Shortly after I discovered the joys of bidding on ebay back in 2000 – I discovered that I could SELL items too. Being a broke college student, I was always lookin for ways to make a buck.
Back before the first internet bubble burst, there was a website called ‘hoopdreams’ and it was marketed as an all things basketball site – the first of its kind. They had big plans for it but I never saw anything really substantial. The only thing I really remember about it was that it had a black and orange color scheme and was only around for about 3-6 months before it was done. I may even have the name wrong…I’m not totally sure.
Anyway, as part of their ‘go live’ promotion, they decided they were going to give away a free pair of sneakers every hour on the hour to the first person that could correctly answer a basketball trivia question on their site. After seeing the first one I realized that anyone could answer these questions. The questions were really simple…they were a lot like:
“Which point guard from Georgetown is now playing for the 76ers?”
a. Shaquille O’neal
b. Michael Jordan
c. Allen Iverson
Every couple of hours I’d give it another shot (the internet was extremely slow back then so it would crash often)…I remember getting at least 5 or 6 before I gave up thinking ‘there’s no way this company is going to send me free shoes. this is a waste of time’.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, I received a couple of packages:
Nike Air Zoom Flight 95’s – the J Kidds – and some Adidas Shelltoe Superstars. I was ecstatic, but I didn’t really like the way either fit. I decided to try and sell them on ebay…I don’t remember what I got for each pair…probably around $50-$60 each…I just remember I found a great new way to make some money that didn’t involve getting paid $4 an hour.