Ebay Automotive

Today we live in a fragmented culture due to the amount and availability of different kinds of music, movies, books, etc (Anderson 2). However, it never used to be like that. Our culture today is also very diverse. There are all kinds of multimedia out there, and it is easy to access, whether it is sold or downloaded. Early on, the consumers were only limited to the hits and what was most popular in music, movies, and literature. Now, there is an unlimited source available to the consumers, even if they are not hits or popular. The Popular Culture Studies Tradition uses the Circuit of Culture. It is comprised of the creators, the owners, the distributors, the regulators, and the consumers. They all have a specific outlook and job, if I may say to complete the Circuit of Culture. It is an ongoing "circle" of popular culture. In my opinion, the consumers have the most power in the circuit because without them, the other groups have nothing. I also Nowadays, the creators can go right to the consumers without any "middlemen". This unlimited marketplace is because of the advancements in technology.

One such example is EBay. EBay is an online auction which opens the marketplace extensively. Anyone can get anything on EBay, from all over the world even. EBay is such a huge website and there is so much to cover on it, I will talk about one section of it. The automotive section is enormous in itself. Cars used to be my hobby, and still are in some ways. My father has bought most of his new cars off of EBay. Most of the time if I needed a part for my car, whether it was aftermarket or stock, I would get it off of EBay for various reasons. One reason is sometimes parts were not available in stores, but if I were to search for it on EBay, it would always be there. It is good for people who have classic cars because the parts are not manufactured anymore, but someone else around the country might have what that person is looking for. Another reason why I used EBay is because most of the parts I would get were cheap in price. Sometimes they may be sold cheap, but the shipping might be a little expensive.

How EBay works is that a person would register an account for free. Whether they buy or sell, they must log in. Once they have the account, EBay's marketplace is opened up. There are two ways to buy off of EBay. One is to bid, since it is an online auction, or click the "buy now" button which the consumer can purchase right away. It ends the bid right then and there. However, the consumer would be paying a little bit more than if he or she were to bid on it. The great thing about EBay is that the sellers can go right to the consumers without any middlemen. What is interesting about EBay is that the consumers can become the sellers. With the same account, EBay members are allowed to also sell products. It opens up the marketplace