Posts Tagged ‘eBay’

In a batch of largely uninteresting photos, there was this gem:

The box was marked “1950s, French Quarter, LA,” and although the rest of the photos were of the river and whatnot, I think it might well be a side street in the Central Business District.

The slide was in rough shape, washed out and badly scratched. I cleaned it up as much as I could, but I would have loved to have been able to bring out the expressions. Cropped closer all the people seem ghostlike, with no facial features visible at all:

The latest bunch of eBay photos have a few really interesting shots, though most are of your typical floats and such- a couple in from Seattle for Mardi Gras.

There are two that caught my attention, though- the first is just how different Bourbon Street was… hats, coats, kerchiefs… totally civilized. Shockingly so, really:

The other was this one:

I’d love to know where this was, who they were, what the celebration was. And mostly I’d like to know how a couple of tourists who, as far as I can tell, did not stray off Bourbon and Canal got to something like this.

And then I’d like to go, too.

I love old photos of New Orleans. Comparing what was to what is is always amazing, and ebay often offers up batches that have been scooped up from garage sales and whatnot.

But it is a definite crapshoot. Since I only buy lots, the sellers will choose 2 or three shots out of a big batch to show off in their ad, and they’ve selected what they believe to be the best of the bunch… but of course, their idea of what constitutes ‘the best’ is a whole lot different than mine. Let’s be honest- Jackson Square doesn’t change a whole lot, and my main fear is that I’ll open a batch only to find that I’ve paid $20 for 3 dozen shots of Cafe du Monde.

Pretty much every package has a few shots that are really great, and looking at the people and cars is always interesting. I’ve come to realize that the more fashionable you are today, the harder it’ll bite you on the ass later.

I’m powerless- I must develop some sort of storyline around the sets- especially the ones where there are lots of people.

These ladies, for instance, clearly had themselves a kickass time:

It was from a 1967 scrapbook, and I need to scan in some of the stuff they collected- lots of bar napkins and scribbled notes. They were clearly young, uninhibited, and enjoying it. Good on ‘em- they’d be in their 60s now and I’d like to think of them reminiscing and chuckling about their misspent youth.

But the last batch I received? I bought it totally blind- the seller picked it up at an estate sale, the photos formed a full carousel and were labeled “New Orleans Vacation,” but he hadn’t scanned in any actual photos. Still- out of 100 slides, there had to be some interesting things, right? To be fair, yes, there were a few. But mostly it was just…strange. Also, sadly, they must’ve been stored somewhere damp, because they were the most deteriorated shots I’ve bought so far.

This family, which appears to be a couple & their grandkid, took most of their photos of highways. Or city streets…out of their car window, complete with exciting highlights of traffic, their hood, and windshield wiper. These people managed to get the only bland, lifeless photos of the city I’ve ever seen.

Most of them looked like this:

And this:

This one is accidentally interesting, because it happens to catch the Superdome under construction:

Once they parked and actually got out of the car, we have yet more exciting stuff, like this guy’s chest and dog…but you can’t see the French Quarter or architecture or…well, or anything of interest:

And that’s pretty much how it goes…until they hit Bourbon Street. and boy, they really thought the smut was exciting!

We liked the Sho-Bar and its dancing girls:

And REALLY liked the Topless & Bottomless Boys & Girls (there were several shots of it, all from this far away):

(btw, “boys and girls?” Ew. Sounds like Chester the Molester’s destination of choice.)

And the one, the only closeup in the entire batch of 100 is amazing. They didn’t take a close shot of grandma, or of the kid. Not of a building, or architectural detail. The one thing interesting enough to get close to was a teeshirt shop window, witty as ever:

Which is, actually, sort of interesting. From an anthropological point of view, it teaches us that things are same as they ever were. Tacky ye shall have with ye always. Although it’s somewhat more interesting tack, I guess. The ‘fly United’ was certainly different.

Charlie thinks it says something profound about middle America, circa 1973. Lord, I really hope not, lest I end up with more packages like these.

Now that we’re not so…uh…immersed in the ‘adult toy’ industry, we’ve got some stock to sell off, and I wondered if eBay would be a good place to do it.

The answer is ‘sort of.’ It turns out they do have a Mature Audience section, but there are a bunch of restrictions, the biggest pains being no paypal allowed, and higher fees (surprise!).

BUT….(butt?) it’s amazing how much you can get away with as long as you wink and call the item a “health aid” or somesuch. As long as it’s not lifelike and veiny, they don’t wanna know.

In the spirit of public awareness, I decided to post this product of my research, a video that was embedded right in an ebay listing for a “Body Massage Massager Vibrating Vibrator Health Care.” Right.

My favorite part is the background music, which sounds like it should be in a really upbeat Ken Burns documentary. (BTW- this is NOT graphic at all, but after it’s done, the related videos are definitely NSFW)

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This is how I feel- and my assistant even more so- after dealing with eBay.

They keep jacking up their rates while reducing the reasons to pay them. They’re so busy trying to keep buyers happy that they’ve forgotten that SELLERS are their customers as well- in fact, we’re the ones who pay them. And we do pay- a lot.

The average eBay sale costs me between 15-23% of the overall price, between store fees, listing fees, closing fees, Paypal fees… ay yi yi.

And, frankly- (and here I don’t mean YOU, of course. You’re perfect. I’m talking about a small but vocal percentage of the others) eBayers are pains in the ass. They think I’m running a garage sale, not a business.

I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve gotten that go, “I saw your brand new in package elaborate hand sewn costume complete with dress, leggings, wings and an elf to fit it to my own personal body, and I’d love to buy it, but I am NOT paying $20 for it! But if you’ll take $3 and ship it to me free, I’ll be happy to take it off your hands.”

We’re professional about it. We’ve gotten so good at being nice to those types it’d make you puke. We’ve got 100% positive feedback and try to keep everyone happy as a matter of course.

And, to be fair, we’ve dealt with many more wonderful people than not- but those NOTS are really time consuming, so we’re getting out of the pool.

But if you’ve bought something from us via eBay- first off, thank you- I’m sure you were a lovely and absolutely phenomenal person to deal with!

But I feel better already. Thanks for letting me rant:)