Silly Things You Buy on Ebay

[Bob La Londe]

I've got a PayPal account I use only for Ebay. Its not linked to any of my bank accounts. Only to one low limit credit card. I often use that account to buy things I need on Ebay from funds received for things I have sold on Ebay. To be honest I don't sell much on Ebay, and often after a sale there isn't much left when Ebay and PayPal take their cut. Sometimes I'll have 10-20 dollars sitting in the account for months. Every once in a while I'll do a search on Ebay for "electric motor" price range "1 cent" to "PayPal Balance." I have wound up with a small assortment of misc mostly useless (except to "play" with) motors. Once in a while I get something cool. I've got a small handful of low speed gear motors that have gotten used for various projects. One is setup to drive a multi station rod drying rig.

So what stupid things do you buy for no good reason other than to play with. Things like candy & cigarettes don't count.

[JoeLee]

I've got a PayPal account I use only for Ebay. Its not linked to any of my bank accounts. Only to one low limit credit card. I often use that account to buy things I need on Ebay from funds received for things I have sold on Ebay. To be honest I don't sell much on Ebay, and often after a sale there isn't much left when Ebay and PayPal take their cut. Sometimes I'll have 10-20 dollars sitting in the account for months. Every once in a while I'll do a search on Ebay for "electric motor" price range "1 cent" to "PayPal Balance." I have wound up with a small assortment of misc mostly useless (except to "play" with) motors. Once in a while I get something cool. I've got a small handful of low speed gear motors that have gotten used for various projects. One is setup to drive a multi station rod drying rig.

So what stupid things do you buy for no good reason other than to play with. Things like candy & cigarettes don't count.

Nothing, If I don't need it or want it for some other reason I don't buy it.
I'm with you on the account and cc. I have had .24 cents sitting im my PP account for almost a year. I no longer sell anything, never was a big seller and with no seller protection ........ forget it.
In order to make money selling something on ebay you have to get it for nothing so you can make peanuts on it after fees.

JL......................

[Bob La Londe]

The main reason I keep a couple things listed for sale on eBay is for name recognition and exposure. I had a guy contact me because he saw one of my eBay listings just this morning who wanted me to make a custom mold for him.

[old mart]

I got fed up with my soldering iron getting hotter and hotter and spoiling my attempts at circuit boards. I bought a temperature controlled one on ebay and still haven't used it in three months, just as well, I still have the instructions.

[Dan_the_Chemist]

There are an amazing number of things for $2 or $3 on eBay including free shipping, or maybe $1 shipping. 14 months ago, starting around Thanksgiving I would search eBay with the advanced search, looking for <$3 and free shipping. I'd throw in search terms that would appeal to my wife. Terms like "purple" "knitting" "flowers" OR appealing to her sciencey side "NASA" "space" "DNA" ... I'd find some silly little thing and order it.

So, starting about half way between Thanksgiving and Christmas she started getting little packages from all over - China, India, etc Each one had some silly little trinket in it. I kept it up for about 50 packages.

Some of the things included a NASA pin, a Viking Lander pin (she worked on the Viking project), purple garden gloves, purple bath salts, a very small rude garden gnome for a potted plant, a motivational poster about getting old and outliving the people who did you dirt, etc

She had a lot of fun opening the one or two packages which showed up each day.

[Bob La Londe]

Somewhere I have one of my grandfather's NASA pins. He retired from Lewis Research Center (NASA) back around 1981/82. Each of us grandsons who carried the casket at his funeral were given one and asked to wear it at his funeral. I would never sell it, but... thanks for the memory.

[nickel-city-fab]

eBay has 20,917 results for "wife" (found in 0.735 seconds). It looks like I'm going to have to use the "Advanced Search" and narrow it down some.... Sigh. Maybe just get another cat instead.

[gellfex]

There's a fair number of businesses online that will take Paypal, you don't need to throw it away on garbage. But I can usually find stuff I need, from bulk fishhooks packs to replacement plumbing and heating parts.

[Bob La Londe]

I do find it a little bit amusing that I shared something that I find fun and amusing and diverting and a couple of people seem to think I was just pissing into the wind. That's not the point at all.