Hate to admit it, but eBay fascinates me. Am a very recent newcomer - found a book I had been searching for for over 20 years... my question, do you use eBay? If so, what is the BEST find you have ever made? What is the most questionable or MOST STUPID item your ever bid on? Just for fun, do you ever search weird stuff just to see if it exists out there and if people are actually bidding on i

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

Answers

I love love love eBay!! I had to force myself to stop shopping there. I got a FIRE HYDRANT for my father (a REAL one!!!) for him to hook up to the pool. I did a search on expensive things, and someone was selling a real military tank! It was SO COOL!!!

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

A few months ago I decided to go there and see what kind of Sanrio stuff they were auctioning off. I was very tempted to bid on the Hello Kitty sanitary pads.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

I bid on the eBay "My boyfriend sucks" rant but I was outbid.

I was also disappointed to miss out on the creepy haunted painting, 12 packages of 'slighty used' TopRamen and the 'you arrange delivery' blizzard.

Maybe next time.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

Well, if it wasn't eBay, I wouldn't have believed it. Hello Kitty sanitary pads... I had to go see for myself and yep, there they are. "Waffle sheet", indeed.

Yes, I love eBay, also. I think I've bought about 5 or 6 things from there. The cool thing about eBay is that, even when you have no money and aren't looking for anything to buy, it's still fun to go looking at what's there.

I don't think any of my purchases ever rated as "best finds", but I got some deals I was very pleased to get. I got a great Apple Extended II Keyboard for $10 (this keyboard is huge, feels great, is very solid and will probably last 100 years (although by then there won't be a computer left that can still use it, but you know)). And another time I got a transparent graphite Apple brand PlainTalk microphone for a friend of mine, paid like $5 for it. I also got some hard-to-find comic books, autographed by the author.

I start to get carried away sometimes on eBay - it's dangerous. I get too caught up in the competition of the auction and end up fiercely outbidding others in a leap-frog race to the finish on shit I don't even want that bad. Fortunately for me, I've never won the auctions on the really dumb stuff. I've either come to my senses at the last minute or been last-second outbid (that happens a LOT on hot items, and it pisses me off!).

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

I don't buy a lot on eBay. Sometimes I really want to, but then I can't find stuff I want. Isn't that lame? I'm not good at browsing their interface. The best thing I bought was my 40 issues of 1960s Workbasket mags for $7. Once I bid like $14 for an old knitting pattern book called "Gay Teen". I was of course out-bid, though.

I've sold lots of stuff there, though. I like to do it because I'm always finding really cool stuff at thrift stores and the like that doesn't fit me, or that I have no use for. But for a while I bought stuff and sold it on eBay, and turned a decent profit while making people happy with the bargains I gave them.

Like a dummy, I used my old e-mail address for my user name. So I built up a really good feedback rating, and now I can't really use it because it's not my address anymore, and people will think I'm dishonest.

I've been thinking about firing up some eBay sales again. I have a lot of crafts and stuff that I don't use, but that I love too much to give to Goodwill.

Hey, y'all should post links here if you're selling stuff on eBay. And then if I start selling, I'll post links, too.

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2000

I get all my Watergate crap on eBay- I recently purchased a felt WG dartboard, which is my new favorite thing.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2000

I liked the Yahoo auctions sometimes cause they have a buy price on some items, so you can just bid that price and get it. I can never get a winning bid on Ebay (the flurry in the last 3 minutes gives me a heart attack.)

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2000

Some friends of friends have purchased a couple of antique firetrucks and a doubledecker bus on eBay. These people are apparently pretty well off.

I haven't ever bought anything from eBay. I rarely even look there because the whole thing seems dangerous for an impulse buyer like me.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2000

We pretty much make 80% of our living selling on e-Bay. We primarily sell rare, collectible and interesting (or somtimes-- not so interesting) used books, and some other types of collectibles as well. The other category I do well with is quality used kitchen equipment...read gadgets...like good electric pasta makers and Cuisinart machines and the like. Even parts for those sorts of things do surprisingly well.

We usually find all of these items at garage sales or thrift stores or auctions. I love the search and I love finding gems in among the junk. We have been collectors for many years, and we have a lot of stuff, especially books which is our main focus, and we do have other venues for selling them, but e-Bay is the best so far. However, it's a bit like living on the edge, in that you depend on good foraging to make a living. What the heck! It makes life interesting. And the best rush is when you found something for a dollar and it sells for over $1, 000.

We rarely buy from e-Bay, although we did get a nice used Apple B&W G3 there. We got it to go with the great 20" monitor which we got at a garage sale for $25. The other things we buy regularly from the "dutch" auctions there are printer cartridges for between $5 and $6 each usually.

Overall we have never had a problem with buying or selling. One secret to good sales is to describe your items absolutely accurately, and to be totally above board, responsible and reliable in all of your dealings. Build that rep and get those stars!

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2000

OK, I'll fess up - the stupidest thing I ever bought on eBay was a 1/2 bottle of OLD shampoo - "Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific." This was THE coolest item when I was in Junior High (along with Lip Smackers, puka shells, colored binder paper, mood rings...) - am giving it to a friend for Christmas under the trendy guise of "aroma therapy." I also bought my sister (she is in her late 20's) some Pee Wee Herman Colorforms. But - I have also found some great book treasures - old Nancy Drews, etc. I have had really great luck with nice sellers. Every so often, jsut for fun, I will enter in stuff I own just to see what is out there and what people would spend... or just enter in random things from my childhood

-- Anonymous, September 30, 2000

Marisa, it amazes me that you bought a half-full bottle of shampoo, but not ONE QUARTER as much as it amazes me that someone was selling a half-full bottle of shampoo.

-- Anonymous, October 01, 2000

painting for sale on eBay

Sometimes I like to check out the "amateur art" for sale on eBay, and then I bookmark certain paintings so I can see how much they make. I notice there are a LOT of cat paintings up for auction this week. And I'm looking at the paintings for sale, and then I'm looking around at some, uh, "folk", "outsider", "amateur" art paintings I have hanging up in my office...

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

a painting I actually like

it cracks me up, what the alleged dad says about his alleged son's art

I like this one, too.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Yes, I use e-bay and I also sell stuff on e-bay, mostly parenting related stuff. Weirdest thing I bought was an antique breast pump (I collect medical antiques). It's shaped like a bicycle horn, has a rubber bulb and a glass breast shield. My husband bought some spurs on e-bay, have NO idea why...just for the hell of it I guess? My best finds have been Motherwear Nursing Clothing. They last forever and you can find some high quality used stuff at a fraction of what it costs new from Motherwear.

Last week, I was selling some slightly used nursing bras that I had outgrown. I had a pervert write me to say he would buy the bra if I lactated in it for him first and put it in a baggie for him to keep it wet. Yewwwwww! Made my skin crawl!

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

I adore eBay. I've bought all kinds of cool collectible stuff, and I also buy supplies for some charity-related project I dos. Usuallly, my test of whether to look on eBay is, do I want it or do I need it? If I need it I buy elsewhere. If I can easily live without it, then I'll see if I can get it ultracheap on eBay. Of course, sometimes I end up with ultracheap crap, but that's OK too. I really like half.com, I've unloaded a ton of books and bought some, too.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Hey, Gwen, that "painting I actually like" is pretty good. God knows I had seen worse in my Art History course in college that were held up as representative of a certain period or school.

Oh, and as far as the "Ugly Hand Drawn Picture" as posted by the alleged Dad, you can see tons of that stuff, and much better, any day by just checking teen boys' notebooks in high school. This is really pretty mediocre compared to everything else.

But, so now I'm thinking. Amateur Art is apparently what I've been doing all along and I didn't even realize it. It has its own category on eBay and everything. I've been sitting on a gold mine here! Now, where did I put those acrylic Alison Moyet and Lauren Holly portraits I did....

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

YIKES! Check this out, folks!!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=452920676

...

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Hmm, that chair's a good thing to splurge on for somebody, I suppose! Wow...

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2000

Is it just me, or is the eBay uproar dying down lately?

I kind of want to go look at the amateur art section, but I don't want to get sucked into any addictions.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2001

I quit using ebay about a year ago, when every thing that we bid on got outbid in less than 2 minutes before bidding ended. It became too irritating for my temper.

But I haven't heard much about it lately either. Has it calmed down?

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2001

I've never bid on anything or sold anything there, but I like to look up stuff to see what they are actually selling for. Gives a more realistic (in most cases) price guide than antique books.

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2001