eBay As Short Attention Span Theater

from the waste-some-free-time dept

Ever since someone decided to auction off a can of Coca-Cola on eBay many years ago, there have been story after story about some bizarre eBay auction that was usually designed to get attention, rather than to actually sell something of value. It's increasingly being used as a stage for performance art, which can be somewhat entertaining for those who have nothing better to do than to constantly scan eBay for useless auctions. One side point: the article repeats the popular story that eBay was founded to let Pierre's girlfriend trade Pez dispensers - which is a myth. However, the reporter repeats the story and even includes the words "true story!" afterwards. There really is no such thing as fact checking any more, is there? Update: USA Today has published a different article saying essentially the same thing about bizarre eBay auctions.

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