When you stop to think about it, eBay is an astounding phenomenon. It’s turned the planet into a giant garage sale, that’s still as small as your computer screen. I used to collect antique aquarium ornaments. You can scour through garage and estate sales and flea markets for DECADES and come across maybe a half dozen pieces really worth collecting. Go on eBay, and viola, the world is your porcelain made-in-Japan oyster. Almost takes the challenge out of it. (Although now that my single most valuable such piece, a hand-sized piece of porcelain coral made in *Occupied *Japan, has been stolen, it’s on, eBitch!)
Then, pining (again) for my lost peacock chenille bedspread, I was browsing eBay for other such spectacular monstrosities. Not to buy, mind you; I can’t afford such luxuries right now; more like porn surfing, just scanning and desiring. And I come across this amazing array. Surely such a thing could never have been possible for one crafty person in the era before eBay began its global program of the redistribution of material wealth–before eBay linked the garages and attics of the world with a kind of quantum wormhole network of chotchke equalization?
In what other ways has eBay revolutionized the world. (Putting this in CS because most of the things that occur to me are craft/art related, but feel free to point out other eEs [eBay Effects].)
eBay basically singlehandedly transformed the collectible sports card market. Before eBay, finding that one card you truly wanted (in a desirable condition) would involve searching card shops in your area and taking in the larger card shows with multiple dealers and hoping you get lucky.
Thanks to eBay, this is all a thing of the past and prices have been driven way down because of the glut of supply. I was able to snag one of my holy grails, a 1971 Topps Nolan Ryan (with the fragile black border and while he was still a member of the Mets) for $10. The only time I was even able to sniff that card in the pre-eBay world it was attached to a $200 price tag and I only had a couple of bucks in my pocket.
It’s certainly leveled prices. It used to be that you could go to an antique or thrift store, and find something at a ridiculously low price.
Now, the store owners all have eBay open on their computers so they can tell exactly what the national going price for yellow Model 9 Mixmasters with the juicer and both bowls is and set their price accordingly.
It’s also taken a lot of the joy out of collecting. Pre-eBay, you’d wander around dusty antique stores and poke around at flea markets and hope that you’ll find whatever your Holy Grail happens to be.
Now, you just type it into a search box, click Save Search and wait for eBay to send you an email.
It’s great if you are ever one of the two people in an exchange of goods for money. If you think you’re ever likely to be in that position, BD, you know, if you think might ever finding yourself wanting to buy something, or sell something, you should check it out. Otherwise it’s probably not for you.
Exactly. I miss that flea market moment, when you catch a glow out of the corner of your eye, the air begins to hum, and as you cross the room–the gymnasium, the hangar, the warehouse, the drive-in movie theater parking lot–the glow starts to burn like a fire, and there on a folding table between a chipped Holly Hobby figurine and a plastic bucket of Hot Wheels, is the Holy Grail.
I use craigslist to buy and sell since it’s local. I don’t want to deal with shipping stuff. The selection is much smaller but that is OK. I never understood the point of yard sales either. I guess it’s like a treasure hunt for many people.
It is great is you’re a collector, but it’s not only great for collectors. It’s a giant searchable storefront for almost anything, and anyone who wants to sell anything can join with no overhead. I’ve bought car parts for 1/4 the price that my garage would have paid (and in turn, charged me) for them. I’ve bought second-hand GameBoys that my kids are very happy with but whose original owners had since upgraded to a more advanced toy. I’ve bought costumes for Purim that would have been impossible to find outside of Halloween season. I’ve bought tickets to sporting events for considerably less than I would have had to pay through TicketScalpMaster.
You don’t see the point? Next time you need to buy anything other than groceries, just type your item into the eBay search box, and see if you can’t find what you’re looking for. Odds are it will be there. That’s the point.
I know I can search by area, I just don’t have any need (or want) to buy used stuff from other people except in very rare cases. And I don’t need to sell anything either.
As far as buying new stuff there are about 1 million other websites I can buy new stuff from.
I genuinely sympathize with your missing the old-style “joy of collecting.” I used to love that thrill also. But I’ve found that finding something on eBay that you could have searched for unsuccessfully in person for years is a really good substitute.
My in-laws used to work the flea market circuit, specializing in glassware. Ebay killed that.
They had been able to go to New Jersey for a week, but stuff that may be locally relatively abundant there, and bring it to Maine to sell at a good profit. After eBay, the Buyers in Maine who might be interested in that plate to complete their set, or that piece of carnival glass, are able to buy it directly from the guy in New Jersey.
When every item available in the entire country is available to every buyer in the country, the market is uterly changed.
We had a local golf equipment chain go under and they said ebay killed them off. They had 4 or 5 stores around NC. I would have thought golfers would want to buy in person but I guess they prefer cheap prices.
My parents are antique dealers… and have actually done bettr business since ebay. They use it to help supplement their antique mall space. Hardcore collectors still need to see and feel the item. Weekenders will buy based on a picture. There’s a huge market in that but the real money is still in the shop.
There used to be more opportunities to add value and earn some return by having knowledge of the market. You could spot stuff that was underpriced somewhere and maybe know where you could take it to get a better price. Now, the person you might buy from knows the market price, and the person you might sell to knows the market price. I’m guessing e-Bay is capturing that value in the fees it charges sellers. I would say that e-Bay probably cost more people their jobs/businesses than it created jobs, but delivered value to consumers. The consumers in turn can use that money to buy other stuff, hopefully creating other jobs for people. It seems like a dramatic case of automation.
The last time I was at a flea market, well, I never saw so much overpriced shabby crap gathered in one area since I accidentally walked into Abercrombie and Fitch. Granted, I don’t live in a major city (Los Angeles has ALL the vintage clothing in the United States, leaving the rest of the country with nothing but polyester shirts from last century cluttering up the thrift stores). But there were no treasures to be found, though we looked and looked. I think the collectors and the rag pickers have scooped up most of the good stuff, and it’s all on eBay and priced according to what the fervent collector will pay. I’m not saying that’s bad, but I think stumbling across a treasure at a garage sale or flea market now is getting harder to do since everyone knows what’s valuable or collectible.
I used to be interested in perfume for a while, and eBay was wonderful because I could send for little samples of vintage or rare scents that I read glowing descriptions of. I once got a whole bottle of Diorissimo for $6! And I have a box full of teeny bottles of every kind of perfume.
I use eBay as an alternative to Ticketbastard. When I get aced out of good seats when they first go on sale, I can usually get something close to the stage (+shipping) at less than face value.
I think eBay’s had the effect of *lowering *more prices than it’s raised. It’s rare to find a truly unique item with multiple bidders keeping the price high; it’s far more usual to discover the item you *thought *was unique is a dime a dozen, and priced accordingly.