Life Lessons from eBay

By The Inside Source
February 3, 2010

Toland Grinnell becomes an expert at pretty much whatever he sets his mind to. As an artist and sculptor, he was represented by the renowned Mary Boone gallery (dealer for artists including Jean Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Ross Bleckner), and has his work in museums and collections around the world. In 2004, when he and his wife, SunHee Grinnell, the Beauty Director at Vanity Fair, had their son, Roman, Grinnell shifted courses, creating utilitarian bags for families to tote their stuff. While his bags were practical and aimed at the mass market, they were perfectly chic and became instant collectibles.

These days, Grinnell is focusing on the restoration of historical buildings, primarily in his hometown of New York City. And on weekends, he is an avid snowboarder. (In fact, the whole family has fallen in love with snowboarding, having made friends with an another family who turned them on to the sport.) From the first time his board hit the slopes about two years ago, Grinnell just knew he was going to really get into the sport. He decided to buy used snowboarding gear at affordable prices, so he could upgrade for the following season once he really knew what he needed. eBay was a natural place to look. While he had dabbled in eBay previously, his new snowboarding habit transformed him into a religious user. Now he turns to eBay for equipment for snowboarding equipment and tools for his restoration projects, not to mention the occasional discontinued toy.

From Grinnell: “Virtually everything I bought for my snowboarding, I got on eBay—I knew it wasn’t worth buying anything full price. I bought everything so cheap—it’s such a trend-based sport—I got a $300 board for $9.99, $270 bindings for $59 and a $100 helmet for less than $10. This year, it’s a little different, though…people are holding on to their stuff for longer in this economy. And that’s the beauty of eBay; it totally mirrors the markets. You really can learn a lot from eBay—I had an amazing interaction with my niece and nephew, over Thanksgiving, when we spent the long weekend together. They’re both nine, and were very curious about what I was doing, looking at all these tools on eBay. I figured it was a good opportunity to let them see how the free market works, so we chose a couple of Lego items, followed them, and picked up a lot of economic and life lessons along the way.

"There are a whole bunch of rules about business life built into the eBay site, like, 'Why isn’t the same thing the same price?' [from two different sellers]. And then there are lessons about soft costs, like shipping: My niece and nephew learned that since they live on the East Coast, it would be cheaper to buy an item from an East Coast seller, rather than a West Coast seller. They learned about weight and how that affects shipping costs. We figured out that its best to bid on an auction that ends on a holiday because not as many people are going to be bidding. And they decided that the best time to buy Legos is to find an auction that ends at night because that’s when kids are in bed."

Toland on snowboarding deals:

“Although there aren’t good deals on snowboarding equipment this season (again, because I think nobody is 'trading up' and unloading last years stuff), the best values seem to be on clothing—pants, jackets, gloves, helmets. There is always new Burton, Special Blend, and DC clothing on eBay. I think people or semi-pros just have too much clothing and they are endlessly dumping on eBay without ever using it.”

Getting gloves for the whole family at discounted prices on eBay makes a lot of sense, because if you lose one or both, it doesn’t sting as much as if you paid full price.

Roll over items for details

Burton Boys Snowboarding Gloves

(buy it now price, $16.99)

Burton Mens Snowboarding Gloves

(buy it now price, $42.99)

Burton Womens Snowboarding Gloves

(buy it now price $37.95)

You can upgrade your jacket every year (even to a brand new style) and still get a deal.

Special Blend Youth Snowboarding Jacket

(buy it now price, $99.99)

Burton Womens Snowboarding Jacket

(buy it now price $89)

DC Mens’ Snowboarding Jacket

(buy it now price, $115.00)

Toland on tools and toys:

“One thing eBay is great for is stuff that gets discontinued; so many of the best tools get discontinued because they are too expensive to produce. The only place to buy them is on eBay."

“When I realized an awesome spelling game was discontinued, I bought it on eBay. It’s called Spell Time, and it’s the greatest spelling game ever. I guess it was a choking hazard for kids because it hasn’t been produced in 2-3 years. I got it for $10.”

Spell Time is one of those learning games that you should scoop up if you see it, since it's so hard to fine. You can always find all things Lego, though—today there 94,000 listings.