Paper short abstract:

My presentation will explore how the auction based frame of interaction shape the course of discussions in a second hand auction pages in internet. I will analyse the ways of positioning oneself and the others in one specific case started by a man selling his wife as a joke.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of my presentation is to explore how the auction based frame of interaction shape the course of discussions in a second hand auction pages in internet. Those auction pages in hand are the most popular, non-professional second hand shopping pages in Finland, actually they have managed to lure lots of devotees and hobbyists as their clients and users. For many people following these everyman's auction pages is not only a meaningful economical effort, but moreover, a new consume based and at the same time social way of life. In order to find out what kind of models or frames of positioning oneself and the others are constructed and formed in the process of making a higher bid, I will analyse one strand of discussions started by a man who offered his wife to be bought in these pages as a joke. The bid made by the man was formulated according to the structure of an ordinary ad including the asking price of 5 euros. This involved numbers of bid dialogies constructed in the spirit of everyday auction and trade, but linked to different topics.