Early days of eBay 8 8

[Robot Man]

On 6/18/2022 at 9:47 AM, The Black Hand ® said:

I was able to connect with a lot of MLJ/Archie fans through eBay. It was also a very affordable way to fill in MLJ runs. They were still under the radar in the late 90's and even looked down on by many dealers and mainstream GA collectors. Being a tightwad I was able to find incredible deals at times. It was a lot of fun. 

I got a lot of MLJ, Nedor, Fox and other off the radar publishers back in the early days of EBay. Glad I had the forsight and limited money at the time. Worked out well got me. 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 6/18/2022 at 10:23 AM, Joshua33 said:

Aaaaaaaaaaaand I hate you.

I sold it for nothing. It didn’t get the love then that it gets now, and I ran after some other shiny object. 

[Joshua33]

On 6/18/2022 at 10:39 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I sold it for nothing. It didn’t get the love then that it gets now, and I ran after some other shiny object. 

Oddly, somehow even more now. 

[Buzzetta]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:30 PM, october said:

eBay was incredible up until about 2016, then the air slowly went out year after year. 

I found so many good deals and got so many amazing leads that it hurts to think about. I bought five or six massive high grade OO Silver collections just from networking after a purchase. One ended up being a box truck load of 30,000 comics, Silver through Copper. Another was 1,000 virtually untouched SA comics...and when I say untouched, I mean it. The friggin distributor overspray was unbroken on some of the top edges. I was the first person to open them, ever, 50 years after printing. Tons of 9.6's and 9.8's. All sold off to finance my collection and other stuff. No regrets, just sorry the party is over! eBay is a shadow of a shadow of its former self now. 

I was going to say... I still found incredible deals even in the BIN now sections up until around 2015.

I learned early on never to do auctions as a seller after seeing how some sellers let things go for a fraction of what they could have gotten for an item due to the time when their listing ended or due to a power outage or storm in a major section of the country or a misspelling or error in the listing.  

Now, everything good is usually BIN with a Best Offer... which is fine... but it's not like it used to be.

 

 

[buttock]

On 6/18/2022 at 11:51 AM, Buzzetta said:

I was going to say... I still found incredible deals even in the BIN now sections up until around 2015.

I learned early on never to do auctions as a seller after seeing how some sellers let things go for a fraction of what they could have gotten for an item due to the time when their listing ended or due to a power outage or storm in a major section of the country or a misspelling or error in the listing.  

Now, everything good is usually BIN with a Best Offer... which is fine... but it's not like it used to be.

 

 

I found so many great deals sorting through the BIN section when it was separated from the auctions, which were featured much more prominently.  Once they comingled everything those finds went away.  

[october]

On 6/18/2022 at 12:51 PM, Buzzetta said:

I was going to say... I still found incredible deals even in the BIN now sections up until around 2015.

I learned early on never to do auctions as a seller after seeing how some sellers let things go for a fraction of what they could have gotten for an item due to the time when their listing ended or due to a power outage or storm in a major section of the country or a misspelling or error in the listing.  

Now, everything good is usually BIN with a Best Offer... which is fine... but it's not like it used to be.

I remember tons of keys hitting my eBay feed every day and buying multiple things a day, every day. Then, in October 2016, it was like a switch flipped. My purchases dropped by like half and never recovered after that. Some good months here and there, but never like it was. 

[Yorick]

I remember sending a personal check of $30 to seller for an Action 108, and the seller never sent the book.  It cost a $35 fee by my bank to cancel the check... 

I didn't cancel the payment, but I've always felt like I should "out" the seller at some point.

[adamstrange]

On 6/18/2022 at 8:33 AM, buttock said:

zaq12 was Fishler. 

And do you know why he has that user name?

[plady69]

Good stories y’all!  I sold quite a bit of my collection on eBay and also here on the boards. User name was notfriday.

Not currently collecting and will probably start selling what is left after I CGC them.

 

 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 6/18/2022 at 2:16 PM, adamstrange said:

And do you know why he has that user name?

No I don’t. Tell me

[adamstrange]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:10 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

On 6/18/2022 at 3:16 PM, adamstrange said:

And do you know why he has that user name?

No I don’t. Tell me

Look at the letters/numbers at the left edge of your keyboard...

Back in the day, you could find raw Church copies on eBay.  If it hadn't have been for zaq12, I would have a few more.

 

[RareHighGrade]

On 6/18/2022 at 2:16 PM, adamstrange said:

Back in the day, you could find raw Church copies on eBay.  

Yes, I was fortunate to have picked these up on Ebay.

 

[Courageous Cat]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:31 PM, RareHighGrade said:

Yes, I was fortunate to have picked these up on Ebay.

 

those are simply gorgeous

[buttock]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:16 PM, adamstrange said:

And do you know why he has that user name?

laziness.

[KirbyJack]

My first eBay comic purchase was my Mad #1 in the year 1990-something. I overpaid in an auction, but didn’t know any better at the time. I was thrilled to get it, and counted down the seconds.

[waaaghboss]

On 6/17/2022 at 5:05 PM, plady69 said:

1. Who on the Golden Age boards got in early and found some unbelievable finds?  Wish i had! Thoughts?

I picked up a run of elfquest magazines in the late 90s.

 

Wish I had had more foresight

[MB1952]

 

if only I kept it. 

[Hap Hazard]

My story is similar with many, I joined Ebay in 2/98. I worked on completing my EC runs and many PCH runs. Found a number of large pulp and

paperback collections by winning auctions first on Ebay. I agree the Ebay Happy times ended about 5 or 6 years ago.

[Dr. Love]

One of the amazing things I learned over the Ebay years was how active Jim Halperin has been at a level that I thought inconceivable for a collector with his wealth.  I saw that a certain portion of his time was spent hunting, tracking, and bidding on all manner of books at all sorts of price ranges.  And it wasn't like if he wanted the book, then no one could stand in his path.  He'd put in his snipe at a certain price, which might be $35, $350, or $3500 - and that was that.  Kinda blew my mind.  It was clear to me - he really really loved comic books.

[path4play]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:16 PM, adamstrange said:

Look at the letters/numbers at the left edge of your keyboard...

Back in the day, you could find raw Church copies on eBay.  If it hadn't have been for zaq12, I would have a few more.

 

 

That's jaw dropping.  I scored a raw Mile High on feeBay a couple of years ago (image below).

My feeBay account goes back to 2001.  But I didn't start buying comics (after stopping collecting in mid '80s) until around 2012.  One of the things I was attracted to early were Planets, but myself being so cheap I think I only won around 3 or so.  I flipped a lot of early buys a few years later here on boards when I saw a book rise in value and I needed cash for one reason or another - I regret selling probably 90% of them now.  It has felt as though prices tended to gradually rise (except for explosive pockets, like Planets, Baker, Cole etc.) and $0 starting auctions dwindled/died off.  Then, about two years ago all things (except Westerns and Funny animals) just when parabolic.  Now, I'm hardly buying anything... and selling even less.

Edited June 19, 2022 by path4play