Playstation 3 Roadshow

All right, today I have a little experiment for you. Open up a new tab or browser window and head over to eBay. I have a feeling that is experiment is going to be very timely, meaning if you are reading this post three years from now it probably hasn’t aged well. That just rewards all the first day readers, all five of you.

Enter the following in the search field and click search:

ps3

Now take a quick look through the first page of results. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

*Checks email*

*Ties shoe*

*Whistles*

Everyone back? I’ll bet it comes as a surprise that there is a pile of PS3’s going for thousands of dollars. I wonder if there will be any buyer fraud today…

What’s more fun to me though is looking through the lower priced auctions of PS3- related (and I use this term VERY loosely) items. For instance:

A .com domain name that has PS3 in it.

What I really love about this one is that it has been “Professionally appraised for $125,000.” This of course has given me an idea for a can’t-miss TV show. I can see it now, in five years PBS is going to start running Domain Name Roadshow, just like Antiques Roadshow. People will bring in 3×5 cards with their domain names on it and the appraisers will give all kinds of back stories before getting to what the people really want, the “how much is this piece of junk worth” moment.

Regular Person: “Yeah I was cleaning out my grandfather’s attic and I found this domain name in an old trunk.”

*Holds up card that reads “playstation2rockstheworldbigtimesuckers.com”*

Appraiser: “Ah, what you have hear is a beautiful example of early 21th century domain squatting. Notice the liberal use of letters and the beautiful, even whimsical, story that is told by the words. Really a fine example.”

Regular Person: “Yeah, that is really neat.”

Appraiser: “Do you have any idea what it would it go for at auction today?”

Regular Person: “I have no idea, but it must have been really special to my grandfather to keep it all these years. I couldn’t see myself selling it.”

*Regular Person’s eyes dart around to see if anyone has bought that line*

Appraiser: “Well, it is a wonderful period piece, but I’m afraid that a domain that long is going to take a very specialized buyer, which is going to drive the price down. That being said, I can comfortably say, after talking it over with the other appraisers, that at auction you could get upwards of 15 cents for it.”

*Regular Person gives stunned look at camera as graphic comes up on screen*

“Domain name worth practically nothing”

Now I just need to find someone in the TV business. I can’t see how something like this can stay off the air for long.