Larry Johnson was downsizing his home in British Columbia and decided to sell the enormous, hand-carved wooden throne that occupied most of his living room. On Feb. 8, 2013, he took out a now-famous ad in his local newspaper, offering to sell the grand chair for $5,000 in Canadian dollars.

“HAND carved throne. $5,000 firm,” said the original ad, which cost about $40 and ran with a picture of the ornate chair in the Prince George Citizen newspaper.

The Canadian newspaper was offering a special: Pay once, and the ad will run until your item sells. Nobody took that offer more seriously than Johnson. And the ad took on a life of its own.

A year went by, and there were no takers for his throne. Then two years went by, and then three. Johnson wasn’t worried.

“I had nothing to lose at all,” Johnson, 65, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

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