NPR : Talk of the Nation for Wednesday, June 05, 2002 : Inside EBay
I heard some of this piece today on NPR: the bits I heard were effusive in their praise, but there were some interesting anecdotes.
Omidyar really knew he was onto something when he put up a listing for a broken $30 laser pointer that he was about to throw out.
I like eBay. There are deals to be had, and occasionally a clunker, but I have been lucky so far. If you need instant gratification, go to the mall, but if you’re prepared to wait out the other bidders and you understand you’ll lose out on some stuff once in a while, it’s a great way to pick up some things.
My best score: I wanted an inkjet cartridge and found 1 for $5.00, and another listing with 2 for $.01. I bid on both, and won both: the two for a penny deal was listed in the wrong section, so people just browsing the hierarchy would never see it. I found it by searching.
It helps to research the things you’re interested in, using ePinions or something like that.
And if you’re selling, put as much information about the item you can, and make it as easy to read as you can: I sold an item for $55 that others could only get $35 for, and the biggest difference was the amount of product detail I provided. Since buyers can’t inspect the goods, they need all the information you can provide.
After all, isn’t information the key to a fair market?