It's my Ebay-Anniversary

would that make it my "Ebayversary"?

I just got an email from ebay congratulating me on my 14-year Ebay anniversary.

Wow. 14 years.

January, 1998.

Seems like such a long time ago.

I remember when I first started using ebay. I was working at a vintage animation gallery at the time, and told the owners (my friends) about it. They told me all the reasons why a company like ebay would never make it.... and look at it now.

As a collector, I have mixed emotions about ebay. (Mostly good.) For good or for bad, it has made it much easier to find things - whether it be collectibles, vintage, clothing, electronics, etc.,

My personal experience on it has dramatically changed two types of collections that I have:

It has taken away the thrill of "the hunt" that I used to have for finding vintage Raggedy Ann dolls and collectibles. I can find some great deals still, but frankly, I've largely stopped collecting because all of the things I used to have to hunt for at antique stores, have become too available now on ebay. In a way, it took the fun out of collecting. This is also caused the Raggedy Ann collectible market (see - you didn't even know that this existed!) to drop down significantly in value and interest. (or, maybe the interest may have waned anyhow, but I think ebay had a significant impact on the "value" of collectibles.) Now, I mainly focus on finding original art now by Johnny Gruelle (creator/writer/illustrator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy). His original art pieces remains very elusive (he passed away in 1938) and rare, and it combines my interest in Raggedy Ann and fine art.

I also noticed a significant change in the value of animation art (cels, limited editions, and especially sericels) after the popularity of ebay boomed. Again, it's quite possible that the animation art scene may have become not as popular and "valuable" after the hey-days of the early 90s, but nonetheless, the market became over-saturated with animation art (especially the non-production art) after ebay and the internet in general.

Don't get me wrong - I still LOVE ebay. I've found many great items and deals on their site over the past 14 years. Things I never would have found on my own accord. Actually, one of my favorite things I love about browsing on ebay is discovering things (again, perhaps Raggedy Ann or Johnny Gruelle related) that I had no idea existed before, or thought was nearly impossible to find. Even if I'm not interested in buying them or owning them myself, it's always fun to see "what's out there".