It’s a website where you can buy and sell anything, even air. R Krishna & Anjali Thomas delve into the craziness that is online auction
It’s a website where you can buy and sell anything, even air. R Krishna & Anjali Thomas delve into the craziness that is online auction
A never seen before product, this guitar is not available even to rock bands like Metallica, Aerosmith, Scorpions. Servicing is provided 24 hours from our shop.”
That’s how Rahul Ramchandra described his guitar, which he auctioned off on the online site, eBay. But what makes this guitar particularly special, is that it simply does not exist.
It’s an air guitar, and the 21-year-old BTech student from Kochi, Kerala, has invited “all hard core, die hard rock fans” to experience the magic. And to his surprise, a number of people from different parts of the country began to bid on the imaginary instrument.
One person wanted to know the brand name of the guitar. A bass guitarist asked if strings were part of the deal. “I just told him that the guitar had a life-long warranty, and that it came with no strings attached,” said Ramchandra, who has sold eight “limited edition” air guitars till date.
In the real word, we’ve yet to come across a shop selling imaginary guitars. And even if there is one with such a dubious distinction, we doubt any self-respecting consumer would be interested in the product which simply does not exist. But in the world wide web, which has the honour of shedding new light on human behaviour, everything goes, including imaginary guitars and virtual dates.
And that’s one of things that motivated Hitesh Nathani to put for sale the “concept of a date with umpire Steve Bucknor”.
The 25-year-old manager at a third-party licencing company decided to sell this concept after the umpiring fiasco in the Sidney Test Match. In the description of his item, Nathani wrote: “Here the chance for you to go and vent out your frustration and give him a piece of YOUR mind.”
According to Nathani, the post got about 200 hits a week and the concept was finally auctioned off for the sum total of Rs0.01. “I wanted to express my frustration after the Sidney test match debacle, and this was the perfect outlet. It’s about finding people with a similar sense of humour and sharing it with the world,” says Nathani.
Our online marketplace, in a sense, allows people to think creatively and express themselves because they know there’s place for it on eBay,” says Ambareesh Murty, director marketing, eBay India.
“While legalities are always considered, unique listings allow like-minded creative and whacky people, to express themselves and interact on a common platform, this builds our community.”
And if a 10-year-old cheese sandwich believed to bear an image of the Virgin Mary was auctioned off for a princely sum of $28,000 in 2004, then some would say that Ramchandra and Nathani were short-changed.
One anonymous seller from New Delhi seems to have found a cosy niche for himself. After having scored 99.87 per cent in the CAT 2007 examinations, he’s decided to sell himself to any academic institution.
The product description reads as follows: “I would like any of the CAT coaching institutes to pay me money, and then they can use my name for their advertising. Also, I am genuine...”
The starting bid is Rs5,000, but at the time of writing this story, no one has made a bid yet.
Ramchandra, however, is on a roll. To keep up with the demand, he will be putting up a few more “limited edition” air guitars for sale.
r_krishna@dnaindia.net
t_anjali@dnaindia.net
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