on eBay) for the Cambodian Support Group last Christmas, I never wanted anything in return. My family and I are already fortunate enough to be sponsored to Canada from a war-torn country Cambodia. Not wanting anything in return, I still managed to hit the big karma.

The first karma that hit me was on March 29. I made a trip to Vancouver and I wanted to take my girlfriend to see the Canucks last home game. The game was sold out and I had to resource to eBay to get the tickets. The final bid for the tickets was $260 US and with shipping it came out to $320 CAD. I paid for the tickets through PayPal and received the tickets from the seller the next day. The seller checked out my feedback history on eBay and found out that I was the $1 PS3 guy. He quickly refunded my money and left a positive feedback on eBay saying: “Lets Keep This Going.!.Nice Guy Who’s Good To Others…Hope You Enjoyed The Game“. I told the seller he didn’t have to do that but he replied back saying he will not accept my money.  I thought was very nice of him and I do hope he hits his karma.

The second karma that hit me was something I never expected to happen. It occurred sometime in February. A friend of mine that owned a soon-to-be franchise Asian fast food restaurant surprisingly offered to sell the business to me, and nobody else. The restaurant was bringing a good net profit at the end of the year. The way it was set up, it didn’t require a huge staff to run it. He had a good staff to run the joint for him and he only needed to show up for work once a week and was making a very good income from the business. I was curious why he was selling it, especifically to me. I would thought the company has to be making little money or no money at all, but after checking the business’ financial statement, I was blown away. Three weeks later my buddy and I bought the high profit turn-key business. To this day, I still wonder why he sold to sell the business to me. Does it has something to do with the $1 PS3 ordeal? Who knows…..

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Most of you might reconize me as the kid who sold the $1700 PS3 for one dollar. If you don’t then you can check out the videos below.

The publicity for the ordeal got bigger than I expected. First my local newspaper somehow picked up my auction, so they asked me to do a story on it. After the story was published, the local TV News picked it up and also wanted to do the story. After airing it locally, Global picked it up and then broadcast it nationwide across Canada. CNN wanted a piece of the action so they aired it across the States. Other publicity included making front page of digg, little article in a gaming magazine, and radio interviews.

After this was said and done I managed to make $1000 off the advertising on the site. $1000 doesn’t seem much, but remember most of it was earned in 4 days (Dec 18-22).  With the $1000, I was happily to donate it to a local Charity.

Early January, I received the one dollar bill in the mail from the lucky winner.

I framed it and had another idea to auction it off on eBay. I called it “the lucky one dollar” and hoped to raise another couple hundred dollars for Charity. And I did! I managed to sell the lucky one dollar bill for about $201 US. I donated the $250 CAD to the Cambodian Support Group (same organization that has helped sponsored my family and I to Canada).

During the whole journey I have received many comments and questions. I will list a few that was asked frequently.

 You must be rich making revenues off the ads on the site.
First off, the site didn’t even come close to earn $1700 (amount I paid for the PS3). The site still receives little traffic but is not making more than a dollar/day. And as stated in the video, I donated the money to Charity.

You only did it for your 15 minute of fame and nobody really gives $1700 away!
When I was planning the idea, I knew I would need to get some publicity inorder for it to raise money for Charity. I’m I really that nice of a person to give away $1700? Well you would have to get to me and then you will find out the kind of person I really am.

Why didn’t you just donate $1700 to a charity instead of giving away a $1700 PS3 ?
My motive for giving away my $1700 PS3 system for $1 was in hope to inspire others to do the same for the holiday season. Did it work? Yes it did! I have received hundreds of email from people letting me know that I have inspired them to give also. Getting emails like that tells me that my mission was accomplished!

What are you planning for your next encore?
My next project will be a lot bigger and better. What will it be? That’s something I can not tell you. For one thing, I know it’s an original idea and has never been done before. But all I can say is that it does not involve giving away money or a ps3, but more of it will be donating my time. So keep your eyes and ears open this Christmas!

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