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Hurray for e-Bay!

In case there is someone out there who has been living in a hole for the past five years, it is time to wake up and smell the e-Bay. What is e-Bay ? Well it just happens to be the most successful of the Internet auctions sites of all times. It is one of the few Internet companies that continue to grow and make a profit. It is also an amazing place to find Sherlockiana. It is also a pretty good place to get rid of Sherlockiana if one must do such an unspeakable thing.

As my collection grows finding adequate shelf space becomes more of a problem. At one time I had room to display Sherlockian ephemera from the 1940's through the 1990's. When I started running out of room, I began selling some of the more interesting pieces of ephemera on e-Bay. I sold a set of John Bennett Shaw Sherlockian conference programs for an amount much higher than I ever thought I would get. I recently sold ten Sherlockian old book catalogs from the 1970's to a collector in California. It was interesting to see what the prices of single issues of The Strand Magazine was going for in 1976 ($40 to $65 apiece!).

When I first began using e-Bay, a typical search of "Sherlock" would yield about 40 items. I was introduced to e-Bay by an antique dealer. He had nothing Sherlockian in his shop but some very nice and unusual items. When I commented on this his freely told me about e-Bay. This was 1996 and I have been using the site every since. Now when "Sherlock" is searched, more than a thousand items will appear.

E-Bay is now an international player and Sherlockian items from around the world are auctioned regularly. A typical e-Bay auction lasts for 1 week. The seller can place an item for auction; set the minimum price or a reserve price, include a picture of the item, and leave a description of it. To auction items or to place bids, a person must be a registered e-Bay user. This is a simple process and it is free.

Every seller and buyer is rated either positively or negatively by the people they have dealt with. If there is a question about a seller or a buyer, their ratings can be viewed. Any comments about e-Bay users can be read. If most comments and ratings are good, it is a good indication of the type of person one will be dealing with. If there are any negative comments it may indicate that it is best not to deal with the person.

WWW.ebay.com is where the fun begins. In the search box type in "Sherlock". Once there, click on advance search. Here is where the search criteria can be amended to suit personal collecting needs. If looking just for books or just for movie related items, or any other category, they can be selected. When just the category "books" is selected, the search finds about five hundred items. This is a way to eliminate having to look through pages of items of no interest to the searcher. I check the option of "any country". This allows me to locate a great number of foreign language Sherlock Holmes books.

It is like anything else, the more time spent using e-Bay the more efficient one becomes. They are continually upgrading and improving the site. It just takes s some time to explore all of the possibilities and see what feels right. I am sure if given a little time; e-Bay will yield many treasures. It has for me.

Happy Collecting!