Freecycle

In principle, I think freecycle is a brilliant idea. We have things we just want to get rid of, and we can give them to people who want them. eBay is all very well, but requires things to be useful and effort around packaging them up.

However, it falls down on the total uselessness and unreliability of individuals. I have found people's behaviour to be shockingly bad. We're trying to get rid of a plant, which at 6 foot is simply too big for our bathroom. I've put it up on freecycle and twice have arranged to have to it picked up, but once the lady in question forgot and the second time, another lady decided on the day that she couldn't wait for half an hour having moved the time of collection without giving me chance to react.

The issue is of course the discipline of pricing. Without it, people are just rubbish. Conventional economic theory argues that transaction costs should be zero, but this suggests that people are reliable - when they are not. One of the fundamental benefits of putting transaction costs on things is that people don't do this kind of stuff. And here's hoping they don't do so; otherwise it's going on eBay.