No, that's not some oblique reference to the presidential race (though it wouldn't be too far off to make jokes about how Mitt Romney is trying to buy the free world or something, considering how much funding his campaign has gotten).

Apparently, there is a man in Japan with a plan: to sell the planet Earth. Via auction.

From Oddity Central:

In the product description, it’s mentioned the Earth was bestowed upon the seller by God, who appeared to him in a dream. And since these are tough times, he decided to sell it to the highest bidder and improve his financial status. He lists our planet as “authentic” and warns bidders there is a “no return” policy on the item. So if you end up placing a bid and wind up owning the Earth and its inhabitants, you’re kind of stuck with us. You might feel tempted to post a prank bid on this, but the seller instructs all potential buyers to include a message expressing there serious intention to buy planet Earth, otherwise he will consider it a prank bid. And if there are too many prank bids he threatens to close the auction and start over at ¥69. In fact, he already did that once already, so please, be careful.

Just so you know, the world is currently fetching an auction price of 105,001 yen, or $1305 US.

The auction supposedly ends on Nov. 6, though it has restarted a number of times, so look for that date to be extended in the future—and look for the loser of the presidential race to consider making a bid. I mean, why lead the free world when you can simply own the planet, right?