EBAY...And How it Changed my Life

by Beverly Sutton

The computer and the marvel of the Internet has changed all our lives forever. In the “olden days”, we collectors would scout the antique malls and the little out of the way shops on every highway we could travel. It might take months to find our latest “quest”...be it that perfect cookie jar we were looking for at that great bargain price, or any number of the other treasures we collect. While those shops still have their appeal, now all we have to do is surf the Net to the thousands of sites of individual sellers or hit one of the many cyber auctions to find just what our hearts desire.

Along the way of finding the perfect collectible, many of us have found more. We have found friendship. I have chatted with some truly wonderful people, and I call them my “friends”, even though I have not actually met some of them yet. We share our lives. We share our sorrows. We laugh together and cry together. Just as members Sandi and Merla have discovered each other via the Internet (see Sandi’s article titled “How Has the Internet Changed the Face of Cookie Jar Collecting?” under December ‘99), I, too, have found my “cyber twin”.

It all started for me in July, 1998. As I was thumbing through a magazine one night, I saw an ad for Ebay, an Internet auction site. I hurriedly typed in the site address and was amazed at what came up on my screen! So many categories from which to choose! My husband and I just started typing in items in the search feature, and soon we discovered that we could literally find anything! After a couple of nights playing with the site, I registered. Now we could get down to serious business! I had been searching for many years for a doll I had wanted as a child, so I typed in “Thumbelina”. Up came a page showing 14 of them! I scanned every one of them until I found just the right one! I placed my first bid! The waiting was horrible! The auction had a few days remaining, and we would check my Thumbelina every night. I remember as if it were yesterday how we sat at the computer as the auction was coming to a close on the morning of July 4. My husband was determined that I was going to get that doll, so he kept telling me to get ready to bid higher. I did get outbid, and I bid again with only a few seconds left. I got my doll!!!! After waiting for 38 years, I finally had my Thumbelina - thanks to the Internet and Ebay. My husband, too, found many items he had been wanting since childhood, and some he didn’t even know he wanted until he found them there, and we became Ebay regulars!

Having an agricultural background, we also collect the old signs and thermometers advertising seed, chemicals and equipment for farming. I started typing in various names, and hit upon Pioneer, the international seed company. After scanning the listings for several minutes, I found a Pioneer Seed Corn Cookie Jar. Pay dirt! Farm advertising and a cookie jar in one! I placed my bid (after emailing the seller to make sure of a couple of points I needed clearing up). Yep, we got that jar!

It just seemed “natural” to email this seller...a stranger...and tell her something about us. After all, not everyone would want a Pioneer Seed Corn Cookie Jar, I thought. As we emailed back and forth, we discovered we had more in common than this cookie jar. We had “life” in common. She and her husband lived on a farm. Just like us. She and her husband had two children. Just like us. She and her husband worked together on the farm. Just like us. The more we emailed, the more we discovered. It was amazing! Here we were, two women, two families, more than 500 miles apart, yet everything we said just seemed like an echo - like parallel universes! She could finish my sentences, and I hers. Even our thoughts were similar (that was, and is, VERY scary!). On messaging programs, we would often type in the same thing at the same time!!! How lucky for us that we both collect cookie jars, yet different lines! Other collections (like carnival glass) are similar! Viewpoints and opinions on current issues of the problems of the world were similar, not just hers and mine, but her husband’s and my husband’s viewpoints were mirrored in these emails. This was getting out of hand! Something had to be done!

After hundreds of emails back and forth, yet only less than three months since my fateful cookie jar purchase on Ebay, we decided to meet. It was decided that we would come to where they lived. She not only gave me directions to her town, but she gave me directions straight to her house! When we arrived, we were greeted by her and her daughter - riding up on a four-wheeler with the rest of her family doing repairs on top of the barn! Now, these were our kind of folks! True kindred spirits! Farm families always take care of matters at hand no matter what! She had dinner in the oven, and we had brought their favorite homemade chocolate cake. The usual talk of getting to know each other in person carried the conversation, with the occasional mention of “ax murderers” thrown in! We all had a great laugh when their teen-age daughter told that her friends at school said we might be that! But, nobody had an ax, she had not poisoned the meal, and we had not poisoned the cake. We all talked until past midnight and made plans for our visit there. By the next day, their son and daughter were calling us “aunt” and “uncle”. A lifetime friendship had been sealed.

I can’t count all the emails since our first visit with them. I can’t keep track of the hours we chat or the number of messages we send back and forth. The number of cookie jars on Ebay that we have viewed together is astonishing, and what we have learned together about our collections and the collections of other is amazing.

Thank you to the Internet. Thank you to Ebay. But, most of all....thank you, winniecarol.

Smoky on the Left, Winnie on the Right!