The regifting economy that is emerging, I argue, is the result of the industry’s careful cultivation of a parallel fan space alongside grassroots formations of fandom. By precariously attempting to balance the communal ideals of fandom’s gift economy with their commercial interests, the regifting economy of ancillary content models in particular can be viewed as attempting to regift a narrowly defined and contained version of fandom to a general audience. This regifted version of fandom that ancillary content models represent exchanges grassroots fandom’s organically generated output and fluid exchange of fan works for the regulation and resale of fan works through contests and the elusive promise of credibility.
“Repackaging fan culture: The regifting economy of ancillary content models," Suzanne Scott