Rent-seeking in the 21st century: where eBay, free software, Foxconn and the...
Over on O'Reilly Radar, Jim Stogdill has a fabulous piece on the economic theory of rents as they apply to technology businesses, open source, cloud computing, spectrum auctions, and other chewy,...
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Forged Disney art on eBay
The Disney Fakes blog catalogs forged Disney art for sale on eBay, painstakingly cataloging the tells and errors made by the forgers. Some are hilariously bad, others are damned subtle. Disney Fakes...
View ArticleImproving your site's SEO with each angry customer
David Segal has a fascinating and infuriating profile of an online retailer who says he deliberately antagonizes customers because their angry online reviews are part of his search engine optimization...
View ArticleBanksy's identity eBayed
Yours, for $25,000 or best offer, is the identity of Banksy, street artist. Allegedly!
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Hand-made R2D2 wood-burner on eBay
This mad, hand-beaten R2D2 wood-burner was adapted from a gas bottle and shined to a high gloss. He's on sale on eBay, with three days to go. Seller is in Cambridgeshire, England. one off hand made...
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Weta collectibles auction to benefit Christchurch quake victims
New Zealand special effects house Weta has put a collection of its fine models up for auction on eBay, with proceeds going to benefit victims of the Christchurch earthquake. I own two of Weta's...
View ArticleHOWTO make money
Sage advice from 37 Signals' Jason Fried on how to get good at making money through low-risk iteration and practice: So here's a great way to practice making money: Buy and sell the same thing over...
View ArticleDan Bull's Stupid Injunction: rap about the UK's sexy, censoring super...
Copyfighting rapper Dan Bull's latest track is "Stupid Injunction," a song inspired by the UK's "super injunctions," a process by which wealthy individuals and large companies can get court orders...
View ArticleSame old scams prevail at eBay
Don't forget to read the fine print on auctions at eBay, since they don't seem in much of a hurry to remove the Paypal scammers who infest search results for popular gadgets. [Crunchgear]
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Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab: nuclear playset for kids
This Gilbert No. U-238 Atomic Energy Lab on eBay is a pretty fabulous bit of science education history: a children's science kit that included a Geiger counter, electroscope, cloud chamber,...
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Haunted Playmobil set
On eBay, a toymodder called Foiled1 is selling a beautiful, highly detailed Playmobil haunted house: "So what you get is the house, fence, wallpaper and all items seen in photo's (some interior item's...
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Deco tiki drinks cabinet
A couple of cities back, in another century, I lived in a giant, illegal warehouse loft with tons of space, and in that loft, I built a most wonderful tiki-bar, with novelty bottles and stools that...
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Schindler's List on eBay
One of Schindler's Lists is up for auction on eBay. The starting bid for the document, 14 pages typed c.1945 by Itzhak Stern (played By Ben Kingsley in the film), is $3 million. Background at CNN.
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Heinlein's bed up for auction
Want to sleep in Robert A Heinlein's bed? The Heinlein Society was unable to find a museum to take this artifact from his home so they are now selling it on eBay. Apparently designed and built by the...
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Bid on the spy-rock that Lockheed and the DoD stiffed a subcontractor on
Gregory Perry says he got stiffed by Lockheed Martin. He says they asked a company he co-owned to develop a fake spy-rock for the Department of Defense in the early 2000s, but didn't pay the company,...
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Asbestos-bound first edition of Fahrenheit 451
Zack sez, "On eBay -- a first edition of Bradbury's anti-book-burning classic signed and numbered by the author -- and bound in asbestos, to save it from the firemen depicted in the book. Of course,...
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Steampunk PC from Datamancer
Datamancer is selling an astounding steampunk PC on eBay (starting bid: $14K), whose every detail is awesome in every day, from the fool-the-eye case that appears to be full of brassworks to the brass...
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Own a near-full-size Chairy from Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Zack writes, "Ever wanted to turn your house into Pee Wee's Playhouse? Well, here's the closest you'll ever get -- a fan is selling the remnants of a J.C. Penney's department store display from the...
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Auctioning a conceptual copy of Banksy's thrifted "Banality of the Banality...
A San Francisco artist commissioned a Chinese artist to make a copy of "The Banality of the Banality of Evil" -- a painting that Banksy thrifted, added a Nazi to, and shop-dropped back into the thrift...
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Bob Basset's brutal repression mask auctioned to benefit independent...
Ukrainian mask-maker Bob Basset made this grotesque mask depicting a baton smashing the wearer's face; it symbolizes political repression in Ukraine, and is being auctioned to benefit Hromadske.tv, a...
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