I feel sorry for antique malls, antique shops, some antique and Collectible shows since ebay has come along...ebay and other online venues are putting damper on many of their sales, for sure...

Ditto for antique shows, fleamarkets....

I bet ebay is also hurting sales in catalogs, books, magazines, etc specialty stores, as well....

ebay is a giant conveneience to many many people but is hurting, affecting sales at many kinds of stores/outlets

ebay is CONVENIENCE...they are casuing MANY of the above to lose customers thus losing sales/money...how and why do I say this?? The EASE it is to find any HARD TO FIND item, such as NEWEST PLAYSTATION, SPECIFIC ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES as finding such right at your fingertips is a breeze now just by inserting WHAT you are looking for into SEARCH at ebay (or other online selling venue).

PRE-ebay, once would have to go to various fleamarkets, antique shows, antique mall, antique shops LOOKING for their particular collectible. Imagine spending countless hours into weeks of trying to find that elusive collectible you want to find for your mom's or own collection?

Besides, now you, the COLLECTOR is saving money by saving TIME is the big savings but also gas (now that price per gallon has gone up so much), saving time and expense of having to use your vehicle, cab, bus to get to these places to find or seek out your item, making the TIME to go searching for your item..

This also holds true for home furnishings, etc, let's say you are seeking the old 1960's Avocado matching to coordinate in her kitchen small appliances to match your mom's Refrigerator, Stove  you would have to search and go out how many Saturdays, waste how much gass looking for that PERFECT item that's used, you may ONLY find at a fleamarket or garage sale to garage sale for that SPECIAL HARD TO FIND ITEM...and you've searched for week st yard /tag sales, but now, the EASE of inserting such into ebay search shows you all kinds of items.... 

...or maybe you are seeking that NEW PLAYSTATION, but since you work, you had no time to camp out in line to get it at your local electronics store, but an ebayseller did indeed, you will have to pay MORE than store price, if you are LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND ONE, but at least you would INDEED find iut at ebay. 

Clothingwise, even. you've finalized your plans for your vacation, you gotta thaw out in Florida, let's say your whole wardroibe is polka dots, but even though you live in coldest Upstate NY, you want to add a TEENY YELLOW POLKA DOTTED BIKINI for that upcoming trip ...whatever it is you are looking for, you can find it on ebay!BUT Pre-ebay, you'd have to call how many stores looking for this item? Half ther stores would probably hang up on you thinking you are a prankster....

Ditto for DISCREET items like certain toiletries or MATURE AUDIENCE items, easy as pie on ebay and how much more discreet can you get? What if you found yourself in need of a special birthday present like a  SEXY purple lacy bra and panties or garter belt you wanna buy for that special lady (or man or your own self)? Think how hard it would be for you to walk into Intimate Lingeries department in your local department store and looking around? Or maybe you are indeed a man who wears ladies' garments come on, now, ebay is VERY DISCREET.... Few men could walk into a lingerie dept and ask, I am loooking for a bra or lacy panties for myself...Many men would be embarassed or how about walking into Victoria's Secret-well, uh,  I'm looking for.... 

I think you get my drift-ebay's convenience is great-do be sure the seller charges actual shipping, or reasonable shipping or handling as it may cost you more than you anticipated...Registering on ebay is FREE.