eBay Popularity Index

During the 1995-2000 timeframe, the media carpet-bombed the public with wall-to-wall news coverage of never-ending sensationalized events: OJ Simpson Trial, Columbine High shootings, Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton impeachment, and the Elian Gonzales odyssey. Most recently, the Bush/Gore presidential election (the fiasco in Florida) joined the list. Often news coverage of protracted stories results in the media itself becoming a major participant in unfolding dramas. Rather than straight reporting of facts, commentary, opinion, and speculation masquerade as news.

Heavy media saturation makes an immediate impact on the popular culture. Late night jokes (Letterman, Leno et.al.), tabloid journalism, book publishers, bumper sticker/shirt designers, and an army of small entrepreneurs of every stripe crank out quick-buck memento merchandise. Often a hot demand boomlet fuels the public’s appetite to preserve the historical moment. It takes the form of geegaw – signed autograph, novelty plastic statute, special magazine issue, or an item that anchors the hysteria of the moment with the actual event.

The eBay Factor

Today, living in a “throw away” culture (wish I still had my boyhood baseball card collection), the stock market of memorabilia finds resonance on what I call the eBay scale. Although imprecise (tell me any measurement that is not), it works this way. Note the number of eBay offers available and record that number over time. A concise snapshot of demand reveals culture popularity at any given moment. For example, just seconds after ballot chads hit voting booth floors in Dade County Florida, someone had bags full (or what was represented as the genuine thing) for sale on eBay.

Looking at society through this prism, we witness rapid trend shifts as fads ebb and flow in pricing of items found on eBay. In a few rare cases, some merchandise converts to collectable status. However, there is often a decline in sale price in the short term before reaching a lofty perch.

Lewinsky And eBay

Many trees gave up their lives to document President Clinton’s relationship with a 22-year-old intern. Monica Lewinsky’s “15 minutes of fame” telescoped to many hours in the public eye. Culminating with a Barbara Walters’ prime time interview (seen by millions), Lewinsky opened an e-commerce Web site in order to sell handmade pocketbooks and totes as reported in a 10/1/99 article, “Monica’s Back.” The public’s interest in Lewinsky can be traced to the Matt Drudge report of her White House liaison with Clinton. It sparked an overnight demand for Lewinsky and Lewinsky/Clinton memorabilia. During the height of her notoriety, while using “Lewinsky” as the keyword in the eBay search engine, almost 200 items appeared. That moment has passed. “Lewinsky” now generates about 45 matches. The fickle nature of public interest has shifted away from her and her clothing accessories line.

Other eBay Matches

Here are eBay matches for people (and places) previously bathed in recent public high profile:

OJ Simpson - 128

Bill Clinton - 259

Hillary Clinton - 162

Elian Gonzalez - 4

Columbine Shooting - 12

Chads (hanging, unpunched, etc) - 8

On the other hand, these topics/people find much wider public appeal on eBay currently:

Super Bowl - 2,913

Tiger Woods - 2,306

Britney Spears - 2,110

Ricky Martin - 904

George W. Bush - 379

An Institution

The eBay auction site now holds the distinction of having become an important part of the fabric of the Internet. As more garage sales move to the Internet, this reflection of current society, warts and all, can be witnessed in the items available from friends and neighbors. Sadly, only a short, detailed history of items (many unsold) can be found on the site. Old data makes way for the new, often just reflecting the latest fad.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.ebay.com

(This is the 241st of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the Internet. Next, “eBay Net Visitation Rights” is the subject on tap. Stay Tuned. Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace. Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)