While Barack Obama was sweeping to victory in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, many were watching the results come in on the Web, with traffic to all the major news sites increasing. But Obama winning could also have helped sales of print newspapers, and if you missed out on buying an early edition of a Nov. 5th newspaper, you’ll have to spend a fortune on eBay to get hold of one.

Obama may be currently cited as the savior of the world, which he probably won’t be but we can but dream. But his victory has already helped drive Internet traffic to news sites, and helped newspaper circulations around the U.S.

VentureBeat reports that the Obama win caused a surge in newspaper sales, especially in liberal areas such as New York and San Francisco. The New York Times rush-released 50,000 extra copies of its newspaper and overall sales are expected to have massively beaten those from the 2004 election when George W. Bush managed to secure a second term in office.

The reason for the extra sales is because people want a physical souvenir of the event, an event that is likely to be written in to history and remembered for a long time to come. So as much as Internet news websites seem to be in the ascendancy over traditional press, there’s still a demand for something real to remember the important events by.

Never one to miss a trick, eBay entrepreneurs straight away started to try and make a profit from the demand, with first editions of Obama-front page newspapers selling for fortunes. Silicon Alley Insider has listed the latest top bids for each newspaper, with The New York Times leading the way on $122.50.

While these auctions and the prices of the newspapers aren’t likely to last for more than the next few days, it shows that people will sell anything these days, even the physical encapsulation of a memory.

Personally, I don’t think the overwhelming feelings of being part of history in the making can be captured in a headline. If you were there and celebrating the first black man becoming President and what it meant for the future of the world, then those memories will last forever.

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 pm under Ecommerce, Opinion, Politics.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!