eBay could as easily have been named eBuy, cause that’s just what I did for six years– buying over 1,000 items. Sadly, I don’t buy on eBay as much as I did, so in essence this is like a farewell letter.

How I Got Started

Back in February 1998, eBay was new to me. I don’t quite remember how I stumbled upon it, but once I was there I quickly became quite the fan. I mean, I saw toys that I remember destroying when I was a kid. Hundreds, thousands of dollars worth of toys I destroyed went flashing across my mind. Could this be true? Could I get a second chance at childhood and savor all those childhood memories again? The short answer was yes.

At What Price?

Well, like any coveted thing, it can be had at a price. Everyone has their price. eBay made it simple for people, who had a price, to sell their cherished possessions to me. And boy did I cherish!

I first got started with basketball cards, then gradually worked my way up to lunch boxes, which I still have over 100 on my wall. I then got my father into eBay, him buying old LP records that he used to have, or wanted to have. At that point it didn’t matter if you were buying an old memory, or creating a new one. You just had to buy.

And Buy We Did – View the complete auction list

From 1998 until 2003, I kept a database of all eBay purchases. I stopped after 2003 because the buying wasn’t that excessive to note, and I got sick of adding all those entries into the database. By looking into this database, I can break down some numbers, which upon reflection, are some pretty insane numbers. But remember, this was the Clinton era where we did most of our damage. The economy was never better. Prosperity was abundant. Bush was still years away from dragging down our country into a bottomless war-pit.

A Numbers Game

You’ll see from the numbers that 1999 was a good year. 1999 was the year of the IPO and this year will be remember as the year of the stock market, particularly tech. Anything tech, and/or having to do with the internet just made you money. Every internet IPO I was fortunate to get my hands on just made money. It wasn’t a question of if, but how much would you make. That was a nice feeling to have.

So without further ado, I will present the numbers.

Number of Auctions: 1058
Average Auction Price $38.16

Total Shipping Amount: $4,062.01
Total Amount (w/shipping): $44,440.31

Items valued at $100.00 or more: 79
Items valued at $300.00 or more: 21
Items valued at $500.00 or more: 9
Items valued at $1,000.00 or more: 3

Lowest Winning Bid: $1.50 (Basketball Card)
Highest Winning Bid: $1,500.00 (1954 Superman Lunch Box)

Amount Spent by Year:

1998: $7,034.91
1999: $16,849.55
2000: $9,012.60
2001: $5,891.37
2002: $2,802.29
2003: $2,849.59

And what thanks did eBay give me for all this nostalgic sentiment? A Red Star Award for achieving 1,000 feedback points. Thanks for the memories eBay!