Ebaynium is a term that Adam Mosley or I cooked up back in 2000 while assembling stuff for our first tour of Burning Man. We discovered the term 'obtainium' in the Burning Man vocabulary...'obtainium' is anything someone gives you for free that you turn around and use. Ebaynium is sort of like that, except you sell the stuff and get whatever you really need. My Burning Man 04 trip was financed almost entirely by ebaynium - unbelievable what people will give you and what others will pay for it.
This morning I realized that we've done almost 100 transactions on 'the 'bay'. Of those, only two have not gone as expected. One was an FBI hat that Jackson bought and never received ($4 down the tubes, softy Dad replaced the cash). The other was a flute I purchased for Kelsey that never arrived. When I filed a grievance with Paypal, I had my money back in less than 12 hrs.
Also included in those transactions:
Purchased: 1984 Isuzu Trooper. Great runner that literally left little piles of rusty dust everywhere I parked it. It's redeeming quality was that it had a cassette deck that led me to listen to my old SpiritLife messages and realize that I was not crazy during those years.
Sold: One pair of Oscar De La Renta boots with all sorts of nicknacks glued all over them. They were part of the BM 04 Ebaynium sale and brought a couple of hundred bucks from a very happy Canadian with a Chinese name.
Purchased: Oxblood Red Doc Marten laceups. They should arrive in a few days.
Sold: A 35mm camera with sand in it. Advertised it as such and made seventy bucks. Go figure.
Purchased: 3 pda's. A Treo 180, an older Blackberry and a Handspring Visor (retrotech chic!).
Sold: 3 pda's 2 of which were among the above mentioned 3. (The Treo was a victim of a sledding accident. Don't ask.)
If you're not an ebayer, I'm telling you, get in the game. Or let me come rifle through your garage. We could make some money. I say "E Plurbius Ebaynium!"
And just out of curiosity- what is the strangest thing you've bought or sold on ebay?
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12 comments:
I bought a gas grill (full sized) on e-bay. I was on a bit of an e- bay roll and the grill we wanted was sold out at the local mega mart...so I looked on e-bay and was pleasantly surprised to find it for half the price...and with shipping included I ended up saving about 40 bucks.
and it came right to my door...how about that?
It's also a great source for finding out-of-print books, spare parts for just about anything, or toys that are sold out when Griff "just has to have it!!"
Mike - when you say 'unusable'...please tell me you are saying 'unsellable in a retail outlet due to design! :)
I sold 3 high end mountain bikes someone traqded me for my software program. I delevered them to Las Vegas myself as an excuse to go there with my kids. They went to someones house, who then packs them up and ships them in a container to Korea, and sells them there for even more money. We are talking 3500 bikes here! LOL.
I just bought an old drunkat which is a drum midi controller, that was broken. I knew it was, and I got it for 100, sent it to the mfg, who repaired it for 245. The whole thing would be close to 800 if I bought a new , but I dont need it because I cannot rock like Z.
I haven't sold anything yet, but purchased a case of Pilot G2 gel ink pens in the color blue. I know it is not THAT strange, but have you seen the cost of a good pen at Staples these days!! BTW-How's the vehicle sitiation working out?
The strangest thing I sold was an old glass minnow trap, box included. It was given to my mom about 50 years ago, and when she was moving I ebayed most of her collectables for her. The bait trap brought in over $300.00. Price on the box was around $6.00.
Go figure.
Bren
put your money in Hot Wheels. Can't go wrong...
Okay, this may be rated PG, but I bought a Simply Classic 36D bra in black that Kohl's used to carry but doesn't anymore. Twice.
Brent? is that you?
Wow. I dont even know how to respond to that one. Ummmmm......Hmmmmmm.......let me think.......nope nothing is coming to my mind........I think Randy owes me a coffe for this one.
I'll chime in, althugh it wasnt really all that strange. My wife and I are big Atlanta Braves fans. Several years ago we made a trip to San Francisco to watch the Braves take on the Giants. Before we left we found a field jacket and an 'Away' jersey of the Braves. We then were able to get most of the team to sign the jersey. Was a great trip. I look forward to seeing more Braves games nce we get to KC. Speaking of that, we are in Montanta, and Randy, I havent touched the coffee ;-) God Bless you all. Go check out the pictures so far at my site! We had a blast in Edmonton.
Sweet! Braves fans!
I've neither bought nor sold anything on eBay, although I do have an account set up. I've always been hesitant to buy anything because of what happened to Jackson with the hat. I haven't tried to sell anything either 'cause it seems like a hassle.
Maybe one day I'll jump on the eBay bandwagon. Probably sooner than later though, since I dropped the lid to my roomie's coffee grinder yesterday and it broke. Maybe I can find in on eBay...
Liz, I just happen to have one previously owned(Juan Valdez)gold-plated* coffee grinder for sale. I can list it for the low, one-time only price of $500. Call me we can work a deal.
*plated could involve spray paint(hey where is the super small font size?)
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