I'm a bit of a collector, I'll admit it. If it wasn't console dev material it would be something else, infact for decades it was other diverse hobbies which included purchasing, swapping, trading and the joy of hunting down rare items and just dreaming of being able to see particular items. In discussion with another member I suddenly wondered what people really thought of eBay and such auction sites? On the whole I would imagine that the majority of collectors would be delighted by the likes of eBay as it tends to offer up so much material on a daily basis, but those of us that began serious collecting prior to eBay may have fond memories of conventions, speciality shops, dedicated magazines and the thrill of making a 'discovery' in some junk shop or second-hand store. Are those days gone? Not so long ago I could investigate a plethora of car boot sales and stumble over wonderful rare objects, however TV programmes like 'Cash in the Attic' have alerted the World to the fact that eBay (for example) offers a massive opportunity to make a killing! Not sure about what it's liek throughout the UK, but I have suddenly found myself hagling with ill informed members of the public trying to charge over the odds for items that are not rare! "This boxed PS1 is RARE!! I want £20 for it" As collectors did we benefit from ignorance & naivety, were we taking advantage of people? Does eBay mean we have access to practically everything we could ever dream of, or does it still provide sufficient challenge? If I collected retail consoles only, I think not only would I be bankrupt, but I would be suffering from overload! Each and every day I could satisfy my lust for collecting, but the bank would forgo my mortgage and I'd be dead within a few months! Items that used to be hard to obtain and held value, such as rare comics (for example), are being reduced to a few $. Is this collecting? What are your opinions on the matter? Just curious!
Most collectors do a lot of trading behind closed doors, even on this website. Think of ebay as a store front, but not every transaction has to go through there...
I think that whilst the common stuff is easy to find on the little-e-Big-B, I believe the fun of finding scarce products is still great and there is a bit of a thrill to it all. I don't think I'll miss the opportunity to go to endless car boots just to end up with nowt and it be rained off.
Ebay is actually a pretty important tool for me, since the town I am in gets next to nothing in, and the only decent gamestore that sells anything N64 and below is in Nashville, and yard sales and flea markets are not a common thing here like they were in Florida. Does it take some of the fun out? Maybe, but there are some things I might have never found if it wasn't for it. I can also get things far cheaper most of the time then in stores. For example, the limited edition of Halo 3 is going for $50 used at my local Gamestop. I just bought a used copy and a few other extras on ebay for $34.98, far less then what I would have paid in store.
The internet as a whole has had a huge effect on how things work (Not just collecting but day to day life). I wonder how many of the uber-rare items you currently own you would have even known about if it wasn't for the internet and eBay?! - Never mind actually being able to get hold of. As with everything, it has its pros and cons. For me - PROS - Everything is more readily available There is endless amounts of information about each specific item Things in general are alot cheaper than they used to be (with the odd exception of course) There are more people with which to trade/ buy things from CONS - Everything is more readily available (takes a bit of the fun out of hunting for something for ages then finding it in a netto carrier bag at a carboot from some little granny for 20p) When you do go to a carboot and find something of interest you are confronted by the usual 'It's £50, I could easily get that for it on the internet' (Well what you doing up at 6 on a Sunday morning in minus 6 degrees for) No face to face transactions, having a book with contacts for specific items and dates for conventions mapped down There will be other pros/cons I have missed but I think these make clear my point. Overall, in answer to the OP. Do I think eBay/ the internet has killed collecting? At present no! There is still lots of scope to find things in the wild for great prices and it has brought the overall price of many items down. As for eBay taking over the world, it is a very sad reality that I think we will all just have to deal with. UNDECIDED IN GENERAL!
For me, the thrill of collecting died when all the sales around here dried up years ago, before Ebay became what it is now. So I welcome having someplace to buy items, since the local options just arent there anymore
Couldnt have said it better myself! I do think the internet has taken some of the fun out of collecting, but on the other hand it has opened up a world of opportunity for bargains to be had With that said, i think its coming to a point where the online market is becoming saturated, and having too much choice can be a bad thing! Years ago i used to collect comics (marvel, image dark horse etc) and whilst looking earlier for some of my Tombraider ones i found a box under the bed with starwars comics, all from about 10yrs ago, all polybagged and in NM condition, so thought i would do a quick check on their value, now i know when i bought these back in the day i paid a premium for them, so checked on ebay etc. and to my surprise the value of them has slumped! Now i realise somethings hold value better than others, and it may not be down to ebay etc that the price has plummeted on these things, but even so it is quite sad knowing i used to trawl about dindgy comicshops, fairs etc to collect these, which was all part of the experience, now you can just go online, click what you want, pay and wait a few days for them to arrive, Yes it is more convenient, and much cheaper to do, but there a whole younger generation out there who are missing out of the experiences of going out and hunting for stuff I love carboot sales, jumble sales, charity shops etc, hunting for bargains and once the weather pics up ill be going almost every weekend at different carboot sales, and both my kids come too (the wife stays at home as she refuses to walk round a field at 6am!) but the kids love it, same as when i was there age i did. As Kiff said you do get the odd seller on there saying 'Yeah its collectable mate, i could sell that on ebay for £50' and every other stall sells bootleg dvds and games, but its still part of the fun of bargaining and knocking people down in prices etc. Last year i actually made a decent living off it, bought loads of stock in the summer months, and it has kept me in pocket all over the winter, so i cant really complain about ebay and such as thats predominantly what i use to sell on So really there are pros and cons to each thing, but there are still plenty of bargains to be had and money to be made from them! DD
back when I was a little n00b (in relation to knowing where to source items), ebay was the high street of dev material, with high street prices. I naturally prefer to settle things in private (did then too, but couldnt because I hadn't joined the fora)
I would have one thing to say about this, who made eBay the yardstick by which we all measure the value of a product? On any given day items on eBay go for a plethora of prices. Some may be localized sales only. Some could be International and obtain a lot more interest. Others could be poorly listed, yet more overly hyped and listed on many threads across several forums. eBay have done a great deal to avoid the term 'auction house' as that would mean that they had to involve themselves with all sorts of legal implications, assurances and taxation. No wonder they try to avoid it! It is a complete free for all and the value of your item is really what someone on the day, at that point, depending on their bank account, their passion or their partner is prepared to pay. eBay allows the buyer to set the value of an item, which frankly is like letting the wolves guard the sheep. Of course people want everything for nothing and we all benefit from bargains and often post our deals. It's so messy these days that it is really easy to obtain something cheaply, clean it a little, take better images, list it better and sell it for profit so I really don't think that eBay is the best place to obtain an indication of value. I'm playing devil's advocate here as I know I benefit from eBay's existence but I do feel that it has become so extensive that it is becoming harder to really place value on the valuable. It's a question of buying power rather than value and when everyone chases something it obtains a 'new' value. Surely, that is an auction house? Strange that eBay feels it is not lol
eBay gave the average UK household an average increase of over 3.000 GBP in value, said a report some years ago.
Excellent! Just another £500.00 for each household in the UK and that would pay for the fuck up that was Northern Rock and the Government having nationalised it! Yep, £3,500 per household in taxation and rising! It will also rise a lot further as it now means shareholders will get nothing and they are bound to seek legal advice - which means lengthy legal battles - which means tax payers money... <Sorry, a bit off topic, party political advert over!>
Great post, agree very much! Internet, sure, its been extremely useful for me for finding out about many many items. Not just because of the info of the web, also due to the people you can get chatting to/meet via the web. Although that said my very best items aren't documented on the web as far as I can see, and certainly have never appeared on ebay to my knowledge. But I do miss the old days too. Dropping £60-100 on the latest import, dusky smokey import shacks, seeing the joy on people's faces, the disbelief, disappointment, jaws hitting the floor, happy days indeed!
That is a great question to which the only answer can possible be - Simply because it is the most common, most popular and most powerful auction site on the internet. Until eBay get some competition this will always be the case, but lets face it who in there right mind would take on a brand name like eBay?!
I think that eBay and other auction site like yahoo japan are a must for any serious collector. I'm collecting zelda games since 98 and without ebay and YHJ I whould own nothing more than the common games in the series. Anyway what ever you collect their is alway an item or two that you can't just put an high bid to get it. You have to watch every day on various auction website waiting one to show up and pray that you win it cause you might not see another in many year...
At least in my region, ebay has killed car-boot sales. I remember ten years ago, you could come at 10 o'clock and find tons of rare stuff people would almost give away for nothing. Now, you have to be there at 6 o'clock and fight with many many many ebay resellers to buy random ultra common stuff for ridiculous high prices "I can sell it for 20 bucks on ebay !". I stopped going in car boot sales when I realise that.
it's a free society, and we are free to set our own prices based on what we can agree really. eBay has acted as a norm as others say, but in our line of trading, I think it shouldn't be considered the norm. Why? Simply because eBay is just one of the few places one can acquire goods. The demand on eBay is heated by the fact that there are so many potential buyers, inflating prices. On the other hand, eBay exposes many traders of dev hardware to the ugly side of the Law, a cost to be considered when someone takes the risk to post something on eBay. In the end, it's a matter of choice where a seller decides to place his item, but I d haggle hard before I gave my cash to anyone, friend or foe, and eBay doesn't allow that in the strict sense. I mean, that's what connections are all about , the ability to discriminate based on how much you like a person, and that's totally OK in a free society. Plus, it's a good incentive to get to know people and establish meaningful connections - it's not all about money in our world (the world of dev hardware/software collectors), or so I hope.
eBay's really messed up pawn shop price haggling lately. More and more I'm being told, "But I can get twice that for it on eBay!" whether it's true or not. And more and more I'm responding, "Great! You should do that!" and walking out.
eBay and the interweb is alright and convenient, but I like going places in search of crap too. Sometimes prices on eBay and the internets piss me off. I don't like paying money for stuff. =(
