eBay and the creative process
Okay, so “WTF has eBay got to do with the creative process?”, you’re wondering. Good question!
What did we do before eBay came along? I’m not just talking about buying complete tat, rubbish we don’t really need, because there are an abundance of “bricks and mortar” places where we can do that. Charity shops sell all sorts of junk. Then there’s your good old fashioned junk shop, or second hand shop, and those ubititous “pound shops” (those places where everything is priced at £1 = cheap imports that fall to pieces/break as soon as you get them home, and you’re so embarassed to admit you bought something from one of those places you daren’t take it back – quite apart from the fact the bus fare to get there costs more than the £1 you paid for the item).
Then of course eBay provides us with a place to sell all those embarrassing 80s records we don’t usually admit to owning, or those jeans we’ve outgrown from 1995, which we post advertised as “vintage denim” (sounds much better). No, where eBay really comes into it’s own is in the fact that you can buy practically anything on eBay. “And this is a good thing?” you’re wondering. Well yes.
Say, for the sake of argument (having just had a quick look on eBay at auctions ending in the next few minutes), you wanted to buy a “Job lot of 71 Marvel/QC/Cliffhanger etc. – must see comics!” or a “Dual Hosepipe Shut-off connector fits Hozelock” – where would you even start searching for something like those online? Okay, so presumably you’d head on over to Google and start searching, but is there a particular shop you know of that sells those sorts of things? Do they have an online presence? With eBay it’s all under one roof, so to speak, and you can compare similar items from a number of sellers, and pick up some stuff that’s either common tat, or something really rare and unique. Then of course there’s the thrill of beating off the competition to bag that bargain just a nano-second before the auction ends… 
“BUT WTF HAS EBAY GOT TO DO WITH THE CREATIVE PROCESS?” you’re still wondering. Well my recent purchases on eBay include, amongst other things, a brass ashtray, an old road-map from the 60s, a hotel room key from the 60s, assorted postcards, an old car licence plate, and a model toy truck. Where else but on eBay could you find such an odd assortment of things? How would you even start searching for such things elsewhere?The sellers may have described them as “vintage”, and some might describe them as “rubbish”, but to me they’re something far more important. They’re inspiration.
To actually be able to hold something in my hands, to look up close at, and to study things that come from the era and the area I’m writing about brings part of that world into my world, and actually being able to see those things infront of me, rather than just trying to imagine in my mind’s eye what they would have looked like, makes them real. They’re more real now to me, and maybe, if I do it right, they might be more real to readers of my story as well.
Little did those eBay sellers know it, but when they posted those packages to me, sometimes from far away, that those “vintage” items they posted on eBay to clear out some room in an over-stuffed cupboard or attic, or on the off-chance that someone just might be interested in them, for whatever reason, they’d cease being just old bits and pieces that might possibly be of interest to someone who collects odd things, but now they’re momentos of a story.
So now their transformation begins in earnest, the transformation from inspiration into momentos, because as my story progresses they become more than inspiration, and actually become part of the story itself, because each of them, in their own way, plays a part in the story. Nowhere else on the web could you find the ‘props’ to make that happen.
