Member since: Sep 27, 1996 - 348 transactions. In other words, Slacker! But I was an early member.

Makes me wonder how many people were on the system in 1995? Really? Or was it started but not open yet?

Seems like just yesterday they were trading Pez dispensers on the web rather than smart phones

I joined Nov-01-97, and have had about 4200 transactions. You used to be able to tell how many buys and how many sells but no longer. One of my first transactions was with wimpys who now have a feedback score of over 6000 and dingram who has nearly 11,000 feedback!

In addition to buying and selling casino chips and tokens, I sold a number of antique crystal items I inherited from my Aunt and several empty brass artillery shells I inherited from my Uncle who was in Ordnance during WW1.

Truly a game-changer for hobbyists. Thank you Pierre Omidyar!

There were some growing pains, like being able to leave positive or negative, without ever dealing with someone. That was the Wild West. Known as the world largest fence, it seems to have worked out OK for honest people too. I had two bad transactions in all those years. One just happened to be a chipper who we discovered through this BB, was having mail stolen from his doorstep. (until he was caught selling the same items, he claimed never received)?

The other was a laptop that was broken up, bits and pieces and no legal OS, parts missing, misrepresented memory and speed. I returned it, but the guy had emptied his account and PayPal couldn't reverse the transaction. Now they offer protection. Never did get my money back, but I did pay to ship back the computer UPS with signature confirmation? Pouring salt in the wound.

But it was a game changer for antiques and collectibles in a big way. Other marketing it opened doors to small home operations. I still go to auctions in the Winter and buy things that I resell on eBay. Not in a big way, but now and then I get a good buy and I flip it for spare income. That's how I can afford my photo, lenses and digital camera habits.

Chips are much better. They are easy to store, don't depreciate as much and aren't suddenly obsolete (in a bad way) by some new technology. In fact "obsolete" in casino collection is a good thing!