Early days of eBay 8 8

[fishbone]

Joined eBay about 2003, mainly to try and get back into collecting a Spider-man run. I remember a haul of like 400 books from about #101 to #500 with all keys there for $600 Cdn. Crazy. I eventually got the whole run completed, thanks eBay for the head start!

I remember the ASM#1 around same time for $1999 Cdn, it graded to an o/w 6.5 - still have it. I also remember an AF#15 that I got for about $4K Cdn and another for $3K,  and they ended up grading as a 3.0 and 2.5  tan to o/w and o/w to w respectively -- sold the 3.0 three months ago for a lot more....still have the 2.5.

When I started into GA soon after this, it was a LCS and Metro that I turned to only ........... can't remember why I wouldn't have stuck with eBay, but might have had something to do with  the one time I was fleeced for $1500 by an eBay crook for some book, stupidly sent a bank transfer and was ghosted immediately afterwards. 

 

Any one out there with other early eBay horror stories of stupidity ?

Edited July 29, 2022 by fishbone

[plady69]

On 7/29/2022 at 1:19 PM, fishbone said:

Joined eBay about 2003, mainly to try and get back into collecting a Spider-man run. I remember a haul of like 400 books from about #101 to #500 with all keys there for $600 Cdn. Crazy. I eventually got the whole run completed, thanks eBay for the head start!

I remember the ASM#1 around same time for $1999 Cdn, it graded to an o/w 6.5 - still have it. I also remember an AF#15 that I got for about $4K Cdn and another for $3K,  and they ended up grading as a 3.0 and 2.5  tan to o/w and o/w to w respectively -- sold the 3.0 three months ago for a lot more....still have the 2.5.

When I started into GA soon after this, it was a LCS and Metro that I turned to only ........... can't remember why I wouldn't have stuck with eBay, but might have had something to do with  the one time I was fleeced for $1500 by an eBay crook for some book, stupidly sent a bank transfer and was ghosted immediately afterwards. 

 

Any one out there with other early eBay horror stories of stupidity ?

Yikes! That was kinda stupid.  😩

Back in the days of RBCC and Stan’s Weekly Express I would send checks up to $200. but that was it.  Sorry you took a bath!

PayPal these days…

[Sauce Dog]

Really wish I was into Golden Age books when I first started on ebay (way back in 98/99), as there clearly were some amazing finds. I was still skeptical of buying comics off there due to conditions (like many of us, I preferred to see it in hand before buying) so I stuck to getting the most absolute beater of books so I knew what I was getting (and often it was the only way to get the books I needed to finish my collection).

I pulled the trigger on buying my Tales of Suspense #39 from here. It was raw, split & detached covers, falling apart - basically the worst you could find (which is all I could find for my budget...nothing local or at conventions). Cost me $100 USD...and then later grader fees to get it sent to CGC to stop it from falling apart in my collection for longer term storage  Now decades later it is getting a fancy facelift: I have it out now for a full extensive restoration job, seen here after cracking it out of its slab.

Edited July 29, 2022 by Sauce Dog

[Cat-Man_America]

Bought and sold a lot of collectibles off eBay in the early days (mostly sold fanzines), but didn't purchase many comics unless they were slabbed and in grade.  However, I did buy quite a few high grade SF pulps, bedsheet size Hugo Gernsback era Amazing Stories, John W. Campbell era Astoundings, etc., which have gone through the roof in recent years and very tough in grade (I was buying these for $15 to $40 each around 2005).  Here's one example (1928 vintage; Paul cover)...

[fishbone]

On 7/29/2022 at 4:59 PM, plady69 said:

Yikes! That was kinda stupid.  😩

Back in the days of RBCC and Stan’s Weekly Express I would send checks up to $200. but that was it.  Sorry you took a bath!

PayPal these days…

got caught up in it all like a kid in a candy store, and got real stupid - but only once, learned a hard lesson !!

[jjonahjameson11]

Back in 2002, I won the original cover art for ASM 220 (Spidey and moon knight) and i saw that I had to outbid some heavy hitters (Albert Moy and Mike Burkey) to win it!

[jimbo_7071]

On 8/3/2022 at 2:25 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Back in 2002, I won the original cover art for ASM 220 (Spidey and moon knight) and i saw that I had to outbid some heavy hitters (Albert Moy and Mike Burkey) to win it!

I have never heard of Albert Moy or Mike Burkey, but I'm glad you got some original art back when it was still reasonable! I never had a yen to build an original art collection, but at one time I thought I might buy a couple of pieces to decorate my house. The prices have gone too high for that now, so if I want to do any comic-related decorating, I'll have to stick to posters.

Edited August 3, 2022 by jimbo_7071

[Browns81]

On 7/29/2022 at 4:19 PM, fishbone said:

Joined eBay about 2003, mainly to try and get back into collecting a Spider-man run. I remember a haul of like 400 books from about #101 to #500 with all keys there for $600 Cdn. Crazy. I eventually got the whole run completed, thanks eBay for the head start!

I remember the ASM#1 around same time for $1999 Cdn, it graded to an o/w 6.5 - still have it. I also remember an AF#15 that I got for about $4K Cdn and another for $3K,  and they ended up grading as a 3.0 and 2.5  tan to o/w and o/w to w respectively -- sold the 3.0 three months ago for a lot more....still have the 2.5.

When I started into GA soon after this, it was a LCS and Metro that I turned to only ........... can't remember why I wouldn't have stuck with eBay, but might have had something to do with  the one time I was fleeced for $1500 by an eBay crook for some book, stupidly sent a bank transfer and was ghosted immediately afterwards. 

 

Any one out there with other early eBay horror stories of stupidity ?

My eBay says I’m a member since 2007, but I know I was registered in the late 90s mostly buying SNES games.

the internet was very different then.  eBay required you basically send the seller a check and then they sent you the product.  Well I was young and lost an auction on a PlayStation 1 and someone messaged me saying they had one for the same price.  I sent that 89$check and was ghosted of course. I probably had about $95 to my name because I would have been a poor college kid at that time.  I’ll never forget the person’s name since it was so unique.  Never been able to find them in any online searches though.

[plady69]

Any more good stories?  I got in late in the game but I’m sure there were some GREAT finds!  
My dad and I used to work every avenue from coin laundry’s to local newspapers before EBay. Wish I knew about when I got my first computer!

[ft88]

I know the fees jumped from 7 to 8%. Listing was free.  When they first started to charge, they had crazy break points. 1cent  for 1-99 cent and 5 cents for $1-9.99.  Postage wasn’t part of the final value fee. That made for some interesting 1 cent auctions. Funny though if you charged excess postage you were seen as a con artist so it hurt final total values. 
 

Common marvel keys were exactly that - common. Low grade keys were down right cheap. Captain America 100 in G/VG might get $20. 
 

Timelys were still tough. 

[Cat-Man_America]

On 8/24/2022 at 2:28 PM, plady69 said:

Any more good stories?  I got in late in the game but I’m sure there were some GREAT finds!  
My dad and I used to work every avenue from coin laundry’s to local newspapers before EBay. Wish I knew about when I got my first computer!

95% of the pulps I purchased before getting back into comics were off of eBay.

Early 2000's I bought almost the entire run of bedsheet Astoundings ('42 into '43) as a group off eBay missing only one issue and paid ridiculously little for the stack at the time.

Condition ranged from Good to Fine; examples below (oversized pulps are difficult to acquire today and very tough in higher grades)...

 

[Ameri]

Not a comic, just an interesting example of one of the earliest Ebay listings. Just after Ebay went public in Sept 1998, I signed up and won this a few months later (Feb 1999). No paypal, no credit card. If you won, the seller sent an email with their address and money order or cashier check requirements.  

[enigmacomix]

I joined in 1998. Back then I ran out of money before I ran out of deals. Back then I was focusing on Fox and Nedor books. Those were the days.

[Robot Man]

On 8/27/2022 at 7:29 PM, enigmacomix said:

I joined in 1998. Back then I ran out of money before I ran out of deals. Back then I was focusing on Fox and Nedor books. Those were the days.

Me too I was buying Nedor War covers and Fiction House like a drunken sailor. Most of the ones I have now came from the early days of EBay. Same with my PCH collection. 

[Hap Hazard]

Found this completed auction, I joined in 2/15/98 so this may be my first auction and win. Xavier are you still out there?

 

[LDarkseid1]

I remember when I first started selling comics on Ebay and during no-reserve auctions, I'd always add in the subject line "not" and what key issues my book wasn't haha. Like if I was selling an FF52, I'd put "not 1, 45, 48, 49" to make it more visible. I think Ebay eventually cracked down on that , and I haven't done it for years. Not sure if people still do that though lol. 

[LDarkseid1]

On 8/29/2022 at 12:55 PM, DirtyNeck said:

Yes, that's keyword spamming. There are a million "not cgc" auctions right now that need to be pulled

Oh I thought they didn't allow that anymore. I remember getting a generic message from them about it a looonnnggg time ago and haven't done it since. I'm not 100% sure it even helped my sales out, but it just made sense at the time.

Edited August 30, 2022 by LDarkseid1

[comicjack]

I remember it took ten minutes to log on but won some great stuff back in the day.The problem you never knew what you got before the slabs came in 

[Robot Man]

Pre-EBay and the internet, I often bought from Howard “tape is not a defect” Rogofsky. There was often no other option to find old comics. I remember being overjoyed to even obtain certain books no matter the condition(within reason). Oddly, with what I now collect, I often feel the same way…

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/26/2022 at 7:18 PM, ft88 said:

I know the fees jumped from 7 to 8%. Listing was free.  When they first started to charge, they had crazy break points. 1cent  for 1-99 cent and 5 cents for $1-9.99.  Postage wasn’t part of the final value fee. That made for some interesting 1 cent auctions. Funny though if you charged excess postage you were seen as a con artist so it hurt final total values. 
 

Common marvel keys were exactly that - common. Low grade keys were down right cheap. Captain America 100 in G/VG might get $20. 
 

Timelys were still tough. 

I recall when they had 25 cent fees for listings under $25. And they used to let you hyperlink your website in the listing. For that reason, I used to use Ebay as a place to advertise and draw people to my website from there. That was around 1998-1999.