E-bay and ideas...

Shameless E-Bay Plug


Yeah, that's right, I said shameless E-Bay plug, that's not below me to hawk my wares on my own blog of course. Come on, who doesn't need a busted up wheel to use for spare parts? That's what I say. Do yourself a favor, and buy this thing. You know you want it, so why wait around and not doing anything about it? Indeed, get after that stuff. OK, maybe you don't need it, but then again, you could always buy it as a joke gift for someone else maybe? Spare parts are the name of the game for this wheel. If you have a set of Ksyriums and want some low cost spare parts, get this wheel, most of the wheel is fine and dandy, although some of it is chewed up right now, but I digress, get on it. I've started to sell off stuff that I don't need on E-Bay lately, and so far, it has netted me some good cash honestly. For stuff that I haven't needed, or I should say, didn't need. Mostly extra bike parts and a few watches that I had laying around that I didn't need either, it's worked out pretty well. I think that it's true that there is someone out there that will just about buy anything, E-Bay has proved that out with a successful business model right there. So far, everything I've tried to sell on there has sold, and normally for more than I wanted to sell it for. For example. Yesterday, sold an old fork that I had for a bike that I no longer have. Complete frame, fork, and headset for the old bike was like around $300, I rode it for 2 seasons, raced it hard for 2 seasons, and then sold just the fork yesterday for $61. In my opinion, that ain't too bad really. The guy who bought the fork got a decent fork, and I for my money's worth out of it. If you need and or want something, and don't want to pay too much for it, head to E-Bay, and look for some deals, they're out there. Sometimes you have to dig a little but they're in there. The only sticking point in there is the whole shipping thing. Packing up, bring your package somewhere, and getting it shipped can sometimes be a pain in the ass, but fortunately, for me, I found a local shipping spot a very short distance from my house, and their rates are good, and they're a locally owned place, so I frequent that place when I can so as to not increase FedEx and Kinko's profits. They've got enough for now, they don't need my business for the most part. Although my local place was closed yesterday, so yes, I used them. I know, kill me and crucify me now. When I did go in there though, of course they had the pseudo-intellectual guy working the counter with the glasses, and the frustrated look on his face, the one that says, "It's a copier I should not have to show you how to use it buddy." You know what I'm talking about. He looked like he was about to have a break down as it appeared that he was the only one there, but he had this pained expression on his mug like he was about to open fire with an AK into the crowd of people. Luckily for me, the stuff I had to do I could do on my own. No problems there. I just had to hand off my boxed up bike part to him for shipment, no issues. I think that when they hire people at Kinko's, those are the people that they look for. The ones that look like they're smart, but they're working at a Kinko's. How smart could they be? I mean, isn't just like working at a high tech McDonald's more or less? Instead of asking if they want fries with that, they ask things like, "You want that in color." Someone has got to do it though I suppose.

I still think I need to come up with that one great idea. The one that will make me tons of money, but then again, isn't everyone else looking for that great idea as well? I think that they are. I had an idea once to maybe make a bunch of really weird t-shirts and sell them on-line, but that niche has been filled by www.tshirthell.com. It's one of those things where you think of something, and then someone, or a bunch of someone's have already done it, and aren't making that much money off of it. I would think though that in this day and time, if you offered something with like great customer service, whatever that is, there is such a lack of good customer service in businesses these days that when someone even does a half decent job of customer service, they are praised to high heaven for whatever it is they are doing. Just have to come up with the business idea that would allow me to give good customer service. And that's the hard part. My friend, The Chad once came up with this idea that I thought would kick ass. The old pick up someone's car, and change their oil, and then bring it back to them gambit. It would be easy to do, and people are lazy enough, even with the proliferation of the quick oil change place in America, to pay someone a little extra to pick up their car from their workplace, take it somewhere, change the oil, vaccuum the carpets in the car, and then bring it back to them. Then, of course, I saw an article in the local paper in Raleigh that said someone was doing that. That bastard stole Chad's idea. I think he needs a beat down for doing something like that. I still think that it would work though, just couldn't be in Raleigh, but then again, I don't live in Raleigh now do I?

And in some more political news, it appears that the Republicans, or some faction of the Republican party is now trying to "Swift Boat" representative Jack Murtha from Pennsylvania. Yeah, it's true. It's sad but true. A man who served is country, is still serving his country, and received some military decorations from his time in Vietnam is now being disparaged by a group that claims that his decorations for his military service were not real, or are questionable at best and that he indeed doesn't deserve them at all. This sits funny with me for a couple of reasons. One, this is the same party that will tell you that they are 200% behind the military, that they are very pro military. That is unless someone from the military, or someone who used to be in the military comes out with criticisms, and then they go on the attack. And once again, they are attacking the messenger, and not the message that said messenger is bringing to the public. It's the only tactic that they use these days, and one, that in my opinion is getting tired, and a tactic that more and more is being seen through by the American public I think. I said "Swift Boating" before because this is eerily reminescent of what was done to John Kerry during the 2004 election by some opponents of his. It was never proven, or never could be proven that the Bush election campaign had anything to do with it, but let's face it, they got a lot of mileage out of it, and honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if Rove was behind the whole Swift Boat thing back in 2004, and I would bet that he's probably behind this. Because as we've all learned in the past, you attack the President on something, or try to make criticisms, you're going to have to deal with Karl Rove somewhere in time, and this appears to be another time where he's flexing his muscle to get at someone attacking the President and his policies. Sickening really. They never want a policy debate, they want to destroy the person bringing the noise. It's sad that they don't address the criticisms, and maybe work with the other side in straightening things out, but as we've seen time and again with this administration, it's either their way, or the highway. Either you're with us against the terrorists, or you're not. As Obi Wan said in the most recent Star Wars movie, "Only a Sith speaks in absolutes." As we all know, the Sith are the baddest of the bad, and the most evil of the evil. What was Lucas trying to say here? Hmm.. Doesn't take much extrapolation does it?