The Walrus and The Carpenter
26 October 2002 / Saturday - A week ago Esther and I were instant messaging and she mentioned that she has interest in potentially selling some stuff on eBay. I suggested that now is the time to start and get a handle on the how-to simply because the holidays are fast approaching and it will be the busiest selling time -- plus, all the pundits are predicting a boom in online gift purchases for another year!
OK, I am no expert, but I have been selling/trading/buying online (or trying to sell!) for many years -- from various Beanie sites, FREE sell ads on sites such as YardSaleNet.net, to toys and stuff on my web site pages (which thus far has not paid for the virtual hosting!), to several online auctions (QXL, eBay, SmartCollecting, BidBay, WWCD) over the last 6 years or so, some of which no longer exist. Although online auctions are quite simply a crap shoot, I have been able to pay bills, which kept me from filing for Chapter 11 more than once!
From the start I organized the infrastructure in terms of personalized forms for record keeping, inventory storage, scans and photos, my own formats/templates for item descriptions, etc. -- needed materials including packing supplies, shredder for stuffing/padding, photo copier, shelves and desktop space for all this stuff -- and above all, a system to coordinate all of these things to be able to work with as few glitches as possible.
I suggested that she stop by to see how I do things, and she thought it was a great idea. I get few visitors, and it always gives me a chance to take a break, sort of -- it actually makes me go totally batty cleaning the apartment! As usual, I had forgotten about when she said she would make the trip, and got a phone call this morning saying she was on her way! OMG! I had not even started vacuuming and mopping, did not shave or shower, and actually had just gotten out of bed because I was up all night working on my sniper report!
OK, so the only room that is always as it should be is the bathroom, so I could start by picking up after the cats and kittens I keep in the kitchen (the other ones are in my bedroom, but maybe I could get to them too) -- I made coffee and some quicky toast for breakfast -- out comes the vacuum cleaner -- I did the dust bunnies in my study, then plugged it in to do the rugs in the faux living room when I think I hear the phone from my study -- she is at the door! Hey, I had no idea the Space Shuttle had an east coast Earth route! Oh, well, I sort of like spontaneous happenings, so what the hell!
Yes, there she was, loaded with several totes and things -- I had not even looked at myself in the mirror today, so I have no idea what I looked like, but who cares! Her first encounter with the general formatting of my apartment/warehouse was the entry stairway, where one has to maneuver boxes of goodies piled four and five high from bottom to top landing on both sides of a somewhat narrow walkway/steps. I suggested that things get worse, so she should could turn around and leave now or forever hold her peace!
First stop, after successfully not breaking a leg traversing through the cluttered entrance hallway, the faux living room, and another hallway was my hyper-cluttered (yet organized!) study/computer/main work room. Esther was either nice enough not to say anything negative or was at a total loss for socially-acceptable words for her first impressions!
I really did not know what to expect as a living, breathing person because cyber contacts leave way too much to the imagination. She is a soft-spoken, knowledgeable gal, and her almost Rapunzel-like dark hair is remarkable! We spoke of sailing ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. She brought her Wallstreet laptop, which I had never seen before -- really kewl, and one of the notable things about it, aside from the really nice form factor and black color (black is my favorite color!) was the double batteries! I saw that she has Jag installed and that it is her default operating system. I showed her how I use the color file thingy to organize my stuff, noting that that particular missing detail on the new OS was perhaps the main reason why I do not usually boot in OSX.
After reviewing how I do my eBay stuff, process my pics via several apps to compress them as much as possible for easy/faster loading -- the folders of item descriptions and pics I have kept for several years, my record keeping sheets, and how I locate a duplicate past item via a relational database printout, reusing the item description format for new items of a similar nature, she suggested that it was snack time! It was now past 15h. WOWSERS! I did not expect this neato detail! All I had to offer her was that fresh pot of coffee, which, by this time, was cold already.
So to the kitchen we march -- she saw the Siamese female and the Sphynx male, and their resulting kittys -- it is an experiment to try to develop a more robust line of Sphynx -- do not ask, as well as more boxes of goodies piled all over the place!! She unpacked her remarkable totes of goodies -- French and Brit crackers, three different cheeses, apples, pears and seedless grapes -- and a bottle of 1997 Pinot Noir du Chateau Bourgogne (Meursault)!! All we needed was an outdoor table with umbrella, and some French music in the background to complete the picture! Things were organized into plates, I opened the wine and actually found two goblets that were the same model (hand blown, large, light green glass from Portugal, that I had not used probably in at least 10 years) -- back to the study
Curiously we munched at the same slow pace as I always experience in Europe, due to the conversation that continues all the while -- and I think I ate slower and talked more, simply because I rarely get the chance to interact in this way, and find it enjoyable! No, we did not finish the bottle of wine!
I showed her the kewl light blue iPod skin/protector that arrived after I returned from Europe -- thanks to Ron's suggestion on the aapl board a couple months ago. I got a few phone calls while we were working/eating there -- all the spammy kind or mysterious hang-ups, and I mentioned it was one of the reasons I never had a phone all the years I was in Spain, simply because it was more of a distraction than a useful/necessary tool!
While still munching I did a new item description, showing how easy it was using Adobe PageMill -- then I did a walk through of actually putting the item on eBay. It is a more or less straight forward process, but for beginners it can be somewhat confusing/intimidating and/or seemingly complicated.
I should add, that as an eBay user for many years, I find their new selling format (that they are shoving down their users' throats despite the constant flow of user gripes) totally out of contact with reality because it is way too convoluted, taking me twice as long and more different screens to add an item than via using the former format/s. Luckily they maintain a link to the old selling cgi, which they will remove in 2003, after which their new dumb system will become the default.
Esther entered her data in the AppleBytes member's page, and I took the accompanying pics.
It was already getting dark outside, and Esther said it was time to be getting back to Philly, my birthplace and original hometown -- a la Springstein! She graciously left me all the many leftovers, and we went down to the closed shop at street level where I gave her some fossils for Fred, her son (see, Esther, it takes me a while to actually remember a name! This was more or less easy, making a mental connection with Fred Anderson!), and two plants I brought back from my garden in Tenerife -- a species of Aloe and a cactus, which I also sent to Marion and George. George already told me that his cactus is sprouting new growth in Florida! I locked the shop and tweaked the arm of a black dude standing on the corner, a next door druggy, but sort of friendly.
OK, so now there was the option of driving her to the train station, which is four blocks away, in my trusty Festiva, or walking. The evening was mild, and I really needed the exercise, so I got my cane and away we went. I acted as the tour guide, pointing out the new train shuttle station being completed at the end of my side street, the now empty lot across the street where a new office complex is supposed to be built, another property, a brick town house, I have across the street (used for storage, but where I would like to make a bed and breakfast for Euro tourists), Donald Duck's fencing deli (the local Godfather), the row house where dozens of illegal Jamaicans and Africans live on mattresses on the floor, and work under-the-table for some furniture manufacturing plant south of here -- and finally the Trenton train station, where we did the usual huggy-kissy thing -- and thus ended another meeting of an absolutely delightful online friend. One of these days maybe I can even get to visit her and her family in Philadelphia -- have not been there in 2+ years already, and it is always fun to return.
Thanks for the munchables, Esther, and the visit. I just hope that you were not too disappointed at my storage dump of an apartment!
27 October 2002 / Sunday - In a message dated 27/10/2002 16:15:21, Esther writes:
<< Thanks for being a gracious host, yesterday, Sonny. I really enjoyed my little outing with you. I learned much you are a very good teacher. I only regret that I couldn't contact your SW base station. I should have made certain that I had my hi-fi card instead of the USB. Lacking that it would have been better to have brought along an ethernet cable.
All of what you posted on AppleBytes I agree with. To add my own perspective:
The day before the meeting I had gone to Chestnut Hill, (which is a nicer part of Philadelphia than the one I live in.), in order to shop a bit. In The Chestnut Hill Cheese shop I got three kinds of cheese and three of crackers, I went to the State Store (Alcohol is regulated by sales in State owned Franchises.) ... and found the wonderful wine to serve. I went to a grocery not far away and purchased two gala apples, two D'Angou pears, and a package of seedless black grapes.
Jumping to the next day, seemingly without
going home to eat or sleep. My friend picked me up at the door
of my house and together we drove over Trenton.
When my friend dropped me off at the door to Sonny's house and
continued on to visit friends in Cherry Hill, not too far away,
I found myself confused by many doors. There was the one to the
store, what I assumed was it's side door, and one other. After
I called, Sonny on my cell phone to let him know that I was waiting
outside, I started to go around to the front door to the store
not certain where he would appear. Something made me look back
and there he stood, tall and slender, with a scholarly demeanor
I'd seen on his website. I turned back and approached him. He
did his usual, "huggy kissy" sort of thing and after
a brief apology for the congested appearance of the entrance and
stairway, I proceeded him up the stairs. They are narrow and congested
with boxes, and ... boxes ... and well ... boxes. All the way
to the top.
I looked around somewhat overwhelmed by the plethora of display cases and more and more boxes and added to this were book shelves full of catalogs. Sonny directed me to the study in the back which was in orderly confusion. There on his desk in the corner not far from a window, I found his desk and opened on it, the Ti-PB in all of it's splendor. In front of it was the graphite and crystal Apple extended keyboard and matching optical mouse. There was a small clutter of papers in the upper right hand corner of the desk.
Completing the room were another desk, this one of old oak, a couple of book cases with software and books, a display case, ... more boxes, a long thin desk along the side wall near the door, ... with ... you guessed it, more boxes. Under the long desk was his paper shredder. In front of the windows on a stand were two aquariums one of which had his pet tarantula and the other housing his snake.
Sonny had gone the get me a folding chair from somewhere and invited me to sit. He occupied a comfortable desk chair in front of the Ti and I saw beside me his lime iMac; above his desk was a shelf containing the Cube and other items. On the desk along the rear of it was the Cube's monitor and a small case with many squat bins. In stead of giving one the impression of mass confusion. I got the impression that he could lay his hands on anything that he wanted whenever he wanted it ... organized confusion, so to speak.
Thanks for the chance to express myself, Sonny. It was a fun time and I learned that there is nothing to be afraid of in selling on eBay.
Esther >>
P/S from Sonny - incidently, what Esther did not see was my UMAX setup, which I use for doing scans -- it is in one of the only two rooms in the house that is not a warehouse -- the Sphynx cats are in there until the Siamese kittens get a little older and the mommy Siamese doesn't feel threatened by the others -- not an ideal cat setup, but it works.
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