Flashback Product of the Week: 2005 eBay Live! Pop Culture Classic Listings

From what I hear, the eBay Live! annual conference was a pretty big deal.  I personally never attended any of them though.  But reading up on them, it sounds like sellers were treated like kings at one time.  eBay would listen to sellers, and offer fun classes to attend.  eBay is still the main place to buy/sell stuff, but I think that sense of community has really been lost.  Yeah, the message boards are still there, but it just doesn’t seem like it use to be.  eBay tends to care more about the buyers now.

Over the years, eBay has slapped their logo on tons of merchandise.  They use to have a store, but that closed up years ago.  Some of their merchandise has become quite collectible.  During the eBay Live! conference they gave out huge amounts of stuff.  That includes their own trading cards.

There was a card set made for almost every single eBay Live! event.  Each one has it’s own uniqueness about it, but the set made in 2005 seems to stand out the most to me.  Both from a design standpoint and subject matter.  eBay was celebrating it’s 10th anniversary in 2005.  They decided to create a set that commemorated the most notable items put up for sale up until that point.  The set consists of (13) cards.  Card fronts feature an animated drawing of a specific item on foil card stock.  On the reverse side, you’ll find a write-up about that item.  The checklist includes the following cards:

• Real Arkansas Civil War Dirt
• Size 12 Wedding Dress/Gown
• Early Blown Glass Cathedral Pickle Bottle
• 2005 Jay Leno Harley Davidson
• The Meaning of Life
• Gulfstream II Business Jet
• Kidney For Sale
• Oldest Known Pair of Levis Jeans
• Ghost Cane
• Ten Years of Community and Commerce
• Pierre Omidyar’s Broken Laser Pointer
• Shoeless Joe’s Bat
• Virgin Mary in Grilled Cheese

Shoeless Joe’s Bat refers to the famous “Black Betsy”.  It sold on August 7, 2001 for $577,610.  That was Joe Jackson’s main bat he used throughout his career.

These cards aren’t that difficult to find.  Ironically there usually is a good supply on eBay.  Its funny to think that eBay made cards.  But they did.

American Culture Influencing Baseball Card Design

Have you ever noticed how American culture sometimes carries over into the design of a baseball card?  Lets take 1955 Bowman baseball cards for example.  Look at any card from that set.  Do you see anything?  The cards are designed to look like a television.  Why do you think they did this?  I think they used this design because back in the 1950’s having a television was a new thing.  Now, if we fast forward a few decades you can see this happening again.  Does anyone remember those baseball cards that came on CD-ROM’s back in the mid to late 90’s?  I wonder why they did that?  Probably because during that time period computers we really starting to take off and everyone was getting connected to the internet.  How about the Topp’s 1991 Desert Shield set?  Because of Desert Storm Topps made a special set of cards for soldiers.  This set looks just like the regular Topps set except it has a special logo in the corner.  I wonder how future events in our country will change the way baseball cards or any sports cards look?  I guess time will only tell.