ABSTRACT
This chapter explores U.K. vintage radio collectors and their relationships to eBay. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered over a two-year period, including participant observation material, qualitative interviews with radio collectors, and postings from an online vintage radio forum,2 we contend that the very nature of eBay and the ways that goods are exchanged on the site make for a qualitatively new space of productive consumption that challenges the traditional practices, rituals, and geographies of collecting familiar to those individuals who frequent boot (trunk) sales, swap meets, and collectors’ fairs.
