Auction Culture

From Daniel Nissanoff, author of FutureShop:

"An interesting phenomenon that somebody shared with me was that, as eBay began to grow, people began to buy musical instruments, especially guitars, much more frequently, because they weren't as worried about taking up the wrong instrument or buying the wrong instrument and getting stuck with it. The auction culture is beginning to empower the consumer to reach because they can afford better items since they're not paying the whole ticket for them. They know there's going to be residual value at the end of the day and they're willing to take more chances because they know there's an exit if they made a mistake."

(Source: Daniel Nissanoff interviewed by Tom Peters, cited in the Trysumer issue of trendwatching.com.)