I was talking with Taj of the Denver Abundance League on Saturday about how we can make the league more meaningful on a day-to-day basis. Imagine what it would be like to experience the mutually-supportive environment we create at monthly meetings, but on a daily basis.
This lead me to the concept of Friend-to-Friend commerce. Instead of putting your stuff on Craigslist or eBay and selling to a stranger, why not sell to a friend? I mean think about it, most people never even let their friends know they’re selling something on a C2C site. That’s weird. Why not let your friends know first? Why not give them first dibs. Or even better, just give the item to a friend, someone that you love, trust, and want to help. And what if all your friends did the same thing? And what if listings went beyond stuff and included all kinds of support? F2F commerce might be a way to experience extraordinary generosity every day.
This idea may represent a gigantic cultural lacuna. There’s only one result that comes back from a google search on the exact term “friend-to-friend commerce” or the same without dashes. And that result is in reference to marijuana sales networks in the law enforcement domain. In a way, that shows the power of the corporate controlled marketplace – we do not see our friends as sources of material sustenance. We search vertically to get our needs met, not horizontally. That’s radically undemocratic. Conversely, Friend-to-Friend Commerce is radically democratic.
Of course, sometimes a person just wants to maximize the cash in exchange for the thing. That’s hard to do selling to your friends. Come to think of it, if that’s the goal, then eBay is the way. Craigslist is subtly relationship oriented, eh?
True, you’d put your snazzy digital camera on ebay. But lots of other stuff probably isn’t worth selling that way but has some value, so why not give it to a friend? Thought about it today, maybe we should call the concept friend-to-friend generosity. Or use commerce in its more broad meaning i.e. any type of exchange.
One thing I learned researching secondary markets was that every item or class of item has a different profile in terms of how it should be managed for maximize utilization. This means how an individual should acquire, dispose, and manage use of the item (rent, borrow, buy, loan out, let out, give away, get for free, co-buy, share, etc.).
So the question in my mind is what class of item is ideal for Friend-to-friend generosity? Generally, it’s stuff you wouldn’t put on eBay. Need more thinking on that. Any ideas?