Online sales, or what Brown did for me

Since about 2001 I’ve been selling on eBay. Over the years eBay has been very good to me. I started out in computer equipment, moved on to wallpaper borders, furniture slipcovers, pond pump equipment, rain bells chimes, afghan blankets, and finally ending up in designer bedding.

By far the most exciting times were the UPS uniform bash of late 2002. One day while browsing eBay listings I came across a uniform vest for $800. Clueless, I watched as it sold in just two days. I happened to be working at UPS as a morning loader. A driver gave me one of his old jackets for half the proceeds. I posted it and it sold in a day.

After researching the sales history I discovered that all the sales were BuyItNow (BIN) only. There were many people listing at auction style, but the buyer was only BIN’ing every other day. I quickly bought up a bunch of auction listings, each less than $20, then reposted at BINs of at least $300 each. Sure enough, everything BIN’ed within two days. My best was a jacket I purchased for $30, had overnighted (UPS, of course), then posted for $999. Sold in a day.

The purchaser, even though buying under different UserIDs, was always a Mailboxes ETC drop in Manhattan. The buying spree lasted about two months before a nervous eBay clamped down. Sales moved to YahooAuctions for maybe a couple weeks, then died completely.

It took maybe two months, but one day two suits showed up at the UPS hub and wanted to talk. Turns out the buyer had been interns on a project at UPS’s law firm. The suites had the details of every transaction and wanted their money back. They believed that all the product had been stolen, but were stymied when I told of purchasing it all online.

They decided that the best course was to ask me to quietly resign. While I imagined an enticing process of fighting it, the rest of my eBay product sales were doing pretty good, so I took the opportunity to pursue them full-time.

I remember being contacted by reporters twice, in the following months, to confirm details of transactions. The media was flooded with rumors of terrorists buying up uniforms. I provided the more sane explanation of a UPS legal team with too big a budget, and childish smarts, running rampant on the Internet.

When I Grow Up

In my career I’ve been a:

• Submarine sailor
• Computer/electronic trade school instructor
• Navy combat system instructor
• Curriculum developer
• Software test engineer
• Computer salesman
• Software engineer
• Systems integrator
• Personal computer/network engineer
• Small business owner
• Online seller

For almost a decade I’ve been doing the last. While it’s had its high points, the last few years have been dwindling. Other family issues have kept me from pursuing a new line of work. But recently I’ve been mulling over what path to take, now that the kids are almost gone.

 

I have a BS in Vocational Education, but no High School diploma. I quit halfway through my senior year, at age 17, and joined the US Navy. Only got the college degree due to peer pressure from Navy buddies; it was a Navy sponsored program. I’ve never had a job where I used that degree.

 

My wife has a great job with Animas, a diabetic pump manufacturer for J&J, in a career that fits her temperament and giftings. She’s also pursuing a degree from Eastern, funded by work.

 

I’ve worked at Fortune 500 companies, small family owned businesses, my own company of 10 employees, and as a lone consultant. I even started a small business in the second largest town in Venezuela (oh the stories).

 

As an INTP temperament, emphasis on the P, I need a change. Something completely different, something I can get excited about. At 50 years old, I’ve come to realize that I’m never going to grow up and decide what I finally want to be.

Three year gap

And I’m back. Sure doesn’t feel like I’ve been gone from blogging for over three years. In the interim Twitter was birthed and flourished. But Blogger never forgets. 23 Dec. 2005 was my last post.

Shortly after that I lost my domain name. My own fault as I had set the registered E-mail to an account I had closed and lost track of the expiration. Squatter snapped it up and wanted thousands to reclaim. But probably thanks to the economy it just came up free last Saturday and I grabbed it back.

 

For now, I’ve set it to Unhub.com and will have a link there, back to here. Oops, just noticed that Unhub doesn’t look so good when Twitter is down for maintenance. Will have to rethink that one.

Last minute printable gift tags

via LifeHacker.

Your own Yule log

Download to your iPod or Desktop. Your own bit of virtual warmth.

Hard to find 1.800 numbers

Telephone numbers for all those companies that would rather you fill out an online form.

1.800.FREE.411

Never pay for information again. Here’s Snopes take on it.

Google Zeitgeist 2005

Lots of lists, including: Google.com – Top Gainers of 2005 Myspace Ares Baidu wikipedia orkut iTunes Sky News World of Warcraft Green Day Leonardo da Vinci

GrooveTube

The best thing to happen to television. This innovative accessory will change your TV from into a work of colorful, abstract art that changes in rhythm with whatever is on the channel.

Google space

Google sets up PCs in waiting areas, to observe how they’re used. Sort of Google Labs, but face to face.