Ebay-- the model of e-commerce

Why didn't anyone think about it before? An online auction site! Well, there probably was one earlier that sucked, and at some point tried (or will try) to sue Ebay for copyright infringement, like Facebook. Anyway, I decided to take some time to do some research on Ebay to see exactly how it works (outside of the countless hours I see how cheap people sell designer duds outside of department stores).

My dad is a pretty big Ebayer, but I've never actually taken the time to explore the site outside of the designer section (of which I've never actually BIDDED on anything... I seem to suffer from the common ailment of not-a-big-enough-paycheck syndrome). I looked through some of the free tutorials on the "Ebay University" sections and it made me want to go through my drawers and find things to sell. Seriously.

So how does Ebay make all of its money? Well, it (refreshingly) has no advertisements to outside companies on its site, so it obviously has to make its revenue from those who buy and sell right? Well, kind of. Only that it's free to buy things on there. If you wanted an account to only buy, say, Burberry trench coats and rainboots for your upcoming semester in London, it wouldn't cost a thing to you (outside of what you pay the vendor of course). Instead, Ebay takes a small percentage of what you make (less of a percentage than those damn Coinstar machines, which is like 9%) from the items that you list.

So I started wandering around the Ebay site and thought I'd make a list of some of the weird stuff people try to (and sometimes actually do) sell. Here's what I found:

sorority badges- so that you can either pretend you are in a sorority that you are not... or to add to your really creepy collection

"Baby Sub Sandwich Combo"- appears to be various baby items that are packed in a way that make it look like... you guessed it. You probably have to see this one to believe it.

cars- if you actually buy a car off of Ebay, you are just asking to get taken for a ride... no pun intended

Beanie Babies- if this were ten years ago... this would not be on my "ridiculous" list. But it's not, so it is.

grocery coupons- does this need an explanation?

"fake food"- this actually has its own category with 166 listings. Fake Starbucks coffee spill anyone?

And now for the video "of the next couple of days!" A friend and myself found this one after a couple minutes of racking our nostalgic brains. They're actually making a movie of this, supposedly coming out some time in 2009.