The downside of Ebay

This is somewhat off topic, and isn't about shill bidding, fake patches, fees, or anything of the sort.

As many of you know, I'm a horror movie nut. I've actually started collecting horror DVDs. I think I have around 150 or so. Much like cards, some are easy to find, some aren't. Some are serially numbered. Some have been out of print for a decade or more. And much like cards, there are numerous different DVDs of Friday the 13th...much like there are many different Pujols cards. Not all cards of the same player, or DVDs of the same movie, are equal.

Since I'm relatively new to this hobby, I'm collecting in an old school manner - hitting up used record stores, swap meets, pawn shops, hoping to land an occasional OOP steal at best buy, trading on Internet discussion groups. 99% of these movies can be found on EBay. I don't care. I'd rather drive around town on a Saturday afternoon searching for a movie I haven't been able to locate for several months. I probably pay 1.5-3x more than eBay. But you know what? I we t out and busted my ass to find it. I get much more satisfaction from that than hopping online and making two clicks to buy it. At least in this new hobby, the thrill of the chase is still there.

Same with cards, kinda. I searched for several years for a 97 Finest gold embossed ref Conine. Then one popped up on eBay and all it took was a few seconds to buy it. Don't get me wrong I love the card, but it means very little to me. The 1988 Best minor league card worth two cents means more to me by far. Never found it in a shop, finally had to go through the SCD classifieds in 95 and call dozens of dealers to finally locate it.

Ebay makes things too easy. People are spoiled. Hopefully I never turn to Ebay to find horror movies. It'd ruin all the fun

you like older horror films too, or just modern?
some of the stuff from the 30's and 40 's was just great.
Original Black Cat, leopard man, dead of night to name a few.

I agree, Ebay kills the thrill of the hunt. I still love going to the LCS, shows or to the flea market but laziness to often makes ebay the place to shop, kinda feels like it's just to easy. Might as well go big game hunting at the zoo.

boomo said:

you like older horror films too, or just modern?
some of the stuff from the 30's and 40 's was just great.
Original Black Cat, leopard man, dead of night to name a few.

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Haven't really go in to it. I have a bunch of horror collection 50 movie packs. Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi type stuff. I like Freaks, White Zombie, and ****** Spring. That's about the extent of my vintage appreciation.

I like stuff from 70-85, mostly

I hear ya. I remember going from shop to shop to flea market to shop trying to snag an 89 Barry Sanders Score rookie card. Never got one back then. Thanks to ebay I landed a PSA 7 for a few bucks with just a few clicks. I still have it because it's a card I've always wanted but it means nothing to me now.

For horror movies I've been trying to find Clownhouse for a long time. The DVD is OOP, I have seen the movie once when it came out in 1990 but am dying to see it again to refresh my memory on the film. They go for pretty crazy amounts online... [ebay:24p2xvse]300454154719[/ebay:24p2xvse]

Ha, I bought Clownhouse awhile back from a going out of business sale. Cost me like six bucks. Didn't know it was worth anything...Nice

I found my most wanted, and also most "I shouldn't ever watch this movie," DVD last week. It's called Philosophy Of A Knife. Watch the trailer. It's a war movie. It's ****** up and I'm not sure if I can sit through 4 hours of it

Hmmmmm...this is a good topic. Made me think.
I remember the days of card shows and card shops. I liked it back then! Yes, the thrill of finding something in that setting is exciting (still happens every once in a while). Although, I still remember trading $300+ worth of cards for a Gwynn card that can be had for $10 now. $200 for cards that can be had for $5 now... I know that is a sign of the times, and just the way it goes. However, now, I have a bad taste in my mouth for how it used to be: card shops selling too high, card show dealers practically stealing from us collectors (yes, I haven't met a card show dealer that I think too highly of- they're greedy! Name of the game! I get it!)

I am a player collector. One player. Any card I find now is exciting, whether I find in on Ebay, Sportlots, Becket, card shop, wherever. I love it, AND no bad taste in my mouth, ever. I have options thanks to Ebay, and the ability to be patient if I want to. I could never go back.

JoshHamilton said:

Ha, I bought Clownhouse awhile back from a going out of business sale. Cost me like six bucks. Didn't know it was worth anything...Nice

I found my most wanted, and also most "I shouldn't ever watch this movie," DVD last week. It's called Philosophy Of A Knife. Watch the trailer. It's a war movie. It's fracked up and I'm not sure if I can sit through 4 hours of it

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Watching the trailer, that seems to sum it up pretty nicely.


As for the topic at hand, it's always more fun when you can pull or hunt down a card in person. I wouldn't say buying things from eBay makes me like a particular card less, but it's definitely more special when you have the chase element.

JoshHamilton said:

Ha, I bought Clownhouse awhile back from a going out of business sale. Cost me like six bucks. Didn't know it was worth anything...Nice

I found my most wanted, and also most "I shouldn't ever watch this movie," DVD last week. It's called Philosophy Of A Knife. Watch the trailer. It's a war movie. It's fracked up and I'm not sure if I can sit through 4 hours of it

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classic, sam rockwells 1st film and the director of jeepers creepers.

i've always been a john carpenter fan. halloween is probably the most suspenseful true horror flick of the last few decades. i know every word to it, know wxactly when somethign will happen and i still jump. the fog, assault on previnvt 13 and in the mouth of madness are some good flicks as well... all by carpenter.

i also have about 4 or 5 versions of the original halloween (most on vhs), and i agree ebay does take away the thrill of it but for those of us who dont have an LCS (or a movie store like suncoast) near us we are hamstrung over it

Eh...if it weren't for ebay...I am not sure I'd have as great of a collection as I do. In my mind, ebay has made the hobby exponentially easier. In fact, I don't think I'd have it any other way. Especially with the kinds of cards they have out now, it would just really suck. Especially if you are a player collector. As it is ,it can be pure hell trying to locate certain cards. And that is with ebay. Can you imagine everything ,since pretty much 2000, having to be found at LCS and shows? Instead of a nice tidy list of stuff to check off, you'd be screwed for decades. Some dude up in some small town pulls a Bagwell card numbered to /1 and doesn't even want it. He can't get anything significant for it at the shop, doesn't do shows, and there is no ebay. So back home he goes and stuffs it away in a box filled with tons of other players never to see the light of day until his kids find it after he dies and gives it to their 3 year old son to slobber on.

Not to mention the prices. If you like paying more then that's cool. I will too on an item if I see it in person first and need it. But that's cool only on a small time basis. I don't want to pay high BV on every damn card I want.


Yeah...I like ebay.

Depending on what you're looking for the chase is still there. The thing I can't believe is even with ebay certain cards rarely pop up anyway.

Overall though, you're right. It did kill the chase for many "common" cards.

I see both sides of the ebay debate...

For me, ebay is actually what got me back INTO collecting. Unfortunately not everyone lives in a large market area (LA, NY, Chicago, etc.) where there are card shops all over the place. When I did get back into collecting, I lived in Ellensburg, WA...and for anyone that knows anything about Washington State, there is NOTHING in Eastern Washington.

Hell, even in Western Washington there unfortunately isn't a lot, and we NEVER have card shows. The few that we do are the same thing over and over, and sadly, for someone who collects Harold Reynolds, you can't EVER find anything of him. Most of these cards shows have very little wax. It's mostly vintage, Ichiro and miscellaneous Mariners Game-Used cards.

I do miss the days of large card shows and just going to look at people's stuff, and I truly don't believe that ebay killed that...I think the direction of the hobby has killed that (at least out here).

I would definitely prefer going to a card shop (which is where I buy all of my non-case wax), but any singles I purchase are strictly 100% from ebay, and I wouldn't have the Harold Reynolds collection that I do without ebay.

Regarding the Horror DVD portion of this thread, another good place to check out are local record stores (not the big name ones, but the local independent stores). I know a lot of the record stores up here buy used CD's and DVD's, so they've generally got a good selection of used DVD's where you can probably find some good stuff you're looking for.

Sly said:

When I did get back into collecting, I lived in Ellensburg, WA...and for anyone that knows anything about Washington State, there is NOTHING in Eastern Washington.

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Central Washington University class of 1992 here... did you go there, too?

gwynn5453l4u said:

Sly said:

When I did get back into collecting, I lived in Ellensburg, WA...and for anyone that knows anything about Washington State, there is NOTHING in Eastern Washington.

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Central Washington University class of 1992 here... did you go there, too?

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Absolutely! Class of 2000!! Go Wildcats!

Interestingly there is an old guy who sets up a table at the local card shows who appeared in many horror movies in the 50's or 60's. He sells DVD's of the movies at his table (no cards, just horror movie stuff). I never paid any attention (and neither does anyone else), but next time I'll give him a look.

Its interesting to think whether ebay/the internet enabled card companies to make more releases. Without ebay people would've been less willing to invest in certain products. Even non-prospecting ones, because many people think that "If I get something I don't want, I can always sell whatever I did pull online".

I'd wager there would've been far fewer releases without ebay/the internet. Also interesting to think how great inserts and parallels were right before the advent of ebay, and how great the hobby was; some people think quality has declined with the advent of ebay. I'm not saying the hobby sucks now, but cards were very interesting during the mid-late 90s...

predatorkj said:

Eh...if it weren't for ebay...I am not sure I'd have as great of a collection as I do. In my mind, ebay has made the hobby exponentially easier. In fact, I don't think I'd have it any other way. Especially with the kinds of cards they have out now, it would just really suck. Especially if you are a player collector. As it is ,it can be pure hell trying to locate certain cards. And that is with ebay. Can you imagine everything ,since pretty much 2000, having to be found at LCS and shows? Instead of a nice tidy list of stuff to check off, you'd be screwed for decades. Some dude up in some small town pulls a Bagwell card numbered to /1 and doesn't even want it. He can't get anything significant for it at the shop, doesn't do shows, and there is no ebay. So back home he goes and stuffs it away in a box filled with tons of other players never to see the light of day until his kids find it after he dies and gives it to their 3 year old son to slobber on.

Not to mention the prices. If you like paying more then that's cool. I will too on an item if I see it in person first and need it. But that's cool only on a small time basis. I don't want to pay high BV on every damn card I want.


Yeah...I like ebay.

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I am a big fan of WRONG TURN 1, 2 and 3. CLASSIC movies where they are getting comical.

As much as I love horror movies and will talk about them all day long, this thread isn't about horror movies per se.

It's like someone who has always dreamed about owning a Ferrari but could never afford one. Then they win $26 million in the lotto and they immediately run out and buy an F60. I know this is kind of a dumb comparison, but both Ebay and the situation I provided are both examples of killing the 'accomplishment' factor of acquiring something, in a strange way

I bought out a Video store's horror collection (well, only the things I didn't have on VHS or DVD already). Spent like $40 on 35 vids w/orignal sleeves. I was stoked.