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 sellers who both got their start by selling some items for friends. JT sold some turkey calls, which went for close to $900, and Linda sold a pair of vintage boxing gloves for $79.
Hi Ina,
I decided to write you and tell you my story. A close friend had inherited a lot of hunting and fishing items. He had held a garage sale and sold most of the items. What a mistake that was! I am sure there was some amazing items, but who knew? Three items that didn't sell were some turkey calls that he had in a drawer. I told him that I had wanted to check out eBay just to see what would happen. He said, "Go ahead, knock yourself out." I had just bought my first computer and was hooked up to the internet for the first time. I bought a digital camera, took some pictures, and put the calls up.
Then the emails started rolling in. Questions from Japan like, "Are you sure that it says it was made in Birmingham, Alabama?"
"Well, yeah, it says so on the side!" Well it turns out that these calls were made by the Stradivarius of hunting call makers. The three calls went for close to $900! Needless to say, that was it for me. Thanks for letting me spout off.
JT
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I heard about eBay in 1998 and when a friend started selling right away, I figured it couldn't be so hard. I offered to sell a pair of vintage boxing gloves for a man I knew. My story isn't so much that the boxing gloves weren't a great item to sell, but rather how hard it was to photograph and get the information into html text and place it in the auction. eBay wasn't so simple back in the early days.
I took a photo with a Poloroid camera and then scanned the photo. I had a lot of trouble editing for size and the first picture of the gloves marched across the screen like a goliath brown blur. I was successful in making the photo smaller, but with that attempt, the boxing gloves looked less like vintage sporting gear and more like mouse testicles!
When I finally figured out what I was doing, the successful first listing brought a final bid of $79.00. There was a last minute bidding war and no sniper software so it was fun to watch.
Ten years later, with digital cameras and much simpler photo editing, everything about being an eBay seller is simpler.
Linda Juergens
