eBay-riffic

11.28.2005

Around this time of year, I notice that MSNBC runs a couple of their eBAY specials way more than normal. Who are these people that are selling? Who's buying? Who's getting screwed? I remember watching it last year, thinking it was interesting, until they got to the part harping on buyers that never get their products and what corporate eBay is (or isn't) doing about it.

I've been a buying things off eBay since '99. I still remember my first purchase: Danger Girl Action Figures. They were hard to find, especially around here, so I ended up paying a little more on eBay so that I could possess them. From there, I found many things that would come to be either eBay specific purchases (like original comic art or hard to find wrestling figures) or something I was trying to find a good deal on (like my now complete collection of all things Star Trek - except for the unreleased animated series). 98% of the time I've had good experiences. There have been a couple of auctions that I never received the product and I didn't get my money back - I usually waited to long to make my "hey, I didn't get it" claim. That was when my prime eBay rule came into effect: Don't bid anything I can't afford to lose.

I've bought over 200 items off eBay. Some have come from China. I think 1 auction was from a guy in Rogersville, 20 miles down the road. I've bought original Vigilante artwork from Paul Kupperburg, one of the writers of the series. I bought both the Complete Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise series through eBay. This year I've been completing my collection of Car Wars rules and supplements. I would be a person who thinks that eBay, for all of its detractors and problems, for all of it's hidden fees and relying on the community to police itself, for all of that, I would think that it works, and it works well.

So the next time that MSNBC shows their special, or god forbid FOX gets on the bandwagon and makes it worse, I'll just roll my eyes and ignore it, hoping it doesn't put a damper on my [mostly] good luck so far.

As a special bonus, take a look at eBay's prohibited and questionable item list. It has the obvious things like firearms and alcohol, but used airbags? Is there a market for used airbags?

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Changing The Answers

11.25.2005

Everybody gets emails from friends that force you to pick from a list of options or answer some questions so that you end up learning something new and interesting about said friends. Or maybe it's just prettied up spam. I got one the other day, but I don't think I was the target audience. I didn't like most of the answers. Here are the questions and available answers that the email held:

1. Which one of the following describes the perfect date?
a) Candlelight dinner (4 pts.)
b) Fun/Theme! Park (2 pt s.)
c) Painting in the park (5 pts.)
d) Rock concert (1 pt.)
e) Going to the movies (3 pts.)
I would choose "3 minutes of frantic sex, followed by her going home", but it wasn't there.

2. What is your favorite type of music?
a) Rock and Roll (2 pts.)
b) Alternative (1 pt.)
c) Soft Rock (4 pts.)
d) Country (5 pts.)
e) Pop (3 pts.)
Did R&B die or something? Where's my Luther Vandross? Where's Prince?

3. What type of movies do you prefer?
a) Comedy (2 pts.)
b) Horror (1 pt.)
c) Musical (3 pts.)
d) Romance (4 pts.)
e) Documentary (5 pts.)
I like GOOD movies, I don't care what genre they're in

4. Which one of these occupations would you choose if you only could choose one of these?
a) Waiter (4 pts.)
b) Professional Sports Player (5 pts.)
c) Teacher (3 pts.)
d) Police (2 pts.)
e) Cashier (1 pt)
I guess if I had to choose form the list, it'd be "B":, but I'd like to see "Superhero" as an option.

5. What do you do with your spare time?
a) Exercise (5 pts.)
b) Read (4! pts.)
c) Watch television (2 pts.)
d) Listen to music (1 pt.)
e) Sleep (3 pts.)
Where are the options for "Play Vieo Games", "Surf For Porn", and "Masturbate"?

6. Which one of the following colors do you like best?
a) Yellow (1 pt.)
b) White (5 pts.)
c) Sky Blue (3 pts.)
d) Dark Blue (2 pts.)
e) Red (4 pts.)
I think they should have just listed shades of blue, since they had 2 shades listed...

7. What do you prefer to eat right now?
a) Snow (3 pts.)
b) Pizza (2 pts.)
c) Sushi (1 pt.)
d) Pasta (4 pts.)
e) Salad (5 pts.)
I originally read this at 8:00 in the morning, so some type of breakfast option would have been nice.

8. What is your favorite holiday?
a) Halloween (1 pt.)
b) Christmas (3 pts.)
c) New Year (2 pts.)
d) Valentine's Day (4 pts.)
e) Thanksgiving (5 pts.)
What about Veterans Day!!!!!!

9. If you could go to one of these places which one would it be?
a) Paris (4 pts)
b) Spain (5 pts)
c) Las Vegas! (1 pt)
d) Hawaii (4 pts)
e) Hollywood (3 pts)
Being a man of extremes, I would have tried to pick "Home" for a minimum number of points, or "The Moon" for probably the maximum number of points.

10. With which of the following would you prefer to spend time with?
a) Someone Smart (5 pts.)
b) Someone attractive (2 pts.)
c) Someone who likes to Party (1 pt.! )
d) Someone who always has fun (3 pts.)
e) Someone very sentimental (4 pts.)
Someone Buxom With Quaestionable Morals. Or is that too close to "c"?

Of course, the email had you total up your points to see which cartoon character you were like or somesuch frivolity like that. I probably scored enough to be like some wiseass, anal character that nobody has ever heard of. But I wanted to score enough to be like Jimmy Neutron, dammit!

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Thanks

11.23.2005

This is the time of year that not only kicks off the silly season, but also when one is prompted to look back over the year and recollect on how it's been. So with that in mind, I bring you things that I'm thankful for.

• Not being dead.
• My ever expanding collection of toys due to my single guy lifestyle
• My lack of truly serious debt outside of the house and car/truck/SUV/conveyance.
• Being able to beat Mom at Scrabble about 95% of the time.
• Coke still tastes like "Classic" Coke after that whole "New" Coke debaucle
• My leaky refrigerator was only due to the freezer setting not being warm enough (causing the ice to melt), and not some multi-million dollar replacement part.

Oh sure, there's lots of little things of which I'm grateful for, but these are the top ones I can think of right now. Hopefully these will put the items on my list of things I'm not grateful for out of my mind completely. I'm thankful for that, too.

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Hitachi 60VS810

11.17.2005

As reported earlier, my TV was dying. Being that I don't like it when things start to break (see my car buying history), I decided to investigate the differences in the newer models of television. Plasma, LCD, LCD Projection... what did it all mean? Well, I went to my local Rex Electronics, mainly because they deal with me well, will honestly answer questions, and generally aren't too pushy. Well, they answered all of my questions, weren't puchy, and offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. So with that, I left their store Sunday with a lot of information, along with a 60" TV.

Much to my surprise, I got off the Sony train that I've been on for the past 5 or 6 years and bought a Hitachi. The quality, color, and sound were at least as good as the Sony versions, if not a little better, for a slightly lower price. I'm still getting the TV settled in and used to it, but I think I'm going to like it. I've got to upgrade the cable to digital/HDTV now to realy get the full quality of the TV, but that's just one of those things whose day I knew was coming.

The one thing that's taking getting used to is the remote. It doesn't have the normal buttons for volume and flipping channels up and down. Instead there are two scroll buttons, like the ones found on mice that most of you people use (not the super cool trackball users like me). I'll admit, it's cool and different, but there's a little pause between scrolling the wheel, the TV deciding you're stopped scrolling, and the change in volume or channel to take effect. But it's a gimmick, and I am a sucker for gimmicks.

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Eduardo G. Guerrero Llanes a.k.a. Latino Heat

11.14.2005

For some reason, the cult of us that follow wrestling with the zeal that makes most people mark us as a bunch of loons, we find ourselves enamoured with keeping up with the inner goings on of wrestling and those involved. When something happens, you can see the news spread through the internet at an amazing speed, especially when someone dies.

Eddie Guerrero died yesterday at 38 years old. Like most wrestlers, he didn't live to a ripe old age. Like many wrestlers, he died while still in his prime of physical well being and popularity. Within 30 minutes of learning that Eddie had died, the cult of us wrestling fanatics had tracked down a handful or two of news stories, press releases, and at least 1 video conference with tidbits of information about how he died. The thing that was different about Eddie's death was that it was not just being reported by the wrestling fansites and newsboards, but also along the mainstream news sites. Here's a sampling of some of those reports:

Wrestling star Guerrero found dead in Minn. (Yahoo.com)

Pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero found dead at 38 (MSNBC.com)

'WWE Smackdown!' Star Guerrero Dies (ABCNews.com)

WWE hero Guerrero dies (TheSun.co.uk)

'WWE Smackdown!' Star Guerrero Dies (Star Tribune)

WWE's Eddie Guerrero dead at 38 (North Korea Times)

'WWE Smackdown!' star Guerrero dies (The News and Observer)

WWE Wrestler Found Dead In Minneapolis Hotel (CBS 3 Philadelphia)

Wrestling star Guerrero found dead in Minn. (ContactMusic.com)

WWE Wrestler Found Dead In Minneapolis Hotel (CBS 3 Philadelphia)

As of now, the reason for Eddie's death hasn't been announced.

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