Gmail Means Dollars For Beta Testers

It's funny to me how when something is hard to get, people really want it. The whole concept of "being cool" creates many moneymaking opportunities for those able to get those desired items. The latest must-have item in pop culture - the Gmail account.

Gmail is the next generation email service created by the folks at Google. Only a few select people have been chosen to test the service, including yours truly, and recently these users have been provided invites to share the service with their friends to increase the number of beta testers and get the finished product out to the general public that much faster.

This has created a large supply of hard to get Gmail accounts for a chosen few. Understandably so, these Gmail invites started to appear on auction sites like eBay and people have been spending as much as $60 to get one. The allure is not just having something that is not easy to get, but to get the desired ID while it is still available. For example, being myname@gmail.com as opposed to myname1234@gmail.com.

While $60 is no longer seen for a Gmail invite, prices are still in the 20s for those wishing to be the cool kid on the block. Auctions are ending every minute on eBay with the dollars rolling in for a service that is actually entirely free from Google. It just won't be as cool when it is released to the general public. It is, after all, an email service.

The interesting thing is, once the three invites are exhausted, either through philanthropic or capitalist endeavors, Google sends you more. Ah, something for nothing. You've got to love that.