TEACH THE CHILDREN WELL (via The Mother Judd):

For Sale by Teenager: Lightly Used Gadget. Cheap (EVE TAHMINCIOGLU, 2/18/07, NY Times)

MANY of today's teenagers are sitting on a growing pile of consumer electronics -- items like MP3 players and laptops. And as they acquire the latest models, more of them are realizing that they can turn their older gadgets into cold hard cash.

Consider Greg Stoft, 18, who lives with his parents in Fremont, Calif. He wanted to buy a $45 skateboard, but he doesn't work and his parents recently decided to tighten the purse strings, he said. To get the money, he decided to sell his used iPod Nano on Craigslist, the free online bulletin board.

The ad said: "White ipod nano, 4GB, no bad scratches. I don't need it anymore." He posted it one evening early this month with a price of $90 and by the next morning he had sold it for $70. "It was easy," he said.

Not a bad return on investment, considering that the Nano was a gift from his parents, who were fine with him selling it, he said. And he is not worried about going without: his parents bought him a new video iPod this last Christmas for around $300.

"It's the first time I ever sold anything like that, but lots of kids I know sell their iPods and stuff," he said. "I thought: Why shouldn't I do it?"

Mr. Stoft is among a growing group of teenagers who are creating their own slice of capitalism, one sale at a time.

How ya gonna keep them on Maggie's Farm after they've seen capitalism in action?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 25, 2007 2:21 PM