I have only ever sold two things on eBay. The first was a digital camera (our first ever, a Kodak that took VGA quality images). I recall getting a good price for it considering it was a couple of years old. What about the second thing I sold? Well…
A little over 10 years ago, I walked into a local store called FYE in one of the malls here in Albany. They were in their post-Christmas clearance and I was digging through their goods. Imagine my surprise when I saw they were selling entire, unopened boxes of Japanese Final Fantasy VIII trading cards. Here’s a shot of one of the packs:
There were discounted to a near-unbelievably level, something like sub-$10 per box (although a part of me wants to say they may have even been only $1 per box). Needless to say, I purchased all three boxes they had – which translated to maybe 75 packs of cards in total.
So I took them all home and tore them all open. The pack was a lie! The contents were almost exclusively ‘official card game’ and not much at all of ‘perfect visual collection’. In essence, this was a real-life version of the Triple Triad card game included in Final Fantasy VIII.
Oh well, they were very cheap, so I didn’t care much. I sorted, extracted as close to a full set as I could, and set aside all of my doubles.
Now here’s where things get weird. Often, with card doubles, I just throw them in a box somewhere and attic them, or even discard them. Recently I’ve been known to give my doubles away (often to my brother). For some reason, back in 2001, I decided to put these doubles on eBay since I had just had some luck selling the camera.
Unfortunately eBay doesn’t save data for ever, so I couldn’t look up the auction as it was, but I do have some information myself. Here is the photo I placed in the auction:
I know I would have started the sale at $0.00 (since you had to then to avoid a listing fee) and I doubt I set a reserve (again, to avoid a fee). The auction was probably set at the default of seven days. I don’t remember the listing, although I know I stressed that the piles at the back contained many doubles and all the foils contained in the auction were shown at front.
Interest was immediate, and very high. Recall I paid virtually nothing for these cards (maybe $30, maybe $3) and I had already removed a good portion for myself. I truly considered them to be near-worthless. Had they not sold, I certainly would have simply thrown them all away.
So seven days later, when the auction closed with a winning bid of $293.50 I was astounded. I recall skepticism; suspicion it was a fake bid. But it was not, and I eventually got the money in the mail and sent off the cards. I reckon I danced for joy when I cashed that cheque!
These days the cards still hold value, especially since the game is still being played by enthusiasts. A few days ago when I considered this post there was a ‘buy it now’ on the full set of 182 cards on eBay for a (shocking!) $475, but that auction seems to be gone now. My cards are in deep storage somewhere so I have no idea how much of the set I have. But to think they are worth hundreds of dollars? That’s just crazy!