AC Dickson: eBay Power Seller

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Communication
by acdickson

Communication is the lynchpin of eBay. You take it away and the entire structure falls apart. I want to applaud the vocal readers who took seriously last weeks directive to find unusual eBay auctions and took the time to post their findings. Kudos. As for the lookey loos*, I feel only disappoitnment. The gauntlet was thrown down, a challenge issued, but you neglected to rise to the occasion.

The good news is that AC is a benign taskmaster. I will continue to encourage comments about absurd or otherwise noteworthy auctions on the greatest website ever conceived off. Find then, send me to them. But you missed out on being in the running for the AC Dickson prize pack. The deadline has passed and we have a winner. Props to Mikey and Holly, but Josh Berezin brought not only quantity and quality, but also a question — a line of inquiry the raises the bar above mere observation and issues of profit margins into a philosophical place.

Josh, please be in touch about where you grew up, where you live now and places that have had a profound influence on your life. While my antique postcard collection is not comprehensive, it is vast, and drink of it you may. I will put a prize package together on your behalf.

But let's examine the auction that captured my imagination and won the prize. Only it's not up on eBay anymore. If memory serves me, Josh found a million dollar auction that was essentially an advertisement for a superhero cable access show in upstate New York. Josh wondered if this was a legal eBay auction, and offered to "smack 'em down." Well, Josh, smacked down they have been, for that auction is no longer up.

Initially I thought all was kosher with the auction. Actually, I thought it inspired. eBay has 140 million users worldwide, what better way to let the world know about your new show. For about $4 (due to the million dollar starting price), the producers of the show got loads of publicity. As far as I can figure, the only reason they got smacked down is that they technically weren't selling anything. They just wanted you to watch the show. If, on the other hand, they were auctioning off the opportunity to be a guest star on the program, my guess is that the auction would still be up. You know the old adage about the fine line between genius and stupidity? Watch our show, you get the smack down, winning the chance to be the villain in a future episode — brilliant. The aforementioned auction got an A in my book, but flunked on a technicality. Don't think that eBay is a marketplace for only things. It's a place to sell ideas, concepts and constructs. Think outside the box.

Speaking of outside the box thinkers, here is a link to Josh's runner up auction. Perhaps I'll hire him, as long as he doesn't mind combing the thrift stores for me and packing up auctions.

Easy Money

* A "lookey loo" is a person who surfs eBay auctions but never bids or sells.

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