Do you remember the first item you ever sold online? Let us know by sending an email to ina@auctionbytes.com and we may publish your story. Today we hear from two different sellers who each discovered that eBay was not just a way to sell unwanted items. They've actually taken journeys to meet their trading partners-turned-friends!
Dear Ina:
My wife and I were cleaning the garage. Found a new book under a pile of newspapers, It was a SC Manual for the 1979 Volvo. My son who was at college in 1984 said he wanted to change the oil in the 1979 Volvo we gave him. So I bought the book and sent it to him. I think it was about $4. Of course he never did change the oil and brought the unused book home. When the car was sold several years later, I removed the unused book and tossed it on a pile of newspapers.
I placed the book on ebay (1999) via my then computer, which was thru the WebTV unit.
It had no reserve and starting price of $0.99. Much to my surprise it ended at $50, with many bidders. Obviously it was out of print and hard to find in this condition, so there were many bidders. This alerted me to the fact, that how vast the eBay community is that such an unusual item reached so many individuals that wanted it!
Wow, I advised my wife, and we were about to throw it out.
I now have gone through several new computers and have over 800 positive feedbacks at ebay and met hundreds of great people from all over the world. In fact I have visited many, Several over in Tokyo and many have visited with me in New York where I live. I love eBay.
Dr. Mel Wilner (New York City)
BTW the young man that started eBay graduated college (Tufts University) with my daughter in 1988.
********
We have been a member on ebay since 12/15/96 but our first sale wasn't until 4/3/97 to a person in Biloxi,MS. I sold some Reddy Killowat things and had no pictures to put on and the sale went great and we became friends with them over the next number of years and we started to travel and went to Biloxi and finally got a chance to meet Joan and Allen and since then have become good friend and emailed and visited them on a number of occasions. We live in Oregon so we have to plan trips across country. From that day of my first sale to over 1700 transactions, it has been a wonderful ride.
Tom & Rita Jost
Sutherlin ,OR
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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