I started out on eBay with an older internet service provider in December of 1998 and then got a second account (which I still use today) when I changed internet service provider in March of 1999. I know my first purchase was a Nolan Ryan baseball card, but I don't remember exactly which one it was.
I started toward the end of 1997 with a handle that has long been forgotten (passcode): I purchased PEZ dispensers and collectible Beanie babies. I remember using WebTV initially and thought I was cool for eventually using a scanner. When the Beanie baby craze crashed, I stopped using eBay and then, in 2001, went back under my current handle.
My first purchase was a Humphrey beanie that cost me $800.00. Remember, these were $6. toys, and this one was used with no tag. I still have that beanie today as a reminder of what a fad is.
Started on eBay in 1999, with hard to find classic auto parts and literature. Later in 1999 I bought a few draped bust half dollars which I still have, at a fraction of what they would cost today. I much preferred the early days of eBay and the true auctions.
Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
@Sapyx said:
Joined eBay back in November 2006. My first eBay purchase was some stamps for my stamp collector brother.
I've only used eBay to buy coins I couldn't source locally here in Australia. I seem to recall my first was a 1926 1 krone from Greenland.
This was back when fewer US-based sellers on eBay had qualms about shipping coins to Australia.
I still ship to Australia. I don't know why the US sellers would care. It's a bigger problem for b the Australian recipient with the duties and all.
Australia caused me quite a few headaches due to covid for awhile. They completely stopped inbound packages and I had 4 or 5 returned. Usually took 3-4 months to get them back. Shipping to Australia has also gone up quite a bit but I still ship to Australia.
Covid caused all kinds of issues in a lot of places. I'm not sure that's what our Aussie friend was referencing.
Jun 29, 1999
First auction I won came from a seller by the handle of Bunpo* (he's been gone from ebay for over 20 years). I bought a lot of coins from him, all with no pictures. Pretty sure I mailed him a lot of checks.
You could leave feedback for users even if you didn't deal with them and there were a lot of crappy feedbacks given just because someone didn't like your user name.
A first day cover signed in the 70's by James Doolittle and Paul Tibbets. I think I paid $30 bucks for it. Sold it at what I guess would classify as a gun show for $125 in roughly 2007. Wish I still had it.
From 2001-2005 I sold antique maps and prints (mostly 1500 - 1800) there. At the time I was traveling often for both work and pleasure and would go into book shops looking for incomplete books or atlases wherever I was. It was amazing. There was so little price discovery in the market in the early 2000's. I found a book store in Barcelona that had a group of atlases that all had some content missing and spines/covers in poor condition. No super rare examples as all the world maps had been picked clean but national, regional and a few city plans. Bought it for next to nothing broke it up, classified it all and sold it individually for an amount that totaled up to almost shocking. Good times!
Back then even professionals (like the woman who owned the bookstore) did not have a good gauge of what things were selling for globally unless they were on ebay. I'm sure this was not the case in the case of the coin collecting world though as so much attention has always been given to price.
@Sapyx said:
Joined eBay back in November 2006. My first eBay purchase was some stamps for my stamp collector brother.
I've only used eBay to buy coins I couldn't source locally here in Australia. I seem to recall my first was a 1926 1 krone from Greenland.
This was back when fewer US-based sellers on eBay had qualms about shipping coins to Australia.
I still ship to Australia. I don't know why the US sellers would care. It's a bigger problem for b the Australian recipient with the duties and all.
Australia caused me quite a few headaches due to covid for awhile. They completely stopped inbound packages and I had 4 or 5 returned. Usually took 3-4 months to get them back. Shipping to Australia has also gone up quite a bit but I still ship to Australia.
Covid caused all kinds of issues in a lot of places. I'm not sure that's what our Aussie friend was referencing.
Many American sellers have stopped shipping overseas - with eBay's changing rules and regulations, it just isn't worth the hassle for most eBayers. And Australia in particular provides a problem with coins in particular, because Australia Post forbids shipping coins worth over $200. In a reciprocal measure, therefore, USPS has put "coins" on the list of prohibited items for Australia - which can come as a shock if a seller just rocks on up to the local post office and tries to ship coins over here. Shipping coins to Australia therefore requires either a more expensive non-USPS delivery method, or the seller to blatantly lie on a US Customs form. And I fully understand why a seller would baulk at doing either of those things.
I haven't actually bought anything on eBay in over a decade.
Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
@Sapyx said:
Joined eBay back in November 2006. My first eBay purchase was some stamps for my stamp collector brother.
I've only used eBay to buy coins I couldn't source locally here in Australia. I seem to recall my first was a 1926 1 krone from Greenland.
This was back when fewer US-based sellers on eBay had qualms about shipping coins to Australia.
I still ship to Australia. I don't know why the US sellers would care. It's a bigger problem for b the Australian recipient with the duties and all.
Australia caused me quite a few headaches due to covid for awhile. They completely stopped inbound packages and I had 4 or 5 returned. Usually took 3-4 months to get them back. Shipping to Australia has also gone up quite a bit but I still ship to Australia.
Covid caused all kinds of issues in a lot of places. I'm not sure that's what our Aussie friend was referencing.
Many American dealers have stopped shipping overseas - with eBay's changing rules and regulations, it just isn't worth the hassle for most eBayers. And Australia in particular provides a problem with coins in particular, because Australia Post forbids shipping coins worth over $200. In a reciprocal measure, therefore, USPS has put "coins" on the list of prohibited items for Australia - which can come as a shock if a seller just rocks on up to the local post office and tries to ship coins over here. Shipping coins to Australia therefore requires either a more expensive non-USPS delivery method, or the seller to blatantly lie on a US Customs form. And I fully understand why a seller would baulk at doing either of those things.
I haven't actually bought anything on eBay in over a decade.
Most of what I have been shipping to Australia lately has been seashells!
I bought my first coins on ebay in 2003 when I seriously got back into collecting for the 2nd time. I bought a lot of 10 IHCs each dated from the 1880s and 90s. That lot, and the handful of 1900s dated IHCs I already had formed the beginning of my collection at the time.
Collecting: Dansco 7070; Middle Date Large Cents (VF-AU); Box of 20;
Around 2003 I visited eBay for the first time and bought two coins on a whim as they were closing:
a PR69 Edison dollar for $45 (now worth $42 by PCGS price guide), and...
a PR69 1964 Kennedy 50C for $47 (now worth $125 by PCGS price guide).
Par for the course with the Edison. Just dumb luck on the 1964 Kennedy. I never collected Kennedy halves or Modern commemoratives prior to or after those purchases.
That started my collecting again after about a 15-year layoff.
I was a freshman in HS and bought a 1/10 ounce American Gold Eagle. I believe I paid $28 for it. Paid for it via money order I got at the local Ingles grocery store. Still have the coin tucked away in the box of stuff.
Sometime in 1999. Not sure my first coin, but one my first was a VG Barber half. It smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. I probably spent a few hours a week getting money orders at the post office. I remember my first big jump up when I paid $65 for a F12 1896-s Barber half. I freaked myself out that I spent so much money on a coin.
Anybody remember Yahoo? I picked up half a dozen nice mid grade Barber halves. It was really slim pickings over there.
October 1999
Buying and selling license plates.
23 years and no neg yet.....
Gonna bring 'em all to the flea market in September and sell the lot (hundreds) then I can Buy More Coins!
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
I started in ‘98, maybe ‘99. If I remember correctly, in the early days, everyone’s handles were displayed. In many cases, you knew who was bidding, ie., forum members, and, it was possible to contact fellow bidders during the auction.
It made for some very interesting bidding wars, especially when the registry competition began.
It also allowed for directly warning bidders of bad auctions.
Ps. No idea what my first purchase was, either. Not much sleep since then.
My current ebay is straight outta December 1999...
However, I actually registered originally on ebay around November 1998 and bought an iMAc G3
I had to make a new account a year later on ebay because I lost access to my email as the company I worked for got acquired and most of us there got paid on stock options and went to work for other new internet startups at the time...
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
Maybe 1999? I was definitely on eBay all through college (Fall 2000). No real clue on my first purchase. All my early eBay coin purchases were junk. Used to buy shoes a lot. Tried to buy a car and ended up buying it outside of eBay.
I purchased a toned 1920 Maine NGC MS65 during a short sleeve worn month in 1999 as I recall. I sold that to @CommemDude on eBay a few years later which how we meet who encouraged me to join this forum.
To Err Is Human.... To Collect Err's Is Just Too Much Darn Tootin Fun!
Late 1990s or early 2000s and then took a 20+ year hiatus. Only recently re signed back up. I remember fees were like 3% and PayPal was up and coming. No clue what my first purchase was tho.
@1northcoin said:
Don't remember the first thing I purchased on eBay, but do recall the first thing I sold - One of the original Sony AIBO robotic dogs.
Actually still have one as well still in the box. Wonder how collectible they are? At the time the demand well exceeded the limited supply.
I see the AIBO came out in 1999 so I was evidently on eBay at least by then:
How many AIBO models are there?
The original AIBO model presented to the public was ready by May 1999. An initial 5,000 ERS-110 models were put on sale in Japan and the US. The response was overwhelming and 3,000 robots were sold in under 20 minutes in Japan along with another 2,000 over four days in the US.
@1northcoin said:
Don't remember the first thing I purchased on eBay, but do recall the first thing I sold - One of the original Sony AIBO robotic dogs.
Actually still have one as well still in the box. Wonder how collectible they are? At the time the demand well exceeded the limited supply.
I see the AIBO came out in 1999 so I was evidently on eBay at least by then:
The original AIBO model presented to the public was ready by May 1999. An initial 5,000 ERS-110 models were put on sale in Japan and the US. The response was overwhelming and 3,000 robots were sold in under 20 minutes in Japan along with another 2,000 over four days in the US.
I don't remember the first purchase, probably a seated liberty coin. I remember our first sale - the wife switched out the kitchen cabit handles. She had me list them, I was going to toss them, and got $86 for them!
My first purchase was a vintage sports memorabilia item, which I still have. I remember I didn’t want to spend too much $$$ because I was a little nervous about buying over the internet. It only took a couple of successful purchases to change that! 🤑
I sold my first item — and turned a profit — in about 2000, a vintage toy I picked up at a garage sale.
I bought hundreds of coins and other items sight unseen in the early days before photos were required. One simply learned who the good sellers were and who could be trusted. Once you found the good ones you stuck with them. Some of those good ones are still around and going strong.
I'm addicted to exonumia ... it is numismatic crack!
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Joined April 12, 1999. Purchased an 1814 Classic head cent in VF. A local dealer friend of mine had one and I was intrested in getting it, but he said he already had placed it on ebay, so i would have to sign up to bid on it, which i did and won the coin.
Comments
I started out on eBay with an older internet service provider in December of 1998 and then got a second account (which I still use today) when I changed internet service provider in March of 1999. I know my first purchase was a Nolan Ryan baseball card, but I don't remember exactly which one it was.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
I started toward the end of 1997 with a handle that has long been forgotten (passcode): I purchased PEZ dispensers and collectible Beanie babies. I remember using WebTV initially and thought I was cool for eventually using a scanner. When the Beanie baby craze crashed, I stopped using eBay and then, in 2001, went back under my current handle.
My first purchase was a Humphrey beanie that cost me $800.00. Remember, these were $6. toys, and this one was used with no tag. I still have that beanie today as a reminder of what a fad is.
peacockcoins
Member since: Jul 29, 1998
Started on eBay in 1999, with hard to find classic auto parts and literature. Later in 1999 I bought a few draped bust half dollars which I still have, at a fraction of what they would cost today. I much preferred the early days of eBay and the true auctions.
Covid caused all kinds of issues in a lot of places. I'm not sure that's what our Aussie friend was referencing.
October 2nd, 1998.
Buying and selling coins at a frantic pace.
--Severian the Lame
Jun 29, 1999
First auction I won came from a seller by the handle of Bunpo* (he's been gone from ebay for over 20 years). I bought a lot of coins from him, all with no pictures. Pretty sure I mailed him a lot of checks.
You could leave feedback for users even if you didn't deal with them and there were a lot of crappy feedbacks given just because someone didn't like your user name.
From 2001-2005 I sold antique maps and prints (mostly 1500 - 1800) there. At the time I was traveling often for both work and pleasure and would go into book shops looking for incomplete books or atlases wherever I was. It was amazing. There was so little price discovery in the market in the early 2000's. I found a book store in Barcelona that had a group of atlases that all had some content missing and spines/covers in poor condition. No super rare examples as all the world maps had been picked clean but national, regional and a few city plans. Bought it for next to nothing broke it up, classified it all and sold it individually for an amount that totaled up to almost shocking. Good times!
Back then even professionals (like the woman who owned the bookstore) did not have a good gauge of what things were selling for globally unless they were on ebay. I'm sure this was not the case in the case of the coin collecting world though as so much attention has always been given to price.
Many American sellers have stopped shipping overseas - with eBay's changing rules and regulations, it just isn't worth the hassle for most eBayers. And Australia in particular provides a problem with coins in particular, because Australia Post forbids shipping coins worth over $200. In a reciprocal measure, therefore, USPS has put "coins" on the list of prohibited items for Australia - which can come as a shock if a seller just rocks on up to the local post office and tries to ship coins over here. Shipping coins to Australia therefore requires either a more expensive non-USPS delivery method, or the seller to blatantly lie on a US Customs form. And I fully understand why a seller would baulk at doing either of those things.
I haven't actually bought anything on eBay in over a decade.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded one DPOTD.
Most of what I have been shipping to Australia lately has been seashells!
I bought a used VHS videotape of an old movie in September 2002.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
Was on Yahoo Auctions (!) before moving over to ebay in 1999.
I bought my first coins on ebay in 2003 when I seriously got back into collecting for the 2nd time. I bought a lot of 10 IHCs each dated from the 1880s and 90s. That lot, and the handful of 1900s dated IHCs I already had formed the beginning of my collection at the time.
Successful BST transactions with: SilverEagles92; Ahrensdad; Smitty; GregHansen; Lablade; Mercury10c; copperflopper; whatsup; KISHU1; scrapman1077, crispy, canadanz, smallchange, robkool, Mission16, ranshdow, ibzman350, Fallguy, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, jwitten, Walkerguy21D, dsessom.
Around 2003 I visited eBay for the first time and bought two coins on a whim as they were closing:
a PR69 Edison dollar for $45 (now worth $42 by PCGS price guide), and...
a PR69 1964 Kennedy 50C for $47 (now worth $125 by PCGS price guide).
Par for the course with the Edison. Just dumb luck on the 1964 Kennedy. I never collected Kennedy halves or Modern commemoratives prior to or after those purchases.
That started my collecting again after about a 15-year layoff.
They could have competed if they had put just a bit more effort into it!
June, 1998. Purchased a coin with a hole in it, don't remember which one.
Sometime in 1999. Not sure my first coin, but one my first was a VG Barber half. It smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. I probably spent a few hours a week getting money orders at the post office. I remember my first big jump up when I paid $65 for a F12 1896-s Barber half. I freaked myself out that I spent so much money on a coin.
Anybody remember Yahoo? I picked up half a dozen nice mid grade Barber halves. It was really slim pickings over there.
October 1999
Buying and selling license plates.
23 years and no neg yet.....
Gonna bring 'em all to the flea market in September and sell the lot (hundreds) then I can Buy More Coins!
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Sept 13; 1998
No idea what my first purchase was. I’ve slept since then.
Don't remember the first thing I purchased on eBay, but do recall the first thing I sold - One of the original Sony AIBO robotic dogs.
Actually still have one as well still in the box. Wonder how collectible they are? At the time the demand well exceeded the limited supply.
I started in ‘98, maybe ‘99. If I remember correctly, in the early days, everyone’s handles were displayed. In many cases, you knew who was bidding, ie., forum members, and, it was possible to contact fellow bidders during the auction.
It made for some very interesting bidding wars, especially when the registry competition began.
It also allowed for directly warning bidders of bad auctions.
Ps. No idea what my first purchase was, either. Not much sleep since then.
Early buys on eBay:
02/19/00
First purchase: SILVER MEDALLION - WHITMAN 1987 RED BOOK ANNIVERSARY
BHNC #203
August of 2006
First purchase......
1998, purchased a Detroit Red Wings hockey fights vhs tape. It was a time before YouTube.
Successful transactions with forum members commoncents05, dmarks, Coinscratch, Bullsitter, DCW, TwoSides2aCoin, Namvet69 (facilitated for 3rd party), Tetromibi, ProfLizMay, MASSU2, MWallace, Bruce7789, Twobitcollector, 78saen, U1chicago, Rob41281
I've never bought anything off of eBay.
Successful BST with ad4400, Kccoin, lablover, pointfivezero, koynekwest, jwitten, coin22lover, HalfDimeDude, erwindoc, jyzskowsi, COINS MAKE CENTS, AlanSki, BryceM
Jan.1, 1999, I don't remember anything from 1999, that was almost a quarter century ago.
01 March 1997 and I still own my first purchase - a British Linen Bank £5 from 1962.
My current ebay is straight outta December 1999...
However, I actually registered originally on ebay around November 1998 and bought an iMAc G3
I had to make a new account a year later on ebay because I lost access to my email as the company I worked for got acquired and most of us there got paid on stock options and went to work for other new internet startups at the time...
Coins are Neato!
"If it's a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone...somewhere...is making a penny." - Steven Wright
I don't remember my exact first purchase. I do know this is the first purchase I made over $100 on a coin from ebay.
Maybe 1999? I was definitely on eBay all through college (Fall 2000). No real clue on my first purchase. All my early eBay coin purchases were junk. Used to buy shoes a lot. Tried to buy a car and ended up buying it outside of eBay.
I purchased a toned 1920 Maine NGC MS65 during a short sleeve worn month in 1999 as I recall. I sold that to @CommemDude on eBay a few years later which how we meet who encouraged me to join this forum.
Late 1990s or early 2000s and then took a 20+ year hiatus. Only recently re signed back up. I remember fees were like 3% and PayPal was up and coming. No clue what my first purchase was tho.
https://www.the4thcoin.com
https://www.ebay.com/str/thefourthcoin
I see the AIBO came out in 1999 so I was evidently on eBay at least by then:
How many AIBO models are there?
The original AIBO model presented to the public was ready by May 1999. An initial 5,000 ERS-110 models were put on sale in Japan and the US. The response was overwhelming and 3,000 robots were sold in under 20 minutes in Japan along with another 2,000 over four days in the US.
1999, March or April I want to say.
I don't remember the first purchase, probably a seated liberty coin. I remember our first sale - the wife switched out the kitchen cabit handles. She had me list them, I was going to toss them, and got $86 for them!
Oct. 1998
I see that many joined ebay in the 98-99 timeframe. I was the thing to do apparently.
fka renman95, Sep 2005, 7,000 posts
I sold my first item — and turned a profit — in about 2000, a vintage toy I picked up at a garage sale.
I bought hundreds of coins and other items sight unseen in the early days before photos were required. One simply learned who the good sellers were and who could be trusted. Once you found the good ones you stuck with them. Some of those good ones are still around and going strong.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Must have been 1995-96. First purchase was a Bobby Grace Putter as a gift for a friend.
Joined April 12, 1999. Purchased an 1814 Classic head cent in VF. A local dealer friend of mine had one and I was intrested in getting it, but he said he already had placed it on ebay, so i would have to sign up to bid on it, which i did and won the coin.