Ebay

So I was trolling the wonder that is ebay the other night looking for, among other things, a copy of a couple of old Gram Parsons LPs.

Ebay, being the awesome monster that it is had just what I was looking for. But, there was a catch....it was a four week long auction. That's right, 28 days!

Now, since I really want a copy of this album I will keep an eye on it. But, what the hell is the point of a four week auction? Sure you can drum up interest, watch the price slowly creep ever so close to your dream high bid! In the end though you have a wait a damn long time to get your crap sold.

I guess if you were looking for a quick buck you could turn to a pawn shop or craigslist. But, four weeks seems like a long time to wait for something to sell that may only bring in $20-$30. Personally I'm more inclined to pay a stupid amount for an item if I get into a last second bidding war with someone.  If I have to remember to tune in a month down the road to find out what happened I'm probably going to forget about it.

To me the month long auction for anything that has a starting bid under $100 is a waste of time. Now, if you are unloading a car...or even this rare Elvis gem I can see letting it linger for a while. But, if you have a month long (or more) bid time on a used cd that you can get at your local record shop for $7.99 you're just kidding youself. Granted most of those have the buy it now price set at under $2...so I kinda get that. Still crazy in my book.

Things have changed since I was selling on ebay about 10 years ago....at least you don't have to pay a fee to start the auction (up to 50 auctions a month). But, you still get the honor of handing over a percentage of the final price to ebay, for their service!

If you are looking for cash, and have a ton of merchandise to drop, I can see this being a decent plan of attack. Me, personally, I just take the crap I don't need and walk into my local Zia Records, or Bookman's and take my chances that  I will walk out with a decent amount of cash or store credit.

But, I digress, what was the point I was trying to make at first? Oh, now I remember...there's some dumb ass auctions on ebay.

Enough said...now I need to get back to some last second bidding.