I have been running a modest eBay consignment company since last October,
and I must say it is a very challenging marketplace. We will not accept
anything from the ground, any artifacts looted from underwater sites, any
prehistoric artifacts, or ethnographic items for sale, but that hasn't
stopped people from trying to get us to sell them. I have learned a great
deal about 20th century material culture while doing this, as well as about
the many scams that are being tried by both buyers and sellers on eBay. All
in all, I have to say the worldwide supply of everything has matched demand
at this point, and that eBay is becoming more of a flea market every day.

Pat Garrow


> [Original Message]
> From: Robert L. Schuyler <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 6/17/2005 7:35:10 PM
> Subject: EBAY
>
> A number of list members have made some excellent points about Ebay (e.g.
> the need to actually purchase an item under
> certain circumstances - dimensions, good illustration copy). I will
> incorporate them in my presentation.
>
> Ebay is an amazing tool = 100,000 flee market visits.
>
> Yes, you do have to be careful about seller information. One of my
favorite
> recent example was an early postcard showing,
> according to the seller,  the "Nazi" fleet in the Battle of Jutland. Most
> of the sellers are very helpful and they can give detailed information
> about some items. They can also sometimes send you to organizations or
> collector groups that you did not know about.
>
> They do at the same time some odd things. A year ago I bought a very
> interesting early postcard album made up completely of
> holiday images (e.g. Christmas, Easter). The seller wanted to be sure the
> item got to me in fine shape so she
> removed all the cards and mailed them separately from the album. In the
> process she totally destroyed the original
> order of the cards the album owner had created. We could only reconstruct
> those card sequences for a few pages she
> had scanned for Ebay. When I told her about this she was embarrassed but
> told me she never thought the original order
> would be of any concern but she would never disassemble such a document in
> the future.
>
> ETHICAL PROBLEMS
>
> The specific problem, as one person pointed out, is the problem of looted
> (dug up) artifacts. I avoid these items but do go for
> "estate" examples (bottles) on which the paper labels are still intact.
>
> A broader problem is that Ebay (cf. the Antique Road Show) is putting a
> price on all artifacts and documents which in the
> past were considered junk or of little value.  However, this intrusion of
> the marker place is certainly counterbalanced by the
> fact that most of such items would have never ended up in the local
> historical society but would have gone into the
> trash and been lost forever. Also concentrated collections are now being
> assembled that hopefully might eventually get willed to
> a proper archive or society. [Some of us need to consider doing a will !].
>
>                                                                  RLS
>
>
>
>
> Robert L. Schuyler
> University of Pennsylvania Museum
> 3260 South Street
> Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
>
> Tel: (215) 898-6965
> Fax: (215) 898-0657
> [log in to unmask]