August 6, 2000

So far...everyone's been honest!

August 6, 2000

After having been wheeling and dealing on eBay for almost a year now, I am now the proud owner of several items I never thought I would ever find. Yes, it is true that one man's junk is another man's treasure, and if this wasn't true, I probably would never have found some of the following:

	a vintage 1979 MAD Magazine board game
	a set of Salvador Dali tarot cards
	"It's a Drink, It's a Bomb" on DVD
	a copy of the Peter Jackson film "Bad Taste"
	the soundtrack to "Fear of a Black Hat"
	a copy of the thriller/comedy "Brain Damage"
	a Tamiya model of a 6-wheeled Tyrrell F1 car

Also on the list are dozens of other items that I probably didn't really need:

	a Green Giant "Sprout" figurine
	Snip the Siamese Cat Beanie Baby
	several cheap CD's and records
	a silk tie with F1 cars on it

For THIS reason, I have started selling things on eBay (and to supply myself with a steady supply of incoming cash to support my habit, which appeases Mrs. Paperless in the process!). So far, I have had a few auctions end where the high bid was just that - surprisingly high (and even higher when converted from the almighty U.S. dollar into Canadian money). I haven't been able to find enough things on eBay lately to spend as much as I'm making, which sounds as though it may just be a start to a good little extra-curricular income that doesn't involve casinos or bingo halls, yet is just as thrilling, if not more so.

When I tell people about eBay, they ask how people can be trusted. It seems to be a general conception that most people are weasels and can't be trusted! Fortunately for everyone on eBay, I have yet to run into a weasel in both selling and buying. The "feedback rating" system that eBay set up to establish users' credibility works wonders! People go out of their way to ensure that transactions are done smoothly, promptly, and that the other person involved will want to post "positive feedback" about the other, which increases the user's "feedback rating" by 1.

Of course, I'm just a lowly eBaysian right now, with a two digit "feedback rating", having only participated in a few dozen auctions so far (some people are too "busy" to leave feedback, so not every successful auction is represented by a feedback point), and all of them have been extremely courteous, helpful, and co-operative in the transactions. Some have gone out on a limb to an extent that a commercial vendor would not, and for this reason, I am completely entranced by the beauty of eBay. Even eBay's store doesn't impress me this much, as I had a questionable transaction with them recently. Since they ship from the store in such volumes, they use a courier service (UPS). The problem with this was that the extra $12 US that I paid for a $20 purchase was increased again by $15 Canadian, when UPS wanted to be my "broker" for the item to "assist me in getting it into the country". Such extra gouging has NEVER happened to me with a transaction on eBay, but then again, the eBay store doesn't have a feedback rating, does it?

If you haven't experienced online auctions, just what the hell are you doing on the Internet, anyway? Looking at porn and downloading Kid Rock MP3's?