Tag Archives: Ebay

The Week in Brief and the Bookshelf Principle

Just catching up on a few things from the

On Wednesday we visited Dave for a Quercus meeting. It was a cheerful time despite the sadness of winding everything down. Once we’d poured the tea, passed round the cake and discussed our health we watched the Tour of Britain on TV.

Nobody would mistake us for racing cyclists, but it was going round North Nottinghamshire and we were trying to spot places we knew. They had been sprouting yellow bikes and parking restriction notices for weeks so we knew where it was going. I had thought of going out to take photos but I fought off the temptation.

Although it was obviously sad for the participants it was also funny to see two cyclists disqualified for riding on the pavement.

The same could be said of the crash, as they came round a corner in Retford to find that a man with a Blue Badge had parked his car in the way. I am sorry for the rider who was injured, and the others who fell, both for the pain and the waste of all their preparation. However, I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t also funny to watch, even if there was something evil about my amusement.

It’s also an example of a disabled driver parking somewhere despite the danger. People seem to think that possession of a Blue Badge or the use of hazard warners mean they can park anywhere.

On Friday morning I saw a convoy of silver grey Rolls Royces in the mist, some with consecutive personalised number plates. There were ten of them, which tends to suggest that there is big money in the funeral business. It must have been a big family to need ten cars.

Later on Friday I found myself in Retford, thinking that it might be worth looking at the accident site to see if there was any broken glass left. I’m sure it would have sold on ebay. Unfortunately my mind works on the bookshelf principle and I didn’t hold on to the thought.

Do I need to title this “Bookshelf”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the bookshelf principle, imagine a well-filled bookshelf with no ends. When you put another book on the shelf one falls off the end.

We used to use it (semi-jokingly) when coaching kids at the rugby club. Some of them had very short shelves and even a piece of litter blowing past could trigger sensory overload. As I’ve aged, I’ve begun to notice that my bookshelf has become shorter.

And that was how, when I saw someone I knew on the market, the ebay idea dropped off the end of the shelf.

Sometime this week I also published my 900th post, I think it was Friday but I sort of lost count. Or dropped another book…

The ebay Diaries (Day 6 – Part 4)

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I bought some tie pins/sweetheart brooches last Saturday using the Buy It Now button. They seemed very reasonable. This should have been the first warning.

They arrived yesterday, I looked at them and I left feedback. It was only when I looked at them in strong sunlight today (yes, we had some!) that I noticed all the faults. Two of the tiepins are twisted and one seems to be lacking any sort of silver mark. I really must remember my own rules about being careful when buying.

Later in the week I bought an enamel badge. It’s clearly a cheap modern copy. It cost me just over £3 so it’s not even worth the time to complain. The tiepins are slightly different, but it’s just as easy to straighten them as it is to send them back.

Royal Artillery tiepin

That, I know, plays into the hands of dishonest dealers but I can’t be bothered with the bickering that ensues. In truth they probably don’t know what they are doing. That’s the levelling influence of ebay – all you need to do is press buttons on a computer and repeat what is written on a badge. The bidders do the actual work. It’s a subject I may return to.

I may also return to the question of ethics.

Note to self –

Reasonably priced ebay lots on Buy It Now are rarely as good as you think

Reasonably priced ebay lots on Buy It Now are rarely as good as you think…

The ebay Diaries – Day 4 (but only Part 3)

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Don’t look for Day 3, there isn’t one. Day 3 was a bit quiet and there wasn’t much to see so I spared you the tedium. that’s why Day 4 is only Part 3.

There’s an interesting Naval silver sweetheart brooch for sale in the shape of a torpedo, hallmarked for 1917 and engraved to HMS Patia. She was an armed merchant cruiser taken from her normal peacetime trade of carrying bananas and used to enforce the blockade against Germany. In her time on patrol she boarded or met 595 ships to ensure they were not carrying goods to Germany.

She was torpedoed by UC 49 on 13th June 1918 in the Bristol Channel.

Details from the ship’s log are available on this site. It includes this interesting snippet:

Cautioned Lt Charles Jacobson, Temp Eng Sub-Lieut RNR, for conduct unbecoming an officer in that on the night of 4^th November 1917, in company with Mids Thomas A Onions RNR he introduced clandestinely two females into the ship.

Cautioned Midshipman Thomas A Onions, Royal Naval Reserve, for disobedience of orders and conduct unbecoming an officer, whereas on the night of 4^th November 1917, he returned on board after 11 pm, contrary to orders, and introduced clandestinely two females into the ship.

There’s a lot to be learned, even from the details on a brooch.

I bought a naval sweetheart yesterday, so I’ll pass on this one, interesting as it is, It’s also rare, as the Patia only had a small crew. Interesting to speculate as to whether Jacobson or Onions ever gave a brooch to one of their clandestine females.

As for the rest of the day, I was underbidder on a number of lots and way adrift on a couple of rare ones – I just didn’t appreciate how rare until I saw the prices.

Loose Ends and New Beginnings

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I’m tying up a few loose ends today – you may have noticed a new, more accurate, subtitle (“Life after the Care Farm”) and I’ve added the latest news to the About Us page.

I’ve also added an update to the Ecocentre page.

They aren’t worth reading (being dry and, possibly, a little bitter) but if I add links it supposedly makes the blog more visible on the internet. It’s what they call Search Engine Optimisation. Like much of modern life I find it easy to ignore, but occasionally I like to give it a try.

It’s funny how the internet, whilst being ephemeral in nature, also preserves things.

Julia is taking the group from Mencap to see the Flintham Show. We’re just hoping the weather improves. It has generally been a good day out and the group is looking forward to it. At least some good has come from our time at the farm.

They are advertising an education tent at the show – we have been replaced so easily. What hasn’t been replaced is the write-up that Julia prepared for the education tent several years ago. That is still up on the site, and is promising a number of things they won’t be able to deliver, including Connie the Cow, who is now living at a local school.

Ploughing at Flintham Show (2016)

Julia has just joined the Women’s Farm and Garden Association. It seems quite a go-ahead group of people, despite being formed in 1899, though the marketing could do with some work: we didn’t even know it existed until I saw one of its badges for sale on ebay.

Perhaps ebay is a force for good after all.

The ebay Diaries – Day Two

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Today I have mainly wasted time in a variety of displacement activities. Apart from writing a post and a book review I wandered around ebay looking in various web-based nooks and crannies. By the end of the day I had been unsuccessful in a number of bids and had failed to find anything of interest.

After spending days watching the progress of sales I also had three items snatched from under my nose at the last minute. Frustrating but par for the course.

I also saw one of the worst ever description of a sweetheart brooch. It’s “Canadian silver”, whatever that is and hallmarked 1915, except for the fact that there are no hallmarks to be seen and the badge depicted was only used from 1946. Either they had a time machine in 1915 or the seller is an idiot. I think I will leave it at that…

It’s not been a wasted day because I looked up the story behind Mizpah brooches. I thought I knew what they were (either two hearts or the word Mizpah, and often the verse And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.) Looking at what are described as Mizpah brooches on ebay I was seriously beginning to doubt myself.

Checking back on ebay I find that Mizpah is being used as a trademark by a company that makes Scottish style jewellery, including the appalling grouse foot brooches. I may register a jewellery company called Real Silver, because people will then waste a lot of time on ebay checking up on “Real Silver brooches”.

The ebay Diaries – Day One

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After spending far too much time on ebay recently I’ve decided to get some use out of this time by writing about it.

Today’s installment is about the evils of blurred photographs. As you may have seen in one of the previous posts, there are a number of bad things to buy on ebay. One of the top ten is “things with blurred photos”. There are quite a lot of them.

When I used ebay as part of my business I used a scanner. In fact I wore a scanner out through constant use. They weren’t perfect, but the images were, on average, a lot better than most of the ones you see these days. They were very good for flat things like banknotes and postcards and generally good for things like coins and badges

The poor qualty would not be a big deal apart from one thing – more and more sellers are saying they don’t give refunds and that the picture forms part of the description.

I’ve always tended to avoid people who don’t give refunds because I consider it poor customer service. If you can’t trust them to stand by their product can you trust them to pack things properly or post them promptly?

I’ve always had an unconditional refunds policy and over all that time I’ve only ever had two things retuned. People are generally trustworthy and don’t abuse your terms of service.

People who don’t trust their customers are, in my experience, less trustworthy than average. (I’ll pick my words carefully there, but it’s a principle I always adhere to.)

Fortunately, unless things have changed, there are ways to get a refund despite this, though I’ve never needed to use them yet.

With a blurred picture it isn’t possible to see faults, and with a no refund policy this could make for a really bad buying experience. Personally, I think you should always tell customers if there is a fault.

In going through ebay this morning I’ve already spotted several broken or repaired items which aren’t noted as such, and where it’s difficult to spot the problem. The main clue is that they are often on “Buy it Now” and the price is suspiciously reasonable.

Having said that I’ve just bought a very reasonably priced job lot on a “Buy it Now”, so fingers crossed…

Bad Things to Buy on Ebay – Update

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This is the update from yesterday’s post – any more suggestions?

Wives
Horses
Things sold “for spares”
Bomb-making manuals
Chemical fertiliser (large amounts)
TBA
TBA
TBA
Diamonds
Things with blurred photographs

I’ve had two suggestions that ebay is a bad place to look for a wife, from John Knifton and Charliecountryboy and have to admit I can see that being true. I’m surprised at how many people seem to meet online these days. It seems that 22% of couples meet online, making it the second most popular method of meeting, compared to 24% who meet through mutual friends.

John even went so far as to introduce Thomas Hardy and The Mayor of Casterbridge into his answer, ensuring that I have some culture and history in the post, even if it is a history of wife selling. It also gives me a chance to work in the story of Hardy’s heart.

The other suggestion, from The Snail of Happiness, is “things sold for spares” as the bit you want is invariably the bit that has worn out on the one you just bought. That brings back memories of searching scrap yards for car parts in the days when cars were simpler and I was poorer. When you found the right model of car it was invariably lacking the bit you wanted.

Charliecountryboy did suggest Betamax videos, but nobody (including charity shops) wants VHS either. As for Philips 2000…

I’m going to wait and see before making a decision about this.

10 Bad Things to Buy on Ebay

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I covered this briefly a few days ago, when suggesting Ebay was a bad place to buy a diamond. John Knifton followed up by suggesting it was also a bad place to buy a horse. That immediately took over as Number One on the list. Diamonds, for the moment, are Number Nine on the list. I’m going to put “Things with blurred photos” at Number Ten. I haven’t been on Ebay for a while and the standard of photography seems to have gone down so that many slapdash postings seem to be accompanied by pitifully blurred photographs.

I’ve just bought something with a blurred photograph. I can’t escape the idea that the blur was deliberate.

Here’s an initial plan – let me know if you have any ideas that should be Top Ten.

Horses. Always a tricky thing to buy at the best of time, but with the added problems of internet anonymity and sloppy standards this could be a real problem. Blurred pictures of teeth are a further complication. Anyway, have you really got a big enough garden?

Bomb making manuals. Buying one of these could see you booked into prison for a spot of waterboarding. This sounds like it fits in nicely with surfboarding and snowboarding but don’t be fooled. It doesn’t, despite all you may have heard about prisons getting soft, and it can really make for a bad holiday.

Large amounts of chemical fertiliser. Unless you are a farmer. See above.

So:

Horses
Bomb-making manuals
Chemical fertiliser (large amounts)
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
Diamonds
Things with blurred photographs

That leaves five slots, and if your suggestions are good enough they could easily displace some of the others.

What are your nominations, or horror stories?

The Cost of Daily Blogging

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If you are as disorganised as me, one of the penalties of daily blogging is that you end up with less than an hour to post and keep your streak going. I could, if I had due regard for my readers and quality of my output, miss a day. However, when have you ever known me flinch from writing a cynical lightweight post just to make my stats look good?

That’s right, I’ve never flinched from cynical lightweight posts.

I refer, of course, to the cynicism inherent in writing a piece of fluff just to get a tick for the day. The normal cynicism of my character remains constant regardless of the need to write.

Today I offer the following advice to my fellow bloggers.

Always buy the best quality diamond you can afford. Remember the Four C’s of diamond buying. Cut, Colour, Clarity, Carat. Go for quality and do not be dazzled by size. Note that the carat weight of the stone comes last on the list. Better have a smaller sparkling diamond of top quality than a dull diamond of larger size.

Coloured diamonds, whilst expensive are just a novelty and, in my opinion, will be subject to the vagaries of fashion and harder to sell if the need arises.

When I worked out of a jewellers shop I once saw a large diamond that had been bought as an investment. It was large and it was cheap, and it was, to be fair, quite white. However, it didn’t sparkle, it was almost milky, and it had a selection of inclusions (bits of carbon and the like). We had to say that in our opinion it was unsaleable.

It hadn’t cost a fortune so it was a disappointment and a broken dream rather than a crippling financial blow. It was also a lesson about not buying diamonds on ebay.

This is a lesson in life, and can be applied to other areas. My mother always said it is better to have the worst house in a good area than the best house in a bad area. Some friends of our bought a lovely big house in a bad area. By the time they’d fitted security, bought a dog and borrowed a baseball bat it seemed less of a bargain.

It’s nearly midnight now so I’ll leave it here. The photos show the book reviews you can expect over the next few weeks.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ebay or not Ebay…

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I didn’t post yesterday. You may not have noticed, but if you did, I apologise.

This was mainly due to hypnosis and poor time management; I spent so much time looking at Ebay that my brain started to shut things out in self-defence. By the time I’d finished I was late, functioning on half a brain and feeling depressed. So I switched off and watched TV.

It was a learning exercise rather than a pleasure, as I have been examining the possibility of returning to the antiques trade. I have been given two opinions – one, from a person I trust, is that Ebay is the best place to sell and that quality pieces do best. The other, from someone I also trust, is that Ebay is the best place to sell and that average to low quality items sell best.

From that I deduce that Ebay is the best place to sell.

As to what sells best, I have always felt that the best selling items are always the ones sold by other people.

I’m also feeling slightly shell-shocked by the number of “rare”, “scarce” and “original” items being offered for sale. For one thing, I know much of the stuff isn’t rare, and some of it clearly isn’t original either when you look at the photos. The truth is that although I may have lost touch with prices I can still (mostly) remember everything else.

If you can push a button and see 20 more “rare” items I have news for the sellers – they aren’t rare.

There’s a suspicion at the back of my mind that if an estate agent, an Ebay seller and a mass murderer wanted to marry into my family I’d probably be happiest with the murderer.

However, beggars can’t be choosers, and if Ebay does the business I will have to sign up. Shops are expensive, markets are sensitive to weather and antique fairs require early starts. So greed and idleness are conspiring to make me into an Ebay seller again – how can I resist such powerful forces?.