yo, exchange value

Odd. Last week I sold a second-hand coffee machine on ebay and actually got more than I paid for it in the first place. Meanwhile, I was thinking of bidding for a bookcase that ended up going for 20 pounds less than it would have cost new (ie 200). The mentality seems to be ‘that’s a bargain, I must have it’, like its ontologically a bargain irrespective of what price you pay for it. Then somehow you’ve ‘won’ the item, like your wily strategy of paying over the odds outsmarted the other poor saps. Perhaps ebay should be required to say, instead of ‘you’ve won the item’, “you’ve paid some money in exchange for a second-hand commodity."