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 Michael and Heidi Hanna, whose first item really shook things up!
We were early adopters of eBay, signing up on August 27, 1997. Now, what to sell? We dug an old trunk out of the attic that was full of family heirlooms that hadn't been visited in years.
One item, wrapped in newspaper, was a silver-plated cocktail shaker used for making Manhattans. It had been left by an uncle, a physician, who purchased it in 1927. It was unique, a silver body with cap and insert, and the cap had a silver plated plant stem surrounding an artificial cherry that was composed of Bakelite.
This was the item we decided to sell first, having no idea what it might bring. As a safety net, we put a $100 reserve on the shaker. We had no clue that we were about to be bitten big-time by the new eBay bug.
We listed the cocktail shaker for a ten-day period. Those were the days, of course, when you checked your auctions at least once an hour to see if there were any new bids. Imagine our shock when the shaker went through the reserve price on the first day!
As it turned out, this was the first bidding war we witnessed as eBay sellers. To the best of our recollection, there were over 30 bids at the end and the final selling price was $625. We were astounded.
As a follow-up, we wrote to the winning bidder and documented the history of the cocktail shaker as related by a late aunt, who had given it to us years earlier. The bidder replied, explaining that he was the vice-president of a new tech company and had a collection of unusual antique cocktail shakers that numbered over 200 that he thought was the second largest collection of that kind in the world. He said he wanted us to know that our family heirloom was keeping the best company possible. The money order arrived the next day via overnight mail.
Over the years we have migrated to other venues to sell our products, mainly due to frequent and huge changes in the eBay experience. There's never been a sale, however, as thrilling and satisfying as our first online sale on eBay.
Michael and Heidi Hanna
