Value, examined
The enshittification of stuff.
Enshittification is Cory Doctorow's word for how platforms decay: good to users first, then good to advertisers, then good to nobody. You've watched it happen on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where the feed slowly stopped being your friends and became ads with commentary. Macquarie Dictionary made it the 2024 word of the year, which tells you how familiar the feeling is.
The word was built for apps, but the same curve has been running through physical stuff for decades. New used to mean better. Increasingly it just means newer: built to a price, hard to repair, and still working for its maker after you've paid.
This guide is about what changed, what it quietly costs you, and why the secondhand market has become where the value actually lives.
How new got worse
Built to a price, not a purpose
Decades of competing on sticker price squeezed the cost out of everything: thinner timber, thinner fabric, plastic where metal used to be. Products got cheaper to make much faster than they got cheaper to buy.
Repair got engineered out
Glued seams, sealed batteries, control boards that cost more than the machine did. When the repair quote matches the replacement price, the bin wins. That isn't bad luck, it's a design decision.
Features became subscriptions
You used to buy the whole product. Now the hardware is the entry fee and the good parts rent themselves back to you monthly. The thing in your house isn't finished being paid for.
Your stuff got needy
The TV shows ads on its own home screen. The printer rejects ink it didn't sell you. More and more, a new product keeps working for its maker long after you've paid for it.
Shrinkflation, but for durability
Same price, shorter life. The cost didn't disappear, it moved: out of the checkout and into how often you buy the thing again. Replacement cycles are a business model now.
Reviews stopped catching it
Five stars mostly means it arrived on time and looked right out of the box. Nobody goes back to update their review in year three, which is exactly when the difference shows.
2000 vs now.
Same categories, twenty-odd years apart. Not nostalgia, just what changed in the build.
| Made around 2000 | Off the shelf today | |
|---|---|---|
| A sofa or bookshelf | Solid timber or decent ply, screwed and doweled. It survived house moves, and you could sand it back and sell it on. | Flat-pack particleboard that's happiest never being moved. Assembly is largely a one-way operation. |
| A washing machine | Heavy, simple, built from standard parts your local repairer kept in the van. | Cheaper up front, with sealed drums and control boards where the repair quote reads like a dare to buy new. |
| A phone | The battery popped out and cost pocket money to replace. Dropping it was survivable. | Sealed shut. The battery fades on schedule and takes the resale value down with it. |
| A t-shirt | Heavier fabric that held its shape through years of washing. | Fast fashion runs the fabric thin. Some pieces are tired by the tenth wash. |
| A TV | A screen. It showed whatever you plugged into it and asked for nothing else. | Sharper and cheaper than ever, and it serves ads from its own menu. The picture got better; the deal got worse. |
| A kitchen mixer | Metal gears and decades of service. Still fought over at estate sales. | Plastic gears behind the same badge. The brand survived; the build didn't. |
Yes, the junk of 2000 is long in landfill, and what survived is the good stuff. That's not a hole in the argument, that's the mechanism: the secondhand market only sells the survivors. Every listing has already outlived the version of itself that broke.
Where the value went.
While new was getting worse, secondhand was quietly becoming the smarter transaction. Four reasons the maths now favours used.
Someone else paid the depreciation
The steepest drop in an item's value happens the moment it leaves the shop, and it has nothing to do with how well the thing works. Buy secondhand and that drop is someone else's receipt.
Time is a quality inspection
A fifteen-year-old machine that still runs isn't a promise, it's proof. Age filters out the junk for you: the flimsy version of that item already broke and got thrown out. What's left for sale is what lasted.
Your dollar jumps a tier
At the price of today's budget version, secondhand buys yesterday's premium one. Solid timber for particleboard money, metal gears for plastic-gear money. Same spend, better object.
You see it before you pay
Secondhand deals are local, so you can check the build with your own hands. On Toka, payment is secured in the app before you meet and nothing is charged until you confirm handover, so "looked better in the photos" is a moment, not a loss.
Quick answers
What does enshittification actually mean?
Writer Cory Doctorow coined it to describe how platforms decay: first good to users, then good to business customers, then good to nobody but the owner. Macquarie Dictionary made it the 2024 word of the year. The same curve runs through physical products: engineered to a price, hostile to repair, and increasingly serving the maker after you've paid.
Is buying secondhand really better value than buying new?
For durable goods, yes. The steepest depreciation is already paid, an item that has survived years of use has proven its build, and at the same price point secondhand buys a higher tier of product than new does. New wins the marketing; used wins the maths.
Were things really made better in 2000?
In the ways that decide value, yes. Materials got cheaper, repair got designed out, and features moved behind subscriptions. The era's junk has also already filtered itself out: the secondhand market only sells the survivors, which is exactly what you want to be buying.
Isn't secondhand riskier than buying new?
The risk in secondhand was never the items, it was the deal. On Toka, chat and payment stay in the app, the agent screens out bots and scammers, and nothing is charged until the buyer confirms handover. You inspect the item in person before any money moves, which is more scrutiny than most new purchases ever get.
Sold on the value and wondering about the deal itself? How Toka keeps handovers safe is in the safest marketplace, and how fast a local deal can move is in same-day deals.