Though historical geographers have traditionally relied upon archives and libraries as the main

Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782www.elsevier.com/locate/jhg0305-7488/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.eBay and research in historical geography

Dydia DeLyser*, Rebecca Sheehan and Andrew Curtis

Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, 227 Howe/Russell

Geoscience Complex, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

Abstract

The electronic trading forum eBay presents fascinating but under-examined possibilities for research in

historical geography. With literally millions of items for sale and millions of users participating in on-line auctions

there seems little limit to what one might find. In this essay, three authors briefly trace the history of auctions and of

eBay, before explaining how eBay works, and then describing some of the ways that buying (or not buying)

research materials on eBay has changed the ways that we think about our work. We further explore some of the

implicationsempirical, theoretical, methodological and ethicalthat the availability of such items to the highest

bidder presents, address some of the consequences for the socially constructed and place-specific nature of value

that on-line auctioning reveals, and ponder some of the implications of this for contemporary consumption.

q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: eBay; Auctions; Historical geography; Research methods; Consumption

Introduction

In the last decade of the 20th century, the widespread availability of on-line shopping brought new

consumption experiences to many of those with internet access. Today, among the computer savvy, even

those who have never bought books, CDs, gifts, or for that matter, pornography on-line are aware that it

is possibleand, for better or for worse, widely practiced. But in addition to such items, all of which are

also available in conventional brick-and-mortar businesses, on-line buying and selling, and specifically

on-line auctioning have brought to the surface a spectacularly wide array of second-hand items, recycled

goods, and rare and unique objects.doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2005.01.001

* Corresponding author.

E-mail address: dydia@lsu.edu (D. DeLyser).sources for their research materials, the existence of the now immensely popular on-line auction site

good for time enthusiasts.6 For climatologists interested in a hands-on approach to their study, eBay one

winter featured Snow, powder, 120C. That seller noted that if you clear a path from Interstate 40 to

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 765my house, Ill discount your winning bid.7 And, perhaps unsurprisingly, there are those who have sold

their souls on eBayliterally. Contained in a four ounce glass jar, My Soul sold for $1325,8 in what

seems a small price for a one-of-a-kind ethnographic object.9 These anecdotal and playful stories,

however, provide merely a starting point to eBays potential as a serious and significant online

geographic data and research base, particularly for historical geographers.10

Emerging in September 1995, the internet auction site now hosts literally millions of items over

thousands of categories and, as of late 2004 boasted over 125 million registered users (up from 54.1

million in 2002).11 On eBay, a motorcycle sells at least every 18 min and by mid 2003, 150,000 people

had left their regular jobs to start eBay businesses instead.12 Though auctions have existed for some

2500 years,13 eBay, by making auctions available to anyone anywhere with computer and internet

access, has brought this mode of commodity exchange to millions around the world who previously did

not participate in or have access to auctions. Called by one observer a powerful mix of e-commerce,

virtual community, and nostalgia for all manner of bric-a-brac,14 eBays name is based on Echo Bay

Technology Group, a name Pierre Omidyar had used for a one person consulting firm because he

thought it sounded cool.15 The brainchild of Omidyar, then a 27-year-old computer programmer (now

worth some 8.5 billion dollars),16 eBay promoted itself as an inspiration by Omidyars wife, Pam (theneBay opens up a realm of new possibilities and, in so doing, raises a number of important issues for

historical geographers to consider. In this essay, three authors relate some of their experiences buying

research materials on eBay, linking those experiences in turn to some of the methodological (and other)

questions that such practices raise.1 Not meant to fully explore the empirical, theoretical,

methodological, or ethical extremes of eBay, this brief essay attempts to draw the attention of those

perhaps not yet aware to processes already ongoing, processes that are already changing the way we can

and will conduct research in historical geography, processes not likely to cease.

Neither will this essay be able to fully engage the rich and ongoing debates about contemporary

consumption (both within and outside geography).2 Instead we hope, in a limited space, to draw the

attention of historical geographers whose work may not normally lead them to study contemporary

consumption, to the ongoing practices that are already affecting the way we conduct our research. And,

while we are acutely aware of (at least some of) the implications that such practices (on our parts and on

the parts of others) pose for the future of (historical geographical) research, in this essay we nevertheless

deliberately adopt a playful tone. This should not be seen as inconsistentindeed such tensions are

characteristic for many of the consumption/shopping experience.3 The tone is meant to reflect not our

ignorance, but rather the fullness of our participation in that which we describe.4

Auctions and eBay

For those unfamiliar, the on-line auction site eBay promotes itself grandiosely as The Worlds Online

Marketplace, with a mission is to help practically anyone trade practically anything on earth.5 Indeed,

for those geographers interested in the timespace continuum, eBay once offered a Time Machine,

though used and showing some rust. Although missing some parts, including a flux capacitor and

dilythium crystallite, the time machines seller suggested it would still be great for school projects andhis girlfriend), who sought a means to talk about and trade her favorite collectible, colorful and variously

Buying and selling on eBay

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782766As in the rest of the auction world, eBay makes available a variety of auction types.23 Most common

on eBay is the English auction (also called the Ascending Price or Open-Outcry auction): a simple

system where a relatively low starting price is first provided by the seller and then bids increase until the

predetermined length of the auction comes to an end. The highest bid wins, and is the price paid for the

itembut opening prices need not always be low. For example, eBay once offered an original pair of

1880s Levi Strauss & Co. blue jeans at a starting price of $25,000. These well-used second-hand pants,

the oldest known pair of trademark Levi jeans eventually sold for $46,532.00.24 As in conventional

auctions, however, the seller exerts a great deal of control: in order to prevent an item from slipping

away for a price deemed beneath its worth, sellers (on eBay as elsewhere) may attach a minimum or

reserve price to an item, a price below which the item will not be sold even though, to stimulate

bidding, opening bids begin below the reserve price.25 While in traditional auctions bidders (or their

representatives) are usually present in the same place at the same time, on eBay an auction takes place

over a period of days (three, five, seven or ten), the auctions precise closing time is always clearly

posted for each item, and bidders never meet. Having items available over so long a period typically

helps to attract more bidders (since eBay users all over the world must be able to locate the item among

eBays offerings and not all are on-line searching at any one time), and also gives (potential) bidders a

chance to locate the item in another venue or determine its possible value in a different way.

Actual bidding on eBay can proceed in several ways. One is to watch the bidding activity on the

desired item online and make a bid whenever eager, bidding at least slightly higher than the then-currentshaped plastic Pez candy dispensers. Pierre Omidyar has since admitted that he simply realized that an

auction-based Internet company was a great idea, but using the Pez story improved the companys

interest with journalists and thus its visibility with potential users.17 Within a year, Omidyar, working

not from a corporate office, but from his home, had established what has been called the first on-line

trading post, intending eBay as an impartial third party to facilitate the exchange process.18

Auctions, the trade and exchange system that eBay is based on, have existed at least since 500 BC in

Babylon. By the time they reached ancient Rome in about 140 BC, auction systems were organized, as

today, through four positions of seller, buyer, auctioneer, and promoter.19 Not always for private profit,

during the 17th century, for example, auctions were used to raise money to support Buddhist temples.20

Whether for profit or not, throughout history auctions have been used as a means to establish the value of

commodities in a manner some see as fair and objective, bringing the seller and buyer to agreement,

though their means of determining value could just as easily be seen to favor the seller and reckoned

frenzied and unfair (for example by raising the price at times astronomically in their delirious heat).

Further, because auctions place monetary values on items often not otherwise deemed salable

commodities, their buying and selling can be seen both as particularly usefulfor example when the

item has a value not firmly established in other marketplacesand, as deeply troubling and

inappropriatefor example when the item is of deep personal value but little monetary worth, or, in

particular, when the item offered for sale is a person.21 Indeed, auctions, whether on-line or off, can be

seen not just as a means to establish market prices for often unusual commodities, but simultaneously as

a way to throw into high relief the socially constructed and place-specific nature of value itself.22price. Any bidder though can also use the systems automatic proxy-bid method, where a bidder submits

(in confidence) to eBay the highest price she/he is willing to pay for the item. eBays computers will then

bid for her/him up to the specified amount, only increasing the bid when another bidder has surpassed the

previous high bid. This method frees the bidder from the time commitment of the bidding activity as well

as from the potential frenzy of last-minute bidding with its extravagant spendingyou can simply place

your bid and walk away; bidders are notified of auction results by e-mail within hours of an auction

closing.26

But eBay is not only about bidding (or winning and losing), it is also fundamentally about searching,

about finding items to bid on. With about 3.5 million items added daily27 in over 27,000 categories (up

from 1600 categories in 1999),28 on any given day, hundreds and, sometimes, thousands of new items

are listed within each eBay category providing a wealth of material, some of it potentially valuable data

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 767for geographic research. For example, Table 1 shows the numbers of items listed in categories the

authors deemed likely to be of interest to historical geographers that were available on eBay in just one

week in the fall of 2004.29 With so many items to choose from, both the curious and the serious generally

limit their searches to categories of items, or perhaps even to specific items themselves. Indeed, when

looking for a particular kind of item, eBay provides searchers a variety of ways to comb its site and

supplies both easy and advanced searching options. Potential bidders can search for an item through

all categories or in any number of subcategories, and different strategies work for different types of

items. Word choice, punctuation, titles, descriptions, and conjunctions are used in much the same way as

in online library catalogues, or on Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Importantly also,

users can further narrow their searches by, for example, limiting sorting dates, including an asterisk or

wildcard (which allows any combination of characters before, after, or between words), or even by

specifying words to be avoided in the search.30

With so many such varied items up for sale at any give moment, searching itself provides

entertainment or even excitement to many, and just coming up with the search terms can present a

challenge. For example, for those with either a personal or professional interest in the US Civil War,

searching only on Civil War leads to as many as 25,000 items, from books to t-shirts, from tin types to

used bullets. Adding Spanish to the search changes the focus dramatically, and also narrows the

number of items considerably, though those with an interest in the Spanish Civil War might still wish to

limit their search further beyond the more than 1350 items typically available under that search, for

example, by searching instead on Lincoln Brigade, a search leading generally to a list of under 130

items. Even under so limited a search, however, the items available vary dramatically, in this case from

published books available through other sources, to original photographs and posters, and including even

Table 1

eBay activity by category, 2026 November 2004

eBay category Average no. of new items per day Average no. of total items per day

Antiques: books and manuscripts 494 3803

Antiques: maps and atlases 1357 10,141

Books: antiquarian and collectible 8854 63,815

Collectibles: photographic images 7538 45,992

Postcards and paper: ephemera 520 3721

Postcards and paper: postcards 18,158 131,500

Postcards and paper: scrapbooks 52 412

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782768a wide array of materials from American soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Spanish Republic in

the 1930s (helmets, uniforms, rank badges, safe-passage passes), and much paper ephemera related to

the Lincoln Brigade support effort in the United States (buttons, flyers for fundraisers, propaganda

pamphlets, and newsletters).

Once an auction has ended the results are posted under the item listing on the eBay website, and are

also e-mailed to sellers, winners, and the other auction participants. According to eBay rules, the seller

has 3 days to contact the buyer by e-mail and make payment arrangements. Most sellers simplify this by

describing acceptable payment types directly in the item description (many will not accept personal

checks or will wait mailing items until such checks have cleared). To simplify matters further, eBay

allows a variety of credit-based payment systems. The most popular of these, PayPal, created in 1999

and acquired by eBay in 2002, allows buyers to make an instant payment by entering credit card numbers

on a secure web site. The service is free and qualified listings are covered by PayPal Buyer Protection for

up to $500. Even if a purchase is not covered under this plan, it is often covered by PayPals Buyer

Complaint Process. While this system certainly creates security for sellers who need not part with their

items until payment has been secured, for buyers a certain risk may linger, one that for many must

ultimately be resolved by simply sending their money out into the ether or mail and trusting the seller

but even trust is to some degree deliberately built into and regulated by the eBay system.

Individual eBay users are said to spend an average of over 3 h and 15 min per month31 (often vastly

more) searching, buying, selling, posting, and chatting on eBay, until, according to eBay, it becomes a

part of our members lifestyles.32 Because of this, even with millions of users who remain for the most

part anonymous to one another, and even with eBays stock now publicly traded on the New York Stock

Exchange, the company continues to consider itself a grassroots business, focused around the idea that it

has developed a distinct and remarkably trusting eBay community culture.33 The qualities and power of

such online communities in terms of networking, social identities, and alternative ways of being a

community have been noted by many scholars,34 but in the case of eBay, where millions of dollars are

exchanged daily among over a 100,000 members who generally never meet, a certain sense of trust is

seen as essential.35 Of course, eBay provides some other official safeguards, the first of which may seem

relatively mild, but in practice has a great deal of importance for most community members: Each time

buyers or sellers complete a transaction they have the opportunity to evaluate the person with whom they

conducted the exchange by leaving feedback, either positive, neutral, or negative, for the other

member. When bidding, each eBay members (positive) feedback rating is shown next to their log-on

nameshigh numbers (for some sellers in the tens of thousands) indicate an honest and reliable seller or

buyer; low numbers indicate a novice, or perhaps an unreliable eBayer. Many members do check

sellers individual feedback comments before bidding on items, and most eBay users are not only aware

of, but also quite concerned about their feedback ratings. For some sellers, it is worth it to loose money

on an item rather than gaining negative feedback, so powerful is the feedback rating system.36

Further, eBay provides a strict and detailed privacy policy as well as safe, secure technology to

ensure that their variety of protection programs operate properly. For members safety, publication of

contact information of other members in an online public area such as on an eBay community board or

chat-room, is not permitted. eBay has also established a Safe Harbor discussion board, where members

can learn more about trust and safety initiatives from other community members with the support of

eBay staff.37

Thus, for those who make the time to try, eBay offers a source, a means, and perhaps even a field forresearch, but its potential for research (in historical geography) has not yet been widely realized. With so

Gregson and Crewes informants refer to as the thrill of the chase41to research and the acquisition of

research materials, a kick that comes from finding an item of research significance and then having to

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 769fight for it. And that fight can be fun, as I, emerging victorious, thought in this case, though of

course both fight and fun here are the perceptions of an individualothers may just as likely be

disgusted.42 Regardless of ones view, though, when, in the accessing and acquisition of research

materials, the winner is the highest bidder, this also brings an all-too-familiar market system into

research, one based to be sure on who is watching/bidding, but also fundamentally on how much a

researcher is willing (or able) to pay to aid his or her research. And now, with the help of eBay, a processwide an array of materials available it is not difficult to imagine that a researcher might come across

something interesting, unexpected, and/or valuable to her/his research, even a rare or unique item,

something not catalogued in any archive or agency. The rest of this essay explores, in turn, some of each

of the three authors experiences on eBaydiscovering and buying (or losing) materials relevant to our

research. The three of us here reveal some of our strategies, and also ponder some of the issues that our

actions in auctions raise.

eBay and past plagues and epidemicsAndrew Curtis

Because my research, in medical geography using GIS and spatial analysis, involves plagues and the

epidemics of the past, particularly the spread of Yellow Fever in the 1800s, when a group of over 100

newspapers from Nashville, Tennessee appeared on eBay my curiosity was piqued: the period covered

July to December in 1878, the time of the major yellow fever epidemic that decimated both New

Orleans, Louisiana and Memphis, Tennessee. But the eBay description held scant mention of yellow

fever; to bid on the papers would therefore be a gamblea $230 gamble, since single antique

newspapers on eBay sell from $4 to $40 (sometimes higher), depending usually on the perceived value

of the newspaper or its content.38 eBay offers some fantastic opportunities, but since many of these lie

hidden within the subtext of two or three lines of item description they are opportunities often fraught

with uncertainty: for many items the description is brief, vague, or even, all too often, incorrect.39 In this

case, though, my experience as an eBay bidder, combined with my experience with the research topic,

made this gamble seem worth taking. I entered my bid and sat backfor the next 3 daysto wait. As the

final seconds counted down to the end of the auction, I sat anxiously hitting the refresh key on my

Internet browser. There had been no other bidding attempts in the three-day interim.and yet I suspectedsomeone else was watching, that someone else sensed a bargain. Sure enough, with 6 s left, I was

outbid. In the heat of the moment and with just 1 s left, I outbid the aggressor. The papers were mine,

the contest had been won. As for the papers, when they arrived the front pages of many were dedicated to

the epidemic. It was a marvelous find for my research: first-hand accounts of a long ago epidemic from a

local newspaper now difficult to access, let alone acquire.40

Contest and research make for an interesting if not also troubling combination, and, though eBay

bidding adds a new wrinkle, for many of us the link between contest and research, though not ideal, is

also not new. As academics, depending upon our field, we may perceive ourselves to be in competition

with others in terms of things like numbers of publications, external funding, access to data, or even the

race to fit the final piece of a research jigsaw. But while these contests, for better and for worse, have

long plagued scholars, for some, eBay can and does add a real-time adrenaline kickwhat some ofalready in motion has accelerated, as items often formerly expected to be held in the province of

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782770the public or private archive or library, have become widely available for personal acquisition, and

materials once perhaps counted on as publicly available may now increasingly be slipping into

individual private hands; all of them going to the highest bidder.

But so it goes on eBay. With limited financial resources, and like other bidders, each researcher must

attempt to asses the value of an item, and then decide on a bidding strategy, as well as a monetary ceiling.

But researchers likely assess value differently from (other) collectors: unlike others bidding on eBay

items (most often individual collectors or those buying for resale), the researchers value judgment is

based on research content, not necessarily collectability or resale value. In the case of the Nashville

newspapers, I had attributed a high value to them because the year and location were so closely tied to

the epidemic. I knew that individually the newspapers would have a high collectors monetary value,

based on their individual content and dates. My interest (my hope) was in acquiring a series of papers

that would record the progression of an epidemic. My hope was justified, but the financial cost was not

low: when in the heat of the auctions last moments I couldnt bare to loose, I later paid the price,

literally.

Why buy newspapers? One could argue that information contained in (some) newspapers can be

retrieved from microfilm. But microfilm records are often scratched and difficult to read, while access is

limited in terms of whether a copy of the microfilm exists, whether an individual library has (or can get)

a copy, and whether/when a reader/copier can be accessed. Of course much more than newspapers are

available on eBay, and I tend to search also for items from the categories of reports, maps, and letters:

historic US-government reports frequently include data that can now be explored using GIS and spatial

analytic techniques (see Fig. 1). In fact, I turned to research topics initially out of sheer curiosity, after

four years of buying-out-of-print CDs on eBay. On one of my first forays, I discovered a 1904 report on

the origin and spread of typhoid fever in US military camps during the Spanish-American War. I was

interested, but had no idea what such an item might be worth, so I developed a valuation procedure for

such historical documents: I check for the item on other websites (like abebooks.com, an antique

booksellers clearing house) where it is possible to see if a book is available and at what price, and I

search for it also in my own Universitys library, especially the special collections department. With

some modification according to the quality of the available copy of the book (for example, if a map it

contains is torn) I set an upper bidding limit for myself. In the case of the typhoid fever book, its price on

eBay was above my limit, but, still interested, I purchased a copy from an antique bookseller instead.

Ironically, a week after my copy of the book arrived, an article based on the very same report appeared in

the Annals of the Association of American Geographersin the competitive model of research, it

seemed a topic had been trumped.43

Of course my valuation process does not work in many cases. Usually the item is not for sale on other

websites and the library holds no copy. This in itself can excite me, as it might be an indication that I

have found a truly scarce document, but I am left with no way to determine its value. In this case

bidding becomes gambling, and, as is common among collectors, I am likely to become swept up in the

desire for the itemeven beyond my own valuation of it, even beyond my own budget.44 If I feel the

item is so important to my work that I need it, I enter what to me seems an extraordinarily high bid,

knowing (or hoping) that others will not outbid me, even if they try to do so at the last second in a bid

ploy known as snaking or snipingif I have indeed bid high enough I neednt worry further, the item

will be mine. When my interests are lower, I enter my bid according to the value I have assigned, and

take my chances, hoping still to win, but willing to walk awayand this I can do in the last seconds ofthe auction, hoping to snipe the item from an unsuspecting other bidder. But when auctions end in

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 771the m

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from Yeiddle of the night or at a time when I am, for example, in class, or if I am uncertain of my Internet

ction, the sniping strategy may fail. Thirdly, for still other items I recognize that I might be

sted if the price remains low enough. In this case, I watch the bidding and pledge not to go over my

price limit (though often, compelled by curiosity, I do exceed it).

way of example, I followed my I have to have it bidding strategy, for the item below which was

ified under a search for mosquitoes:

vernment reports/maps

3.04 Medical entomology insects Malaria mosquitoes

scription:

A collection of 18 older publications dealing with mosquitoes, Malaria and public health:

Experimental Investigations With Malaria, the Mosquitoes of New Orleans (1902, 78 pp.),

Yellow Fever Mortality in both the 1853 and 1878 New Orleans Epidemics. Note: The results of two Ebay purchases, the underlying map

d and imported into Arc View Geographic Information System 3.2) originated from a report generated after the 1853 Yellow Fever

ic in New Orleans. Although no actual death locations are shown, areas with high mortality, identified as nuisances and fever nests are

ed as darkened sections, particularly those inside the (original) inset box. Mortality addresses from the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic, as

the Official report of the deaths from yellow fever as reported by the New Orleans Board of Health (1879) were imported and overlaid onto

3 map. In this way, both epidemics can be spatially compared in the GIS. The original source documents are City Council of New Orleans,

of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853 (New Orleans 1854); and Official Report of the Deaths

llow Fever as Reported by the New Orleans Board of Health (New Orleans 1879), both in the personal collection of Andrew Curtis.

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D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782772it.

fortunately, this example also highlights the destructive side of eBay and other antique sellers both

e Internet, as well as at swap meets, flea markets, specialty meets and in antique stores. In this case,

ap had been removed from the original report because selling maps (or illustrations or

tisements) singularly fetches a higher price than the seller can get for the book or magazine as a

e, especially if the sell is well done. Many rare and important materials have been damaged or

yed in this way, and with the availability on eBay of highly specific item searching, this process is

only accelerating.

t eBay has also encouraged the (digital and other) reproduction of rare items, like one scanned

ical text made available on a CD-ROM that navigates like a website. The original 1795 book,

atise on the Fevers of Jamaica With Some Observations on the Intermitting Fever of America,

n Appendix Containing some Hints on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers in HotMalaria Commission Report on a Tour of Investigation in the United States in 1927 (1927, 38

pp.), Malaria in the Philippine Islands (1915, 77 pp.), Mosquito and Malaria Control, California

Department of Public Health (1933, 41 pp.), Malaria: Lessons on its Cause and Prevention for use

in Schools (1943, 23 pp.), US Public Health Service Public Health Bulletin no. 79: Impounded

Water, Surveys in Alabama and South Carolina During 1915 to Determine its Effect on Prevalence

of Malaria (1916, 33 pp.), US Public Health Bulletin No. 156, Transactions of the Fifth

Conference of Malaria Field Workers (1925, 142 pp.), US Public Health Bulletin No. 137,

Transactions of the Fourth Conference of Malaria Field Workers (1923, 183 pp.) and ten seperate

[sic] bound collections of Malaria papers from The Southern Medical Journal all titled

Symposium on Malaria, and dated 1927, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1938 all from

50 to 90 pages. Lots of great historic information, many pictures, maps and illustrations

throughout.45

While it was impossible to research the individual contents of this lot, the price of under $3 per item

made seem it a gamble worth taking: the report on malaria in New Orleans, and the mention of malaria

maps made this an exciting prospect for me. When the documents arrived, the New Orleans booklet

contained a map documenting where different mosquito species were found in the city. A second fold-

out map contained a sketched distribution describing where Yellow Fever was found in the city during

the 1901 outbreak, providing one of the first ever visual comparisons of bugs and disease. As far as this

author knows, these maps have not previously appeared in a publication on yellow feverthis too was a

wonderful find for my research.

Although subject expertise naturally helps on eBay, experience gained just from watching and/or

bidding on auctions themselves increases my knowledge of what items are. For example, the following

item, 1902 Typhoid & Malaria map of Washington, DC was described as follows: The map youve

always wanted: No. 1 map of the city of Washington, showing location of fatal cases of zymotic diseases

for the year ended June 30, 1902. Several clear scans showing the entire map and inset details were also

included. The final bid price for the map was $72.35 with two bidders going against each other starting

from an initial $20 bid. With a little experience these bidders might have discovered that the map

originated from a District of Columbia report, one also containing four other fold-out mapson

Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever, Diarrhoeal Disease, Acute Lung Disease, and Consumption. The price for

the entire volume on Abebooks.com is typically around $70$80. They paid too much, but they had totes by Robert Jackson, typically sells on line for $750. The price of the CD-ROM on eBay, under

collections of others, collections not normally accessible to the researcher.

But whether one indulges in the acquisitive and capitalistic side of eBay or not, the mere availability

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 773of so many and such varied potential research materials can change the direction of ones research. In

fact, it was the availability of items like that book (and others like it which I have since purchased) that

led me to rethink 50 years of scholarship on Ramona. When I found copies of the book so lovinglythe buy-it-now option was $24.99. In ways like these eBay offers the chance for academics to not only

further their research, but also archive and redistribute the items back to other people with computer and

internet access everywherethough always for a price.

eBay and past places, both real and fictionalDydia DeLyser

Unlike Andrew, my own approach to finding research materials does not involves checking their

value in books, or looking up prices of items on other web sites: after many years of doing research on

the same topic and hunting for unusual materials related to it, I usually feel overconfident that I know

which items are rare, but, more importantly, their value to me as a researcher may be quite unrelated to

their value to anyone else.

I began doing research on Helen Hunt Jacksons novel Ramona long before eBay existed.46 The novel

had been published in 1884, and, soon after the authors death in 1885, became influential in shaping the

way that southern Californians and visitors to the region interpreted the regions past. The Ramona-

inspired version cast a golden glow over the Spanish and Mexican periods of southern Californias

history, and within a few years of the novels publication what historian Carey McWilliams termed a

Ramona promotion of fantastic proportion emerged, as readers identified people, places and events that

appeared to have been described in the novel.47 As a cultural and historical geographer, my interests lie

in Ramona-related landmarks, and in the meanings that such places held for visitors to them. Of such

places there once were many, though today few remain. For example, two ranchos once contended for

the title Home of Ramona, and a third adobe hacienda became Ramonas Marriage Place; while at

Mission San Gabriel there was Ramonas Birth Place, and on a remote Indian reservation in San Diego

County there was even Ramonas grave. Each of these places (and more besides) were described in

tourist guidebooks and pinpointed on maps; there were photographs and postcards designed to be sold to

tourists, and even, according to McWilliams, writing in 1946 while the interest in all things Ramona was

still high, baskets, plaques, pincushions, pillows, and souvenirs of all sorts.48 The novel, photographs,

postcards and guidebooks are easy to find at regional libraries, like UCLAs Department of Special

Collections which has extensive Ramona-related holdings. The souvenirs, however, have always been

more elusive. Then they all began to show up on eBay, and this changed my research.

I began collecting different editions of the novel (I now have 14, of which all but three were purchased

on eBay) knowing that even a first edition was then worth only about $100, and have spent less than $10

for most of the copies in my collection. But when a later edition appeared with an evocative inscription

describing its owners love of the novel and the novel-related landscape, in other words, when a copy

came up on eBay that was directly related to the topic of my research, I felt I would be willing to pay

virtually any price. Unfortunately, so did another book collector, and I lost the auction, but saved the

buyers e-mail address and have a copy of the inscription to cite in my workwhile for the most part

using eBay for research is about the purchase of research materials, it can also open doors to the privateinscribed, I realized I could show that both the story and the landscape it was linked to sincerely held

meaning for readers. I saw that tourists to southern California were not simply, as other scholars had

suggested, duped into mistaking the fake for the real.49 Indeed, I found on eBay tourists own

photographs: smiling poses before the sign at Ramonas Marriage Place in San Diego (Fig. 2), images

marking meaningful spots on tourists itineraries, and postcards inscribed with details of tourist visits to

Ramona landmarks (Fig. 3).

Inscribed books, postcards, and tourist photographs are one way to demonstrate that Ramona-related

landmarks held meaning for visitors, but since eBay allows the curious to search not just by item title, but

by description also, and since many sellers enter extremely lengthy and detailed descriptions (often

containing literally dozens of key words or place names) in efforts to attract more bidders, other items

become available as well: the 1941 honeymoon scrapbook of a couple from Texas documents Ruby-

Faye and Loran Dennis travels to California, including photographs, restaurant match books, brochures,

postcards, and souvenir receipts. Because they visited Ramonas Marriage Place and dedicated two

pages in their album to that landmark, and because the seller had listed names of most of the places

documented in the album, that scrapbook came up when I searched on Ramona in titles and

descriptions. In this case, not only did the couple visit the spot where Ramona and her fictional lover

were wed, they also described their visit in the album: the wishing well was nearly full of pennies,

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782774Fig. 2. Tourists pose before Ramonas Marriage Place, ca. 1915. Note: Ramona-related tourist attractions, such as Ramonas Marriage Place

in Old Town, San Diego, California drew thousands of tourists annually. For many, their visits were important enough to be remembered with a

snapshot like this one. Libraries and archives seldom collect incidental tourist snapshots, but on eBay such photographs, and often also thealbums they came from, are plentiful. From the personal collection of Dydia DeLyser.

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 775nickels, dimes, quarters, etc.I made a wish too! But I wont tell.. The album beautifullydemonstrates that Ramona landmarks became meaningful destinations for touristsand honeymooners.

But if the album is marvelous, it also mentioned things it did not contain, like the purchase of a

toothpick holder at Ramonas Marriage Place. Such souvenirs are not found in albums, and are not

collected by libraries. But I began to discover themthe souvenirs of which Carey McWilliams had

written in 1946on eBay. Today, my collection of Ramonas Marriage Place souvenir tea spoons alone

numbers over two dozeneach one different. Buying so many silly teaspoons may seem ridiculous, and

it is (especially since they cost about $20 each), but on another level, simply knowing that at least that

many different ornate silver spoons existed testifies to the popularity of attractions like Ramonas

Marriage Place, and the tourist souvenirs sold as mementos.

But the ability to search for items all over the US and indeed much of the Western world online with

just a few keystrokes, items that were formerly hidden away in remote junk or antique stores, has

dramatically changed the collectibles resale market. Because souvenirs are not regarded as collectible by

most libraries and archives, and because even many of the people who buy them do not keep them, many

older souvenirs used to be extraordinarily difficult to acquire. For serious (even obsessive) collectors

therefore, eBay has become a haven, and researchers are well advised to watch out for such people.

Fig. 3. Inscribed postcard of Rancho Camulos, Ventura County, California, the Home of Ramona, ca. 1900. Note: Though scholars have been

critical of Ramona tourism, the tourists themselves were often keenly observant, like this one who wrote on a card sent to Kansas, Somewhere

about here in some such low stucco dwelling lived the heroine of Helen Hunts story. Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Ventura, in fact most of the

towns down the coast claim scenes from this romance of the California Missions. Postcards in most libraries and archives are unused; on eBay

researchers can find both used and unused postcards. From the personal collection of Dydia DeLyser.

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782776For example, I once found with glee one of the most remarkable Ramona souvenirs I had ever imagined:

a Ramonas Marriage Place souvenir tape measure. Shaped like a yo-yo, with an image of the building

on the front, and a cloth measuring tape coming out of the center, I really wanted it. But when I began to

bid, my bid was each time instantly bested by that of another. Once my price reached the absurd level of

$40 I realized I was in trouble and so looked up my adversary and her completed auctions. The woman

against whom I was bidding turned out to be a collector of souvenir tape measuresand she had paid as

much as $400 for one item. What was most important to my research, in this case, was knowing that the

item existed. I stopped bidding and let the item go.

But while much of what I have purchased on eBay consists of materials that libraries and archives

typically do not catalog or collect, that is not always the case with eBays offerings. Some of eBays rare-

book offerings are in fact highly sought after both by private collectors and public institutions: when one

of only four known copies of an 1888 book entitled Rancho Camulos: the Home of Ramona, self-

published by prominent southern California booster and historian Charles Fletcher Lummis and filled

with his original cyanotype photographs illustrating scenes from the novel, appeared on eBay I was keen

to acquire it for my own collection, and, because of its rarity and importance, also to donate it to a

library. The other bidders, though, were some of the toughest and well-heeled bidders to go up against:

dedicated photograph collectors and dealers. Though I bid what I considered an outrageously high price

in the final seconds of the auction, the photo collectors vastly outstripped me and the book went for over

$600 to a private collector; today only three copies of the book remain available to the public. Just as

private art collections have raised issues of accessibility for, for example, fine paintings, now the

tremendous ease of selling on eBay may make many other items perhaps once destined for public

institutions easier to sell at profit than to donate in the publics interest.

Altruism aside, some research areas are prohibitively expensive for academics simply because the

items related to these topics are so highly sought after by collectors with deep pockets. This is the case

for my research on the ghost town of Bodie, California.50 As one of the most infamous of California

gold-mining towns and also one of the best preserved western ghost towns, any original Bodie artifact

(whether a photograph, book, a newspaper, or a bottle) is highly sought after by collectors, so in most

cases I dont even look for Bodie stuff on eBayits simply too frustrating. But since my research

focuses not on boom-period Bodie of the 1880s, but rather on the tourist attraction of the 20th and 21st

centuries, sometimes materials are available: I was, for example, thrilled to find a series of color slides,

taken by tourists in the 1950s, showing these visitors posing in front of the same spots people today pose

in front of. Though much has changed in the intervening 50 years, these slides help demonstrate that the

actual practices of tourists in Bodie have changed little.

While some of my purchases can be justified by the fact that I need not pay nor seek permission to

publish when using these items in publications,51 more important to me is my real pleasure in finding and

having them. Like many collectors, I enjoy owning and looking at the research materials in my

collectionthey decorate my office and my home.52 Clearly, much of what I have collected falls into the

category of kitsch (or gift ware to use the industry term)Ramonas Marriage Place salt and pepper

shakers, napkin rings, match-box covers, rosary cases and the like. Of such items, scholar of collecting

Susan Pearce has written, they are the result of a complicity, a collusion between the manufacturer [or in

this case the eBay seller] and the purchaser with the intent to maintain a kind of conspiracy of value

which operates as internal to itselfthe value I assign the item by purchasing it on eBay has little

(or nothing) to do with the labor, materials, and transportation costs once invested in its production.53But even in her criticism Pearce acknowledges that this very internalism gives opportunity for

the making of personal meaning.54 To be sure, like many who actually consider themselves serious

collectors, I have become personally vested in my collection of Ramona-related materials (which now

numbers in the hundreds of items).55 While classically collections brought with them high-culture

distinction and possibly the ultimate imprimatur of the museum, in the world of second-hand

consumption of which most of eBay is part, collections of kitsch and camp (whether Ramona stuff,

souvenir tape measures, or plastic Pez dispensers)collections of what often amounts to other peoples

discarded refuseallow the ritual of collecting itself at times to take priority over the items the

collection contains.56 Just the same, the real value of eBay for me has been in the genuinely altered the

nature of my research: with rare items not collected by libraries and archives now readily available, my

perspectives have changed: eBay (and my growing collection) have opened up new avenues and insights

in my research.57

eBay and beginning a historical research projectRebecca Sheehan

Unlike both Andrew and Dydia, I never used eBay for any personal or academic reasons, that is, until

they approached me with the idea for this article. Beginning my dissertation research on Jackson Square

(the initial site in New Orleans claimed by France in 1718 and now the center of the famous French

Quarter) I wondered what light could be shed on my project if I searched under a range of categories

such as albums and archival material, decorative and holiday, postcard and paper, or cultures

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 777Fig. 4. Postcard of strollers in Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana, ca. 1905. Note: Today, Jackson Square appears much the same way,

and locals and visitors use the Square much as their early 20th century counterparts did. Many views of the Square, both historic andcontemporary, are available on eBay. From the personal collection of Rebecca Sheehan.

of General Jackson are almost always the focal point of such material. Why is the Mississippi River, just

50 yards from Jackson Square, an economic shipping base of the city, and literally the route of entry to

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782778the square for thousands of immigrants over the years, almost never featured on postcards, photographs,

and souvenirs? Questions like this one, which began on eBay, have led me to begin to search out other

sources depicting the image and identity of Jackson Square and New Orleans. But acquiring items, most

costing under $5, on eBay has also, by enabling the initiation of my own collection, brought me into my

own new research in a personal way.

Conclusion

eBay has transformed the way over 125 million people around the world find and place value on

collectibles and junk through what one commentator called a seamless meshing of demand with

supply across infinite distance.58 We would challenge the simplicity of this assertion, preferring also to

point out, not only that supply and demand on eBay nearly never mesh seamlessly (in fact, many

auctions end with nary a bid, while others yield so much interest many more similar items could easily be

sold), but also that eBay has brought to the surface many items for which there was previously little or no

assessed value, but which have nevertheless stimulated a great deal of acquisitiveness, greed, envy, and

exclusionary competitiveness. And while with all of its competitive individualism eBay buying is not

politically transformative, it has, in bringing millions of relatively obscure items to easy access, brought

what scholars of consumption have described as the fun and the thrill of second-hand consumption to

millions in the space of their own homes or work placesleaving the work of second-hand shopping

behind and fundamentally also transforming the spaces where such consumption occurs.59

In addition to these broader issues of consumption practices however, eBay has in fact also changed

the nature of both data and data collection for each of the three of us. The ability to search for and

possibly purchase research materials ourselves on eBay has affected and sometimes changed how weand religions. What I found through my searches is that eBay can aid the research process in direct and

indirect ways.

I have found (and purchased) books, postcards, stereoviews, and photographs of the Square from the

early, mid, and late 20th century. Each documents the Squares physical appearance, and together they

show change (and in certain times lack there of) as well as the Squares variety of social, political, and

economic activities and events (Fig. 4).

Of course, many of these items, or materials similar to them, are located in the New Orleans Historical

Collection just down the street from the Square. I have found, however, that scanning eBay (most every

day) for new items concerning my project can be inspiring in terms of forming research questions and

ideas, and sustaining the momentum and pace of my research. The ability to access my research site on

eBay at anytime through new material infuses my project with a kind of immediacy so that my study

never grows cold. And, though postcards from the early 1900s to the present day are abundant on eBay,

it is precisely because of their abundance that I can learn about the images produced for everyday people

through time.

In becoming so familiar with both the rare and the popular images of the Square, I wonder, for

example, what the implications are of the fact that a distant view of St Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo,

Presbytere buildings (the latter two both long-past centers of New Orleans government), and the statuethink about our research, as well as what we write about. Whether it be, for instance, through Andrews

20 (2002) 597617 on this tension in charity shop (or thrift store) shopping.

4. See Goss, Once-upon-a-time in the commodity world.

5. www.eBay.com, 2002; eBay does prohibit certain items from sale, including alcohol (except wine), credit cards, drugs,

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 779drug paraphernalia, firearms, human parts and remains, lock-picking devices, plants and seeds, prescription drugs, stocks

and other securities, surveillance equipment, and tobacco. As soon as the company became aware, it also removed listings

offering for sale pieces of debris from the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center collapsesuch listings had appeared

within minutes. See J. Adler, The eBay way of life, Newsweek 2000; 5060 esp. 55 and 54.

6. www.eBay.com, 2001.

7. www.eBay.com, 2000.

8. Boston Herald, 18 March 2000.

9. More recently, eBays selling policy does not allow listings that are intended as jokes, (quoted in USAToday, 17

November 2004) though this has been difficult for the company, strictly speaking, to determine. See, for example, Virgin

Mary Grilled Cheese Back Up on eBay. See USAToday, 17 November 2004.

10. eBay is not the only online auction house. Others include, for example, Auction.com, QXL.com, uBid.com, anddiscovery of the existence of a 1904 report on the origin and spread of typhoid fever that could lead to a

potential new study; Dydias discovery that actual souvenirs or collectibles provide evidence to

additional and different individual and social meanings; or Rebeccas new research questions concerning

the absence of particular landscape perspectives through volumes of postcards and etchings, eBay, for all

the empirical, theoretical, methodological and ethical dilemmas it throws into sharp relief, also affords a

unique avenue into historical geographic research. With eBays steadily growing popularity, the very

availability of research materials on eBay, and the increasing number of researchers who, like us, will

become (at least in a limited way) collectors, raises questions historical geographers will have to

continue to consider, as neither the dilemmas nor the opportunities are likely to disappear.

Notes

1. Academic researchers are showing an increasing interest in using the Internet as a tool for performing research. See, for

example C. Madge and H. OConner, On-line with e-mums: exploring the Internet as a medium for research, Area, 34

(2002) 92102; C. Mann and F. Stewart, Internet Communication and Internet Research: A Handbook for Researching

Online, Thousand Oaks, 2000; J. Sefton-Green, Young People, Creativity, and New Technologies: The Challenge of Digital

Arts, New York, 1999; S. OLear, Using electronic mail (E-mail) surveys for geographic research: lessons from a survey of

russian environmentalists, The Professional Geographer 48 (1996) 213222; Others have explored cyber geographies. See,

for example, M. Crang, P. Crang and J. May, Virtual Geographies: Bodies, Spaces, and Relations, London, 1999;

R. Kitchin, Towards geographies of cyberspace, Progress in Human Geography 22 (1998) 385406; P. Adams, Cyberspace

and virtual places, The Geographical Review, 87 (1997) 155171. Our aim here is to discuss acquiring research materials

online, not virtual geographies or doing online research.

2. Nor, of course, do we wish to slight this interesting and engaging work. See, for example, A. Appadurai, Introduction:

commodities and the politics of value, in: A. Appadurai (Ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural

Perspective, Cambridge, 1986, 363; L. Crewe, Geographies of retailing and consumption, Progress in Human Geography

24 (2000) 275290; L. Crewe, The besieged body: geographies of retailing and consumption, Progress in Human

Geography 24 (2001) 629640; L. Crewe, and N. Gregson, Tales of the unexpected: exploring car boot sales as marginal

spaces of contemporary consumption, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers NS 23 (1998) 3953; J. Goss,

Once-upon-a-time in the commodity world: an unofficial guide to Mall of America, Annals of the Association of American

Geographers 891 (1999) 4575; D. Miller, Consumption as the vanguard of history, in: D. Miller (Ed.), Acknowledging

Consumption, London, 1995; R. Sack, The consumers world: place as context, Annals of the Association of American

Geographers, 78 (1988) 642664.

3. See N. Gregson, L. Crewe, and K. Brooks, Shopping, space, and practice, Environment and Planning D: Society and Spacezbestoffer.com. See http://www.ftpplanet.com/auction/auction_sites.htm for a more extensive list of on-line auction sites.

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782780But even in combining all other online auction companies market shares, eBay still holds the majority of the market (www.

eBay.com, 2001). Furthermore, in January 2002, Sothebys (the oldest brick-and-mortar auction house, established in

1744) formed an alliance with eBay for on-line auctions, where Sothebys was incorporated into the eBay marketplace,

further demonstrating eBays authority in online auctions.

11. Ebay, Inc. Press Release. Ebay, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 2004 Financial Results, 20 October 2004.

12. CBSNews.com, eBays Bid For Success, 11 June 2003. Accessed 5 November 2003 at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/

2002/10/30/60II

13. B. Learmount, A History of the Auction, London, 1985; D. Prince, Online Auctions @ eBay, Rockline, 1999.

14. K. Cheng, eBay, Mediaweek 9 (1999) 42.

15. The AugustaChronicle.com, eBays early days werent about PEZ dispensers, posted 17 June 2002. Accessed 18 November

2004 at http://www.augustachronicle.comstories/06172/tec_124-2028.shtml

16. Forbes, The Worlds Richest People, 26 February 2004. Accessed 18 November 2004 at http://www.forbes.com/finance/

lists/10/2004

17. The Augustachronicle.com, 17 June 2002.

18. D. Bunnell, The eBay Phenomenon: Business Secrets Behind the Worlds Hottest Internet Company, New York, 2000.

19. Learmount, A History of the Auction, 9.

20. Prince, Online Auctions @ eBay.

21. See Appadurai, Introduction: commodities and the politics of value, 15. Auctions, to be sure, are not innocent market

venues. From at least the seventeenth century and into the nineteenth century slave auctions not only took place but they

formed a significant percentage of the entire global auction market. See Learmount, A History of the Auction, 9; D. Howell,

I Was A Slave: Book SixSlave Auctions, Washington, DC, 1999. Also, wife auctions began as early as the fifth century

B.C. with a report by Herodotus of Halicarnassus. See C. Smith, Auctions: the Social Construction of Value, New York,

1989.

22. Appadurai, Introduction: commodities and the politics of value; Crewe and Gregson, Tales of the unexpected; Smith,

Auctions.

23. Prince, Online Auctions @ eBay; J. Sinclair, eBay the Smart Way, New York, 2000.

24. The high bidder was the Levi Strauss compant itself; eBay Press Release, 24 May 2001.

25. Prince, Online Auctions @ eBay. Another, though less common type of auction used on eBay is the Dutch auction, used

when multiple examples of the same item are available for sale at the same time. Here bidders bid not only on price, but also

on the number of items they wish to buy.

26. www.eBay.com, 2001. For some eBay items, it is no longer necessary to engage in the auction process at all: the Buy It

Now option enables a seller to choose to set a price that she/he will sell the item for immediately. If any bidder selects this

price before any other bids on the auction have been registered, the auction is ended, and the buyer is committed to the sale,

see www.eBay.com

27. B. Sullivan, Ebay fights its toughest legal battle, 21 September 2004. Accessed 19 November 2004 at http://www.msnbc.

msn.com/id/6030048/print/1/displaymode/1098/

28. www.eBay.com, accessed 5 November 2003; Neither is eBay a strictly American phenomenon: there are currently twenty-

three countries where eBay operates its auction websites, www.eBay.com, accessed 18 November 2004.

29. eBays growth has been tremendous; when the authors investigated similar categories just three years earlier the numbers were

dramatically smaller. For example, the Maps and Atlases category grew from an average of 6,600 a day to 10,141 a day.

30. Another helpful tool is the My eBay page where users can save their favorite searches, or ask to be notified by e-mail each

time a particular item comes up for auction, see www.eBay.com

31. Nielsen//NetRatings 2004. Accessed 18 November 2004 at http:www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/traffic_patterns/print.php/

3410151

32. Bunnell, The eBay Phenomenon; www.eBay.com, 2001.

33. For example, eBay provides community help, category specific, and user-by-user discussion boards and chat rooms.

Seventy-two community help boards provide a public space for asking questions and reading about such topics as bids,

searches, eBay polices, trust, and safety. User-to-user boards include, for example, The eBay Town Square, The Soap

Box, and The Park, which range from miscellaneous ideas and pet peeves about eBay to eBay community sponsored real

recreational activities. Thirty-five chat rooms, sometimes called cafes, also provide similar avenues to people, ideas, andinformation on a variety of topics, www.eBay.com, accessed 18 November 2004.

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782 78134. See for example N. Barta-Smith and J. Hathaway, Making cyberspaces into cybersplaces Journal of Geography 99 (2000)

253266; H. Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Cambridge, 2000;

D. Walmsley, Community, place, and cyberspace, Australian Geographer 31 (2000) 519; S. Turkle, Life on the Screen:

Identity in the Age of the Internet, New York, 1997; R. Shields, Cultures of the Internet: Virtual Spaces, Real Histories,

Living Bodies, Thousand Oaks, 1996.

35. It is common for cars, homes and even airplanes to be auctioned on eBay. In fact, the most expensive item yet sold was an

airplane: in August 2001, a Gulfstream II business jet, described as a luxurious aircraft configured to seat twelve

passengers in plush surroundings, sold for $4.9 million. News and Star, 11 May 2004, accessed 19 November 2004 at

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/motors/viewarticle.aspx?idZ15132236. For example, when DeLyser bought a nineteenth-century leather bound book and the seller accidentally severed the cover

after the auctions close, the seller shipped the book to her free of charge, ignoring both the shipping costs and the price to

be paid in the auction, but gaining positive feedback.

37. eBay.com, accessed 9 November 2003.

38. While most old newspapers are collected for the stories that appear in them (e.g. the first moon landing, or the bombing of

Pearl Harbor, for example), and others for the date (e.g. a persons date of birth), some newspapers are collected because of

the town they are from (newspapers from the gold-mining town of Bodie, California are highly collectible regardless of

date or content), or for the name of the newspaper itself (e.g. the Tombstone Epitaph).

39. eBay does offer bidders the chance to ask sellers questions by e-mail. We have, for example, asked sellers for additional

images of particular items, or for clarification of text or content. If the request is asked in a timely manner (long enough

before the close of the auction), sellers are usually happy, to the best of their abilities, to oblige.

40. The newspaper, The Nashville, is available on microfilm at the University of Tennessee but would only be available at

Louisiana State University via interlibrary loan to our special collections unit, which would add another series of

restrictions to extracting the required information.

41. N. Gregson and L. Crewe, Second-Hand Cultures, Oxford, 2003.

42. Fun, itself, however, is an important aspect of many consumption practices. Particularly in the realm of recycled goods

(whether second-hand stores, flea markets, antique shops or eBay) where, unlike in conventional retailing (e.g. the stores in

the mall) particular items are never to be found with certainty, fun is a prominent part of the consumption experience. See

Crewe and Gregson, Tales of the unexpected; and Gregson and Crewe, Second-Hand Cultures.

43. M. Smallman-Raynor and A. Clif, Epidemic diffusion process in a system of US military camps: transfer diffusion and the

spread of typhoid fever in the Spanish-American War, 1898, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 91 (2001)

7191.

44. See the contributions in J. Elsner and R. Cardinal (Eds.), The Cultures of Collecting, London, 1997, especially the interview

with packaging collector Robert Opie, 2548; S. Pearce, On Collecting: An Investigation into Collecting in the European

Tradition, London, 1995.

45. www.eBay.com, 2001, original listing in January for five days. All listings are eventually stripped from the eBay website,

thus leaving no permanent, publicly available record.

46. H. Jackson, Ramona: A Story, Boston, 1884.

47. C. McWilliams, Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (Salt Lake City, 1973, first published 1946), 73.

48. McWilliams, Southern California Country, 73.

49. McWilliams, Southern California Country; F. Walker, A Literary History of Southern California, Berkeley, 1950;

J.F. Dobie, Introduction, in: H.H. Jackson (Ed.), Ramona, Los Angeles, 1959, viixv; M. Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating

the Future in Los Angeles, London, 1990; E.W. Stevens, Helen Hunt Jacksons Ramona: social problem novel as tourist

guide, California History (1998) 158167 196197.

50. D. DeLyser, Authenticity on the ground: engaging the past in a California ghost town, Annals of the Association of American

Geographers 89 (1999) 602632; D. DeLyser, When less is more: absence and landscape in a California ghost town, in:

P. Adams, S. Hoelscher and K. Till (Eds.), Textures of Place: Exploring Humanist Geographies, Minneapolis, 2000, 2440;

D. DeLyser, Do you really live here? thoughts on insider research, The Geographical Review, 91 (2001) 441453.

51. See, for example, D. DeLyser, Ramona memories: fiction, tourist practices, and placing the past in southern California,

Annals of the Association of American Geographers 93 (2003) 886908; D. DeLyser, Recovering social memories from the

past: the 1884 novel Ramona and tourist practices in turn-of-the-century southern California, Social and CulturalGeographies (forthcoming) which are illustrated nearly entirely from my own collection.

52. See Elsner and Cardinal, The Cultures of Collecting; Pearce, On Collecting; and Gregson and Crewe, Second-Hand

Cultures.

53. In fact, as Susan Stewart has pointed out, the collector replaces the narrative of production with one of luck. S. Stewart, On

Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Durham, 1993, The quote is from Pearce,

1993, 386.

54. Pearce, On Collecting, 386.

55. See, An interview with Robert Opie, in Elsner and Cardinal, The Cultures of Collecting, for insight into the life of a

collector of both antique and contemporary food packaging. His collection now fills both his home and his museum, it

dominates his supermarket purchases, and his commitment to it even limits his ability to travel.

56. Gregson and Crewe, Second-Hand Cultures.

57. See, for example, DeLyser, Ramona memories; DeLyser, Recovering social memories from the past; D. DeLyser, Ramona

Memories: Tourism, Romance, and the Shaping of Southern California, Minneapolis, 2005.

58. J. Adler, (June 17, 2000) 5152.

59. Because the availability of second-hand items cannot be relied upon, second-hand shopping is described by Gregson and

Crewes informants as work. See Gregson and Crewe, Second-Hand Cultures.

D. DeLyser et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 30 (2004) 764782782

eBay and research in historical geographyIntroductionAuctions and eBayBuying and selling on eBayeBay and past plagues and epidemics-Andrew CurtiseBay and past places, both real and fictional-Dydia DeLysereBay and beginning a historical research project-Rebecca SheehanConclusionNotes