EDITORIAL > ABBA ON EBAY

ABBA on eBay | 19 June 2007

It is such a fascinating game to obtain items for your ABBA collection with the help of sites like eBay. In the past I bought a couple of things, but the auction virus has finally got me now.

The reason for that is the annual ABBA day. I use to sell my ABBA fan CDs and DVD there. You know, the ones you can see elsewhere on this site (yes, that's a shameless plug!). Anyway I thought it would be fun to sell other ABBA goodies at the ABBA day, so I went searching on the internet. And well, it's very hard not to get in touch with eBay then.

eBay is the eldorado for buyers and sellers. I can't think of an other place where there is so much competition and freedom to sell or buy. If you look for ABBA items on eBay, simply tick the "look worldwide" box and you will instantly spot 3500 items. There are common singles that are offered for ridiculous prices, claiming that "this is such a rare record". Well wake up, I'd say � But on the other hand eBay sometimes offers fabulous items for pretty low prices.

Oh well, low prices? Hmm, maybe in the beginning of eBay. But not now anymore. Most sellers pretty well seem to know the value of the items they offer. And the annoying thing is that usually people tend to spend just a tiny bit more for an eBay-item than what they would have paid if the item would have appeared in a old fashioned second hand record shop in town. Simply because placing bids is so easy. You just don't like to see the item go to other collectors. Is that greedy? Oh yes! Pathetic? Definitely! Expensive? Well, most of the time! Addictive? Absolutely.

You really must give control over your credit card to someone else as long as you surf the eBay pages. It is so terribly hard not to buy all those beautiful Japanese singles, those phenomenal promos, those fantastic memorabilia from the 70s and those fab coloured vinyl records. You can find all the really rare ABBA stuff on eBay. The true sport is to buy a rare item for as little as possible. Because only then you feel like you made a fantastic deal.

And what a difference compared to 20 years ago. Back then you used to get a magazine called Record Collector monthly. And then it took ages to find interesting ABBA items in the ads. And after that it took weeks before you received the item you purchased. Oh yes, the internet is a collector's paradise. Long live eBay!