Remember the good ol Ebay days

I remember the old eBay back in the days (I started back 8 years ago under hubsters ID) and it was SO much fun.

A Wild Wild West mentality!

Items sold with no pictures! And when pics became the norm on auctions, most of the pictures sucked. HA!

I remember selling without a merchant account. I remember days of getting 30+ letters in the mail stuffed with cash AND change, personal checks, money orders and once I received a rather personal clothing item in with my payment that belonged to a male buyer. <wink>

I can remember getting post cards from my buyers when they would vacation (and still do) and long letters from international buyers who would tuck foreign coins and cash in for my children. I remember some of the kindest letters coming to my home from buyers. I still have several of them that meant the most to me...kind heartfelt letters of gratitude.

I remember having an atlas on the wall and placing pins on the map for sales with my children to help them with geography. It wasn't long before we had the entire Earth covered with red pins.

I remember when Paypal stated they would be free always to buyers and sellers. WHOA!

I remember FREE Listing Days all the time. No fee's nuttin. I remember fee's being hardly nothing..a drop in the bucket

I remember No Mature Section. <smile>

I remember it as SO exciting..so absolutely wonderful exciting! Like we were watching a new way of life starting..a new way to garage sale.

I remember when they started the feedback system. And you could leave feedback for ANYONE. That's right..it wasn't linked to the transaction. (I have a great link to share one day that's hilarious in regards to this)

I remember buying stuff for a dime and having bidders fighting over it just because they could the last few minutes and it would go for ALOT of money.

<sigh>
Those were the days weren't they Daddyo.

<big sigh>

My Best,
Donna

I joined Ebay in 1998 to find a doll for my collection. I paid 6.00 for it, and thought I had found heaven, the world's biggest yard sale. My funniest story would have to be when my son who was 12 at the time got my password and bid on a playboy magazine and won it because he had a crush on Cindy Crawford. I was livid, and emailed the seller. He got a big kick out of it. Needless to say today's Ebay I would have probably gotten negative feedback, they would have charged the seller zillions of fees, made him walk on water to get FVF credited, etc...
I just opened a store with high expectations which have quickly faded. The highlight being the wonderful email today announcing fee hikes.
Yes I miss the old days, waiting for money orders, finding treasures at great prices, and like Donna the really bad photos, no frill ads, and the spirit of community which are sadly gone.

I can't remember

I hope something jogs your memory Wham. They really were the good ol days. Some of what Southernjewl and Lizzardo said is definitely jogging mine. Yep there was a fun atmosphere about it in those days. It was almost a mystery that people could make this kind of money this kind of way and have so much fun doing it. Somewhere along the way that was taken away from us. I believe it was when ebay told everyone that was a buyer that they could be in business and make a living at it at the expense of the current sellers and then ebay could raise its fees for listing and raise its fees again for listing and again and the probable sold item fees as well a few times over.

I believe there are new frontiers that are still fun to make money on and like the one seller who got their first off ebay sale on ecrater the other day and then another. I'm stoked for her, as I can relate to the experience.

Comon somemore people with ebay memories to help jog Whams memory.

I remember when ....

Ebay was for Beanie Babies.....

and Prodigy and Compuserve fought for AOL users

I remember when .... I wore tighty whities... (opps)

I remember when I could remember....

I remember when there were NO nasty buyers. I remember when eBay would have a sale on listings every couple of weeks. I remember when it didn't cost an arm and a leg to list. I remember when a seller's word to either eBay or PayPal was enough. I remember when delivery confirmation wasn't the norm. I remember when I used to haul bags of boxes to the post office in the snow and rain. I remember the FUN.

I started in 1998 and I remember gettings tons of checks and money orders in the mail. I'd cash the checks and hold the money orders.... don't remember why. But I loved cashing all the money orders at once and doing something fun with the kids.

I remember when you could search completed items for 30 days instead of 10. I remember using the old Auctiva and loving the sounds of cha-ching every time I had a bid.

I remember listing 25 items a week and rarely having any of them end without a bid.

I took a break for a few years to make sure I spent more time with the kids. Now that I'm back, it's amazing how much selling has changed!!

I remember Skippy.

eBay has a sense of humor then. That was before Meg.

I remembrer when they went public, it was all downhill form there, and it's still going downhill.

I remember just about everything selling at a 10:1 ratio for what I paid it for.

I remember before the LAWYERS get involved. 'nuff said.

I remember that Paypal was FREE FOREVER to all buyers and sellers. Define "forever".

This November will be 8 years since I found ebay. When I started, it was just for my Beanie Babies for my kids... and the auctions were FUN. No FPL or store items that I remember. Everything was an auction and it went for what it went for. And I dont really remember paypal being so big then, I sent MO for everything! Steph