Monday, December 13, 2010

Two Minutes Hate





Ummm...that doesn't really help.

I buy things on eBay.  Not a lot, but probably more than many people.  I have seen all kinds of stupidity throughout the 12+ years that I have frequented eBay, but I am still always surprised by some people's idiocy.  Today I am annoyed by people who list auctions for "pickup only" but they don't list their exact location.

I have an automatic notice set up for listed pinball machines in the state of Iowa....but I kept getting notices of auctions that listed a locations for such things as "Iowa" or "Hawkeye Country" or something similarly stupid.  I understand that selling a "pickup only" pinball machine is probably not their normal items...but seriously it is annoying when you don't list your city.  Iowas is about 56,000 square miles...yes, for the right machine and the right price I would drive to nearly any corner of the state, but you are pretty much automatically making me skip your auction due to the fact you don't list where I am going to have to go.  You could be 10 miles away or you could be 300 miles.  I don't know and chances are that I am not going to go through the trouble of finding out.  I figure that if you aren't comfortable listing your city on eBay, you are probably some sketchy idiot and the auction is going to be nothing but a headache for me.  Admittedly, I am a lazy consumer...but one with a fair amount of walking around money - you as the seller are the one that loses out in this situation.  Seriously, just list your city when you have a pickup auction.  You don't even have to change your profile, just throw your zip code in the item description.  It is SO easy, much easier than having me email and wait for you to get back to me.

End Hate

6 comments:

Shannonnicolle said...

I was watching American Pickers last night and they picked up an interesting pinball machine. I thought of you :)

Michael said...

What?! I've watched that show 5 times hoping for a cool pin to show up and nothing.

I'm sure it would be too much to ask you to remember details?

Shannonnicolle said...

I don't remember what town they picked it up. They bought it for like $90 and then took it to an appraiser that said it was worth between $700 and $900. It was made in the 50's or 60's. It had a cat and mouse type theme on the sides and the game itself was a baseball format with the paddles being little baseball bats. They were super excited when they plugged it in and everything worked. All the lights lit up and bells and noises still worked. I can't remember who the manufacturer was even though I know the appraiser mentioned the name. That's about all I remember.

Michael said...

Hmmm...Cat and Mouse side art on a baseball theme pinball? Never heard of that. I'm interested and would do some research but baseball is like the most common pinball theme...there are literally like 150 machines with baseball as a theme...and most of these in the 40-60s. Oh well, I guess I will just hope to catch it...I'm just curious about how educated they actually are on pins. Thanks for the info!

Shannonnicolle said...

I was also wondering what a cat and mouse has to do with baseball but what do I know. I think the episodes are online. I know it was a new episode Monday night. And the pinball machine was at the end of the episode. Hope that helps :)

Michael said...

I caught the episode last night...yeah, they really didn't know much about pinball. Didn't even open it up to see that all the guts were there (at least that they showed on TV). It is strange having a baseball style of play on a cat themed pin...but it makes a little sense since it was a target gallery type. For the condition, I think $800 was a high appraisal. Thanks for the heads up.