Ebay.com: Warning this website may contain addiction-causing services
The auction website eBay identifies itself as "the world's online marketplace." To be sure, the site has become a success with its users; caught up in the auction fever. These consumers bid on Beanie Babies, furniture and other garage-sale items up to stratospheric prices. The question no one's asking is: When does a hobby become an addiction?

by Diana Espinosa

The World's Leading Online Marketplace

Fake bullet holes, Elvis CDs, Yankees tickets, and even houses are on sale, just a click away, at eBay.com. In 1995, Pierre Omidyar founded what he hoped would become the world's leading online marketplace for the sales of good and service by individuals. Ebay.com offers an online market, in which people post digital photos of whatever they are selling--- laptops, Prada handbags, porcelains--- and consumers (who must register their credit card with eBay) bid for them by clicking an onscreen icon. Ebay's system enables bidders to compete against each other, and as in a traditional auction, the highest bidder wins the item. But whereas most offline auctions take place over the course of a few hours, eBay's auctions unfold over a period of days. As the deadline for the end of the bidding approaches and time begins to dwindle away, bidders find themselves staying up late banging the onscreen butting until the clock runs out.

Although late-night, bleary-eyed bidding is, for the most part, a necessary "evil", mandated by eBay's system, some users report feeling obsessed with "winning" the item (as eBay calls it). And in some cases these competitive urges shade into something like an addiction.

Matthew DiFaro is a 36-year-old chiropractor who believes he is addicted to the site. "I used to spend five to 10 hours on eBay everyday," says DiFaro. "My friends would make comments to me about how I was obsessed with it, but I always laughed it off. One day, when I was surfing the Web, I came across a website about online-auctioning addictions. I never realized that there was such a thing and then, when I took their 'Are You Addicted Quiz,' I realized I was addicted." To DiFaro any form of addiction is a serious problem, especially one that can affect a person financially. One of the damages of eBay, he says, is the kid-in-a-candystore psychology it triggerts in users such as himself. "When I was searching through eBay I would find the most fascinating things," he recalls. "I realized that I was not only finding objects I was finding hobbies, which would later turn into the serious problem." Matt DiFaro would spend hours looking for great C! Ds, furniture, books, and art but what became his obsession was his new hobby of collecting "hard to find Disney animated features and live-action classics."

"At first, I thought it was all fun. I had created a great hobby and a second job. When I wasn't at work, I would sit in front of my computer looking for these movies. The first one I found was the Jungle Book and I only paid $15 dollars for a used copy. I thought, 'hey, this is great!' I just bought a classic movie, in great condition, and I never had to leave my house." That's when the trouble began, he says. "I decided to make my collection the centerpiece of my entertainment center," he says. "I started to look for newer, better condition copies from stores going out of business and other collectors on eBay. This was easier than going to trade shows and hobby shops. And this is when money stopped being an obstacle that got in my way." What started as a fun 15-dollars-here-and-there hobby turned into hours of bidding and hundreds of dollars spent on old movies. "Since there are only about 40 Disney animated features, I didn't think it would be such a pr! oblem, but boy, was I wrong." His obsession enabled by eBay's instant, effortless technology, led to DiFaro moving on from Disney movies to action movies and romance titles. Then he started all over again with DVDs.

"I would spend hours on eBay and when it came time to pay, I felt like it was all part of the game," says DiFaro, " sort of like when it's time to buy property in Monopoly. My money became fake money, but my bills were very real." The unreality of spending money in the form of credit card information combined with the deadly ease of remote shopping, which enables consumers to browse and buy without ever leaving the comfort of home, is what fostered DiFaro's addiction, he says. "Aside from the regular costs incurred on my credit card, I found myself averaging a 200 to 300-hundred-dollar-a- week bill from my eBay purchases. Then, too, he often felt her was getting great bargains on things he could never find anywhere else.

Despite the euphoric feeling DiFaro was feeling from "winning" on eBay, he realized it was more than just a hobby, it was an addiction. "I have been seeking help for my problem," says DiFaro. "I've been seeing a specialist and reading books that have helped me realize that many people have this problem. I still feel eBay provides a great service, and many people do know how to use to the right way. But I still try to stay away from the site, because I don't feel strong enough and you know what they say: Once an addict, always an addict."

Admittedly Matt DiFaro's addiction was severe. Nontheless, there are many others who have shared his plight, if not to the same extent. Maureen Myers is a 53- year-old nursery school director. In 1999 friend told her about eBay and she felt there was no harm in trying it. Today she spends at least five hours everyday on eBay and admits she is slowly becoming addicted. "It is sometimes just a victory to find what you are looking for and then it becomes an obsession. You're thinking 'I know it's on there, but where?' And I go crazy, trying every angle, trying different names of things, wondering where it might be!" But this is just the beginning, says Myers; its finding the item, then biding on it, that "get you in trouble." Obviously, the psychology of any auction is tied up in the thrill of the hunt, the competitive desire to outbid the others bidder, but Myers feels that with eBay, it's different. "Sometimes the objects that I start bidding fo! r aren't things I need," she says. "But you can bid on almost anything on eBay, and it becomes so much fun you forget how much money you are spending. You just stay on eBay to make sure that no one takes this object, just so that you can "win the game.""

As part of the eBay wonder they provide a service for people of all ages. Priscilla Cosmer is a 22-year-old student who feels she is obsessed with eBay. "People have always told me I have an addictive personality, but I never believed them until I started using eBay for hours a day, every day." Ms. Cosmer says that as a student, she doesn't have much money so when she finds good deals on eBay, she doesn't miss the opportunity. However, it's a baited trap: this, she says, is what has slowly led her into something approaching an addiction. "The deals are so great sometimes that I just keep buying even if don't need it," she confesses. "But I came to the conclusion that I had a problem when my computer caught a virus and I couldn't search on eBay for over a week. I found myself asking everyone in my dorm to use their computer. I wasn't using it to write a paper or check my email; I was using it for eBay."

By contrast, buyers such as Laurie Butcher feel that the online auction site is completely harmless and could never turn into an addiction, at least for her. "It's all great fun," says the 40-year-old eBay seller. "It's about the determination to find products at reasonable prices --- sort of like betting on the races, you keep going until you win!"

Even so, cautions- Dr. Paul Grayson, an addiction therapist at New York University, eBay's seemingly harmless buzz can bring out the worst in some users. The eBay activity is sometimes intrinsically rewarding, in the sense that drugs can make you feel good, for a while," says Grayson. "Buying something gives you the reward of what you've purchased. Also, the activity can take the person's mind off other problems: loneliness, stress, boredom, depression." Nonetheless, says Grayson, this "activity" can lead to online addiction.

Andrew Careaga: Author of "Hooked on the Net: How to Say 'Goodnight' When the Party Never Ends"

According to Andrew Careaga, the author of "Hooked on the Net: How to Say 'Goodnight' When the Party Never Ends," eBay's feel good effect may have something to do with brain chemistry. With the research he did for his book, Careaga discovered that "certain types of Internet activities -- bidding in online auctions, trading stocks over the Internet, online gaming, online shopping, etc. -- release the feel-good chemical dopamine in our brains, which gives us a euphoric feeling." In his book, Careaga points out that 1992, when the Internet was still relatively unknown to most Americans, only one to eight percent of people were compulsive shoppers. Since the Internet became "popular", every year the number of Net addictions --- obsessive Internet activity--- including addiction to auction sites such as eBay rises with each passing year.

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Diana Espinosa is a senior a New York University with a major in journalism and a minor in Spanish.

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