How was the 1st year of ebay comics selling activity...

[Kermit]

Since i've started only a couple of years ago buying on ebay, i would like to know (from the ones who remember, sold/bought) how was the first year of ebay?

 

Was it easier to find great deals?

 

What were some of the niciest auctions you have still in mind?

 

Do you think nowadays is still possible to have some great deals on comics activity?

 

Regards, pedro.

[hogations]

Since i've started only a couple of years ago buying on ebay, i would like to know (from the ones who remember, sold/bought) how was the first year of ebay?

 

As a seller, my first year was 1999 and it was great - everything was selling! I probably had a 80%+ sell through with first time run listings. It was also a great time if you had Warren magazines as they did quite well until dealers started to flood eBay with their warehouse copies.

 

These days it's not anywhere near as good for me as it used to be - partially because there is much more competition out there than there used to be, and that the quality of my listings has diminished.

 

Although I've bought very little on eBay in the past couple years, I've heard it's much better than it used to be. There are better deals to be had as there is a wider selection of items available. A friend of mine told me he picked up a nice FN Daredevil #5 for $20 a couple weeks ago. Amazing deal!

[joe_collector]

Since i've started only a couple of years ago buying on ebay, i would like to know (from the ones who remember, sold/bought) how was the first year of ebay?

 

There were potential goldmines on a daily basis. Crazy BINs on prime books, true NM copies being blown off by liqiudators, no CGC insanity, and basically very, very, very few speculators jumping on the bandwagon.

 

It was a real blast, and resembled a wild west kind of atmosphere, like some of the cons I remember from my younger days. I think if I popped on EBay today, I would never start collecting again, as it's just no fun. Unsustainable, speculator-based prices, horrible over-grading, nosebleed-level initial bids on common CGC books, etc.

 

That is, assuming you knew how incredibly fund it was to buy and sell on EBay back then.

 

The biggest difference: There was a good chance of finding NM copies raw back then, whereas now, you're looking at less than 0.0000001% chance that a NM copy grades out.

 

The CGC effect at work.

[valiantman]

I've been on Ebay since 1997...

 

Seller grading was "sketchy" at best... there was no CGC at that point...

Most sellers seemed to think NM books could have a few spine lines...

(Or maybe most sellers couldn't see any spine lines...)

 

Most people didn't have a clue how to scan their books and post a picture...

and there was no "Buy It Now" option yet...

 

It was a lot of auctions for "sight unseen" books... not the best scenario...

but since there were so many uncertainties, prices were generally low.

 

PSA (the sportscard grading company) was cleaning up...

since people didn't know how to post pictures, a PSA grade was like a guarantee.

Prices for sportscards had never been higher... even for "sight unseen" cards.

(Who knew seller "wiwag" was forging the PSA labels by the thousands?)

 

Comics didn't have a "grading standard" that was consistently applied...

so it was always rolling the dice just to pay shipping,

much less to send your money to someone with no feedback.

[FlyingDonut]

Since i've started only a couple of years ago buying on ebay, i would like to know (from the ones who remember, sold/bought) how was the first year of ebay?

 

There were potential goldmines on a daily basis. Crazy BINs on prime books, true NM copies being blown off by liqiudators, no CGC insanity, and basically very, very, very few speculators jumping on the bandwagon.

 

It was a real blast, and resembled a wild west kind of atmosphere, like some of the cons I remember from my younger days. I think if I popped on EBay today, I would never start collecting again, as it's just no fun. Unsustainable, speculator-based prices, horrible over-grading, nosebleed-level initial bids on common CGC books, etc.

 

That is, assuming you knew how incredibly fund it was to buy and sell on EBay back then.

 

The biggest difference: There was a good chance of finding NM copies raw back then, whereas now, you're looking at less than 0.0000001% chance that a NM copy grades out.

 

The CGC effect at work.

 

Everything is as JC says, EXCEPT for the bold faced quote. eBay in the early days (I started in August, 1997) was speculator HEAVEN, as there were amazing bargains to be found.

 

What has happened over the past seven (!) years, at least to me, is that things have switched around - back then, you would BUY on eBay to sell at conventions. Now, you buy at conventions to sell on eBay.

[joe_collector]

Most people didn't have a clue how to scan their books and post a picture...

and there was no "Buy It Now" option yet...

 

When did the BIN appear? 1998? 1999?

[joe_collector]

Everything is as JC says, EXCEPT for the bold faced quote. eBay in the early days (I started in August, 1997) was speculator HEAVEN, as there were amazing bargains to be found.

 

This makes no sense, as if there were as many speculators as today, those "deals" would not exist.

 

I'm not saying there weren't deals, only that there are now 100X the speculators buying comics on EBay than there were in 1997-2000.

[FlyingDonut]

Everything is as JC says, EXCEPT for the bold faced quote. eBay in the early days (I started in August, 1997) was speculator HEAVEN, as there were amazing bargains to be found.

 

This makes no sense, as if there were as many speculators as today, those "deals" would not exist.

 

I'm not saying there weren't deals, only that there are now 100X the speculators buying comics on EBay than there were in 1997-2000.

 

I'm telling you, it was speculator heaven. It was heaven FOR the speculator. There were more sellers than buyers, and amazing bargains were to be found. I know. I was one of those speculators.

[joe_collector]

I'm telling you, it was speculator heaven. It was heaven FOR the speculator. There were more sellers than buyers, and amazing bargains were to be found. I know. I was one of those speculators.

 

We're saying the same thing. You're talking about small number of smart speculators who bought before the absolute rush of insufficiently_thoughtful_person speculators we have today.

 

Now that I really think about it, no way in heck today's prices are anywhere near sustainable.

[awe4one]

Been on eBay since 1997 and agree with what JC and Valiant said with a few additions....

 

FN and VF comics sold at higher prices than currently.

 

There were rarely any pictures linked and descriptions were mostly vague. JC's wild west analogy seems quite appropriate as you really weren't sure what you were getting grade-wise or even in some cases issue-wise (mystery lots) until you got your package in the mail.

 

Never encountered a bad transaction or hostile seller until 1999 or so. Sellers were especially friendly....

 

And boy were there deals to be had! But these also were the days when you could scan the entire comics listing in a couple of hours....

 

Jim

 

 

[awe4one]

Most people didn't have a clue how to scan their books and post a picture...

and there was no "Buy It Now" option yet...

 

When did the BIN appear? 1998? 1999?

 

I believe it was early 1999.

 

Jim

[FlyingDonut]

I'm telling you, it was speculator heaven. It was heaven FOR the speculator. There were more sellers than buyers, and amazing bargains were to be found. I know. I was one of those speculators.

 

We're saying the same thing. You're talking about small number of smart speculators who bought before the absolute rush of insufficiently_thoughtful_person speculators we have today.

 

Now that I really think about it, no way in heck today's prices are anywhere near sustainable.

 

I think we're saying the same thing - it was a spectacular time to buy, because the depression of prices that appeared on eBay for mid-high grade material hadn't spread to shows. Conversely, it was a great time to sell HIGH grade material, because you could buy it at a convention in high grade for X and it would sell EVERY TIME on eBay for 2-3X.

[awe4one]

I think we're saying the same thing - it was a spectacular time to buy, because the depression of prices that appeared on eBay for mid-high grade material hadn't spread to shows.

 

When was this? I have data that shows Bronze ASM and GL Adams issues were selling near $15-20 in FN/VF in 1997.

 

It was my experience that mid high grade issues were selling for much better then than now on eBay. True HG books though were selling for less for obvious reasons....

 

Jim

[FlyingDonut]

I think we're saying the same thing - it was a spectacular time to buy, because the depression of prices that appeared on eBay for mid-high grade material hadn't spread to shows.

 

When was this? I have data that shows Bronze ASM and GL Adams issues were selling near $15-20 in FN/VF in 1997.

 

It was my experience that mid high grade issues were selling for much better then than now on eBay. True HG books though were selling for less for obvious reasons....

 

Jim

 

I'm talking about Silver - FFs, ASMs, books like that were selling on eBay for 60% of Guide in those grades, but were still selling for Guide at shows.

[Kermit]

Thanks everyone by the input and info., indeed it's interesting to know the first few years of the biggest market in the world...

 

Do you see different time periods/phases on the buying/selling comics activity during all these ebay years? How would you split/divide them up?

 

Regards, Pedro.

[underthebigw]

FD and JC are right. It was amazing--absolutley amazing. There were far more sellers than buyers and, while there was a fair amount of trash, if you asked the right questions, and a seller was willing to take the time to respond, you could find some truly gorgeous NM books at bargain prices. My experience was that the lack of scans and pics made many buyers overly-wary. If you were confident a seller was being diligent in their descriptions and responses, you could find unreal deals. I picked up more solid NM/NM+ BA DC than I ever dreamed, as well as some very nice GA books at 50A% guide. Now, I rarely pick up a book on ebay unless I have confidence in the seller. Even then, I find myself pleased with the grading less than 50% of the time.

[jduran1]

I agree with Joe Collector overall.

 

I was able to buy X-men silver age in NM condition for nothing. Housewifes, widows and orphans selling me NM bronze age beauties which ended up grading out by CGC in later years at 9.4 and the above range. I had bought two Iron Fist 14s that were stunning for a hot dog and a beer. Both came back as 9.4s White a couple of years later.

 

I miss those days. All the great NM copies are now in collections slabbed or unslabbed. There are some nice unslabbed collections coming out of the woodwork but you now have to pay a premium because of the "(1) drunken sailors" carpetbagmen, carnies and flipperooskis.

 

(1) Borrowed from JC without permission.

[PovertyRow]

I started on ebay in 1997. I was living in Bosotn then and the idea of looking for comic books on ebay was unthinkable due to the humongous number of good comic shops with literally tons of precode horror and action/adventure titles like Wings, Rangers, Thrilling etc. So I used ebay in those days top increase my 1930's-1950's horror/sci-fi movie poster (1-sheets, half-sheets, inserts and lobby cards mainly). Some amazing deals were to be had and I have to assume that similar deals were to be had in the comics realm as well.