Ebay Madness?

My ebay thingy arrived today, bang on time. Very well packed. Not new, but in perfect working condition with all the bits there. I've been thinking about this. I could have bought a new one from a company somewhere for a bit less money. My order would have been very small beer as far as they were concerned, and so if they make a mistake, send the wrong thing, or it arrives broken, I would have a "fun time" taking on their complaints/returns division and all that entails.

But this thing was a very important transaction as far as my seller is concerned. I know them directly, and if anything is wrong I will have someone to talk to who has a real stake in the sale. If it all goes pear shaped they have something considerable to lose, in the form of their hithertoo spotless rating. I got to wonder if this was actually a better way to make sure of customer satisfaction from the buyers point of view? Or am I just rationalising my stupid bidding habits?

- either way, at least I got another point for a good transation - 31 points now!

Wheely Brain

We got our new blue recycling bin today. Pop quiz. We have our bin emptied on Tuesday. So when do we leave our blue bin out?

Ebay Bidding Tips

Since I am now a seasoned Ebay player (got 30 points!) I thought I'd give you all a few tips about how to succeed on ebay.

1. Choose auctions that finish at strange times. Some things, like for example memory cards, are "auctioned" at regular intervals throughout the day. By setting your alarm and bidding in your pajamas at seven thirty on a Sunday morning you can shave two pounds fifty off that closing price.
2. Bid late. Don't show your hand by bidding early. Bid as late as possible, preferrably within a minute of the auction closing. Don't worry about your browser/network connection locking up at this point, this will hardly ever happen to you.
3. Bid a couple of quid more than the current bid. This means that you will hopefully "leapfrog" the other person who presently has the highest bid. If they have done the same, at least you are going to make someone else (the seller) a happy person.
4. Add a strange number to the pence part. Rather than bidding 10 pounds exactly, bid ten pounds and thirty seven pence. This also makes your paypal account numbers more interesting.
5. Watch the bids climb as the auction closes. If you have the winning bid at the moment you can watch as the other people (or their sniping software) ramp up to your value. If you need to, you can whack in another, slightly higher, bid to keep you in the running. Even if the thing isn't actually worth it.
6. Ignore words like "win" and "lost". This is not a game or competition. It is simply a way of getting stuff cheaper than any other. If the item is not worth having at the price, walk away. You can be sure that another, better, one will be available later anyway. Unless of course it becomes a matter of honour.
7. Look at the price of previously closed items, make sure that you are not paying over the odds. Check on Google and pricerunner, because these always have the lowest price. Except sometimes.

By cunning application of all these rules, today I managed to buy a second hand item at only twelve pounds more than the brand new price. Ho hum.

[ebay]
[bidding]

Dropping off the net

Dropped off number one son in his new abode in Durham. Lovely little house in a nice area but no internet. NO INTERNET!! I fully expect to find him camped outside Starbuks with a Pringle can and a notebook trying to hook onto their network so that he can read Slashdot. I wonder how fast they can get broadband put in?

Bin Philosophy

It has finally happened. After years of waiting we now have "wheely bins". These are bins on, surprise, wheels, which replace our old style, non-wheeled dustbins. The idea is that we wheel them to the kerb on the day the dustmen call, whereupon a cunning device empties them into the lorry, saving 17.5 seconds per house and allowing for for efficient refuse collection and better service all round. Hurrah.

I've been dreading them. For a start you only have the one bin. The colour leaflet is quite specific about what to do if you have too much rubbish to fit in it. The official advice is "keep the excess until next week". This advice, whilst workable in the short term, does have the potential for long term rubbish accumulation if you throw away as much as we do. Then there is the question of the path down the side of the house, which is not quite wide enough to support the bin at some points and has a sheer drop of at least three and a half inches down one side, which could lead to bin disasters that I'm not keen to contemplate.

But the final problem is the actual realisation of a philosophical question that has bothered me for years. We now have two perfectly serviceable dustbins to get rid of. But how do you throw away a used dustin? We could leave it outside for the bin men, but nothing will happen to it. It might get emptied, but that is not what we want. I think I might paint, in large friendly letters, "I am not a bin" on each of them and then leave them outside for collection. We shall see.