Buy It Now

"Buy It Now is an excellent, solidly researched book on the ways in which online communities are formed within a context of commodity consumption. There is no other book that I know of that engages eBay community formation and member identity in such a thorough way." - Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of Authentic™: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture

"Michele White explores eBay as a brand community of monetary and affective circulation that encourages certain uses and, indeed, configures its users as certain kinds of consumers. By doing so, she makes a compelling argument for how identity categories and historical layers of representation are played out on eBay as an assemblage of sellers, buyers, lurkers, information architecture, interface design, business concepts, acts of branding, and item depiction. Critical and astute, Buy It Now pulls the rug out from under those who consider online marketplaces as the instrumental means to an end." - Susanna Paasonen, author of Carnal Resonance: Affect and Online Pornography

“Throughout this painstakingly researched text, White provides examples of gender and sexuality stereotypes—including wedding dress categorization and symbolism, or ‘gay interest’ sellers who are often linked to underwear and swimsuits—within eBay that reinforce traditional gender role attitudes. . . . [A]n intriguing look at sociological implications of new media.” - Publishers Weekly

“With Buy It Now, White succeeds in posting a compelling call for further study of how eBay and other online communities shape and serve the expression, consumption, and perpetuation of key constructs of our culture and society.” - Susan Chenelle, Bitch

“[White’s] study might be useful for researchers studying similar ‘market-oriented sites such as Etsy and craigslist,’ and her approach would also be a useful guide for those thinking about how to study newer collection websites such as Pinterest and Goodreads. Recommended.” - S. Pepper, Choice

“This book ultimately makes a significant contribution to the field of social scholarship, where there has been a shortage of critical Internet studies. . . . This work provides brilliant insight into these dynamic power relationships, between workers and corporations, by exposing how businesses use the rhetoric of community to achieve dominance. . . . [A] timely text of significance for cultural studies scholars. . . . .” - Christopher T. Conner, Visual Studies

“The book is informative indeed and clearly shows the way in which social media is a powerful force that influences people’s perceptions and how these perceptions are then reiterated in every day society.” - Busisiwe Magagula, Journal of International Women's Studies

“Buy it Now will find a receptive audience in scholars of internet and new media, gay and lesbian studies, museum studies, race studies and women and gender studies. It is suitable for graduate and capstone undergraduate courses.” - Michael Petit, New Media & Society

“White provides an insightful analysis of how eBay creates a culture that maintains and reinforces various forms of inequality. She draws on a variety of fields, including visual and media studies, sociology, feminist theory, and queer studies among others, to do so. The author’s work is thus interdisciplinary in its approach, making it appealing and useful to a wide audience, including those who study inequality, media, and culture, as well as those who are fascinated by the world of auctions and collecting.” - Jacqueline Clark, Contemporary Sociology