Strange Dream

Had a strange dream last night...

I was on the run from the cops here in Arizona.  Seems I was under suspicion for drinking and driving. But, not alcohol. Just a Pepsi!!

Apparently in my dream world it was illegal to drink anything, and drive anywhere.  So I decided rather than spend hard time in one of Sheriff Joe's fine tent city establishments I would make a run for it. I headed up north towards Flagstaff then decided to cut over towards Colorado. Which is when it got really strange.

Remember the musical/movie Brigadoon about the town that appears like once ever century (or something)? Well, apparently I ran into the town from the mid to late 90's.  There was everything a kid who grew up in the 90's could ask for: kick ass Saturday morning cartoons, bad ass toys on every store shelf (the kind where G.I. Joe's guns didn't really fire), and Crystal Pepsi flowed like water.  Seriously...it came out of the water fountains in this town!

Now I've never been able to nail down my fascination with a drink that almost did to Pepsi what "New Coke" did to Coke. But from time to time I have strange dreams that seem to feature this clear Pepsi product as some sort of Holy Grail of the soda world!

Apparently, not much a search is actually required thanks to ebay  you can open the bidding at $49.99 or buy it now for $249.

I think I need to look a little cheaper for some Crystal Pepsi gear...maybe start with a magnet or sign before I drop $249 on an unopened 6-pack of almost 20 year old soda!!

Sadly I woke up before I ever got to Colorado...or resolved my issues with the state of Arizona. I'd like to think that somewhere in my dreams I am sitting back pretending that GI Joe is shooting Cobra, watching Denver the Last Dinosaur and drinking a tall Crystal Pepsi, the "clear cola".  I man can dream.

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.