meBay

I've spent a lot of time on eBay the last few months, selling off some old and picking up some new. Usually, it's toys - and mostly, it's Masters of the Universe.

My good friend Mike (from whose digs I've just returned - more on that soon) provided me an intense primer on how to list my items, and his recommendations netted great transactions.

Key to the strategy is ensuring you have high-quality photos to represent your wares. That means they should be well-lit, in focus, and display your goods in a fashion that easily and accurately conveys their condition.

So I worked hard on my pics. Here's an example:



Now, sometimes it's not as important to show your things in their best light. They might be out of their original packages, or missing some of their parts. But I've never seen a listing with a photo like this one, where the seller represents his offering pretty much how it probably looked in his toybox back during the 80s:



Starting top left, I see 2 Clawfuls, Hordak body-surfing across his henchman Leech, my man Trap-Jaw with his belt on backwards, Blast Attak nose-diving into what looks like tablecloth or a carpet, Mer-Man getting kicked in the face by Zodak, and Thunder-Punch He-Man making a cowardly attack on Grizzlor from behind.

I honestly can't tell who else is in there. Is that a Transformer bottom left? I see random plastic limbs protruding from the edges. Might even be a Mekaneck or a Webstor up top in the middle.

Maybe the selling point here is classic "grab-bag" joy: you never know just what you'll find. But eBay sellers and buyers are rather partial to W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. (What You See Is What You Get). So in this case what you're getting, as far as I can tell, is a He-Man battle royale - perhaps shipped in this very configuration - from one person's toybox to yours at home.

For my part, I thank this fine seller for a good laugh.