What sort of problem is eBay?

As I have said in previous posts, when I have mentioned to people that I’m doing a project on eBay – however small and experimental – the usual response has been a smirk and a shake of the head. It’s clear to me that eBay is seen as a problem, or at least as something not worth engaging with, but I have struggled to pin people down on exactly what kind of problem it is and why. Two main potential problems spring to mind.

The ethical minefield

Perhaps the obvious problem, the one that turns archaeologists off straight away, is that eBay contains a lot of metal-detecting finds. It also, potentially, contains objects acquired in even more problematic circumstances than that. There is much written on this and I don’t need to go into details myself here. Paul Barford for instance has written extensively on the subject on his blog Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues and has even written specifically on eBay. Also of interest is Kurt Montgomery’s work on the influence of the internet on militaria collecting, which highlights many of the same issues, among much more.

It is a real problem. It is a problem that means valuable information is lost to analysis and to databases like the PAS. It is also a problem that created and now sustains the particular monetary values attached to archaeological material and therefore needs to be addressed.

Non-communication

As my unsuccessful attempt to speak to eBay sellers shows, there’s also a problem with the forum itself. It is, of course, understandable that people using eBay to quickly and easily sell a few things don’t want to talk about what they’re doing. It becomes even more likely when those people are selling metal-detecting finds and it’s an archaeologist asking them about it. Understandable, but a bit of a shame. It’s partly the silence from eBay sellers and from eBay itself that makes it look like the problem it does.

Is thinking eBay is a problem a barrier?

There are real problems with eBay, but what is the difference between the forum being problematic and those problems becoming a barrier to engagement? My admittedly small sample data scrape of six artefact types suggests that when it comes to the objects that would usually be considered to have higher monetary values and to hold more ‘archaeological data’, eBay contains only minuscule amounts compared to, in this instance, the PAS. Is it then more the idea that eBay sellers are disregarding others’ desire for the information their objects would provide or the notion of monetizing historic artefacts that is the problem? That must be part of it, but how many sellers are aware of these problems? We don’t know because it’s really hard to talk to them. It’s almost a Catch-22.

My proposed solution to this issue is to stop approaching eBay as an insurmountable problem. When we take a start point that eBay is bad and that its sellers are bad and that its defining characteristic is the loss of archaeological material, we create a barrier that it is really hard to see past. I know that is a real problem. I know that eBay don’t help themselves by refusing to engage. However, if we take a different start point – of eBay as a group of people interested in historic objects who we don’t currently talk to, but who we could learn new things from if we could engage them in some way – the onus would then be on us to try harder, to move past or lay aside our reasons for negativity and to keep trying.

EBay and eBay sellers are just another hard-to-reach group. There is huge scope for the aims and methods of public and community archaeology to change the relationship between them and the wider discipline.

The failure bit…

So… I’m interested in the potential for eBay to be of use to public archaeology research as a database of objects that can give some level of access to information about how people relate to objects. There are also the sellers themselves. What I wanted to do with this mini-project, after a bit of a play with the data I collected, was speak to eBay sellers about their use of eBay. I’m not directly interested in the issue of ‘illicit antiquities’ this month, largely because it is a well-covered topic and also partly because I think that debate can be a bit of a barrier. I’ll post on the subject this week. What I am more interested in for PA2015 is how much people know about where the things they are selling came from, whether they’re interested in knowing more about where they go and how active they are.

It was my first intention to send a survey link out to all of the sellers whose data I had collected back in November, but I decided against sending about 750 unsolicited emails through eBay. Instead, I wrote to two sellers for each of my artefact types asking if I could send them a survey link. I had four replies. Three of them said no. One said yes, but didn’t go on to complete the survey. So, precisely zero public engagement.

I was not hoping to collect statistics with this exercise, at least not after I gave up on the mass mailing. What I hoped to do was engage a couple of regular eBay sellers who I could work with to understand better how people relate to objects within the eBay context and to become (eventually)’ eBay archaeologists’, using their normal eBay interactions to develop and spread knowledge about the people-object networks created and enacted by the forum.

Although this failed for PA2015, it is not an end. I’m hopeful of still being able to speak to some eBay sellers at some point and I think the idea of eBay archaeologists is interesting and useful. Also, the kind of archaeology going into the idea is, as far as I am aware, quite unusual for public archaeology contexts.

What I would like in response to this post is to hear other stories of public archaeology ‘failures’. It’s not something we hear about enough and a few other people I have been chatting too have been very interested in the subject. Please add comments below and gather them together into a post at some point this month.

eBay and the PAS: the data

Hope you enjoyed the brief tour of artefact homes. Thank you to those of you who offered feedback and encouragement, it certainly seemed to interest people!

Tomorrow I’m going to be doing some fieldwork with the Bristol Wood Recycling Project, so there won’t be a post and I’ll be tweeting instead. Either on Sunday or Monday and into next week, I’ll complete the eBay half of my PA2015 month by addressing my failure to engage any actual eBay sellers in my research and making some suggestions as to how eBay still has some potential to be considered public archaeology, despite my lack of qualitative data. As I’ve said before, I hope the ‘failure’ bit can be more of a discussion, it’s not a subject we hear enough about.

Firstly though, as we have had our leisurely tour around Britain (and overseas…?) seeing where eBay-listed items reside, I want to briefly present some thoughts on the data itself. It’s not necessarily a prime concern of mine, I’m more into talking to people, but if eBay is ever to be used in a meaningful way, it will entail some level of data analysis, so I might as well present a bit.

Objects on eBay

Sample objects on eBay, November 2014

As we see in this lovely pie chart, Roman coins make up nearly half of the available data. Spindle whorls have a good go in second place, followed by lampposts and musket balls. Jettons and clay pipes bring up the rear. Is this to be expected? It seems to make sense that there is a more established trade in valuable Roman coins, while spindle whorls can be attractive in their own way. Clay pipe fragments are probably the most common accidental find, but I suppose people just don’t think of selling them.

Objects on the PAS

Sample objects recorded by the PAS, as of end November 2014

Contrast that with the PAS data. This pie chart, looking uncannily like the old Happy Eater logo, shows Roman coins as by far the dominant artefact type with everything else paling in comparison. This makes complete sense and in fact highlights one of the ways in which eBay and the PAS are not quite equivalent datasets. Roman coins are far more likely to be recognised as being of interest and added to the PAS than, for instance, clay pipe fragments and I suspect the PAS could not survive if it was constantly recording the latter. However, the proportion of Roman coins to jettons is not too far off in both sets of figures, suggesting that although the PAS favours certain artefact types, there is correlation between those types in that and other public-driven contexts.

What does this mean for public archaeology?

Leaving aside for a moment the problems of the sale of potentially important artefacts, it would seem from this data that Roman coins are a key artefact to focus on if we want to contact sellers and understand the movement of objects in and around eBay. However, I tried another bit of analysis that tells a slightly different story. Please note that this analysis was the result of literally minutes work and may well not stand up to close scrutiny!

You will have seen from my Homes of eBay posts that I calculated the percentage of PAS material on sale on eBay in one month and also how long it would take eBay to sell an equivalent of the PAS database for each object type. These are two different versions of the same data. In analysis, I turned each of these into relative values by ascribing a maximum of 100 to the highest values and rating others accordingly. So, in terms of amount of material on eBay, clay pipes score 100 as the amount recorded has the highest percentage in relation to the PAS. In the other column, Roman coins score 100 because it would take longest for eBay to sell an equivalent amount of material. Subtract the second value from the first and you have a series of relative values that show the potential for different types of eBay object to help us understand the relationship between people and historic-archaeological objects.

Representative Network Potential

This graph tells us a different story to the pie charts. Roman coins, by far the most frequently recorded item on the PAS and listed item on eBay, get a Public Representative Value* of -97. In short, there are a lot of this kind of object, but eBay won’t tell you much about the people-object networks of Roman coins because it only holds a tiny sample. On the other hand, clay pipes have the opposite value. There are a relatively small number, but it’s a higher percentage of the PAS and replicates the PAS every 18 months. So, these two quite different datasets become comparable, not in pure numbers or why people use them, but in terms of their potential to tell us about people and their objects.

If you want to know about members of the public who are part of the networks of Roman coin movement, don’t bother with eBay, consult the Portable Antiquities Scheme. If clay pipes or musket balls are your thing and you want to understand how people interact with them, forget the PAS and try to get eBay sellers to talk. I hope you have better luck than I did.

I promise it makes sense. Hopefully I can replicate the experiment at some point with a larger dataset and some people to talk to.

*Sorry, couldn’t resist developing complex terminology.

Homes of eBay 6: Spindle Whorl

Ok, last one of the picture posts. Thanks to all of you who have been following this series and sharing the posts on Twitter and elsewhere.

The purpose of these six sets of images has been to start some wider debate on the potential for eBay to be be public archaeology by jumping over the hurdle of illicit antiquities and metal-detecting finds at the outset. While these are very real, important concerns with this particular forum and I will address them in a future post, for PA2015 I am more specifically concerned with the material networks operating around the site and the people who engage with it. So, I wanted to start at a very personal level, giving an anonymous tour of sellers’ houses. It’s also the reason I chose not to collect data on how much items sold for or even whether they sold or not. There are plenty of other people looking at this side of eBay. As this month goes on, and we move away from the networks of the controversial eBay to the networks of the far less controversial recycling, I hope the benefits of taking this start position will become clear. Before we move on though, here is the final part of the Homes of eBay mini-project. Let’s meet the spindle whorl sellers.

Spindle Whorl

My data collection returned 127 listings for Spindle Whorl. At the end of November 2014, there were 4583 spindle whorls recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. So, eBay sells in one month material equivalent to 2.8% of the PAS and would take about 3 years to sell the same amount of material.

Ancient Lead Weight. Spindle Whorl

Ancient Roman Granite Stone Spindle whorl c.1st-2nd century AD

Ancient Roman Stone Spindle Whorl CIRCA 2ND CENTURY AD x 3

ANCIENT SYRIAN. ALABASTER SPINDLE WHORL – CIRCA 1000 B.C. x 2

ANGLO SAXON DECORATED SPINDLE WHORL

Authentic Ancient Artifact Lead Spindle Whorl

Bronze Age Hungarian Terracotta Stone Spindle Whorl x 3 lots

DECORATED MEDIEVAL SPINDLE WHORL AND ROMAN COINS

Large decorated spindle whorl roman or saxom sic

Lead spindle whorl x 4

LOT Roman PERIOD – LEAD SPINDLE WHORL 1-2nd Century AD x 2

Medieval Anglo Saxon DECORATED LEAD SPINDLE WHORL GROUP X 18 _ 3 lots

medieval decorated spindle whorl plus two others metal detecting finds

Multi period 87 lots

ROMAN BRITAIN. DECORATIVE SHALE SPINDLE WHORL. NICE CONDITION.

RomanSaxon Decorated Spindle Whorl

SPINDLE WHORL or LEAD WEIGHT MEDIEVAL NICE EXAMPLE METAL DETECTING FIND

UNUSUAL ANGLO-SAXON LEAD SPINDLE WHORL c630 AD METAL DETECTING FINDS

All map data ©Google

Homes of eBay 5: Roman Coin

I hope you’re still with me. This is the big one. In November 2014, eBay listed 289 Roman Coin sales. At the end of that month, there were 196893 listed on the PAS. EBay sells 0.15% of the PAS in a month and would take 54.5 years to sell an equivalent set of objects.

►UNCLEANED ANCIENT ROMAN COINS, GOOD QUALITY◄

2 x Silver Roman Denarius uk Detector Finds

3x Large Roman coins (unresearched)

5X ROMAN BRONZE RADIATE COINS; WINCHESTER DETECTING FINDS

10 Ancient Roman coins + 4 oz. Mint State Restoration Coin Cleaner MSR 042

10 MIXED COINS INCLUDING TWO ROMAN COINS METAL DETECTING FINDS (263)

46 AS FOUND ROMAN COINS

3714’Constantine The Great Roman copper silver-plated coin F

ANCIENT CELTIC BRONZE PROTO MONEY CURRENCY PRE COIN FORM RING

Ancient ROMAN ARTIFACTS coins brooch jewelry arrowhead ring old lot antique rare

Ancient Roman Coin – Constantinople Commemorative – No Reserve

Authentic Ancient ROMAN COIN angel VALENS 364-378 AD wreath artifact old money

BULK-LOT OF 59 LATE ROMAN COINS 3RD – 4TH CENTURY AD UNCLEANED! 3 DAYS ONLY!

c85 AD British Found Emperor Domitian Roman Period Ar Silver Denarius Coin

coins roman metal detecting finds

Collection of unresearched roman coins metal detecting find

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT ROMAN BRONZE COIN COMMEMORATIVE COINAGE

Constantine 1st Commenorative Roman Coin

DECORATED MEDIEVAL SPINDLE WHORL AND ROMAN COINS

Fibula Brooch Roman Great Art Colour Coins Roman Brooch

Group of Metal Detecting Find Roman Medieval Tudor-Modern Buckle Badge Coins

Hammered silver coin roman medieval metal detecting finds

Huge Lot Of 760 Roman Bronze Coins As Dug From Norfolk-Suffolk England

INTERESTING METAL DETECTOR FOUND COINS AND ARTIFACTS

load of old coins inc silver 3 day sale D2

Lot of Silver Coin – Metal Detecting Finds

Lot of 8 coins time pirate (L4)

metal detecting finds 5 nice roman coins

metal detecting finds 10xearly to late roman coins

metal detecting finds A Group Of 20 Constantine Roman Coins

Metal Detecting Finds inc Roman Coins

metal detecting finds roman coins grots

METAL DETECTING FINDS SILVER HAMMERED COIN LEAD SEAL ROMAN MODERN ODD UNUSUAL

Metal Detector Finds 37 Roman Coins

mixed roman mediveal modern metal items coins 40 items

Rare silver Hadrian denarius coin 117-138 AD

roman silvers and bronze coins metal detecting finds

ROMAN AE3 BRONZE COIN OF VALENTINIAN 1 {364-375AD}

Roman Bronze Coin Constantine I AD 307 – 337 Altar

Roman Clay Oil Lamp & Coin

Roman Coin – Ae3 Size – 18mm diameter Brass Coloured (BAC1221)

ROMAN COIN

Roman coin metal detecting find

roman coin sestertius

Roman Coin

roman coins 3

ROMAN COINS METAL DETECTING FIND

Roman coins

Roman Lead Coin-Detecting Find

Roman medieval and later metal detecting finds inc coin of carausius

ROMAN UMBONATE BROOCH PLUS SESTERTIUS COIN

SCARCE antoninian of AURELIANUS CLEANED VERY NICE COIN

silver roman coin

Superb group metal detecting finds inc Roman coins Medieval items

TOP-LOT 18 LATE ROMAN COINS HELENA GRATIANUS CONSTANS VALENS ETC 306-383AD

UNCLEANED UNIDENTIFIED ROMAN COIN DETECTOR FIND

UNCLEANED ROMAN coin

UNIDENTIFIED ROMAN COIN

very rare MN ACILIUS GLABRIO AR DENARIUS silver roman coin

All map data ©Google

Homes of eBay 4: Clay Pipe

In November 2014 there were 35 Clay Pipe listings on eBay. At the end of the same period 634 had been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. EBay lists the equivalent of 5.5% of the PAS each month and would take 18 months to sell the same amount of artefacts.

+RARE! Pre-Columbian 300-900 AD VERACRUZ Clay Tobacco Smoking FACE Pipe

3 vintage clay pipe bowls without stems

14 Old clay pipes dug up or found on fields around North shields one 1690s full

17th CENTURY CLAY PIPE SECTION. NICE CONDITION.

18TH CENTURY CLAY PIPES CIRCA 1730 – 1780 ,SOME WITH MAKERS MARKS

19 C SAILOR FIGUREHEAD CLAY SMOKING PIPE PAINTED GLAZED AFRICAN

25 BRITISH TAVERN CLAY PIPES 1650-1880 ALL DIFFERENT DUMP DUG CONDITION

A COLLECTION OF 25 CLAY SMOKING PIPE BOWLS VARIOUS CIRCA 1700 TO 1900

A vintage long South sea islands wood carved pipe, clay bowl

antique clay pipe display case

Antique Dutch Tabacco clay pipe 18th century with stem

Antique UK Clay Pipe 30 Lot 1830 Bowl Dug Up Rare

British Found – French Ornate Clay Pipe 18th century

CLAY PIPE FRAGMENTS

Clay Tobacco Pipes – 17th-19th century – Metal Detector Finds

Colonial Fredricksburg 18th Century Relic Ceramic Clay Pipe Stem Artifact Lot 2

FRAMED GLAZED DEEP MUSEUM DISPLAY CASE EXAMPLES OF EARLY CLAY PIPES TOBACCIANA

Nupe Clay Pipe Nigeria Africa

old clay pictorial smoking pipes

Old Tobacco Clay Smoking Pipes & Original Crate

victorian clay pipes in frame

Vintage Colonial Williamsburg Mounted Handmade ‘1800’s Tavern’ Style Clay Pipe

All map data ©Google

 

 

 

Homes of eBay 3: Musket Ball

Data collection returned 61 listings for Musket Ball (many are multiple lots though). At the end of November 2014, the PAS contained 1808 examples. So, in a month, eBay lists material equivalent to 3.4% of the PAS and would take 2.5 years to sell the same amount.

8 BRITISH CIVIL WAR PERIOD LEAD MUSKET BALLS DETECTING DETECTOR FINDS

13 OLD MUSKET BALLS

22 MUSKETS BALLS FROM yorkshire 20mm DOWN TO 5mm METAL DETECTING FINDS

25 CIVIL WAR MUSKET BALLS

50 MUSKETS BALLS – all from ESSEX 18 mm 6 mm approx. METAL DETECTING FINDS

1640s ~ excellent 10 x Charles I English Civil War musket balls (Arundel Castle)

1715 Fleet Shipwreck Musket Balls Split Shot Minnie Ball Found By Lou Ullian

1715 TREASURE FLEET’S CABIN WRECK MUSKET BALLS

ANTIQUE JAPANESE MUSKET BALLS OR GRAPE SHOT-16th-17th century

Collectable dug old English Musket Balls Lead pistol Shot x 6 – 16mm Diameter

DUG LARGE LOT OF MISC ANCIENT ROMAN LEAD ARTIFACTS & TOKENS MUSKET BALLS

English Civil War Lead Musket & Pistol Balls

English Civil War Lead Musket Ball – Oxfordshire Found

Fantastic lot 10 lead Musket Balls Napoleonic Wars 1811

Flintlock Double Musket Ball from 1758 HMS Invincible ShipWreck

Lead Musket ball Gun Powder Measure Civil war battle metal detecting detector

Lot of 15 musket balls from Amsterdam 18th century

metal detecting find old musket balls and other iten mixed lot

Metal detecting finds buttons buckles seals badges metal detector musket balls

Metal detecting finds coins seals metal detector musket balls

metal detecting finds job lot large musket balls

Musket Flintlock pistol balls

MUSKET BALLS & 19th CENTURY LEAD BULLETS

Musket Balls Bullets Detecting Finds From Kent

Musket balls metal detecting find

musket balls various lead shot x 55-uncleaned british metal detecting finds

Musket balls

Spanish Musket Ball From The Atocha Treasure Galleon Mel Fisher Free Shipping

Two Musket balls metal detector finds

All map data ©Google

Homes of eBay 2: Lamppost

So, Lampposts are obviously not recorded in the PAS. I’ve included them partly for that reason, and partly because they will feature in the second half of this month. Data collection returned 69 Lampposts for sale on eBay. There are no equivalent statistics for the PAS.

1 CAST IRON LAMP POST

antique cast iron lamp post

ANTIQUE CAST IRON LAMPPOST LADDER RACK

ANTIQUE COPPER LAMP POST TOP LANTERN FULLY GLAZED 12 panes Unusual shape

antique lamp post 2

Antique Lamp Post

Antique Victorian cast iron lamp post

Architectural Lampost

ART DECO VTG & AUTHENTIC! NEW ORLEANS LAMP POST CAST IRON CITY SEAL ACCESS DOOR

Beautiful Tall Turned Column Heavy Vintage Wood Standard Lamp – Post 1950s

Beautifull Stainless Steel Retro Lamp Post Top

Cast Iron Lamp post Street light & copper lantern

Copper & Brass Lamp Post Top

Cast Iron Lamp Post With Top

Cast iron lamp post, Victorian lamp post, garden lamp

 

cast iron lamppost for restoration street light lamp garden or driveway

Cast Iron Street Lamp

Early Victorian Genuine Original Ornate Gas Lamp Post

 

LAMPOST TOP COPPER VICTORIAN STYLE

LAMPPOST CAST IRON HEIGHT 3760mm APPROX

LIGHTING LAMP POST

Old Lamp Post

Original Antique Victorian Cast Iron Lamp Post and Large Copper Top Lantern

original traffic light off humber bridge ! vintage retro lamp post outdoor shop

Original Vintage Antique Cast Iron Lamp Post x2

Restored Cast Iron Lamp Post with Victorian Copper or Stainless Steel Lantern

Swan Neck Lamp Post Top

VICTORIAN CAST IRON LAMP POST £400

Victorian Cast iron Lamp Post and Copper Top

Victorian cast iron lamp post

Victorian lamp post

victorian lamp post

victorian lamp post

victorian lampposts

VINTAGE IRON LAMP POST TOP

VTG COPPER GLASS LAMP POST LIGHT EAGLE FINIAL VERITAS ENGLAND TALL 27 in ELECTRIC

VTG Outdoor Lantern~Lamp Post Lantern~EAGLE Finial~Outdoor Post Light Fixture

Woodland Lamppost

All map data ©Google

 

Homes of eBay 1: Jetton

When I mention eBay to archaeologists, the majority opinion has been a shake of the head and the hint of a smile. It seems to me that eBay is viewed remotely as a negative phenomenon, not something to be engaged with. There are lots of reasons for this though, the sale of metal-detecting finds through it being only one. It’s also understandable that people find it hard to comprehend the sheer scale and complexity of eBay as a data set.

With that in mind, I want to start this exploration of eBay by trying to make that dataset more human. I’m going to do that through an exploration, presented largely without comment, of the sellers’ houses. Hope you like it, we can discuss it a week from now.

Jettons

My data collection returned 18 listings of Jettons on eBay. As of November 2014, there were 8034 Jettons recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. EBay then, lists Jettons equivalent to 0.22% of the PAS database every month and would take 37 years to sell an equivalent set of artefacts.

A LOT OF OLD DETECTOR FOUND MEDIEVAL JETTONS

Coins jettons tokens inc irish hammered Metal detecting finds

excellent Jetton

Jetton nice example

King on Throne Medieval Bronze Jetton 14th 15th Century

Medieval bronze jetton jeton Heraldic Lion Armorial Shield detecting detector 4 lots

Medieval French Jetton Metal Detecting Find

Metal Detecting Collection Of Medieval Jettons

metal detecting finds tokens jettons etc….

Super example of an Hans Kranwinkle Jetton

All map data © Google

Can eBay be public archaeology?

This month of PA2015 will look at the ways in which relatively mundane objects move around and what that has to do with people. It has long been a contention of mine that archaeology and archaeologists have a particular perspective on material culture that enables them to locate, understand and describe active, contemporary material networks in a certain, distinctly useful way. Further, I think that understanding material networks with an initial focus on the object being moved can tell you about the relationships between people and other people, things and places that other more widely focused perspectives cannot. Lastly, I think that communicating this understanding to people can give them new ways of engaging in contemporary politics (which means a lot of different things).

Where is the public archaeology?

In this conception, there are two different public archaeologies. The first is found in the archaeologist developing these themes and methodologies, then working to create ways to communicate them to non-archaeologists. The second, both equally and differently important, is in non-archaeologists finding some use in approaching aspects of their lives in an archaeological way. These two public archaeologies meet in the middle, but do not have to operate together. One does not have to lead to the other in a direct fashion. People can take inspiration from archaeology in any way they want to and I see the potential to create another kind of archaeology that might be useful and to make it visible so it can be appropriated.

Making it visible

This month will split into two parts, the first focussing on eBay, the second on recycling. I’ll come to the recycling later in the month.

EBay has massive archaeological potential, both as a fluctuating repository of material culture, but also in what it might tell us about the relationship between people and objects. I’ll be chucking a few stats around over the next week, but let’s start with a few jaw-droppers.

• Recently, the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) celebrated the recording of its one millionth artefact, an incredible achievement. EBay lists, at any given time, somewhere in the region of 112.3 million items.
• Looking just to object types on both the PAS and eBay, eBay listings in any one month equate to approximately 2.4% of the PAS database.
• It follows that in numbers alone – i.e. discounting qualitative variables, which I will come to  – eBay sells the entire PAS every 3.5 years.
• With qualitative adjustment, taking into account the relative frequency of different artefact types on the PAS, it would take eBay about 18 years to sell an equivalent set of objects. That’s not long.

EBay as public archaeology

So, where can eBay and public archaeology meet? When I tell people about this project, they hear the word ‘eBay’, smile and shake their heads. EBay is, in my experience, treated by archaeologists as a whole, and as a negative phenomenon. It’s where people sell metal detecting finds, right? Well, yes. But it’s also a normal part of millions of people’s lives and one of the primary ways in which objects move nationally and internationally on a person-to-person basis. So, it can tell us a lot about how things move and who is involved in moving them, this in addition to the almost unimaginable rolling dataset of 112300000 objects.

Working with the data

I can go into this in more detail through comments if anyone is interested. Basically, some years ago, eBay got annoyed with people scraping their customer site and slowing it down; they took people to court over it. One of the ways they have addressed this, realising that people using scrapers to categorise data drives more business through the site, is that they replicate their entire database on a secondary site and allow you to set up tools to extract information. Basically, you can set any parameters you want and collect information within them straight into an Excel file.

So, with a lot of help from my brother-in law, Andy Venables (he did 100% of the IT set-up), I ran a scrape of eBay.co.uk for the whole of November 2014. I collected data on every listing during that month on six representative artefact types: Jetton; Clay Pipe, Musket Ball, Spindle Whorl, Roman Coin and Lamppost. That scrape recorded 828 entries, which reduced to 605 after removing re-listings and misidentifications. For one month, it’s a workable dataset. Any PAS figures I refer to were gathered at the end of this period too.

For your own amusement, here’s the data: eBay data November 2014 for PA2015

Next week, I will do some work with the data and investigate the potential for eBay to play a role in the development of public archaeology. Also though I want to address my failure to engage any eBay sellers in my research! I’ll need people’s help with that bit, it needs to be a conversation and I look forward to having it with you.

Before that, over the next week, I simply want to introduce you to the data and, by extension, to the idea that eBay isn’t merely that bad thing over there, it’s loads of different people doing the same thing for different reasons. I’ll get going the day after tomorrow.