Awesome!

Great news, Glatt!
My second bell, the older one with the romantic inscription just sold for £73. I'm happy. I still think the other one had the really interesting feature of the original (AFAIK) clapper made with perishable materials, which would have appealed to a couple of collectors, or so I thought.
I'm mulling over what to sell next. We have a "table-top" sale (like an indoor car-boot sale) coming up here next weekend, so I don't want to EBay stuff that might go quicker/better here ...


Sent by thought transference

My new camera came today. Good thing too, because this seller required a signature and I was here to provide it.

It's the Panasonic DMC-FZ70.

I like it. It has a ridiculous zoom. Insane, really.

Both pictures are shot from the exact same spot on the couch.

Zoomed out.
Attachment 51828
Zoomed in.
Attachment 51829

I "cheated" a little by cropping the zoomed in picture a bit, but you if you can cheat, you may as well.

Just tell me you had pants on when you took that pic.


Also: The chair by the window? That chair looks comfy. As. A. Mother's. Womb.

Pants? Yes. Well, shorts anyway.

Chair by the window? Bought that 23 years ago. It was the first major purchase my wife and I made together, before we were married even. It's freaking awesome. One of those Scandinavian leather jobs. It was nice being DINKs while it lasted.

Yup. Sold to the lady with the pink hair - I'm moving in with you Glatt, pants or not.
Just tell your lovely wife I'm the new au pair.

So that nice Mamiya C220 I was selling sat there all week with absolutely no bids. There were like 20 people watching it, but no bids. I simply didn't get it. I know I priced it fairly.

Then 90 seconds before the auction was going to end, it got its first bid. Then another bid, then a final bid. Price was driven up by $5 over my starting price.

Don't people have better things to do in their lives than sit around watching auctions so they can try to snipe?

Similar thing with my Nikon. It went days before its first bid. Then it dicked around at $75-80 until a few minutes before the end when it shot up to $150.

People really like the auction experience.

But I've got 3 boxes packed and ready to go for shipment tomorrow. Signature required for delivery. Live and learn.

There are auto-sniper sites or software thingies nowadays that'll do the sniping for you. It's taken all the fun and sport out of watching my items sell, I tell you! :(


Sent by thought transference

Was it the hairy knees that got to you? ;)


Sent by thought transference

When I see something on eBay that I'd like for my own use, I know that I may be bidding against others who bid on it:

for their own use
to resell and make a profit
to bid it up for the seller
just to win the bid and default on the payment

Any or all of whom may try to nickel and dime me to death with minimum bid increases ad nauseam.

I decide how much I'm willing to pay, enter that as my maximum bid, and let the eBay system automatically increase my bid by minimum required increments up to my maximum. This addresses the first of the aforementioned categories of competition and can happen early or late in the bidding. It's an automated response that depends on when the others bid.

If I know that I can be online when bidding closes, I prepare my maximum bid a minute before closing and wait until the last 5 seconds to confirm my bid. That addresses the other three categories of competition. I don't give them time to try to nickel and dime me into going higher causing me to lose the item only to see it relisted by the same person; or, someone else who got it to resell it. Either they already have a higher maximum bid entered or they don't and they don't like to go that route.

I've gotten some great buys this way squeaking my bid in just past those of the scavengers who are only buying for resale. It also eliminates bidders working with a seller and internet deadbeats trolling for a win. I was once offered what eBay calls a "Second Chance." It's the seller offering you a chance to buy an item for your last bid after the winning bidder defaults on payment. You don't know if the deadbeat was independent or working with the seller to jack your bid up. I've eliminated that.

If it turns out that someone else had already entered a maximum bid higher than mine, it doesn't matter. I wasn't going to pay any more for the item anyway and it probably went to someone who just wanted it more than me for their own use.

♪ ♫This is how we do it.♪ ♫

That is exactly how Popdigr and I do it. Easy peasy.

These are my two latest listings.

Those cups are very cool. :thumb:

Are you charging enough postage for the cups?
They look like they'd be quite heavy.