Early days of eBay 8 8

[MB1952]

Here’s one I sold on this boards years back, about be offer on HA August 11 Matt Baker Showcase. Good luck to the seller 

[jimbo_7071]

More often than not, eBay could be a little disappointing. I picked this one up on eBay about 20 years ago for $15 thinking it would be worth about $50. It only had one picture (which was typical back then.) It turned out that there was a tear on the back cover and more creases than what were apparent in the low-quality image. $15 was still a fair price, but it wasn't the bargain I was hoping for. It did include some cool kite plans, though. (I still want to make at least one of these kites!)

 

Edited July 23, 2022 by jimbo_7071

[plady69]

Yeah, when you buy cheap, expect horrible packaging as well! 😧

[Primetime]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:43 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I once bought a Tec 31 off the Bay for $4k. It arrived in a box with balls of wadded up newspaper around it. No Mylar sleeve, no backing board, just a naked comic book packed with balls of newspaper around it. Cgc had just come into existence around that time, so I sent it in and it came back as an unrestored 4.5. 

Reserve met!! 😀

I’ve been on eBay since 1999. In fact, the same month you won that Tec 31, I won a VG Cap 3 from the dentist for $2,715. I printed out the eBay auction, but I will have to dig it up. A few months prior to the Cap 3 auction, my other notable eBay memory was getting sniped last second on an All Select 2 for $2000+ by you! 😂 Then you ended up selling it to me three years later but you don’t remember that 😂 

[Primetime]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:33 AM, buttock said:

zaq12 was Fishler. 

Yes it was. I remember seeing him winning a lot of good books back then. 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 7/24/2022 at 10:55 AM, Primetime said:

Reserve met!! 😀

I’ve been on eBay since 1999. In fact, the same month you won that Tec 31, I won a VG Cap 3 from the dentist for $2,715. I printed out the eBay auction, but I will have to dig it up. A few months prior to the Cap 3 auction, my other notable eBay memory was getting sniped last second on an All Select 2 for $2000+ by you! 😂 Then you ended up selling it to me three years later but you don’t remember that 😂 

I still feel like a richard about that. I remember a few years later seeing it on Matt Nelson’s office wall back when he was still here in Texas and being so confused by it.  
 

that’s great you got a Cap 3 from the dentist 

Edited July 24, 2022 by GreatCaesarsGhost

[EastEnd1]

There were many great deals on eBay back in the day once you knew which sellers to buy from (ie, the folks that really knew how to grade and package).  They were few and far between, but this is one I got from one of those sellers (and a number of other great pre-code Harvey file copies) for about $200...

[BitterOldMan]

On 7/24/2022 at 8:55 AM, Primetime said:

Reserve met!! 😀

I’ve been on eBay since 1999. In fact, the same month you won that Tec 31, I won a VG Cap 3 from the dentist for $2,715. I printed out the eBay auction, but I will have to dig it up. A few months prior to the Cap 3 auction, my other notable eBay memory was getting sniped last second on an All Select 2 for $2000+ by you! 😂 Then you ended up selling it to me three years later but you don’t remember that 😂 

Here is my low grade Cap 3 that I snagged from eBay for $1.2k.  

One of my most memorable wins was sniping an ASM 33 9.2 and winning by one cent.

 My sniping irritated one bidder who sent a message asking why I was bidding against him.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by BitterOldMan
Correct grammar error :(

[Primetime]

On 7/24/2022 at 9:02 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I still feel like a richard about that. I remember a few years later seeing it on Matt Nelson’s office wall back when he was still here in Texas and being so confused by it.  
 

that’s great you got a Cap 3 from the dentist 

Yes that copy Nelson had was the same copy from eBay. By that time, I had two All Select 2s, so I traded the one you sold me to Nelson for a Tec 37. And that was my first Pre Robin Tec ever. 
 

Here’s the All Select 2. It was raw when you sniped me for it, but you must have slabbed it because it was cgc when you sold it to me. It made it’s way to HA and I haven’t seen it since. 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Primetime

[Humpty-Dumpty]

On 7/24/2022 at 8:58 AM, Primetime said:

Yes it was. I remember seeing him winning a lot of good books back then. 

Around 2004 or 2005 Fishler won a Tales of the Unexpected #104 original art cover, a Neal Adams cover, for about $1200. On around the third day or so of the auction I was going to bid on it but decided not to because I was not impressed much with the cover. When I saw how cheap it went, I said to myself, you know, I should have bided on it. I know he was the one who won it because around eight months to a year later I was in his office, and he showed it to me and told me he won it on Ebay. I did not even bother to tell him I saw that auction and was thinking of bidding on it.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Humpty-Dumpty
spellin

[Primetime]

On 7/24/2022 at 10:44 AM, BitterOldMan said:

Here is my low grade Cap 3 that I snagged from eBay for $1.2k.  

One of my most memorable wins was sniping an ASM 33 9.2 and winning by one cent.

 My sniping irritated one bidder who sent a message asking why I was bidding against him.

 

 

Very nice bargain, Ray. I remember your story on that ASM 33 😂 to lose by $200 is one thing, but one cent can be annoying 😆 I think Clark sniped me on that All Select 2 by at least $40 🫣

Here’s @Bunky Brian reading your Cap 3 on my couch on a lazy afternoon in 2012 👀

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 7/24/2022 at 5:20 PM, Primetime said:

I think Clark sniped me on that All Select 2 by at least $40 🫣

I am not totally without honor.

sounds like you traded well if you got a Tec 37 out of the deal

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 7/24/2022 at 5:20 PM, Primetime said:

Here’s @Bunky Brian reading your Cap 3 on my couch on a lazy afternoon in 2012 👀

That is truly cringeworthy. I’d be too terrified I’d rip the book were that me

[Primetime]

On 7/24/2022 at 4:26 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I am not totally without honor.

sounds like you traded well if you got a Tec 37 out of the deal

Yah, the trade was great since I had a copy to spare on the AS2. We are forever linked, Clark 

[Primetime]

On 7/24/2022 at 4:29 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

That is truly cringeworthy. I’d be too terrified I’d rip the book were that me

Smell the pages, Clark 

[jmg3637]

I bought so much stuff on eBay in the early days

I remember the COmics chatboard from there was fun  until they closed it down  and many migrated here

I was mostly a SA collector then and there were discussions of finding mislabeled gems like a "Justice League 28-30 "or a "Green Lantern 22-24 "  at incredible bargains. 

After completing most of my SA holes  I started on GA

I got this one (restored)  from TheBigLou  AKA  the Dentist

 

[GACollectibles]

On 6/18/2022 at 10:48 AM, Robot Man said:

What really blew me away was selling. I did a LOT of selling as did my wife. We would very often be blown away with the final auction prices we were getting. A goldmine.

I joined ebay in 1997 (just had my 25th anniversary last month and hit 10k feedback this month ) and it was the selling that had my attention(with an occasional buy).

I was getting decent sales on items that were not scarce but must have been difficult to find in certain regions. Not that it was big money but I can remember multiple $100+ sales on Buck Rogers toy ads from Boy's Life and other magazines and other misc items.  I think there were fewer than or around 50k total items on the site when I joined and you could peruse the entire comic section in a short amount of time, it wasn't long before each category was 50k+.

I recently showed a fellow boardie the record of a sale(I still have hundreds of index cards with the sales info ) for some Nedors that dated back to the 2000 decade, sold a nice batch of high grade Fiction House books around 2000-2002 or 2003 with a bunch going to cougar51(? or similar ID), moved close to 1000 pieces of Bronze Age original art (mostly Ric Estrada) in 2005/6 before the market exploded.  With so much stuff for sale on the site now I list an item and it might not see a view for months but still serves a purpose.

[MB1952]

When I join eBay 2000 after my first Gateway Computer which cost me $1.5k with 15GB hard drive 🥴. Login into America Online and hearing “You Got Mail” sweet memory. Dial Modem 😁

I started collecting late 90’s at that point I didn’t drive and the small conventions I attended were very limited. Ones I join eBay everything change 😳 I could reach and find more stuff it was like going to Toy R uS- My collecting when to another level. So much stuff and lots of key books and OA. 
 

Also it was the beginning of CGC and the beginning of Marvel movies. It was a great time to be in the hobby. So much sweet deals every night. 

[SOTIcollector]

I joined in 1998.  Back then, eBay was so unknown that they were set up at SDCC hawking their platform.  I still have the free t-shirt they gave me, which convinced me I should check them out.  

My eBay ID was and still is the name of one of my websites. I got in before they stopped people from using dot-com in a username.

The only real bargain I recall was buying Brian Bolland's original cover for Animal Man #2 for $600.  I was mystified that somehow I won the auction because I figured market price was probably double or triple that at the time.  I don't even think it was a snipe.

I got a lot of other things back in the day that look like bargains now, but did not at the time.  It was the later 90's or early 2000's when I discovered Matt Baker's romance books and I got a bunch for under $50 apiece.  I picked up some great trashy Fox romance books for under $50 as well.  And I was able to complete an original art collection with one piece from each of my silver/bronze favorites, like Starlin, Wrightson, BW Smith, Adams, Sienkiewicz and more.  A lot of the things I bought didn't seem like bargains at the time, and for some I felt I was stupidly overpaying by shelling out multiples of Guide.  I hated like hell shelling out something like 10x Guide for super low grade Mister Mystery 12.  Of course, back then I had no clue just how much these things would take off and how happy I'd be that I spent the money when I did.   If I hadn't bought Phantom Lady #17, Reform School Girl and some others back when I did, I'd never be able to touch them now.

[Robot Man]

I joined in 1998 as well. This was one of the first things I bought. I was the only bidder at 99 cents. Seller had it listed as a Black Americana pin cushion.

I was buying like a drunken sailor. Tons of PCH. I also got loads of Schomburg Nedors and Fiction House on the cheap. Like SOTI, I also upgraded my Reform School and my Phantom Lady’s including #17. Without the early days of the bay, my collection would be a lot slimmer now.

And, I won’t even mention the toys and premiums…