Ebay -- discuss

I write a lot about Ebay in the License plate collecting with the Wizard thread. However, I thought it deserves its own topic for discussing Ebay in general.

To get the ball rolling, let me introduce the fad toy of 2017 -- the LOL Suprise Doll. As near as I can tell, it is a plastic toy that comes in an egg. The gist is that the eggs are generic looking so you don't know which one you'll get until you buy and open it. I hear YouTube has lots of videos of kids opening these eggs but my stomach won't be able to take watching a single one without a "reversal" as they would say in eating challenges. The link I just made goes to an auction for a large-sized egg for $17,000. The smaller eggs are more affordable. Here is one for only $999.

The question for the poll is your relationship to Ebay?

I loved Ebay from the late 90's to about 2005 as there were lots of good deals to be had. Now that everyone uses the internet it is much easier for people to price items for selling or for buying. The first item I ever bought on Ebay was a car which was almost unheard of back then.

I started selling on Ebay in 1997 when they
gave you your own personal Ebay contact
to call on the phone. I sold guns and
military items. I would go to gun shows
all over the Midwest and buy antique
hand guns at least 100 years old and
sell them on Ebay. Most gun dealers
had no computer yet, let alone
heard of Ebay. I made more money than
any other time in my life till they banned
all guns in 1999.

I bet I sold a couple thousand guns. Some
weren't 100 years old but it was never
questioned. Get it for $75 at a show and
they would snap it up on Ebay a week later
for $175. I also sold military swords.
Hundreds of them. WWI and WWI German,
Civil War, even Japanese katanas that were
400 years old. Lots of Nazi items too,
daggers and medals and armbands, stuff
the GI's had brought home.

Later I moved into antique radios and phonographs.
I would go to a phono auction and drop $40K
on crank phonographs. So many I had to rent a
trailer to haul them all home. I sold 10's of
thousands of items on Ebay in the 10 years
I did it.

Quote: Evenbob

I started selling on Ebay in 1997 ...

I admire your skill as an entrepreneur. I can relate to old-timers being slow to catch on Ebay and the Internet, and taking advantage of it.

It would probably come as little surprise to hear that the elite big license plate collectors are all old men. Back in the late 1990's I kept saying to them that the club needs to make a web site to attract new blood and money. The reaction was always the same -- "What's a web site?" So I made a web site myself for the club. Elements of that original site remain to this day, like my Ten Commandments for License Plate Collectors.

Ebay is a nuisance.
You join they flood you with mail.
You buy something you get emails about its shipment, its arrival, its packaging, please rate the seller, please rate the packaging, wouldn't you like this and that also?
Last thing I bought on ebay was some plastic doodad for ten dollars that I could have bought at Walmart for nineteen. Took eons to make its way from Shanghai.

I don't buy much. I buy all my license plates from the DMV, not ebay.

Ebay started to lose it's appeal for sellers
about 2004 when everybody was
catching on to the computer craze.
The people I was buying from realized
they could make way more on Ebay
than at shows. By 2006 it was all over,
every dealer was on Ebay. Now it's
a joke to be an Ebay seller full time,
you live at the mercy of feedback and
PayPal. I never had a PP account, I
refused to get one. Now it's the only
way you can sell anything. My wife
sold an antique watch for $3K last
month and was terrified the buyer
would screw her over with PP some
way. That kind of thing never happened
in the old days.

Quote: Wizard

The question for the poll is your relationship to Ebay?

Replaced a stolen wheel on my car off eBay in 1999. My account was dormant for 6-7 years after. Most of what people bought was junk, collectables. I had no digital camera, which was the big thing needed to sell, so did not even try to attempt to do so. BY 2007 I was broke enough and had enough junk piling I started selling some. I also bought a digital camera off a roommate.

I was even a sucker to pay for a "list" of items to drop-ship sell. Sold nothing off of it, though I had fun with a scammer. Call it a learning expense.

Got back home and started selling my dad's old Cadillac parts. One went to OZ of all places. I was in such need of money I might otherwise have missed some bills. Has been a hobby at most ever since. Selling some holistic remedies the last 3 years. I make $5 a month or so, which minimally feeds what I buy on the site. I may expand the offerings, who knows.

Have dealer friends made a biz off of it. Large size bras and panties. Was in a carpool with them, they have this little cash register sound goes off when a sale is made. Went off a few times an hour. They raid the off price stores here for their stock. They don't live like hogs in the fathouse, but neither do they need to work a straight job.

I pretty much only use Ebay to buy cheap stuff from China. Cell phone cases, charge cables, computer mice, etc. Stuff that Walmart sells for $10-20 you can get on Ebay for a couple bucks.

Quote: ams288

I pretty much only use Ebay to buy cheap stuff from China. Cell phone cases, charge cables, computer mice, etc. Stuff that Walmart sells for $10-20 you can get on Ebay for a couple bucks.

I bought a bunch of those cheap charger cables for I-Phone 4. Sold them at the office for about $2 each, maybe $3. People loved them. I paid for enough to keep me in cords everywhere and still made a sweet $15 or so. It felt like a great score.

Quote: ams288

I pretty much only use Ebay to buy cheap stuff from China. Cell phone cases, charge cables, computer mice, etc. Stuff that Walmart sells for $10-20 you can get on Ebay for a couple bucks.

I do the same here

Rare items are generally overpriced
I am always in the market HI-MD minidiscs and players
They are no longer manufactured
Just about all overpriced on e-bay