Peabody on eBay
I was excited a week or so ago to see pictures on eBay of several well-known Peabody residents. Hizzoner, Mayor Ed Slocombe was decked out in a PHS football uniform, as were Keith Harsh and Wes Pitts. Janie Hodges, my longtime Peabody pal, was a candidate for fall homecoming. Arlene Remple showed off a killer smile in her senior picture.
Actually, that is kind of scary, isn't it? Pick up the hometown newspaper, turn to the opinion column, and suddenly you feel like you are being stalked. Well, nothing sinister is afoot. A nice lady in Florida went to an estate sale a couple of years ago and bought a short stack of 1940s and '50s Peabody High School yearbooks. She posted several on eBay and they were fun to see.
So much fun, that I bought two of them.
There is a small circle of Peabody memorabilia buyers who scout out Peabody items, bid on them, and often score a long-forgotten calendar, postcard, souvenir, or high school item. We run into one another's bids from time to time.
Sometimes something is offered that everyone wants. Sometimes we regular buyers of Peabody items scoff at a ridiculously high price on an item that is actually quite common. One or two postcards with early downtown street scenes come to mind as well as shots of the Santa Fe depot. Now and then some seller thinks he has something rare and prices a card at $30 or $50 or even $70. Of course, we old-timers sit back and snicker and eventually the card goes off without drawing a bid.
Having been a pretty steady buyer of Peabody memorabilia for about 25 years, five or six on eBay, I have a fair-sized collection. So do several others. Just for fun see if you can match these eBay "handles" with a real person. I am "marshauc," short for Marshall Auction. (If I had it to do over I would pick something less obvious and boring
Others are Zudi, geobentz, Whitey-in-Peabody, smiles 110, corrina1, mybabymya, 8thksyank, loggermanks, slaxinoz, reggie-reno, and dgh000. Who do you think they are?
I'm not going to tell, but I know all of them. That doesn't mean that they all live here. Some do and the rest of us have gotten to know each other because of our activity on eBay. We each have our favorites when it comes to selecting those things that we wish to acquire. I am pretty much an "I'll have it all" type person. I want postcards, yearbooks, calendars, china, glass, souvenir items, pens, pencils, just whatever. I think all of it is interesting. Some of the others think like I do. Some are more directed in their collecting.
We have our reasons for buying up all the Peabody items that are floating around out there. Many of us want to bring it all back here where it means something. What better place for it to be? Some of my purchases end up in a benefit auction to support Peabody Main Street.
It is all fun to see. You ought to check it out and shop for some memorabilia yourself. Just remember not to saddle yourself with boring and obvious titles. Pick a good one and we will see if we can figure out who you are. Hope to bump into you on eBay!
— SUSAN MARSHALL
