One man's junk

There’s a famous story about the first item sold on eBay:

[T]he site began with the listing of a single broken laser pointer. Though Pierre [Omidyar, eBay’s founder] had intended the listing to be a test more than a serious offer to sell at auction, he was shocked when the item sold for $14.83. Pierre knew that he’d created something big as soon as he contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the pointer was broken.

“I’m a collector of broken laser pointers,” came the reply.

I had a similar experience yesterday. Going through the closet, I found some old electronics I wanted to get rid of, including a broken T-Mobile Dash that I’d nearly forgotten about. So I posted it on Craiglist:

For sale: one piece of crap T-Mobile Dash (aka HTC Excalibur).

I hate this phone. It doesn’t work well at all. It reboots randomly. The camera doesn’t work. It drops calls. It’s awful.

A few hours later, a message in my inbox:

I shall remove that peice [sic] of junk from your hands…

Turns out someone needed parts for their own broken Dash. We met up a few hours later. The buyer got the phone, I got some cash, and nothing ended up in the landfill.

Thanks Internet.