Geek Gestalt

Having had two separate eBay auctions to sell his rare Xbox Live gamertag yanked off the site for apparent terms of service violations, a New York State man is now moving his business to Craigslist.

Earlier this week, as first reported here, Chris Graziano had put his gamertag, "Hitman," up for auction on eBay. Graziano, a student at SUNY New Paltz, had been hoping to capitalize on the rarity of the moniker to score a big payday, and indeed, in the hours after his auction went up, more than $500 was bid for the gamertag.

After having two eBay auctions to sell his rare Xbox Live gamertag, Hitman, pulled off the site, Chris Graziano is now trying to move the account on Craigslist.

(Credit: Chris Graziano)

"Don't bid on this item if you don't want to be the center of attention of every game lobby you're in," Graziano wrote on the original eBay ad. "You'll regularly hear comments of 'You're the original Hitman?' and 'Wow, how did you get that gamertag?!'"

But eBay wasn't amused and quickly pulled the auction, claiming that the attempted sale of the Hitman account violated its ban on the traffic of virtual goods and assets, Graziano said.

"EBay doesn't allow the sale of virtual items," Graziano said eBay told him in an e-mailed explanation. "This includes--but isn't limited to--online game characters, accounts, currency, codes that can be redeemed for in-game items, and related software."

Undaunted, Graziano felt he had another way to approach the problem. Rather than selling the account itself as a purely digital good, he figured that he could probably attract buyers by offering up an Xbox memory card--a physical item--that just happened to contain all the data associated with the Hitman account.

"This is an auction for my memory card," Graziano wrote in his second eBay auction. "I used the memory card to bring over to my friends' houses in case we played Xbox Live online. So on the memory card along with a few saved games and rosters is my XBL gamertag. I'm not selling that since Microsoft owns the rights to it, but it is on the memory card. I recently purchased another year of gold service, so whoever wins the auction will be able to play using the 'Hitman' gamertag...People sell a year of gold service all the time on eBay, so now you have it on the tangible form of a memory card.

"Just like if you were selling a computer on eBay, you sell the computer, and with it comes a hard drive with random stuff." Graziano continued. "I'm selling a memory card. With it comes saved games, sport rosters, and my XBL Gamertag--Hitman. It's a pretty cool gamertag by the way. No extra letters or numbers. I was an XBL beta tester years ago and was one of the first to sign up, so I got the most popular phrase used in gamertags all by itself, Hitman. This memory card along with its contents would be great for any hardcore gamer looking to steal the spotlight in all of his online games."

But yet again, eBay disallowed the auction, this time at the behest of Microsoft, which bans the sale or redistribution of any part of the Xbox Live service.

"In accordance with the Xbox Live terms of use," said David Dennis, an Xbox 360 spokesperson, "Xbox Live Gold subscriptions are not transferable and cannot be resold for commercial purposes."

EBay did not respond to a request for comment.

Now, despite getting some unsolicited offers for the gamertag of several hundred dollars, Graziano is determined to get what he thinks could still be four figures for the account. As such, he has offered it for sale once again, this time on Craigslist.

"I'm trying to sell this memory card I have for Xbox 360," Graziano's new Craigslist ad begins. "On the memory card, along with a few saved games and rosters is my XBL gamertag. I'm not selling that since Microsoft owns the rights to it, but it is on the memory card. I recently purchased another year of gold service. So while I may not own the gamertag, I do own the right to use this gamertag on XBL for the next year as long as I abide by their terms of service."

While it's too early to tell what will happen to the post on Craigslist--a representative of that service did not immediately respond to a request for comment--it stands to reason that Microsoft will once again pull rank. Graziano's attempt to, oh by the way, include the gamertag with the Xbox memory card is similar to efforts by some to auction off tickets to the 2000 World Series between the New York Yankees and New York Mets by including the tickets for free with a Yankees cap.

EBay had pulled all such auctions at that time because of restrictions on the site against scalping tickets.

Graziano is aware that Microsoft may tire of his persistence and simply unilaterally close his Xbox Live account.

"That's what makes me want to just take an offer now and run with it," he said.

Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron has seemingly closed the book on the saga of trying to sell his Twitter account on eBay. He now promises to never do so.

(Credit: Twitter)

First it was for sale. Then it wasn't. Then it would be for sale soon. And now, finally--maybe--it will "not ever" be for sale.

This, of course, is Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron's Twitter account. When it was originally for sale last week on eBay, bidding for it had climbed to more than $1,500 before he pulled the plug on the auction.

In an interview last week, he told me that while he had decided to yank the original auction after discovering, he said, that the bidders for his Twitter account were spam marketers, he expected to pursue another avenue for selling the account.

Monday, his Twitter timeline sat static all day with the following message, "This account will be for sale on eBay late today with new terms. I wanted to involve you more in the outcome...Details are forthcoming."

But, maybe because of the effects of bad airline food, he has apparently decided, once and for all, not to sell the account.

"With a lot of offline time last night over the Atlantic Ocean, I decided once and for all not to go through with it," he wrote Tuesday on Twitter. "This was not planned."

So, now, his final word--um, this saga may have to result in a redefinition of the word "final"--Baron has promised not to sell the account now, nor in the future.

"You have my promise, I will not ever sell this acct.," he posted on Tuesday.

Well, bummer. I really had wanted to see what the account was worth. And for sure, people were interested in what he was doing. Over the course of the whole drama, he gained about 500 new followers on Twitter. And maybe that was the point all along--to create publicity and become more visible. I certainly know that I aided with that.

So, it comes to this: We have no idea what identity is worth on Twitter. I thought we'd find out, but alas, Baron's conscience got in the way. Or, at least something did.

And, of course, he may change his mind tomorrow on the subway. So keep your eyes peeled. I, however, am going to do my best to stay away from this from now on.

Unless I don't. I haven't made up my mind.

It appears that for now at least, we won't get to find out the value of identity on Twitter.

A few days ago, Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron put his Twitter account up for sale on eBay, offering access to his 1,500-plus followers. (It's now at 1,757 followers.) Within a few days, the bidding had gone over $1,500 and appeared headed for much more.

At the same time, Baron went on Craigslist and was also offering to sell a two-day guest-hosting slot on his Twitter account for $150.

Bidding for Andrew Baron's Twitter account eventually went over $1,500 before he pulled the plug on it.

(Credit: eBay)

"I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven't been using it the way I want to," wrote Baron in the eBay auction description. "Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven't been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I'm thinking I'll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.

"It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations. In terms of monetary value, I have no expectations or needs at all so I decided not to put a minimum bid on this. Whatever will be, will be....The winner of this auction gets my account with all of my followers."

But now, both the auction and the Craigslist ad have been deleted.

In a series of Twitter posts over the last couple days, Baron indicated that he had already been planning to delete the auction when eBay contacted him and told him he needed to move it to a different category than the one it had originally been posted under.

But rather than doing that, he Twittered, he removed the auction himself. He also said Craigslist maintains that his attempt to sell a guest-hosting spot on the Twitter account violated terms of service.

In an interview Thursday morning, Baron explained his rationale behind the decision to take down the auction.

Essentially, he said, a fellow Twitterer wrote him suggesting that the people who were bidding the eBay auction well into four figures were "all spam marketers, people who will do anything just to get their name out there, people who don't understand Web 2.0 and blogging."

"I already knew," Baron said, "there would be a great range of different types of (possible) outcomes. But I believed that I would be able to manage the outcome by trying to make a positive outcome for the buyer, for my friends and followers. Even if it wasn't a good fit, I (believed) I could work with them. But after I heard that they were all just spam marketers, that just kind of killed it for me and I didn't want to risk that."

Baron told me that he was concerned that many people who have been following the saga of his trying to sell his Twitter account on eBay would assume that, because there had been a fair amount of backlash against him for the planned sale, he was just trying to save face by pulling the plug on the auction.

Instead, he insisted to me, he just felt very uneasy about having the account--and his many followers--fall into the hands of people who didn't necessarily have any idea how to use the account in a way that benefits all concerned.

Some may say that even that rationale is just a way to try to save face, and it may well be. After all, we don't really know for a fact that the auction bidders were really spam marketers. And it's likely there's no way to ever know what is really going on in Baron's mind.

Regardless, Baron said that he had already been cooking up an entirely different plan for his Twitter account when eBay called him.

Unfortunately--for me, at least--he wouldn't say what this plan is.

"When I first put the auction up, I got a Twitter from somebody," he said, "who had another idea I liked much better....There were several ways to keep the auction going and have an end result, and that still would have worked better, but the plan would work (even) better by deleting it."

To me, this is all rather unfortunate. I was, and I think many others were too, very curious to see the value of identity in a case like this demonstrated in such a visceral way. After all, this is a market economy and if someone is willing to pay $1,500 for Andrew Baron's Twitter identity, then we begin to get a sense of what such a thing is really worth.

Then again, does $1,500 of a spammer's money equate to the same amount for someone who is actually active in the Web 2.0 world? Perhaps not.

To Baron, the auction spawned discussions online and off about many other fascinating issues: that of intellectual property law, what friends are, the difference among friends on Facebook, friends on Twitter, and real-world friends, and even angles of technology, marketing, and advertising.

"That's been the most exciting" element of this whole thing, Baron said. "And if I had mentioned what (my new) plan was, that would have killed the conversations."

Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron is selling his Twitter account on eBay. As of Sunday morning, the account--which includes 1,506 followers--was up to $560 on eBay.

(Credit: eBay)

Here's an interesting question: In the world of social media, how important is identity? For example, if someone "friends" someone else, does it really matter who the friendee is?

Well, we might be getting a bit of an answer to this question. That's because Rocketboom creator Andrew Baron has announced he's selling his Twitter account--which includes more than 1,500 "followers"--on eBay. And as of Sunday morning, the auction had already gone up to $560.

"I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven't been using it the way I want to," writes Baron in the eBay auction description. "Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven't been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I'm thinking I'll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.

"It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations. In terms of monetary value, I have no expectations or needs at all so I decided not to put a minimum bid on this. Whatever will be, will be....The winner of this auction gets my account with all of my followers."

One thing he points out is that Twitter allows users to change their account name so that whoever ends up buying his account can alter the ID but still retain the 1,500-plus followers.

"So basically it's like getting a new account with your own name," he wrote, "but having a pre-installed audience."

Another interesting element to this saga is that he's actually attracted a fair number of new followers since he put the account up for sale on eBay. At that time, he said in his auction description, the account had 1,397 followers. And now it's over 1,500.

On the other hand, he acknowledged that his followers are following him.

"Also, as with any dynamic group, there is obviously risk," he wrote. "My followers could jump ship at anytime. There is no guarantee on this part. People will come and go, that's just the way it is."

This is definitely the key point. It's true that he has attracted a rather large audience of followers on Twitter--though, according to Twitterholic, a site that tracks the most followed Twitter accounts, he's not in the top 100 accounts--but those people are interested in him and what he has to say.

Yet, the fact that the auction has already fetched $560 is noteworthy. People seem to want those followers, and it will be interesting to see what happens when the auction ends and the transfer occurs.

But in the meantime, as the auction proceeds--it doesn't end until April 22--Baron is offering two-day guest hosting spots on his Twitter account for sale on Craigslist for $150.

Barron is also offering two days of guest hosting on his Twitter account while the eBay auction is still running. He's asking $150 for the guest host spots.

(Credit: Twitter)

"Are you really creative and feel as though you have a lot to offer online culture? Are you interested in online video, social networks, blogging, technology, art and design? If so, this could be a great chance to take a stage and say something," he writes on the New York Craigslist site.

"I'm selling a 2-day guest host spot on my Twitter account to someone who meets just the right profile. I'm looking for someone that my colleagues, friends and others will benefit from in a culturally and socially valuable way. Maybe you have some great videos or a great album of music, or have a story you want to tell. Maybe there is a great cause that you want to spread. Maybe you even have a great product that needs improvement and would like to leverage a great brain trust of interested and capable people."

This is very odd. In some ways, this is more interesting, and at the same time, more cynical. Guest-hosting blogs, of course, is a well-known sport, but selling the slots? And at the same time as the account is up for complete sale?

Well, for someone like Baron, who is sometimes adept at publicity, this is quite the attempt to get some. And of course, here I am helping him.

For me, however, this isn't about Baron at all. It's about the nature of identity and the question of how valuable identity is and whether people in social networks are really willing to be sold like customers of a product being hawked to another company. My guess is that, on the surface, they're not.

But I also am willing to bet that Baron's Twitter followers will give the buyer a brief honeymoon to establish whether he or she has something valuable to say. If so, they may stick around. If not, it'll be sayonara, and too bad you spent those Benjamins to buy the account. Stay tuned.

According to a study by Kotaku, Nintendo was able to manage the price of Wiis on eBay during the holiday season.

(Credit: Kotaku)

If you were trying to find a Nintendo Wii to give someone as a Christmas present and were counting on buying that Wii at a retailer like Best Buy or Target, odds are you came away empty-handed and frustrated.

That was certainly my experience when I spent a day looking to see where it might be possible to find a Wii near San Francisco.

But always, in the back of my mind, I figured that for those who were truly desperate to get ahold of one of the machines, a small mint would fetch one on eBay.

I remember, however, thinking that it was odd that, on the one time I looked to see what Wiis were selling for on eBay, they weren't that expensive. One could be had for between $300 and $400, which, while substantially higher than the $250 sticker price, wasn't all that much given the intense consumer hunger for them.

What didn't occur to me at the time was that Nintendo seems to have been actively trying to manage the eBay price of Wiis. That at least seems to be what was going on, according to a report on the video game blog Kotaku on Monday.

Titled "Nintendo torpedoes the Wii grey market," the Kotaku story details the Wii environment during the holiday period and also points out that the console was actually hard to find throughout 2007, not just before Christmas.

But for sure, it was the holiday rush that put the most scrutiny on the Wii's unavailability and the thought that those selling the consoles on eBay would be earning small fortunes, with plenty of news stories stoking the fires.

"Rumors of chip shortages ran rampant, and I personally was certain that the eBay grey market price for the (Wii) would...meet if not surpass the highest numbers seen during the initial late 2006 release window," Mike Fahey wrote on Kotaku. "Miraculously, that never happened. At the very last moment, in a series of moves that gained them criticism from fans, Nintendo managed to pull together enough supply to curb the often ridiculously inflated eBay demand before it was too late."

To be sure, Wiis were selling for more than $100 over retail on eBay and eventually spiked at $459 on November 21, according to the Kotaku report. But given that hot products sometimes sell for hundreds and hundreds more than sticker, this wasn't too bad.

But then Nintendo got involved and the prices dropped. On December 14, Nintendo held a conference call for reporters in which it talked about its plans for handling holiday demand for the Wii. It discussed many different options, including a rain-check system (which I discussed in my story about looking for Wiis), as well as new stock that would be available at a series of retailers.

And while the rain-checks wouldn't result in actual Wiis in hands until January and the retailers got limited shipments that quickly ran out, the moves, along with the outreach to video game journalists, seemed to have worked in creating a public impression that the consoles were at least marginally available and therefore it maybe wasn't necessary for consumers to pay a year's college tuition to get a Wii on eBay.

That's particularly true because the flood of consoles that hit retailers seemed to have quickly put a damper on eBay prices as many people apparently tried to make a killing there. The result was a huge number of Wiis offered for sale on eBay around December 17, and an average price for the consoles dropping below $400.

Thanks to major retailers getting new shipments of Wiis in the days before Christmas, the number of the consoles available on eBay spiked--and prices dropped.

(Credit: Kotaku)

It's an interesting dynamic, especially when you consider that Wiis have been around for more than a year. And it's particularly interesting that, whether intended or not, Nintendo's actions can be tied directly to the significant dropping of prices for the consoles on eBay.

Whether this is a model that other manufacturers will follow in months or years to come remains to be seen.

One recent Pez legend is that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar originally started the site as a way to help his girlfriend sell her collection of Pez dispensers. To commemorate that history, Pez has issued a collection of colored eBay dispensers.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

BURLINGAME, Calif.--If it wasn't for Pez, the theory goes, there would be no eBay.

It might surprise you, but urban legend has it that entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar decided to start his fledgling auction site to give his girlfriend a venue for selling off her collection of Pez dispensers.

Well, it's hard to know what the truth is. But I can tell you (since I spent Wednesday here at what may well be the world's only Pez museum), that there is definitely a set of eBay-branded Pez dispensers. Even some museum walk-ins think of Omidyar as the most famous collector of the iconic candy toys.

That there is even such a thing as a Pez museum in the Bay Area was news to me. But after discovering it on Geek Entertainment TV recently, I knew I had to pay a visit to this suburb about 16 miles south of San Francisco.

The museum, officially known as the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia, is run by husband-and-wife team Gary and Nancy Doss, and it's a paean to those little plastic gizmos with the heads which, when pushed backward, spring-load a piece of candy.

Since the modern Pez dispenser was introduced to a sugar-hungry world in 1950, there have been a total of 692 different models. They range in value from, well, nothing to $5,000 or more. (Click here for more photos.)

When I asked Gary Doss what his collection--more than 1,000 dispensers, including the complete set--was worth, he said, cryptically, "There's a Lexus parked back here."

Well, I wondered, how does one come to own and publicly show off a Lexus' worth of Pez dispensers?

Doss explained that he and his wife started out running a computer store, selling various Commodore and Amiga models. After a while, they decided it would be fun to showcase their Pez collection in the shop and maybe make a little bit of side cash in the process by selling some of them.

"In 12 months, Pez took over," Doss said. "Every month, we sold less and less computers, and more and more Pez. We haven't sold a computer in 12 years."

Earlier this year, Guinness awarded certification for the world's largest Pez dispenser to Gary Doss, co-founder of the Pez museum in Burlingame, Calif. It's a 7-foot, 10-inch homemade replica of one of the most recognizable Pez dispensers.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

These days, the museum--really, it's a very small space thanks to the diminutive size of the display pieces--is awash in color. Everywhere you look, there's red, yellow, blue, and green. There's Elvis Pez, Asterix Pez, Peanuts Pez, Frankenstein Pez, and a whole lot of Star Wars Pez.

There's even the Guinness-certified largest Pez dispenser in the world.

If you ever wondered where the name "Pez" came from in the first place, the museum has the answer. It turns out the word is actually an abbreviation of "pfefferminz," the German word for peppermint, the original flavor of the candy made then and now by an Austrian company, and the only one offered in its early years.

In fact, from 1927 to 1950, Pez were only available in little tins. They were the Altoids of their day.

In 1950, the Pez company began selling small plastic dispensers for the candy. For the first eight years, they were missing the heads we're now so familiar with, but in 1958 the company came out with the first three: Mickey Mouse, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Popeye.

Thus began a long-standing tradition of marketing tie-ins involving Pez dispensers. Over the years, subjects have included Frankenstein, various Star Wars characters, Donald Duck, and now celebrities like Elvis and the characters from the TV show American Chopper.

In fact, Doss told me, the American Chopper series represents the only Pez dispensers featuring likenesses of living human beings. Why the Pez company would choose these folks for that honor is beyond me. Doss didn't know either.

As I was visiting, a 60-ish couple from Pasadena, Calif., walked in and joined my tour. They seemed impressed with what they were seeing and appeared to remember many of the Pez milestones Doss pointed out, including the eBay connection.

I asked them what they thought of the museum.

"Only in America," responded the husband, Tom Savio, "even though it's Austrian. I think it's quite amazing how you start with nondescript candy in Austria and you end up with eBay."

In any case, I was quite impressed with the prices Doss said he'd paid for some of his Pez dispensers, topped off by the $3,000 he'd forked over for a simple little circa-1974 pineapple head that had completed his collection.

In fact, he said, some of the dispensers were far more valuable than one of the museum's prized possessions, the big "Pez" sign that used to hang outside the Pez company's Vienna headquarters.

This giant Pez sign was originally from the actual Pez factory in Austria. But when the Pez company moved buildings, the sign went up for sale on eBay. Gary Doss bought it for $1,500.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

Doss explained that the company had moved headquarters not long ago and that in the process, the sign had ended up on eBay. He parted with $1,500 and the sign was his.

"I can tell you I've paid more for a Pez dispenser," he said.

Nowadays, Doss said, Pez issues about four new dispensers every 60 days. Most are movie tie-ins, and of those, many arrive long before the films hit theaters.

Doss said Pez has particularly strong ties with Disney.

All that, of course, is explained by the strong visceral reactions so many people seem to have to Pez dispensers: like the Savios, most people can remember specific dispensers from throughout their lives.

That's why people of all ages come to visit the museum, he said, even though it's all just about a bunch of candy and its delivery system.

"Grandparents and parents want to see the Pez that they grew up with," Doss said, "but the kids want to get the new Pez now (to eat). So there's something for every generation."