 | I started the Gymboree-Lines website when I was pregnant with my son in 1997. I discovered eBay and then the Gymboree discussion groups on yahoo, where fellow fantics talked about blankets, clothes, and sold one another their used clothes! It wasn't long before I had my favorite line that I wanted to start collecting for my yet-to-be-born son, Ethan. It was called Forest Friends. I knew this only because that's what the women on-line told me. I had an impossible time finding pieces to this line because sellers on eBay didn't know the line name either - so I would search for hours thru endless pages of auctions to find pieces to add to my collection! Then it came to me... why not start a webpage with the line names & include pictures! THE IDEA WAS BORN and the rest is history!
I began cataloging line names, images, descriptions on a single page and publishing it for women in the discussion group to use as a reference. Was not long before it was 2 pages.. one for girls and one for boys. The database just kept growing as the site caught on to eBayers and other discussion groups! Next thing I knew, eBayer sellers were emailing me to tell me their auctions are selling for MORE money when they list the line name! AH HA! More precise auction titles makes it easier for buyers to locate lines they are looking for - thus more bids & higher prices!
I was on to something with this idea of making a pictoral history of Gymboree! In 1998, within a year of its conception, I had collected thousands of images (note: this was before the days of Gymboree.com and the dot.com revolution) and the site was receiving THOUSANDS of visitors every day! By 2001, I could no longer afford to single-handedly pay for hosting and all the costs associated with running such an enormous website! What started as a labor of love was maxing out my credit card and the few donations I received were thoughtful, but not enough to cover the monthly fees! The bandwidth and traffic to the site forced me to look to bigger & more reliable web hosts & servers- none of which were remotely close to free! I started charging a nominal fee, and this is when other line ID sites began to spring up, attempting to copy the content I had spent years compiling! Make no mistake though.. 'Gymboree-Lines.com' is still, by FAR, THE most comprehensive, complete, easy to navigate lines ID site on the web! If you have Gymboree you need to ID, THIS is the place you are gonna find it!
Danielle Miles
www.Gymboree-Lines.com
Ebay ID: Gymboree-Lines | |