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How the Internet Has Changed Buying and Selling

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As the world population gets larger and technology keeps advancing, more people are able to do more things that they couldn't do before. The Internet is an excellent example of this. You can buy and sell just about anything over the Internet.

Anyone with a computer can sell stuff, and anyone else with a computer can buy that stuff. The Internet knows no geographic boundaries. It's probably not practical to buy oil and gasoline over the Internet, but you can buy a car that way.

Check out sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions. People are selling everything: stuff they don't want, stuff they would normally throw away. You can almost anything you need (and plenty of stuff you don't) on these online auctions sites.

Many people buy books, CDs, movies, furniture, cars, and even houses online. The sites that are selling these things are not necessarily auction sites. They are online shops.

Amazon.com is a good example of a business that is totally Internet-driven. You can buy or sell all kinds of things using Amazon.com, and you'll never set foot in a store. Amazon has warehouses where they store the goods they sell, and they have offices where their employees work and where their servers rest. But you won't see an Amazon.com "store" around the corner from where you live.

Other businesses have websites to help their traditional sales. You can go to the store in person, or you can check out the store's website. (Some stores use their websites only to showcase their merchandise; others allow you to buy online.)

Anyone, it seems, can sell anything, as long as they can get their hands on enough supply to make the business work. For example, you could live nowhere near the things you're selling and still be successful, provided that you can guarantee the shipment of whatever it is you're selling to the people or companies that are buying from you.

If you lived in the middle of the Ukraine and you really wanted to buy and sell African alligator eggs, you could do it using a computer. You'd just need to guarantee yourself a supply and a demand and make all the necessary arrangements using your computer and the Internet.

Computers are constantly changing the way people do business in very exciting ways. Stay tuned!