Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Luckiest Bottle of Wine in Boston

Finally, something a little bit out there!

Never mind the fact that the most sought-after component is missing, namely the wine itself, but how else can you justify spending double the original purchase price and about a hundred times the amount you'll get back on the deposit (25 cents?). Do you think you can get an item like this from a wine of the month club? Heck no!

The seller is claiming that this helped their favourite NBA team win a game, win $50 on a scratch and win ticket, and helped the seller's cousin score a 30 on the ACT exams. However, I think he's going to need all the luck in the world to sell this bottle.

CHEVROLET SILVERADO GMC SIERRA 03-07 A/C AC Compressor

Okay, I can't really think of anything funny or witty to say about AC Compressors, although sometimes it's a little amusing when sellers attempt to slag on the competition in an effort to prove that their items are superior to the others.

This one in particular goes to indicate that "new" items are not always factory OEM (original equipment manufacturer), and then goes onto say that "these are not rebuilt by someone you do not know." Well, I'm not exactly on a first-name basis with the person who services my car, but I'm pretty sure he didn't rebuild these pieces by hand, so technically, they WERE rebuilt by someone I don't know.

MR16 TRACK LIGHTING FIXTURE BLACK BALLAST WITH BULB

Somehow, I really get the impression that a lot of the things we see on eBay are handled by autonomous bots. And when you see items like lighting fixtures categorized under watches and jewelry, it really looks like someone wasn't paying attention.

I mean, a simple enough mistake...I think...the seller mostly sells watches and jewelry, so he probably just dumped this in with all the other ones. That is, unless he got an automated program to take care of it, in which case it wouldn't necessarily know the difference.

OXY 5 Regular for Acne pimple (5% benzoyl peroxide) 25g

So, it's come to this...there's now a way to get around it if you were too lazy to get your acne solutions from a drugstore. You can now ORDER IT ON eBAY!

Even with gas encroaching $4/gallon in the US or $1.35/litre, it's still cheaper to drive to the drug store than pay $8 shipping to Canada for a tube of acne medication (well, at least it is as of this writing). But, then, can you get the same product with Chinese writing on it? I think NOT!

Sunday, May 18, 2008

17 old books RENAISSANCE reformation middle ages

So, like always, if the auction title sounds really, really good, check the item description and read it twice before putting any money down on any item. For example, if you're looking for really old books, one guy is claiming to sell 17 "old books" for the stupidly low price of $9.99. But then, it's entirely digital, but at least you have a tangible copy on a CD-ROM. And he doesn't say whether or not the discs are home-burned CD-Rs. Methinks that they're home burned.

Considering that the books are mostly public domain by now, the profit margins are pretty high for this item, even though he's only selling it for $9.99.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

2781 items found for: diet pills

Diet pills are huge business on eBay, or at least allowing eBay to become a haven for those willing to prey on the insecurities of their users by selling them products of dubious quality and performance. As of this writing, there are over 2700 items available with the diet pills keyword, all of which appear to be spread between a small number of users (single items appear in the list 10-15 times each). Most of these are "Buy it now" items, removing the option of trying to shoot for a lower price, so it's undetermined how much demand these items are in.

I've always been a firm believer in the old standbys of proper diet and exercise as opposed to magical pills, especially given the controversy over phen-phen diet pills and fraudulent hoodia gordonii pills. But hey, you know what they said about the fool and his money.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

FREE QUOTES LIFE & HEALTH INSURANCE AZ, OH, MI, TX, NV

Sometimes I wonder if it's a bot that's generating auctions like these, but whether you're looking for NC Health Insurance (or you're from anywhere else in the US), it seems like a lot of companies are more than willing to take your money for the piece of mind of proper health coverage.

After watching Sicko, I was left shaking my head at the state of American Health Care (although I'll be more than willing to admit that Canadian health care is not without its flaws either). But, the fact that they're selling related things to it on eBay is somewhat bothersome, and probably not the best choice for the informed consumer.

(MERCURY VILLEGER) FLEECE BLANKET

Bedding is available in all shapes and sizes on eBay. And, you can be assured that somebody who went kinda crazy signing up for various services to obtain free swag will try to unload it on eBay.

This is a piece of branded merchandise with corporate logos from a car company, and is otherwise completely unrelated to the product that it is promoting (ie: it's not really an automotive accessory). And, since it's not considered a status symbol car, it's starting at the low low low price of 99 cents. But then, the guy probably got it for free.