DDR 200 pin Memory RAM for IBM Lenovo Thinkpad Computer

eBay is usually a pretty good spot for getting good deals on electronics and computer related products. This particular eBay seller is selling IBM memory modules for ThinkPad. Fairly competitively priced (okay, I'm just guessing because I'm feeling really lazy right now), but if you wonder where their profits are going, it's not into their market research.

eBay is comparable to MySpace in several respects, in that the fact that one has to conform to the company's templates, it is usually pretty difficult to put together clean layouts for pages. That, and you have a zillion 3rd party plugins and modules that one can add to their pages, it makes surfing on eBay a headache inducing experience.

This page in particular forces to you to listen to a pre-recorded audio clip. I frantically had to scroll down to the next page to find a way to turn it off. Not all pages have this option.

MTG - Unhinged Foil - Our Market Research x1 (NM)

I actually used to play this game quite a bit when I was younger, like when I didn't have responsibilities like jobs, student loans, rent, food, and the like to deal with. For those who are unaware, this is Magic the Gathering, a collectible card game from Wizards of the Coast. This is a huge time and money suck, as you have to constantly be purchasing cards in order to stay up-to-date.

They introduced two joke sets, "Unhinged" and "Unglued", where they had ridiculous cards that went outside of the regular game mechanics. Just a quick crash course: the objective of the game was to eliminate your opponents by running them out of cards or reducing their life points to 0, either through damage spells (ie: cast Lightning Bolt for 1 red mana for 3 damage) or creatures (summon Prodigal Sorcerer who can deal 1 damage).

The joke sets made it so you could do things like force your opponent to get you a drink, deal damage every time someone says "Sorry," or make a creature unstoppable if your opponent just happened to be wearing jeans. But, mostly the cards had a lot of inside jokes.

This one in particular (item #290117122217): "Our Market Research Shows that Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made This Card To Have The Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental."

USED HOME THEATER CHAIRS MOVIE THEATRE SEATING CINEMA

When I think of home theater seating, I typically think of a nice leather couch or recliner, something that I can sort of just lounge in while watching a DVD with my girlfriend or whatever. As much as the actual movie theater experience is nice, you can't do certain things like lie down while watching a movie.

But, for people with an exorbitantly large disposable income, there is the option of having actual movie theater style seats in the comfort of your own home, complete with seats that pop up when you get up to leave, so it's easier to get in and out.

But why is it that I can't shake the feeling that when this person is selling used home theatre chairs, they weren't manufactured specifically for household use, but actually for public use?

Admittedly, this seat is way too clean to have ever been in an actual public movie theater, there's that, there is that letter "G" that was embossed and bolted to the side of the chair...

Custom Digital Photo Enlargement Poster Print / Art

Since I've been interested in obtaining photo enlargement services, I decided to go on eBay to see what was available. Yes, indeed, you can get just about everything on eBay, even getting your photos blown up to poster size.

But as always, there are certain caveats to any service. As the eBay listing (item #170123464661) states...

• Do not have the content we believe is abusive, deceptive pornographic, obscene, defamatory, slanderous, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate.
• Do not have the copyrighted material that is used without the express permission of the owner.
• Do not have the content that violates or encroaches on the rights of others.
• Do not have the content that advocates illegal activity.
• Do not have the content that harms minors in any way.

Some of this stuff should pretty much go without saying, and it would probably make sense that the seller wants to protect his own interests as much as possible. Hence, nothing potentially illegal, subject to copyright, etc., would expectedly be verboten. But, seriously, folks...if you were doing anything that could get you in a lot of trouble, wouldn't it be really, REALLY counterproductive to get a depiction of the act blown up to poster size? Stuff like that is guaranteed to get you dumbest criminal status.

PLASTIC STATUE, St. Joseph, Patron Saint of Real Estate

For believers in the faith, religion can be a useful resource, whether to provide some level of solace, for a social network, for moral and spiritual guidance, and the like.

Patron saints are also a concept of Christianity, with one dedicated for various professions and nations, and in some cases, diseases. I'm not kidding...St. Vitalis of Assissi is the patron saint of "sicknesses and diseases affecting the genitals." Being that certain patron saints are designated by how they died or were martyred, my research stopped there.

Professions, however, would make a lot more sense, although it would probably be expected that it would be for "traditional" occupations such as doctors or builders or farmers. Not something like real estate.

This guy is selling statuettes of St. Joseph (item #170122854181), the Patron Saint of Real Estate. Obviously, it's intended as a joke, although I did some research just to make sure. St. Joseph of Arimathea (not to be confused with St. Joseph of Nazareth, the adopted father of Jesus Christ), is one biblical figure, noted as the patron saint of funeral directors. However, one could actually argue real estate, though -- he donated his tomb to Jesus Christ after his crucifixion.

Buy my student Loans Feel like a student again

For those who would like to be paying off their debts after finishing school sooner and faster, a valid option is always student loan consolidation. In Canada, we go through a slightly different system with the USA, especially since mine was through the government, although was set up through a financial institution.

But, if you're REALLY lazy or hard up, there's this option (item #220121229674).

Not exactly the first thing that would be recommended by financial planners and advisers, this allows eBay to be used to launch some sort of emotional appeal to the general readership who would find this stuff amusing. Considering what some people have been known to put up, it's not completely surprising (although I can't shake the feeling that someone's done this before).

The gist of the auction is that this guy is attempting to auction off his student loan debt (right now at $140,000 US), which is quite a hefty sum, and several times more than most peoples' pre-taxes salaries fresh out of school (based on the image, it might be presumable that he went to law school...after reading this, I think it's safe to say that he didn't go to business school, and based on the title of his auction, he definitely wasn't an English major). Many other nations offer free higher education, and considering what a lot of undergrads get out of it, would probably be a better option, depending on the field.

He is beckoning for the likes of Golden Palace to sponsor him. Good luck, man.

Swiss Army Watch (Wenger) Sting Ray S.A.K. Design

With a zero feedback rating (okay, I'm only at about 6 right now, because I haven't bought a ton of things on eBay lately), I'll make some provisions for the fact that this guy is new and he's pretty new to eBay. But come on, man, can you at least put the frickin' thing in FOCUS?!

As it is, the only thing that's keeping this from getting lost in a sea of brand new Swiss Army Watches is the low starting price of the product itself. Barring the fact that the watch is in need of a replacement strap and a battery, under $10 is probably not too bad of a deal (although I don't even wanna know what he's gonna charge for shipping).

However, I'm curious as to how he was able to break the watch strap after only wearing the watch twice. I'm just saying, that's all.

BLUE RIDGE MTNS NORTH CAROLINA Timeshare 2 BDM RED WK

I guess in this case, it's "why buy when you can rent"?

Instead of buying your own piece of Blue Ridge real estate, you can have a piece of a time share. After the major backlash from consumer groups, there seems to be fewer of these popping around. Thankfully, during my little vacation to Mexico last year, I didn't get pressured into taking one of these, although I sure as heck could've been a lot smarter when it came to bargaining at the shops. They take one look at you and know that you aren't from around there. Kinda sad, actually.

But, now with the advent of online, it's a little easier, and with the advent of eBay, it's now more optional (ie: you can tune out if you don't want).

Yet another eBay annoyance.

This is the equivalent of eBay spam. All you have to do is go into the "something else" category and you'll find nothing but eBooks and wholesale lists for sale. Much of these appear to be originating from the same seller, as the text is identical in each auction. In this case, it's all stuff about beating speeding tickets and wholesale lists for radar detectors.

Well, barring the fact that you could just as easily OBEY THE FRICKIN' LAW and drive safely and carefully, or at least keep up with traffic flow if obeying the posted speed limits would lead to obstructing traffic, there is to be made money in these things.

I'm curious as to how much money these auctions have made, though, especially since the column indicates that there have been no bids on any of the items listed. It very much seems to indicate that there is an automated bot set up to automatically put up auctions so they don't have to be monitored by the seller.

Orlando Conv. Vacation on Location Sydney NRFB SIgned

Evidently, it doesn't take that much to get a convention going these days.

So, you get time off to go to your Orlando vacation, and you're not going to Disneyworld, you're going to buy and look at DOLLS?!

While Barbie Dolls are strict collector's items for a lot of people, I'm not familiar with the product that is offered by this seller. The sculptor, Robert Tonner, is apparently a big enough name that his autograph on the product is a selling feature.

Additional research indicates that they do dead-on likenesses of characters for feature films such as Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean. However, I guess this is no different from major comic book conventions in San Diego.

LOOKING FOR THE DIET PILL PHENTERMINE? READ ON..

Caveat emptor is the repeated mantra throughout this blog, even doubly so for anything that you'll be putting into your system such as drugs, supplements, and medication.

However, there is thankfully a lot of material to aid you on your search for information on whatever you're interested in knowing. However, I know better than to use stuff that I bought from eBay to give me information, especially when there are tons of other resources that don't require the use of a paypal account.

Phentermine (alternately spelt "phentirmine") is a weight loss supplement which is a controlled substance in some regions, and has also been combined with fenfluramine to create Fen-Phen, which was proven to be an effective weight loss supplement. Too bad that the users had a tendency to develop heart valve disease.

But anywho, this eBayer is selling an eBook about everything you needed to know about diet pills (item #180125095493). I guess this is good for people who don't know what a library is.

9 ORIGINAL BIC® ORANGE™ PENS FROM JAPAN + FREE STICKER

But they're just...pens...

I really had no idea that there existed a secondary market for such a disposable item. I have a theory about life in general, in that there are two things that you can go your entire life without ever having to buy ballpoint pens and t-shirts. As businesses will be constantly cranking out promotional materials with their branding on them, you can be assured that you will never be in need of a writing implement.

But, just don't tell this guy. (item #170117584295)

While I used to lose these things all the time while I was in school, according to this auction, old Bic Pens with the yellow-orange plastic are fairly rare and collectible items.

Now that I think of it, it's been a while since I've seen yellow-orange stick pens, as it seems more likely that you'll be finding the ones with the cheap clear plastic that cracks and breaks if you're not careful. Or, at least that's what happened to the ones I had when I was younger.

However, don't expect the packaging to look like this...it's a nicely rendered graphic, though.

Web Conferencing Room Newest VOIP Technology Free Trial

Um...if it's a free trial, why is it at a starting bid of $0.99? Doesn't that kind of go against the whole idea of "free"?

Web conferencing is one of the biggest things in telecommunications these days, although I still have to scratch my head when I think that major businesses will feel the need to save a few bucks by going on eBay and picking up the first thing they see.

I made a point of viewing the seller's multimedia presentation. I'll gloss over the fact that a lot of the special features that are in this software that this guy is selling (item #260100540792) can also be found in Windows Live Messenger, which can be downloaded for free. But I will point out the fact that the announcer they chose sounds like he has a really bad cold.

4 Piece Barney Sheet Set For Twin Bed-No Handling Fees!

Just when you thought it was safe, we have kids bedding for the easily pacified.

Some people may remember the character featured on this product (item #230136774401) as the seemingly conspicuous children's show host from the mid-90s, which was outmoded by the likes of the Teletubbies before the new millennium. When he was in his in his heyday, so was all of the virulent venom spewed towards the titular purple dinosaur.

Some of the Anti-Barney humour was fairly amusing, although it got fairly trite fairly fast. However, I will admit to getting into the act...we were required to put brown paper covers in order to allow our textbooks to last longer. I drew a picture of Barney with a severed head at his feet, with blood spraying out of the arteries.

1948 scary fire death horseman National Insurance ad

Not quite "death insurance" per se, this product (item #180125791705) seems to imply that they've succesfully found ways to insure against the other things that were foretold as part of the apocalypse: death, famine, war, and pestilence. Or, maybe they're just using what they've referred to as FUAD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - to promote their products.

Stuff like this always interests me, bringing to mind the classic adage of trash and treasure.