In and around the office I'm known as Ms. eBay. Basically whenever someone wants to sell off some of their wares, I seem to always field a ton of questions about selling on the leading auction giant.

In late December, I was having a conversation with one of the VPs about listing his old Nikon SLR camera on eBay. My company's president overheard this conversation, adding in that he was throwing away a lot of things he collected during his 11 year stint with Coca-Cola Enterprises.

The VP and I gasped at the thought. I mean how could anyone throw away things (collectibles no less) that much of the general population would pay good money for?

I immediately launched into my "Are you nuts?" speech, commenting that I knew for a fact that collectibles/advertising/soda/coca-cola was an extremely popular category on eBay.

Me and my big mouth!

What I ended up with in the following weeks was a spare bedroom full of Coke memorabilia and endless eBay item listings for it all.

Rewind.

I received two storage boxes full of Coke things in early January, and began listing the items on January 17th. I am now only about halfway through what I was originally given.

The stash includes numerous limited edition & numbered coke bottles, Olympic mementos and pin sets, original certificates of stock, executive-type gifts, annual reports dating back to 1925, and even a commemorative brick from the first Coke corporate headquarters!

Besides confirmation that people would pay good money for this stuff, What I've learned seems as endless as the items I have yet to list for sale.

First, my hunches were good ones. I mean, I originally let JKS tell me what I should sell his items for --- Big mistake! Once I began listing as I thought I should, the auctions turned out to be a lot more successful (in terms of bidders and final prices).

Second, there are more Coca-Cola collectors out there than I had originally thought. Not to mention, far more "types" of collectors than I could ever imagine. Did you ever think you would find a person who collected only Coke paperweights, Coke items from one particular Olympics, or items bottled during a particular year? Well, they're out there, and they're buying this stuff!

Along these lines, my email box is far more active than when I usually auction things. I have corresponded with many of the people who are placing bids on/buying these items, and they're from all over the world. Besides the US, I have shipped to Norway, Canada, Australia and France so far. And I now show a bidder from Singapore in one of my current listings, a beautiful hand-painted Coke bottle.

I've learned that there is a large market for old annual reports from various "key" companies throughout history. Companies such as old railroads, airlines and even Coca-Cola seem to be popular with the bidders. Who would have thought?

In addition, I have found out that Coca-Cola actually has a person known as the 'archivist' on their corporate staff. This guy's entire job responsibility revolves around cataloging the Coca-Cola Company's history --- What a trip! I contacted him while drafting the listing copy for the brick. I was even supplied an artist's rendition of the old office building from this man. Apparently, there were never any photographs taken of that building.

Finally, I've learned that inside every "well respected, civilized and stuffy" company president/COO, there is a little 2-year-old itching to wreak havoc upon the masses. I found myself scolding, reprimanding and chasing him around the entire time (figuratively speaking of course).

See, JKS was not familiar with eBay at all before 2001. For him, it was a new toy to play with, so to speak. From bidding on his own items (UGH!) and harassing me daily about descriptions in item listings, to leaving in the middle of dinner to see his items close and wirelessly emailing me from important business meetings just for an "update", I have seen a very personal side of this guy most will never see. I've learned he really is human after all. His poor-poor wife! [More on the specifics of these incidents to come in a future guest post.]

For the past several weeks, the "break room chat" centers around the JKS eBay auctions. It's really quite comical to see our entire staff caught up in all the hoopla.

You know what else? I find it absolutely fascinating that one product can affect so many people around the world in such a positive way. I bet some great marketing campaigns could be built around this theme. Heck, they probably already have been.

Well my learning experience is far from over. This past weekend, JKS has discovered even more things for me to auction off.