EBay and the fun of online auctions

Don't you just love it. You see something on Ebay, mentally desire it and decide you must at least try to bag the object of your desires. It can be addictive but you need to be rational at some point so my rules are to sit back and decide how much you are prepared to pay and set that limit in stone in your head, particularly after you've done your research by taking a look at the recently completed auctions of the same things. At no point rush in.

By all means take a first punt by offering slightly more than the current bid and see what happens. If your bid is immediately superceded and it's not near the end of the auction, bide your time and keep a watching brief.

Closer to the end of the auction, probably with 10-15 minutes to go, take another look at where the price has got to and if it is still within your limits, keep watching. If it's already exceeded your maximum price just walk away and look for another auction of the same thing.

If you are still within your limit, perhaps make a revised bid with 5 minutes to go, again just above the current one and see what happens. If you are gazumped, keep edging it up as the auction moves closer to ending until you are either at your limit or are winning. Keep watching until the end because there are 'sniping' tools out there that will still bid in the last minute.

One small trick, particularly when the auction is nearing its end is to edge the bids up with 'strange amounts.' Most people think in terms of whole pounds, some now have cottoned on to this and now bid with 50p but be more obscure, perhaps place a bid with 79p on the end so it blows away anyone working in pounds or 50p increments and also covers those working in 25p ones too.

That's my strategy if I'm around when the auction is ending which is when the fun happens. If I'm not around when it is ending and have to rely on the automated tools, it takes some of the excitement away but sometimes that can't be avoided.

Have fun with it but don't end up bidding against me or things might get really weird.

Top Gear & getting paid for looning about.

I remember the days when Top Gear was part of the minority programming on BBC2 presented in a fairly dull monotone by William Woollard and Quentin Wilson amongst other worthies.

Since Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow (and it must be said Andy Willman the director) took over, they've changed it into something that has a connection to cars but is more entertaining because they injected personality into it.

There's something both childlike and also knowing about it that grabs my attention and I can be found at transmission time sat there waiting to see just what they'll get up to next.

It's obvious that they're having a blast and getting off on their own celebrity yet I don't find the latter infuriating like I do someone like Simon Cowell. We need more programmes made with passion and presented with gusto like that not the forced bonhomie of things like Springwatch.

Sunday's show with the test of the Maclaren P1 (below) was excellent with Jezza spouting effusively about the car and what it was capable of.

 

But perhaps the best bit was 'the challenge' with Hamster in the Alfa 4C versus the multi mode quad bike. The sight of Clarkson blasting across the water in a white shirt and jeans just had me roaring with laughter knowing how much he abhors health & safety. The icing on the cake was the mick take about the warning sticker from the quad and intimate bodily parts.

If it was me doing that programme, I wouldn't want paying. Just cover the cost of getting to where I need to be and I'd do it for free. The fact that they own the rights and thus get paid every time it's shown on BBC, Dave and god knows how many other channels, is pure genius.

More power to their elbow is all I can say.

How did that happen?

It seems like I have followers in the United States and Austria!  All I can say is thank you for dropping by and I hope that you like what you have read. Feel free to drop by anytime you want. The virtual kettle is always on.

Making progress

For a long time I have been a regular attendee at a local jam session/open mic night and loved every minute of it. When the pub changed hands the people that had run the night for over 15 years decided that they wanted a break from having to be there every night and as there was some concern about what might happen to the pub the musicians voted me as the next leader.

To say I was shocked was an understatement but I did feel honoured too that they thought enough about me that they were confident enough to trust me to take it forward.

Since then things at the pub have been up and down with rumours of what was going to happen, changes in the temporary management every few weeks and other stuff so it has been a challenge keeping it together whilst at the same time working on an inclusive strategy to move it forward.

I can now say that the work is beginning to pay off in that the 'branding' of the night as opposed to the venue has meant that we have now secured a new place to play and with some simple changes to the web site and Faceberk group we can move straight to the new place and all the promotional stuff can stay as it is.

Although all of that is good my next challenge is to check through the gear at the new place, find out how it's wired and get it all up and running so wish me luck with that. There's a lot more stuff there than I've been used to before so it's going to be fun learning how it all works and hopefully making it sound good. That's also before I take a look at the lighting rig too!

Anyhow, I'm still grateful for the support of the chaps and chapesses at the jam. Here's a picture of just a few of them from the last night at the old place.