eBay's "Want It Now" classifieds feature got major attention last week when Intel posted for a mint copy of the April 19, 1965, issue of Electronics. That issue contained Intel founder Gordon Moore's prediction that computer chips would double in power for the same price every 18 months. Intel promised in the eBay Want It Now listing up to $10,000 for a mint copy of the magazine.
Despite the stipulation Intel included that it would not purchase library copies from individuals, several libraries reported thefts of the issue from holdings after the posting received major media attention. Intel has since removed the posting, which was located at http://wantitnow.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?WantItNowView&adid=6955863859.
Classifieds are hot right now, and Dr. Paul Rademacher took them to a new level when he launched a site that blends classifieds from Craigslist with Google Maps (http://paulrademacher.com/housing). I can look at houses and apartments in Boston and see the properties on the map, with a list of properties in the right column. (It's something you have to see before you can grasp it; be aware it's in Beta so may have some glitches.)
If you haven't tried Google Maps before, hold down your mouse on the map and move it around. You can go North, West, East and South instantly, not like other map services that render new pages when you want a different view.
This technology demonstrates we live in amazing times. Now someone has had an RFID chip implanted in his hand so he can have keyless entry to his home, car and computer!
http://www.bmezine.com/news/presenttense/20050330.html
If the next 20 years are anything like the last 20, our children will be wondering how we ever put up with today's "ancient" technology!
Hopefully before then the Internet will be a safer place. In today's issue, David reports on online escrow fraud. We first wrote about this in 2002, and three years later, it's even more of a problem.
We also have an article about a new eBay consignment service called FoundValue by Mark O'Neill, and a discussion of the "Celebrity PowerSeller" by Brad and Debra Schepp. Collector's Corner columnist Michele Alice goes mad over Mad magazines, and as always we have a This & That roundup and Letters from Readers. Enjoy today's issue, and thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
