i dont know about mtgox, i never seen that, but the shitty exchanges i used, even in 2015 only had like daily $50 volumen with 20-30 listed coins.
You definitely traded on shit exchanges then.
None of the exchanges i used were supporting money, so you was only able to trade one coin to another, so you needed coins to trade for other coins.
Kraken and bitstamp started in 2011 too, only 2 years from the first block.
In 2010 the main source was mining and faucets (eg I got 25 from Gavin's facuet).
Personally i have seen and started using the first usable marketplace in 2015, it was called WeSellDoges.com, later rebranded as WeSellCrypto.com by Greg Cronheim, accepting PayPal
