04/09/00 -- eBay ... Take two

... Two weeks later ...

So the last time I babbled about eBay, I ended on this note:   I can easily see how people can become addicted to eBay.

And that's still true.  I can see how people can become addicted to finding pieces of their past, finding that one special thing they've looked all over for, the one thing that will complete their collection.

One of my coworkers can't quite deal with it, though.  Well, she can deal with eBay.  She wants to recapture a piece of her past, too, a toy her mom threw away.  I mentioned eBay to her and she started poking around.

I don't know if she has her toy, but she's certainly blown away by the prices people are willing to pay for some of the things she played with while she was growing up.  The same things I played with when I was growing up.

Heck, I'm blown away by the prices, too.  Go to eBay and look up My Little Pony, She-Ra, or even Thundercats.  Sure, look under the action figures, that's where most of this will be, at any rate.  They're toys.  Most of them aren't even in the box.  People are willing to pay five and ten times (sometimes more) more than I know I paid for some of this stuff off the shelf when I was a kid.

If I think about it from a collector's point of view, I can see it.  I can see shelling out $85 for a She-Ra action figure that's still in the plastic, still on the card.  From my own point of view, I'd never do it.  In my head, these things are still toys.  They're something to play with.  I've "destroyed" any "value" these things may have had by taking them out of the box, by arranging them on my desk, by having little battles with them while I'm trying to think about what to write, or while there are commercials on between wrestling.

I couldn't ever justify spending $85 on a toy.

And my coworker can't, either.  She doesn't understand the mentality.  But she's not a collector.  And she hasn't managed to get caught up in the auction mentality (oh!  I've been out bid!  I have to bid higher!   I must win!  Even though I'm paying more for this toy in an online auction than I'd pay if I walked down the street to a comic book/collectibles store and bought it off the shelf!).

I haven't got caught up in the auction mentality, either.   Much to the relief of sweetie and housemate.  I know exactly what I want.   I know exactly what I'm willing to pay for it.  And if I don't get it now for that, I'll try again later.  There will always be other auctions.

I just need to find room for all of my cool chick action figures.   *grin*