Assignment 5-1 - Pop Culture - Weekly Written Analysis

Ebay has become today’s biggest yard sale. Anyone can list any item they want to sell with the touch of a button. Ebay has become one of the fastest growing trends on the internet. If you can think of it, most likely you can locate it on Ebay. For example, my Mom was looking for a pair of snow boots for my daughter the other day. She went to town and couldn’t find a thing at the three stores we have here in town. The three stores are Wal-Mart, Goodys and Elder-Beerman. She even went to Big Lots on the slim chance that they might have something for a size 4 girl. As usual they only had sizes for small infant children. The other three stores had nothing at all. Since there were no size 4 girls boots in town, she logged onto Ebay where she found 3 pairs she liked. One pair was new and had a Buy-It-Now option which is just what it says. You click the button to purchase your item now without having to wait for an auction to end. The price for these NEW boots was $19.99 with free shipping. They were made by Lands End and I really thought that they were pretty and actually thought they were the best option. My mom decided she wanted to wait for an auction that would end in 2 days 4 hours. After this time had almost passed she logged on to bid on these used boots. My mom is one of those people who bid on the item at the last minute taking the chance that the computer will mess up and cause her to lose the item she is trying to win. The boots were $7.95 with 4 people bidding on them. She placed a bid for $27.99 for a pair of used boots with one minute left in the auction. As the auction time was running out 2 other people placed a bid raising the items price to $25.67. My mom, in the end, ended up winning this pair of used boots for $25.67. This is a pair of boots that at a yard sale she would have laughed at if the price had been $25.67. She probably would have laughed at a price higher than $3.00. She was so happy that she had won the auction and beat someone out of the sale that she happily pushed the Pay Now button and continued to pay for her item, that I should mention also had a $7.95 shipping fee that needed added to the total. These boots ended up costing her $33.62. I know my Mom and she would have never paid $33.62 for a pair of shoes for my kids because they grow out of them/wear them out so fast. She has a hard time paying $19.99 for a NEW pair of shoes at the beginning of the school year. (This is her contribution to the high costs of school clothes and supplies which I am so grateful for.) After she finished paying for the boots I pointed out to her the total cost of these boots and the fact that she would have never paid that price for them at a yard sale or even a store for that matter and she replied: “But I won & Tori has a pair of boots now.” This mentality when browsing the millions of items on Ebay is what makes this site addictive. People have a competitive side even when they are competing with an anonymous person only identified by a user name. I only wish I would have thought of it first.