January 25th, 2009
Sick and contagious
I’ve just been outbid, last minute on a rather lovely dissection kit that I’ve had my eye on.
Ebay, a gambling game where you only lose money when you win.
I should explain, the dissection kit is for an art project that requires me to cut up things in a scientific fashion… non-biological things. But I have to admit that it is probably a strange thing to be ordering over the Internet.
We established last week, with the aid of Rorschach tests that you are all blatantly crazy, but I wonder if this is reflected in your online purchasing?
I just hope none of you bought the grilled cheese virgin Mary sandwich…
When eBay was relatively new, I was explaining to my father what it is. I summed up by saying, “They have EVERYTHING. If you’re hungry, go on eBay – you can buy half a sandwich on there.”
I was JOKING.
You may have been joking, but I have to wonder how many half-eaten sandwiches have been sold on the ‘bay?
Still, very much better than entirely eaten sandwiches.
Oh snap.
Lol, touche.
As far as I am aware I have yet to start appearing in a virgin Mary-like manner, although I did hear that there is some office block in Brazil with my image on it.
based on my humanist principles, people queue up for days just to pay me no attention.
the sad part is I don’t even know that that’s really how you look… I’m arguing this from first principles!
Well, unless you meet me in person, that’s as close as you can get to finding out. You’ve managed to capture the slightly toasty nature of my flesh quite accurately.
incidentally what is the code to embed images?
and sorry my name keep switching back and forth – different computers
But we can tell it’s you by teh similarity of teh little icon… same email address and site, I guess.
Yah I didn’t figure ya’ll would be confused but I didn’t mean to be duplicitous either. : )
*Davey has multiple personality disorder*
The code? well, you could put it between image tags, which I can’t show you here, as it tries to make it an image, or you can just put a link to the image and I’ll sort it out… I like to be handy like that.
[img]http://evo.dmlcorp.net/comics/panda.jpg[/img]
?
I think maybe instead of [] ? Or, wait… maybe “img src= http://….” insid the ? Something like that. I don’t know HTML, I don’t know why I’m commenting, really. Distraction from work, maybe.
oh HTML img tags? not that it _really_ matters…
Aweful, how could somebody ever sell a half eaten sandwich? People are really selling everything on ebay.
Religious Awe-ful
What I find particularly awful is that every time someone sees a pattern somewhere that happens to resemble a woman, they say it’s the Virgin Mary. Why the Virgin Mary? Nobody even knows what she looked like!
I mean, I suppose I could understand if it looked like the archetypical Virgin Mary, wearing a head-scarf and praying– but the face that’s (barely) visible in that sandwich is just a generic pretty female face. It could be Natalie Portman for all you know. Except that Natalie Portman isn’t holy, and therefore doesn’t have the power to appear on sandwiches. Eyeroll.
There’s an experiment I’ve done sometimes, ever since I was a little kid. Take any irregular surface: a leather cushion, a mottled wallpaper, a wooden floorboard– and trace an outline on it. Any outline: the Virgin Mary, an elephant, a toaster. Whatever it is, you will see that outline in the pattern when you’re done.
Anything at all can be a Rorschach test…
Yeah the things that are sold on ebay is crazy, like that story of someone who sold a tesco carrier bag (not the bag for life one, a FREE plastic one) for £5!!! Are people crazy?!?!?
I think my internet shopping is relatively normal, clothes, dvds, games and books but i HATE when your outbid at the very last minute!!
Ebay just might may be the most addictive gambling game ever lol.
I don’t buy anything all that interesting.
Selling on the other hand…
[No half-eaten sandwiches, I promise]
Good, that you won’t do that
I often buy things on ebay, but I won’t ever buy such things.
I can’t believe that anyway. How could somebody sell such things? And who would ever buy this? That’s really crazy. People are strange.
E-bay is absurd for the value people put on every-day item.
Etsy (the e-bay of handmade things) is absurd for the across-the-board pricing–from selling it for a steal to gross over-charging–for such items.
oh man, i am bidding right now on a antique ravioli maker, waiting on a Korg vocoder to be delivered, and just got my 12 muffin fans. I am an Ebay addict, and my spare bedroom is proof.
Korg vocoder… *drools*
Muffin fans, eh?
DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN FAN?
yeah, i want to make some strange plug-in/blow-up things. like those hideous holiday lawn ornaments that are apparently the it thing to have in the suburbs.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2055/2344010285_1bcb65052d.jpg
Do you remember the Playstation (I think it was Playstation? Maybe it was an X-Box or a Wii, or something… some game station) BOX that sold for a couple hundred dollars? Guy sold the empty box, and, despite clearly saying it was empty, enough people were stupid enough to not do more than look at the picture before bidding. He made a tidy profit on that one.
I did not know about that! It figures though, people are dim… myself included… just not that dim.
That is…pure genius.
Actually, despite saying it was only the box, when the buyer complained to eBay, they penalised the seller EVEN THOUGH THEY SAY YOU SHOULD READ ALL THE DETAILS AND THAT THEY WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DON’T.
So, yeah, they broke their own rules. I’m not impressed.
My friend buys novelty tissues online.
He doesn’t use normal or plain ones.
It makes asking him for a tissue a joy! Sometimes I almost pray for a runny nose.
I love and hate eBay. One needs to be very well informed before bidding on that site.
I’ve had a few wins and an equal number of losses.
There are now only certain items I would consider worthy of buying on eBay.
I have a large piece of follised wood that looks alot like the Virgin Mary cradling baby Jesus. I wonder what that would be worth on eBay?
Millions
But there’s an inherent risk to putting things like that online…someone may assume that the “religious artifact” is somehow connected directly to you.
I just bought my husband a giant Humboldt squid beak on eBay for $25.
He’s the type who has a cabinet full of varous minerals and fossils, a manatee bone, etc… and I know he Googled squid beaks recently and was very impressed with the results, so I figured it would be a pretty safe gift.
Don’t tell him– his birthday isn’t until March. Although he is frustratingly uninterested in webcomics, so there’s pretty much no chance he’ll either read this or talk to any of you in the next few months.
Yuck… Selling an half eaten sandwich. How could they? Why is ebay not doing something against such things?
evolution, and probably the certain amount of money they make off that sort of thing
Actually, eBay does try to stop the selling of things that seem to be jokes or hoaxes. They’ve removed listings where people tried to sell their souls or their virginity.
And when the Mary sandwich was up for auction, they temporarily pulled the listing off their site, before putting it back when it became clear that the seller was serious about it.
I guess they don’t go quite far enough…
I don’t see how bidding on an interesting sandwich is any more absurd than bidding to get a “collector’s edition” barbie or a “valuable” rock or something.
if somebody wants to buy something and it’s not actually dangerous, i don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to.
I want to make some penis shaped molds/moulds and grow carrots and sweet potatoe in them and sell the results on ebay.
The plan was to originally sell them at a church market/fun raiser.
I guess this plan would also work with jesus/mary shaped casts aswell…..
hmmmm, I feel a kabillion dollars coming my way
I made these chipper little phallic dolls as a joke, but managed to sell all 15. I was a little embarrassed whenever anyone would ask what they were, if they didn’t immediately recognize it.
But, yes, you will be a kabillionaire, either way.
Well my friend makes jewellry and sells it on ebay, she has made a killing!!
She put a pair of earrings up for bid and thy sold for £75 like Holy crap!!!
I get impatient with the whole ‘bidding’ aspect. I just want to buy that old underwood typewriter when I find it, god damn it. Why do I have to keep hitting ‘reload’ and going through that whole stupid process over and over???
…Yeah, I’ve never understood how ebay can be addictive.
My mother is going out for a walk in the snow with dad this morning, and has informed that if her friend phones, to tell her to phone her mobile. Why? Because said friend is bidding on something on Ebay for mum and will phone if she wins >.<