Doesn’t look like much does it? You’re looking at the cover of a 1991 Disney Christmas CD called The Twelve Days of Christmas. The cover is kind of understated but it’s an album of Disney characters singing a mix of holiday classics and original songs sung some of which my parents think are cheesy. That said, those same parents also didn’t “get” Muppets Most Wanted which is literally a movie for small children so their credibility is low right now.
I unabashedly loved this album, which we had on cassette tape when I was a kid. It wasn’t really the holidays until I listed to it, which I did, pretty much on repeat all December. But, as cassette tapes aren’t the thing they once were, it became harder and harder for me to listen to it when I had nothing handy that could play it.
My daughter and I listen to a lot of Disney music and she is very into Mickey, Minnie and the gang. I just knew this was right in her wheelhouse right now and it was making me so sad I had no way to play it for her when I knew she’d love it.
Unfortunately, this is apparently a lot of people’s favorite album and it’s been out of print for years so second hang copies were $50 or more but it was obscure enough that it’s not available digitally. Every year I’d look, balk at the prices, and get sad that I still didn’t have a way to listen to it. Disney’s cannibalized this CD and edited the tracks for other releases but the original has a story to it so it’s just not the same out of context.
But this year I decided I might actually be insane enough to pay that amount if it meant I could share this with my daughter. The cheapest Amazon has it is still $30+ even in poor shape so I turned to eBay. Long story short, I ended up winning two auctions, each copy costing me about $13 total with shipping. (Randomly, though one seller was in Canada and one in the US, despite shipping the same day, they arrived the same day.) I bid on two because both sounded like they were in iffy condition but both were actually excellent.
I popped the CD in the day after I got it and, as expected, the little one loved it. And even though it’s been easily 5+ years since I heard this album, I realized immediately that I knew every single word, even of the original songs. I also couldn’t get through even the upbeat comedic songs without tearing up because I was just so happy (lest you people think I have any street cred at all).
But I was thinking to myself how this is why all the articles in the world can herald the death of eBay and it’s not ever going to happen. Because, try as they might, there is still no other marketplace that can even begin to compete with the side of eBay that is pure nostalgia machine. When you think of some obscure thing, particularly from your past, the first place you’re always going to think of when it comes to buying or selling it, is eBay.
There’s something very comforting about it, knowing so much of your past isn’t really lost, it’s there for the taking on that silly little marketplace we love to hate. I guess this is just my way of saying, Happy Holidays, eBay. You’re like that really annoying relative that I end up arguing with at every family gather but I’d really miss you if you were gone.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to listen to my Christmas music, cry, and double my money on the second copy of this CD I just bought by reselling it…
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