Word: ebay
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Last week I made $30,000," she said from her cell phone, pausing at a stoplight to sign an autograph for a fan. "I bought into Infospace.com and forgot about it. It ended up splitting. eBay is going to be huge, of course. I sell my underwear on eBay. One time I auctioned off a day on the set with me. I got $10,000." I'll put my money in any company that sells used underwear...
...community angle is one that eBay executives work hard to promote. Users find electronic newsletters catering to their obsessive interests, visit chat rooms where buyers and sellers can get acquainted and swap tips, drop in at a cafe where they can catch up on the latest community news. Everywhere you turn--or click--you find the chipper, boosterish tone of a small-town newspaper--that is, a small-town paper with almost 8 million writers and readers...
Moreover, eBay has exposed America as a nation of collectors. Matchbook covers, cast-iron witches' cauldrons, Pez dispensers, pneumatic grease pumps from the 1920s, Three Stooges memorabilia--you name it, some American somewhere collects it. "We define ourselves by our stuff," says Robert Thompson, president of the Popular Culture Association and a Syracuse University professor who specializes in the study of collectibles. In a democracy, with everyone theoretically equal, people want to be different. We don't have a caste system; we've never had a blood-line aristocracy. We've distinguished ourselves by our cars, by the clothes...
...world, where the large preoccupations of earlier generations have been resolved. We need no longer worry about subsistence, about food and shelter. For centuries philosophers have contemplated just this moment and wondered what would come next. For a very large number of people, it appears the answer is, eBay comes next...
...examination of e-commerce would be complete without a look at eBay, the online-auction business that is part swap meet, part town square. Senior writer Adam Cohen not only toured the company in San Jose, Calif., but also flew to Paris (ah, the sacrifices journalists make!) to have coffee with the company's elusive founder, Pierre Omidyar...