My Early E-Bay Experience

 

 

Being forever afraid for technology I was hesitant when it come to using the computer for more than just sending e-mail or writing my poetry.

 

One day my husband told me about the “biggest garage sale of the world” and the terrific bargains that could be found on E-Bay.

 

I always loved a bargain so I looked into it. My friend Aura was already registered and active so she volunteered to help me, sharing her experience as a well seasoned power seller. Living in Connecticut she had easy access to numerous estate sales; she was buying antiques from the Victorian era and then selling them successfully on E-Bay. Not only was she having fun, as she has always been an avid collector of old stuff, she was also making good money without much effort.

 

I decided to try and I got hocked. I use the name “talciok” as an identity, which in Romanian means flee market. Whatever I do not need anymore or did not want went up for auction. The prices I got were irrelevant to me, but the fun was great for a time. Being an e-bayer could be frustrating, because not everybody plays by the rules, but for the most part it is a pleasant past time and a way of getting change money and plenty of experience in human behavior.

 

About 3 years ago the rules have changed and the prices of listing items went way up; combined with increasing fees (in terms of final sells) as well as pay pal new fees and raised prices of shipping goods imposed by the post office, I was making no money and at times even loosing. I decided it was time for me to give it up and I did.

 

If I ever made real money on E-Bay was not by selling stuff, but by owning stock in the company. When I first bought their stock in the fall of 1997, the price was $52, (kind of expensive I thought). In less than 6 months the stock went to more than $70 and I sold my shares happy with the profit. Not long after that I regretted my decision to sell, but I kept an open eye, hoping for a drop in price and the possibility to buy again.

 

The market was fluctuating and when it got to $67 I bought again and decided to wait patiently this time around, being convinced that the future of the company looked bright. I sold again when the price got a little over a $100, thinking that I made a kill and greed is not healthy. At its pick, E-Bay was over $130 but I was out.

 

It seems to me that the habit encouraged by human nature to look for bargains and to gamble is limitless.

 

A lot of times just the idea of getting something that someone else wants will motivate people to bid again and again, regardless of the true value of whatever is being offered. Even after selling my stock and closing my account on E-Bay I was still checking out the site for fun and I saw plenty of hilarious things.

 

At one time, an empty can of dog food from Paris Hilton trash (immediately after her release from jail) was offered at the astonishing price of $1500.

Photographs of Princess Diana dresses were offered in 1997 at the famous Christie’s Auction House of New York, just a short time before her tragic and untimely death and than found its way into E-Bay, where the catalog sold for $182.50 in an auction that ended in August 2007 with multiple bids.

 

The fascination of the world with the smiling face of an irresistible princess I could understand, but the sickness of bidding frenetically on the cane of a dead man I could not. It seems that the cane was giving nightmares to the man’s grandson; the woman who listed the cane was putting it for sale on E-Bay to reassure her 4 years old, that someone else will have to deal from now on with the ghost that was coming at night to torment the little boy. The cane, listed at $9.99 sold for over $12.000 and had more than 200 bids.

 

And so it goes; trying to understand human nature is a fascinating thing and E-Bay offers plenty of examples for the ones interested in figuring out people behaviors.