The internet is starting to become an economists dream laboratory. I came through this story about a person managing to eventually trade an old celphone into a Porsche convertible! He did this while bartering in Craig's List. There's even another person who managed to eventually trade a red paperclip into a two-story farm house. Well, I said eventually because it took more than two or three trades before they eventually got the big prize. But then you can see from the story that some people would trade valuable items that for them is less valuable than what they are looking for--a thing which in most cases should be of lower value. The example given is a musician traded his Toyota car for a MacBook simply because at that point, the Macbook is more important for the musician. Like what?
That is why I am so intrigued about how different people value goods. I mean, it's definitely not unexpected, but it seems examples are now becoming more common to find. And it would really be interesting to study and analyze this individuals--how they go through their decision process and what factors have shaped how they value such goods. As an economist, these are things worth studying.
So the internet, specially trading sites such as Craig's List, is going to be one big playground for economists. They can come up with different studies relating to the behavior of list members, how they interact, the values and prices they put into their things up for trade, and so on and so forth. Economists can even analyze the whole structure itself--how the internet and trade sites such as these have enabled this new form of transactions.
Wow talking about coming full circle. The internet has already done so much. Now, it is putting bartering back in the map. To barter now with someone at the other side of the country has become a very less inefficient form of transaction.