BLOGAHOMA

June 3, 1997 began my stint at ebay. It was very early in the game actually before Meg Whitman started! I’m not sure how I found the site but it was quite intriguing. I remembering someone selling a bar of soap with Jesus’ face on it. It sold but not to me. My first purchase was a Rubber Baby Buddha designed by Rose O’Neill of Kewpie fame. A squeaky toy that I learned later was named “Happy Ho Ho” created in 1940.  I payed the starting price of $9 (I was the only bidder) its now worth around $60. Pretty happy with my purchase I decided to sell. We had an old Camel cigarette can from the 30’s that someone had left in our first home, a 1906 late Victorian. We kept pennies in it for years but I photographed it, scanned in the photo (before digitals were affordable) and put it up starting at a penny for the fun of it. It ended at $51. Amazed I asked the guy he would pay that much and he said he would have payed $80. I knew then that this was my game. Part time of course. It also allowed me to buy things, as I haunted the antique shops, that I did not collect but liked enough to sell.

I am not, by the traditional sense of the word, a gambler but ebay is gambling and not for the faint of heart. It’s more than just chance however. To do it right it takes an eye, knowledge and research, decent photographic skills, marketing and follow-up (my husband handles the after sales including shipping). Selling at first was a whim and then it became an income when I was laid off my job. It helped buy the house I live in, helped pay for my daughter’s education, and buy the groceries for a while. Now after thousands of transactions I don’t need to sell but I am back for the fun of it trading out collections for the fun of it. We’ve sold estates and remainders of a closed pawn shop auctioning only antiques, collectibles and art. Hankies, guitars, Kiowa paintings, pottery, furniture and vintage cars have left from here to points where they are appreciated most the time in the US and Canada but also to Europe as well.

So when I buy a photo album for $35 and sell one of the pictures for $400, buy a hanky for $50 and sell it for $140, a tin pail for $70 and sell it for $400 it’s all worth it. Sometimes is not the high price that it goes for it is the thrill of someone receiving it on the other end who’s been looking for IT for a long time.  Oh, our rating, well it’s 100%.

Times Up on Ebay

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 7:31 pm and is filed under Computer, Family, Vintage. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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