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My So-Called Blog

Ebay — the visible “invisible hand”

I was looking at the “musical equipment for sale” section in the New York Craigslist site, and I noticed a posting where a musician is selling a whole pile of gear for different prices. At the end of his listing, he put the following note:

all prices are compatible with average EBAY winning bids.

Ebay, it seems, has become the voice of the marketplace — the way to definitely determine what something is worth. Indeed, I’ve frequently used it that way myself. I often buy musical equipment from Craiglist, because it’s less hassle than Ebay (everyone’s local, so you just wander over to their apartment to check out what they’ve got). But before I buy something, I want to know if the price is fair, so I check out what the product is selling for used on Ebay.


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I'm Clive Thompson, the author of Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better (Penguin Press). You can order the book now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, Indiebound, or through your local bookstore! I'm also a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. Email is here or ping me via the antiquated form of AOL IM (pomeranian99).

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