I used eBay quite a bit when I first went online. I was working in a library and eBay was a good way to find out-of-print romance novels. We'd have volumes 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of some Silhouette writer's body of work about hunks who served in Vietnam but couldn't find true love in Small Town USA. So I'd find Book 4 on eBay and shell out the pennies myself for the missing link. Later I moved up to buying new Ralph Lauren bedsheets for my home.
The eBay portal has changed quite a bit over the years and since I don't shop there often, I don't know it anymore. It's a hot mess of deals. Ooh, a Kindle Fire for $105.99! I could sign in and get my "personalized feed," but I don't think so. The reason I am thinking about eBay today is this great paragraph from James Lileks' Bleat.
The eBay portal has changed quite a bit over the years and since I don't shop there often, I don't know it anymore. It's a hot mess of deals. Ooh, a Kindle Fire for $105.99! I could sign in and get my "personalized feed," but I don't think so. The reason I am thinking about eBay today is this great paragraph from James Lileks' Bleat.
We thought there would be moonbases and jumpsuits and ecological despoilation and domed cities, but computers in the back pocket that played a sound when someone on the other side of the country beat your bid for something in a global auction? No. Just shows how little we could imagine what the internet would be, how every moment of the day would be subtly bent towards its presence, like a sunflower tracking Sol as it made its daily round.And, wouldn't you know, I did sign in and get my personalized feed. I think I'll just browse over there for a bit.