More than a couple times I have been accused of having double standards, spinning any situation to suit me. Well, I admit to having a double standard on this particualr issue, but so what, it is true. Ebay sucks if you are the buyer (most of the time) and rules if you are the seller. As a seller, lately, I have been making some good money selling off all this videogame and pinball parts/memoribilia, most of which is stuff I acquired over the years of working at my former employer (Williams Bally/Midway). The extra money has really helped me with some bills, and more importanly, giving me extra spending money to beef up the punk vault (my record collection for the uninformed). I mean, who knew that a safecracker “prototype” token would get me over $60 or that someone would pay $40 for a pinball t-shirt. As a buyer, and collector, ebay has ruined something that was once fun and exciting and turned it into just a battle to spend the most money per item. Long gone are the days of scouring the used record shops and finding some used punk gem for a fair price, or even for next to nothing! These days, everyone just puts it on ebay, no one trades it in. You can’t blame them, they often get far more money for the items, but from a collectors standpoint, and one without a ton of disposable income, I prefer the “old days” a lot more, even though thanks to ebay I have found records that I never knew existed, let alone would probably have tracked down in my lifetime. It is a catch 22. I don’t have 500 dollars laying around to replace the Misfits – Bullet 7″ on black vinyl that I sold 11 years ago when I was unemployed, needed money, and also helped my girlfriend at that time out when she was short rent money in college. That is the ONLY record from back that that I sold and have been unable to replace. Everything else I got back.
Speaking of records, which I often do, I am agonizing over whether to shell out some big coin for this record cleaning machine I have always wanted. A VPI 16.5. It is over $400, but right now is on sale and comes with free shipping until tuesday. Right now I have a ton of bills from the back, plus property tax due, but I could really use this device, plus it is a decent markdown as well. I could buy it, then just post a pile of stuff on ebay, which I already plan to do, to make back the money. See, there is the double standard coming back again, ebay sales enable me to drop large coin on something like that, but I hate paying big money for anything up there and get mad when something I want goes for more than I am either willing to pay, or more often, more than I can afford. I’m likely gonna end up buying the machine and just deal with the stress of recouping the money before the credit card bill comes next month. I mean, with 5000 records and counting, and many of them worth a lot of money, it is a wise investment I figure.
Today a few of us went to the Palace for lunch. A Palace burger has become a friday tradition for me and angrytodd, but this time three others came along too. It was damn good, and work just restocked the pop fridge (we get free pop here at work) and there was some Cherry Cokes in there today! That sure beats that crappy Pepsi we were forced to drink until it got used up. Damn the evil blue, it was torture having to drink that crap for a couple weeks, but I can rest easy knowing they will never buy that stuff again.
Koz is in town and tonite we are going to Rick’s party. Rick is a big game collector much like me, but has even more stuff. This will be my big test on my back for playing pinball. I have a new way to stand that I have to get used to that is easier on my back when I play. I reckon I won’t be playing much and just hanging out and talking to the people I know there more than anything. I always have a good time there.
Current music: Kiss (w/makeup of course, for anything else is just not Kiss). GO ACE!
