Chapter 35. pez heads
From an art deco ashtray to the services of a patent lawyer, online auctions offer the best of all worlds. Demand meets supply in cyberspace. After more than a century of fixed price commerce, online auctions mark a return to more traditional pricing. They mean that market forces can do their thing. Friction is virtually eliminated. Adam Smith would have been ecstatic.
eBay is the dominant player in the online auctions business, with 7.7 million registered users bidding on more than 3 million items. It is that most unusual of beasts, a .com business that makes profits. In fact, eBay has made money from the first month it was launched.
It all began with Pierre Omidyar and a Pez dispenser (one of those candy brick dispensers ...
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