Comment by ghaff
14 days ago
It's just hard to get away from the transaction costs associated with exchanging low-value physical goods over distance. A swap meet with a local electronics club? Sure. But selling individual items on eBay? Not so much.
There were a bunch of ideas associated with the early Web like sharing tools and so forth that just don't make sense outside an informal neighborhood "economy" (and often not even there).
Indeed.
I'd give anyone stuff from my cabling and computer parts collection as long as they had a use for it. I'd do this without cost if I could.
Except: It isn't usually free to get things from my empire of dirt to anyone else's empire of dirt.
By the time I boxed up a widget and sent it on its way, it is likely that more money has been spent than just procuring a new widget to begin with.