Tag Archives: Ebay

environment, Nature, Society

Throwaway Comments

Reused Lightbulb

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

I watch TV shows like the BBC’s “Money for Nothing” with despair sometimes. Who am I kidding, every time. The reason is waste. When I see people throwing away perfectly usable objects just because they don’t want them, from kids bikes to three-piece suites, it makes me cringe. Why? Well, because of all the people who could make use of them. People will religiously wash out their yoghurt pots and put them in the recycling bin, “doing their bit for the planet”, but then take still usable items to the tip – It’s as if they’ve never heard of charity shops, who would happily take many of the items that go in the big bins, either that or they can’t lower themselves to give their stuff to a charity. Often items just need cleaning or a basic repair – I once saw a perfectly good, solid, bench vice being thrown away which could have been cleaned, painted and oiled and be back being used on a workbench but it was going to be skipped and was then “rescued” and turned into a wall lamp, which is another subject altogether.

Of course there are other outlets for unwanted items – Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook, friends or family – but maybe it’s all too much effort, far easier to take them to the tip. Besides selling items yourself or via charity shops, old tools like the vice above could be donated to local projects, there is one near here that does free bike repairs while teaching youths useful skills in the process. Old furniture can be provided at low cost to those in need by organisations like The Furniture Project whom I have donated many pieces, including two good sofas (the second of which wouldn’t fit into my current house, I wish I’d kept the first, smaller, one now though – I might have got it up the stairs.) Organisations like these will collect the items free of charge, at a time that suits you and you get to know that someone will be helped, that someone will appreciate what you no longer want or need.

It’s currently fashionable to “upcycle” things into some trendy “authentic” or “quirky” lamp or piece of “shabby-chic” furniture, usually to sell for a stupid price, but how about we think about the “reuse” option a bit more, which is a bit “greener” too, isn’t it.

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Business, Tech, Transport

Sometimes I Surprise Myself

Gift

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

I’ve recently received a little padded envelope, I knew it must be something I’ve bought on Ebay but I could not for the life of me remember what it was. I knew it must be one of those little cheap gadgets or decorative items that fill Ebay, Amazon and so on and are all too easy to buy but which one?

It is one of the unexpectedly pleasant side-effects of having a poor short-term memory, lacking concentration, or visiting Ebay or Amazon while mildly inebriated, or all three: being able to give yourself a surprise gift, not just at Christmas but all year round, as long as it’s not too expensive that is, or too large – it’s less of a nice surprise to be greeted by an unexpected Jacuzzi or life-size toy Tiger if you don’t have the space to appreciate it.

The best thing though is if you happen to have it delivered from the other side of the world too, that way you also have about a month to forget what you’ve bought while it’s sitting on a slow boat from, well, you know where…

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Marketing, Meta, Tech

The Modern J. R. Hartley

In the eighties the Yellow Pages had a number of TV ads in the UK showing people finally finding some elusive item by using their book to find suitable shops and ringing them. One such ad featured the now famous but fictional author J. R. Hartley searching for a copy of the book he’d written called Fly Fishing. We were never told what had happened to leave him without a copy of his own book just that eventually he found one and was happy.

Today of course Yellow Pages is still with us but the same story could be used by at least three companies. In 2020 Mr Hartley, or his daughter from the ad, would sit down in the lounge with a computer and perhaps search for local bookshops on Yellow Pages itself, or Google, then visit their websites and browse their online catalogues of old books, then perhaps ring them instead.

Alternatively he might log on to Ebay or Amazon type his name or the books and see what appears. From personal experience he’d probably have to save a search on Ebay to get the book but would no doubt get one eventually, having trawled through numerous other books on fly fishing, or containing either of the words. He could, of course, get the Kindle edition but would probably feel that it’s not quite the same, not got that old book smell and tactile sensation. J. R. Hartley would want the real thing, his book.

Strangely though, as sometimes happens, fiction became fact and although J. R. Hartley remained fictional his book didn’t, emerging in the nineties, as people started trying to get hold of a copy – to see what it was all about, into real world bookstores and eventually onto Amazon itself, where I bought a second-hand copy, and where it also now exists as a Kindle edition so it has sort of gone full circle from an imaginary book to a book that exists virtually.

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Tech, Uncategorized

The Sum of The Parts

Old Radio

Old Radio

I’ve replaced the overly energy efficient CD player I wrote about in January with a superior Sony system I bought on Ebay and not only is it much better sounding (and less prone to nodding-off mid song) it was a bargain thanks to a little pick and mix purchasing and DIY.

The system is from 2010 so is ancient in tech terms but it’s a good-looking, well built piece of kit, a similar one in a local second-hand store would have cost me £80 as opposed to the £250 new price.  I found one on Ebay for £11.95 plus a bit of carriage.  This one though had no speakers – no problem, searches on Ebay found many sets but I thought that with some patience I could do better and sure enough the same local store as before provided me with some lovely Sony speakers for £10.  The only problem was incompatible, proprietory connectors on the main stereo unit, but this was easily solved with a couple of crimp terminals on the speaker wires fashioned into a plug that would fit the sockets.  Works a treat.  Plug in my previously underused bluetooth reciever and I now have a thoroughly modern music player that can access the thousands of tracks on my phone, my tablet, CDs and even digital radio.

All for less than £40.  Having the latest shiny technology is all well and good but it’s still satisfying to repurpose or hack-together discarded bits to make something usable again.

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Business, Tech

Don’t Panic…

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…I tell myself.  I recently ordered a number of items from retailers on Ebay, all small, couple of pound items some from the UK some from China.  I haven’t ordered anything from Amazon though – this is important.  I received confirmation emails, then despatch confirmations for all items, from Ebay.

Then I received an email from Amazon saying my order had been despatched.  WHAT ORDER!

Before opening the email I googled the company listed in the email header, it was real, a well-known marketplace seller.  I tentatively opened the email, knowing that in spam or phishing emails the “from” address (amazon.co.uk) can be spoofed.  It was a normal Amazon despatch message containing my home address and sent to my usual email address.  The thing was that there was no products listed at all but there was a link to parcel tracking that I didn’t click of course.

When I eventually checked my real-world mailbox this morning I found a large flat cardboard envelope with Amazon.co.uk emblazoned across it.  Uh, huh?

I opened it and immediately understood.  Inside was a despatch note from the company listed in the email, on Amazon stationery so to speak, and the item I’d ordered from the UK Ebay seller.  I finally realised – the email had said it was from the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) section – I’d bought from a seller under one name on Ebay but the item was despatched from their stock held in Amazon’s warehouse under a different name.  I hadn’t realised that FBA extended beyond purchases from Amazon Marketplace to Ebay and elsewhere too.

If the product had been listed on the emailI would have realised sooner but as it was I spent yesterday morning changing my Ebay, Paypal and Amazon log-ins and passwords to be on the safe side.

The strange, confusing world of online shopping logistics.

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Society

Christmas and Ebay

English: Where's the turkey.... Brussels sprou...

English: Where’s the turkey…. Brussels sprouts coming along nicely for Christmas, mmm! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the radio this morning, while I was half asleep still, I heard talk of a man who had sold two Brussels Sprouts on Ebay.  People were bemused as to why someone had paid £100 for them, I was too but considered the possibilities, was he in some way famous, infamous, did the sprouts have the face of Jesus, Santa or Wayne Rooney on them?

Once I dragged myself out of bed and to the computer a quick Google found the answer.  They were advertised with the information that the proceeds were going to the Make a Wish Foundation.  Someone bought them for the novelty, to give money to charity in a fun way.

That’s the thing about Ebay, people do sell and buy things for the amusement or notoriety.  The sprout was not the first – that ‘honour’ goes to a man from Darlington in 2005 and was followed by another in 2006 (both for charity) but presumably since then people have been holding on to their greens.

Wikipedia has a list of some of the more interesting sales including the wife of a radio dj who sold his Lotus car for 50 pence after hearing him flirting with Jodie Marsh on air.  Some unusual items increase in value because the sale itself becomes famous – like four golf balls removed from a python (A$1400).

Back to Christmas though, this year a woman is selling three unwanted and unopened gifts from her ex-boyfriend who was trying to win her back, they “must have been wrapped by someone else as he’s not clever enough to have done them” she added.  Just down the road from me a man from Worksop is selling a pack of unwanted doilies with a free Mother-in-Law who is “free to a good home” collection only.

According to Gumtree £2.1billion worth of unwanted gifts are given at Christmas.  I though was very happy with everything I got, including my Christmas dinner and I ate all my sprouts.

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