[lbo-talk] Making money on eBay [was Re: housing bubble?]

[Carl Remick]

>From: snit snat <snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com>
>
>...Sorry, this attitude that you are "making money" selling your stuff on 
>eBay just amuses the hell out of me. Hello? You had to buy the stuff first 
>and then you sell it for, usually, a lot less than you paid for it. If a 
>business ran that way....

[eBay has loftier aims than mere commerce.  In its TV advertising eBay 
infuses its cyber flea market with New Age spiritualism, offering customers 
a way to touch eternity by trading stuff.  Ad Week included the following in 
its "Best Spots of November 2004" ranking:]

eBay "Toy Boat"
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/San Francisco
A young boy's toy boat gets washed out to sea with the tide, only to be 
found years later, tangled in a fisherman's net. The now-grown boy finds his 
lost toy on eBay. "What if nothing was ever forgotten? What if nothing was 
ever lost?"

<http://www.adweek.com/aw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000735500>

BTW, I bet that ad's been collecting dust on the shelves of Goodby, 
Silverstein & Partners since the tsunami.

Carl