Gmail invites sold for $150 in 2004; an AI assistant access code just hit $5,250 on eBay
aakashgupta · x · 2026-09-26
The author revisits the 2004 Gmail invite craze: Google launched on April Fool's Day with 1GB of free storage (vs Hotmail's 2MB), and invite-only access turned free invites into eBay commodities selling for over $150, or traded for concert tickets—until open signups in 2007.
This morning, a startup listed a single early access code for its new personal assistant on eBay, with bidding already at $5,250—scarcity marketing repeating itself in the AI era.
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