January 13, 2000.

Who remember eBay actually give new users $10 credit for posting stuffs for sale?

Who remember people can leave feedbacks to others who u have never dealt with?

Who remember eBay block auction description that embedded javascript?

1996
 

seller and buyer questions were answered by the sellers and buyers (we functioned as customer service)! There was a SINGLE front page with "big" auctions.....

Same as Doug...January, 1998.

March 20, 1999.
same ID as here.

April 1997. A lot less bidding competition back then.

Member since: Jan 24, 1999

Great idea to look back.

Well over 95% of my purchases have been cards or smatterings of memorabilia.

My first purchase was a 1968 Topps Football card. Looking at the prices and descriptions, the prices are so low when compared to today.

Since it launched....prior to that was active on various AOL B/S/T boards

December 14, 1997

What a long strange trip...

I've done well over 10,000 transactions.

Jeff G.

Member since: Jun-01-96 in United States

I remember back then is when eBay was 1st going public and they were offering shares for like $38

I also remember thinking "Who, besides me" - is gonna sit around in thier underwear and buy & sell crap on this internet thing

So needless to say - I didn't fall for the $38 per share scam

DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nov 22, 1997

Jerry I can't believe you still have the package I mailed a card to you in!

April 14, 2002

June 18, 2000

Member since the summer of 1998.

Went nuts buying up a whole bunch of modern stuff for the first few months. About two years later is when I discovered their chat boards/forums and met a guy looking to dump off about 100 mid-grade 1955 Topps cards as he was upgrading his set. That's when my foray into vintage began.

1/4 plate daguerreotype
 

I picked up a very important quarter plate daguerreotype of a home in New England for less than $10 that was listed as a damaged tintype. I had no idea what I was buying at the time but did know outside dags of houses were $500+. I researched the dag with two New England Historical Societies, and both wanted to buy it. I told both I would list it in the Sotheby's photo auction. Sotheby's declined to list it as it didn't meet their $500 minimum value (at that time) so I sold it and it went to the place where it belonged for $5000 even though it was worth more. So many times, over the years the big guys have been clueless about value.

Nov. 22 1997

Definitely late to the party, arrived on 7.17.01

1999.
Same year I received my first computer.
Selling Griffey RC’s helped me get through college.

Since January 1999.

I was at the Live Guernsey's Auction in NYC late 1998 when they auctioned all the major Big Mac & Sosa HR Balls from the '98 season that just finished (I was in the front row when McFarlane won the 70th HR ball...pretty exhilarating auction). Anyway, there was a small table in the corner promoting their website, so I picked up a press kit folder they were giving out (still have it)...it was eBay.

2001 for me.

eBay membership
 

19 years and counting. I would not have the collection that I have without eBay. I am very grateful for the platform.

Ebay Member since: Aug 09, 2003
Rarely use it anymore.

May 10, 1999

23 years

Awesome, I was recently going through cards I hadn't seen in 10 plus years. Found several boxes from 99-01. Here is a short list of the sellers I had multiple boxes from.

Bud Obermeyer
Gerald Levin
John Karlstrom
Good as Gold Investments
Sprortscards Inc
Morley Leeking
Tim Porter

I also done a lot of selling up till 2002 with the same ID I have on here. Back then I sold error cards of all kinds and all kinds of rare oddball inserts, regional issues, and test issues. eBay was pretty small back then in those areas so if you collected them back then there is a very good chance you bought something from me.

Strangest thing for buying on eBay. Back around 2000 was a Porsche 944 with every upgrade imaginable from a high speed driving instructor for Porsche for my Wife.

since July 2, 1999

4-13-1998

Larry

I'm too old to remember how to find the date. I can't say for sure in which century I joined.

Ebay member since March 28, 1997

1/2001
 

21 Years

Jan 21 2001 - 1st buy was a T205 Wheat

Member since: Nov 19, 1998

I remember that it felt like I was really late to the ebay party! (And I probably was.)

Finally sold my first item in 2000 or 2001, a book I bought for 10 cents and sold for $41, that was an exciting moment. Turning lead into gold.

September 30, 1998, 4 months out of college, first purchase was a T206 for $10. A big deal since I was only making $8.25 an hour pulling chainlink fence.

Member since: Jan-02-99

Next year will be 2 decades!

March, 1999

December 2000

.
November 25, 1999

March 1998 - 24 years...

Member since: Feb 16, 1999

A few months after joining OBC

Wish I'd joined both earlier!!

Bob

I am a 1998'er, too. I remember selling cards on their platform for the first time and was pleased with the result. Prewar, of course.

On the flip side as someone who spent 1-2 hours a day on it from its beginning...I bought as many shares as I could afford...unfortunately wasn't a ton,,,, but I also remember it going crazy very early!

member since Dec-06-99

Closing in on 24 years

When you mention the early days of ebay...

*I immediately remember "Dial uP" and loosing connection :D

22 years in Feb. for me.

Brockelman
 

Scott, I found that envelope in the same drawer as my college diploma...not sure which is worth more...Denny I too remember praying the internet connection didn't go out while waiting to the last second to place a bid...Jerry

23 years (17-Sep-98). I haven't been on ebay for about one year. Happened when I changed from card collecting to game used memorabilia collecting. Plus, once ebay made all of the changes; giving up your SSN, Bank Info, plus Taxes, etc., I just wasn't comfortable giving up my info to ebay, since I wouldn't be doing much on it anyway. Miss it though; met some great people on ebay.

Aug 9 1997

Sep 13, 1999, from my feedback mintcomics is the first userid that is still valid.

May 2004 for me. It'll be 18 years this year.

02/22/1999 for me.

Since Feb 1999 ( 23 years ) ! With the same USER ID !! Before that SportsNet with the dish on my roof and the printer going 24 hours a day. Anyone remember those days.

OT...How long have you been on ebay?
 

March 12, 1997 … perfect marriage between my profession IBM network consultant and hobby almost 25 years !!!

Never heard of a 1996 er. Must have lived in Silicon Valley!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My dad in 1998: I've been trying to get ahold of you all day, but the line has been busy.

Me in 1998: Oh, I was on Ebay.

I've told this story here before, but in early 2015, one of my professors told my class about how Amazon's new cloud service was going to be huge, and I thought "They're a glorified used book seller that got taken to the woodshed when the dot-com bubble burst; Borders just bit the dust and Barnes & Noble isn't far behind." They were in the 300s then, now they're at $2,800 and that's after they slid from around $3,500.

23 years for me in July. The first online card auctions I remember seeing were somewhere else though - when I was still in college in the fall of '98. Then I remember seeing a '55 Topps Yogi Berra on eBay for like 25 bucks and I said, well, I had better see what this is all about...

Nearing 24 years
 

Member since: May 10, 1998

November 1998. I was looking for pictures of certain cards (on this thing called the internet) and stumbled across it. Game changer....

Basically the same thing for me. Was having fun searching for stuff with computer and stumbled upon it. Was skeptical at first? Could this be real? Is all of this stuff really available on one site? Should I really send money (orders) to these folks?

Oh, the carefree days of yesteryear. Remember when you could leave feedback for anyone you wanted to, regardless of whether or not you had a transaction with them? People would have 100 friends sign in and leave positive feedback. That was probably the beginning of all the eBay scumbaggery we see nowadays.

My first purchase was about $150. A 'PSA graded' card (new to me) and I mailed out a check to Portland OR. Waited over a week for it to clear and another to get it in the mail. The wild west...

2001. I was 15. I joined so that I could contact people who bought 2001 Bowman Heritage trying to see if they had doubles they wanted to trade after purchasing lots. I wish I had taken more of an advantage of it. Didn't buy too much, pretty loyal to my LCS at that time. Then my interests outgrew my LCS.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

I've been a member since Nov. 20, 1999.

March 3, 2002, right after I turned 18

My first two purchases were CDs
Garth Brooks - The Hits
Eagles - Greatest Hits

(and I still have the CDs!)

October 31, 1999


It's amazing how many of us started out 'there' about the same time.


...an extension to the original question:


How and where did you shop - for cards - prior to ebay?


I used Teletrade a lot and dealers I found in the hobby publications.


.

March 17, 1998.

That’d have put me a month or two away from college graduation.

Dial up
 

Dial up was horrible. I kept saying one day we would laugh at what we were dealing with.
I joined with my own account in 2001. Before that, I used my sister's account, probably in 1999. She told me how great eBay was. I had no computer back then.
After using my sister's account for awhile, she told me I had to get my own account. I was using her account and buying so much. Then she told me I was using her computer so much, that I had to buy my own computer. I was definitely addicted.
EBay made so many things so much more available than they had been before. EBay is far from perfect, but it has been a great resource.

Teletrade
 

I also used Teletrade, and would scour the SCD, and go to as many card shows as I could.

I re-entered the hobby in 2005, became a member July of 2005.

Started one while at University of Miami in 2004 when I was 18 --- Member since: Sep 14, 2004

For me it was mid to late 90's, the one thing I do remember or it seemed to me, is that over-clocking your computer (it was a thing, don't know if it still is), helped getting in bid very rapidly:cool:

rjutley
 

Rjutley...came to me at 4 AM...Jerry

March 6, 1999

To answer the question, 20 years, 7 months, two weeks; that's how long,


Had browsed without an account for a few month, a bit scared of the unknown... Finally had to get on because there was a Duster Mails caramel card about to end, it showed him with St. Louis, so I hastily joined, bid, won, and thought wow what have I done. that was June 7, 2001.

Just imagine, back in the days when everyone here started on eBay, seeing a Mickey Mantle card priced at $25 was "OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Some things never change.

Feb 2000

10-07-2000

It will be 23 years last month. Those early days were great.

October 12, 1999: 23 years this October. I remember the first several years, you really could find absolute gems on there, often mislabeled or in the wrong category, etc. I had a bunch of alerts set up. Rare things would pop up, too, I got a lot of my T209-IIs off eBay in the early days. There are no bargain cards on eBay anymore!