It's roasting here in West Yorkshire, UK.
I've just switched on a big metal fan to cool down me and the missus and the mutt.
The fan has sentimental value for me as I bought it as part of my toy business set-up in the Autumn of 2005.
I'd left my 'career' in environmentalism behind and gone on a holiday to the US with friends to celebrate my change of direction.
When I got back I was so excited its hard to explain. My new toy venture was to be based in the attic, which I furnished with a new desk, an office chair, a landline phone, a TV, a laptop and a bog new metal fan for the summer.
I also had two T-shirts made advertising the business and a stack of business cards from Vistaprint.
I also set up an Ebay shop and got myself classed as a 'powerseller'.
My business was called Mad About Monsters and I was ready to take on the world!
The attic was bursting with stock from the countless car boot sales I'd been to, together with some toy fairs and ebay purchases.
I also had a few dedicated customers from my mail-order days over the previous ten years advertised in the small ads in Model Mart, which I'd done after work and in amidst family life.
It was time to get serious and do it every day!
I booked into a few more toy fairs including the final Donnington before it closed for renovation. I had a great time at that fair and my mate Mark helped out too. I even met my old SWORD 'mentor' Bill Osborne, where he bought an Argentinian Moon prospector off me. We'd never met but corresponded many times and during the sale worked out who each other was! |Small world!
The plan I agreed with the Missus was to make about £100 a week from the toy business, which was just a fraction of what I'd been earning previously. I'd figured on supplementing this with some part-time casual work if necessary.
It all came together to start with. My stock, largely cheap and cheerful stuff with a few mint boxed gems thrown in, kept me going and I quickly racked up thousands of sales on Ebay and did well at toy fairs with my more choice stuff.
I even had some customers who asked me to track down certain toys, including some modern issues, which was a lot of fun I remember. One of these asked me to get hold of a set of Space 1999 Mego re-issued figures. Another asked me to find a mint boxed Matchbox Tracy island, which eventually I did and sent to one happy customer in Australia!
Two memorable Ebay sales were a vintage milk bottle to one Nigella Lawson and an old Sooty glove puppet to one 'I am the Real Sooty', which in my excitement decided must have been a Corbett!
One very sad Ebay sale was to a young girl. She had won an old pedigree doll but never completed the sale. In time her father contacted me and said she'd died but he would like to have the doll as it was something his daughter had wanted. I think I blubbed all day after that!
I made some cock-ups as well during those years. I would accidentally send the wrong Ebay items to the wrong buyers. An Action Man knife went astray that way and was never re-united with the uniform, which fortunately went to the right place! Copious grovelling and prudent partial refunds or replacements usually got me through these mishaps and I protected my 100% positive feedback by the skin of my teeth.
It did go down to 99% one day though. I had sold a stack of old Beatles LP covers, which I had bought in. I described them 'old Beatles LP covers, Ideal for framing but not much else' or something similar. They were sold as is but the seller then left me negative feedback and wrote that 'they were old LP covers with no records in and more or less only suitable for framing!"
I was so incensed by this injustice that I appealed to Ebay - and won. My score was re-instated at 100% and the seller told me he had thrown the LP covers in the bin so there!
Yes, they were fun days selling old stuff full-time back in the mid-000's. It didn't last but whilst it did I was chuffed.
And all this because I switched my big metal fan on today!
Have you bought and sold old stuff readers?
Back around the same time span, I supplemented our income buying and selling the old, the obscure, and the collectible, as well Woodsy. Ebay in particular was a virtual boom town where everyone wanted to spin the wheel for a piece of the action. It depowered dealers as collectors set market prices. It was an exciting time to buy and sell worldwide from the comfort of your sofa. Not now though. I feel the best of ebay has been and gone. I wonder if people buy and sell on Facebook instead, or if collectors have simply completed collections, or if there is less spare cash, or perhaps nostalgia is a thing of the past? Sadly, international trade seems less appealing with horrendous import tax and high postage costs. Glad I enjoyed it and enjoyed it when I did :)
ReplyDeleteI agree Tone, maybe we had the best of the bay in those early years after it started here in the UK in 2000. I remember talking about it in the pub back then and no-one had heard of it! I think you maybe right about Facebook Marketplace. My Missus sells practical stuff on it like benches and water butts. They sell in minutes and people collect. A local thing I suppose. Ebay revolutionised collecting and so many collections will have been completed through it I reckon.
DeleteI still find ebay good for adding to my collections and for finding the assortment of odd items I need for scratchbuilding!
ReplyDeleteYep, its amazing what's on there and what turns up Kev. It would be impossible to find those wants anywhere else really, not even toy fairs I don't think. How's your SpaceX II collection coming along?
DeleteSpacexII hasn't been added to in the last few weeks but since I started with the Molab, I've obtained the LT10, Moon Buggy, Telescope Satellite, Booster Rocket and LEM/Apollo. Not bad in a few months I suppose!
DeleteJust amazing that Kev! Send us a snap or two of the whole new fleet so we can drool!
DeleteWill do, I'll try some dioramas too when I get the chance.
DeleteI used to enjoy selling on a low level basis, offloading odds and sods I no longer had use for, as well as stuff id bought in at car boots. Alas, it was always a case of the stuff that I felt would fly out, didnt sell and the most unusual stuff sold. But then people got wise to ebay and it became a minefield for buying and selling, especially with the introduction of special 'sniping' software, which could snatch away a winning bid in fractions of a second at the end of an auction, taking away all the thrill of winning! Nowadays, I cant bid outside of the UK, as Pitney Bowes Global Shipping programme insists the items are shipped from the seller, down to Kentucky before even leaving the US, adding to the cost (which is considerable) and the time. I remember buying something off you after a considerable hiatus Woodsy and we havent stopped nattering since!
ReplyDeleteYes, what was it that I sold you?
DeleteThis is a great post, which really brings back a lot of memories for me. I sold so much stuff on ebay back in the day (under about a zillion different user IDs), when it was fun to both buy and sell. Now, not so much, although it is still THE place to go for the eclectic and the unusual. And contrary to what some folks have said, there are still bargains to be had on there, if you hunt and hunt and hunt. And also, if your taste happens to be a strange as mine!
ReplyDeleteI agree Zigg. Ebay was and is the place for obscure space toys especially! Long may it continue!
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