Day of Rest and eBay

Yesterday, Sunday, I took a day of rest. I don't know if I will take the day off blogging every Sunday, but I did yesterday.

Now about eBay. i have been buying things on ebay for several years now, with overwhelmingly positive results. Only one bad guitar deal out of many, one bad deal on a turntable (did you not expect someone who uses fountain pens to also have a penchant for vinyl records?), and one definitely bad deal on pens, and one possibly in process.

The first key to buying on eBay, in my experience anyway, is to always ensure that expectations are very clear from you to the seller, and hopefully from the seller to you. The bad experiences I have had so far have been from sellers who were, shall we say, less than forthright and accurate about the condition of the item being offered.

But Saturday, yesterday and today were banner days in my eBay experience. I won several really good items -- at least I hope they will be, time will tell. Saturday I won a Pelikan level 1 pen for $10.99 including shipping. It usually goes for $25 plus shipping, so that is a definite plus. Sunday I won two desk sets, one a Sheaffer, the other my first Esterbrook, and a Sheaffer 12.50 white dot. Today I won two more Esterbrooks, and six (6) count them, six Pilot Varsity disposable fountain pens, at a price good enough I could easily resell them for a small profit, and still keep one for myself. If you are interested, email me and make me an offer.

The other key is to use a sniping service. I won't discuss my experiences with AuctionSniper today, because I have had several problems with them. But find one you like, and use it. That way you don't drive the price up too early, and you don't have to sit at your computer counting down the seconds to place your bid in the last three seconds.

Until later. . .