Forget computers for a moment (This may be tough for some of you, but bear with me). Let's talk about another toy: stuffed animals.
We all remember our favorite stuffed animals, right? The ones we played with, pulled the fur off of, and sold for thousands of dollars?Thousands of dollars for a stuffed animal may sound outrageous to you, but is mere pocket change to a seasoned Beanie Baby collector if it's for that certain Fluffy.
Then again, not too many things can be strange to a grown adult who collects stuffed animals, sometimes putting them in stackable, clear protective jars and saving their tags with plastic lockets.
Beanie Babies have become a big-time business for some people--all over the world, collectors buy, sell and swap their Beanies, sometimes making what could pay the down payment on a car.
And how do they do this, you ask? How can a world of stuffed-animal-mongering "collectors" keep up with each other? Over the Internet.
Yes, you can start thinking about computers again.
The Internet isn't just one big porn site--it's also a great marketplace. Companies and stores have been online, selling there their wares since the beginning of cyberspace. Selling online has a recent twist, though: online auctions.
Online auctions are Websites that match up buyers and sellers over the Internet, where it is easy for people around the globe to disagree about prices. Being auctions, products are bid on by many potential buyers and then sold to the highest bidder. Bidders and sellers come from all walks of life, from stuffed-animal freaks to Metallica fans to ordinary computer users to huge corporate computer manufacturers. All sorts of items are bid upon, from Polish Starship Troopers movie posters to entire businesses to trading cards and computer parts. Basically, if you think of it, you can bid on it.
Personally, I like online auctions. The prices I've found are often well below what I'd pay in stores, and some items I've bought aren't in too many stores--would you pass up a lockpicking set for twenty bucks? I couldn't. The only potential problem, other than accidentally winning two auctions for the same thing, is addiction. I know many an otherwise normal and well-adjusted person who has fallen prey to late-night auction watching. So go ahead, give the auctions a shot--but beware the Beanies.
Speaking of Beanie Babies...
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