Can you picture that?

A few years ago, Palisades Toys put out a series of Muppet Show figurines to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that seminal puppet program. One of the coolest toys in the series was the Electric Mayhem playset, which consisted of a stage and drumkit, plus a figurine of Animal, the drummer with the foam-rubber band.

I didn’t buy it when I saw it in the stores for about $75, because, well, why would I want Animal without Dr Teeth, Floyd, Zoot and Janis? That made no sense. Then Palisades put out Dr Teeth, Floyd and Zoot figurines, and it all became clear – you had to buy them all separately. I get it. Still no Janis, though. I was confuzzled on that one.

Anyway, at that point I resolved to acquire the Electric Mayhem playset. I didn’t buy the other figurines, which cost about $12 each, because, well, why would I want them if I wasn’t sure I could get Animal? By that stage the playset had disappeared from the shelves, so I had to resort to eBay.

eBay. Only 10 years ago it was a meaningless assortment of oddly capitalised letters, and now it is the planet’s online marketplace. Billions of dollars change hands daily via its worldwide network of servers. Not bad for a site that was set up to swap Pez dispensers. It’s where I buy all my Pez dispensers.
I couldn’t find an Electric Mayhem playset locally, so I had to buy from the US. It cost me $US110, plus shipping. Because I’ve been burned on eBay before, I didn’t start buying the individual figures until it arrived.

Of course, by then they’d gone from the shelves (including Janis, who was released as part of a separate series for reasons best known to Palisades). I bought each of them on eBay for prices ranging from the not too bad ($US7 for Janis, plus shipping) to ridiculously pricey ($US50 for Zoot, plus shipping). The important thing was that I got them.

Of course, not all transactions were smooth sailing. The guy who sold me Floyd charged me £15 for shipping from the UK, and the label on the box clearly said he’d only paid £5 (plus a pound for the Postpak of course).

The important thing was, I got them. And they make a lovely set.

I mention this because a week or two back eBay acquired an online ticket-selling outfit called StubHub for $US300 million. Apparently StubHub had become eBay’s chief competitor in the online scalping market, so it was an important strategic move. Five years ago, eBay passed up the opportunity to buy the fledgling startup StubHub for $US20 million. Nice to know it happens to eBay too, eh?

The important thing is, they make a lovely set.

ebay matthew hardware