My scam product (re)(un)sold on eBay...

August 19 UPDATE: I've listed it again on eBay.ca with Full Disclosure about the dispute, return, and conditon. There are 11 bids, 17 watchers. Again, I won't make my money back, but, as I say, every little bit helps...

August 7 UPDATE: The buyer disputed the item with PayPal ("not as described"). So he sent it back, PayPal reviewed the dispute, sided with him, and I had to refund his money. When he buys from another source (even the Dazzle White web site) he'll be very ashamed.

July 23 UPDATE: 24 bids and the item sold for $55.55 CA! I won't make any money but I'll recoup over half of the cost. GAWD, I still feel stupid!

Reckless Disregard

(n) the phrase Reckless disregard is used to represent (the) utmost stage of negligence in doing anything with a mentality of disregarding the existence of the society and its well being.

I had to look that up to be sure I was going to use it correctly -- turns out I'm not. But I'm gonna say it anyway.

I was an eBay seller (and buyer) for a few years. I had good sales for vintage Pyrex that I picked up on the cheap at thrift stores, and I made enough profit selling used coffee makers to buy a nice Kohler two-basin porcelain and cast iron sink for my kitchen renovation. Then the market, and my enthusiasm, seemed to dry up. But I never lost the habit picking up various boxes and packing material, and now that stuff's all over the house. And even under my desk at work (you get marvellous boxes and things from IT departments).

With reckless disregard ("reckless" being redundant, as one definition said, but that's lawyerly hyperbole), I will break down all the boxes that my own appliances didn't come in (but why I keep those, when I'm not moving any time soon, is beyond my understanding) and put them out for recycling or FreeCycling. (I'll keep the packing material, though, for a number of reasons, one of which is I hate to throw it out. Maybe I will FreeCycle some of it.)

Speaking of recycling, I used to feel smug and self-righteous about ordering the smallest bins the city was offering (even getting a rebate on my garbage bill). But as I took a few items out to my Blue Bin this morning I realized I hadn't put it out two weeks before, and it's nearly full, probably for the first time. I have quite a bit I'm hoping to stuff in by Tuesday at 7 am.

The point being, to clear out unused and extra items to make room for all the stuff cluttering the house. Yes, I still have hope.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

So I'm selling off my beloved coffeemaker collection. Here's the first one:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=170299101613

Hey, I don't buy junk...

I added a few more coffeemakers (see the labels); no bids yet but a couple of watchers. I should have mentioned that water from a bathroom leak is staining my kitchen ceiling, so I really need some money to spend on repair or renovation.

My Coin Collection

I sold my last coin collection on eBay a few years ago, on a whim. I asked for the same price it cost me: $1.98 (except I listed in USD instead of CAD. A woman bought it for her husband, and she paid $1.98 US, plus shipping). Here's my latest accumulation:

This one tallies $3.46 Canadian. Many are valid Canadian or US coins---like the Georgia peach quarter (1999) and the Liberty anniversary quarter (2001). There's a Cypriot 20-something piece I got instead a loonie (Canadian dollar coin), a beautiful Dutch 25-ct piece that came in my change as a 10-cent piece (dime). My favourites are the two Trinidad and Tobago one-cent pieces with the hummingbird. (Two!?) There are coins from Australia, Philippines, Bahamas, Barbados, UK, and Slovenska Republika. The oldest is a 1937 Canadian one-cent piece, with George VI. I also have a QEII one-cent piece from 1956, my birth year. And last week I picked up a Canadian centennial penny (from 1967; the one with the bird which I forget what it is). Last year I picked up a very small aluminum coin from a depressed Eastern European republic that looked exactly like a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) token (worth about $2.50 per ride at the time, now 2.75 or so). I think I tossed it, or I would include it here.

I haven't sold anything on eBay for a long time. My family started giving their "valuable" items to sell (the inscribed books dating from about 1892 to 1920 and the music sheets from the 1920s to 1940s did make quite a bit of money for my mom's church). And my brothers' items that they took from our uncle's "estate" brought in a few hundred dollars, which was surprising.

After looking at the Dutch coin I got to thinking about our Canadian designs. The Dutch coin is stylish to say the least. The image of Beatrix is more impressionist than representative (I can go through my Canadian coin jar and find at least 3 updates to QEII, the latest with jowls and wrinkles---nothing like the wild and sexy horsewoman I saw once on a Caribbean paper bill).

Canadian 25-cent pieces (AKA quarters) represent whatever is happening in Canada for the year and there might be several issues. They're all basic MOR art, in my opinion---an inukshuk (which we know only as lawn decorations here in To.); war vets and the young'uns; skiers (for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics). You could hang them over your sofa. Sometimes there might be something Indian, but again it's symbolic---nobody's doing anything about education, health, housing, employment on the reserves.