And another one bites the dust

Going through my lower priority email in the middle of the night, I decided to read the one titled "Changing times at Trading Post" from the Trading Post. Thinking that it would be something about a new Twitter account or iPhone application, I was surprised (but not so surprised) to see the actual news. Rather than re-tell it, here is a quote from the email:

"As a result of this change in customer preferences, Trading Post will become an exclusively online and mobile trading place from November with the last print publications on sale from 29 October 2009."

In Australia, the Trading Post is an institution. It's the regional collective classifieds for your area. You pick one up and spend a morning on a weekend reading it. You call people about stuff you don't really need but seem like a bargain and deal with the disappointment or glee that comes from finding whether it's still available.

I recently put my car up for sale on their website, on ebay and on carsales.com.au. Although I sold the car through carsales.com.au, I got the most inquiries from the Trading Post. Since I chose to display the advertisement in their print issue as well as on the website, people were contacting me for quite a while after the car was sold.

This is another example of a popular publication leaving the world of paper and moving to a purely virtual one. I feel like there should be some sorrow floating around in my sentimental mind somewhere but if I'm honest with myself then it makes no difference to me. I don't feel saddened by it. In fact, it feels right.

We trade online all the time now. Maybe just as they named their classifieds-only paper after an old fashioned "retail store serving a sparsely populated region", it's evolved in to the next type of place to sell and buy... on this Internet thing.