by Jim Thomason

Created on: January 23, 2009

I have been an eBay seller for the past ten years. I began selling online shortly after buying my first computer. When I listed my first item for sale, an early copy of The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett, I did not know a jpg from an mpeg. Now, I write my own html code, designing fancy templates to spruce up my auctions.

Among other things, eBay has shrunk the world. I once sold a baseball card to a neighbor. Neither of us were aware of whom we were dealing with at the time the auction was active. After the auction ended, I sent him an email thanking him for bidding and letting him know where to send the payment. Ten minutes later, I answered a knock at my door. Grinning, my neighbor handed me wad of cash. "Where's the card?" Talk about a small world.

I live in a small, coastal town with a population under three thousand. During the summer months out-of-stater's swarm to our quaint village from all parts of the country, which may partially explain some of the more unusual experiences I have enjoyed as a seller on eBay. Recently, I sold several collectible fishing books to a guy from the Midwest. After exchanging emails with our perspective mailing addresses, he told me that he had just returned home after vacationing in my town. In fact, he and his wife stayed at a bed-and-breakfast two blocks from my parent's house. They make the 1,500-mile trek once a year to fish and relax under the southern sun. Another time, I sold a wind chime to a woman in Utah. Turns out, her mother lives in my town.

While shopping at a flea market, I spotted a vintage, aluminum tackle box. These are hot items, and I scooped it up immediately, just beating another shopper out of a nice score. He asked if I eBay. We had a nice conversation about selling online and soon discovered we had both sold vintage fishing items to the same bidder- from Japan.

I once bought several boxes of books at a local yard sale. Many were signed copies by notable authors including, Stephen King, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Poppy Z. Brite. I noted all the volumes were inscribed to the same person, with only her first name mentioned. Among the books was a writer's journal with a working title, character sketches, plot line, theme, and bits of dialogue. I did a quick search on Amazon and discovered the book had been published by an author whose first name matched the name inscribed by the authors of the signed copies, and the author of the journal had previously co-authored a book with Marion Zimmer Bradley. I Googled the author, found her web page, and sent her an email, letting her know I had the journal in case she wanted it back.

EBay has introduced me to many fine people and some amazing coincidences, and I am constantly amazed at how much smaller the world is since I started selling online.

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