Experiment in eBay/Supply economics
So, with the recent increases in Gmail invites, I decided it would be fun to experiment with eBay and the (expected) drop in Gmail account invite prices as supply flooded the market.
Here's the trend that I got:
If I had any invites prior, I'd expect to have seen the high end be closer to the ~$80 that I saw around June 1, but this is only my data, so I'm only reporting that.
Likewise, the number of Gmail auctions went from hundreds at the beginning of the month, to 4000-5000 open auctions over this weekend.
Worth noting: It costs ~$0.50 to open an auction of this type on eBay. So, closing prices over the weekend were dropping below break-even for most people tinkering in the market. In other words - gmail accounts really should be free, unless sold as larger lots. Unsurprisingly, there are several of these "5 gmail invites" or "10 gmail invites" kinds of auctions running right now.
And, yes, I have a couple left, which I will happily dispense to people that I know. If you know me, write me (here). They seem to keep topping off my invite balance anyway...