eBay-ing at the Moon

Open almost any drawer or closet in our house and you will find sports flotsam -- long-forgotten ticket stubs from big games of every type, Olympics staff uniform items, media books from various NBA teams, and too many polo shirts and baseball caps to begin to count. This morning I completed a six-week online course called Buying and Selling on eBay. With the virtual ink barely dry on my certificate, I am ISO of stuff to sell. And my target is the sports stuff that is stashed all over our house.

Clipboard in hand, I began to take an inventory of the various items, and then research eBay to see what's hot and what's not. The first thing I looked up was a Wizards media guide, of which, courtesy of our TV sports-producer-son, we have many, and for which I had high hope$. Turns out they only fetch a couple of dollars on eBay and probably aren't worth the time to set up the auction and fiddle with the shipping, if I did manage to sell one.

So I've decided to set more realistic goals. List one item per week on eBay, and just see what happens. At least I will get some clean closets and drawers out of this exercise, even if I don't make a ton of money.

Plus, in my course, I learned some really cool tips about how to BUY stuff on eBay. Hopefully, I will be able to balance both of my new skills!

OK, I’m game for this life-long learning thing. But at the same time, I admit that it’s giving me stomach flutters. It’s not that I’m afraid I won’t be able to get it. Heck, my philosophy is that if it’s not rocket science, it’s not rocket science. That oversimplified but gutsy view of the world has served me pretty well for over a half century. Once you learn the lingo, crack the code, most times the “unknowable” is not really all that hard.

What is hard is figuring out what’s got legs, and what’s just hype, soon to evaporate and disappear into cyberhistory. RIP Pets.com and their sock puppet.

Today Web 2.0 stuff is all the buzz, so I’m curious about what’s in it for me. Setting up a blog is super-easy. Deciding what to say, not so easy. And picking a name for my blog was downright painful.

I settled on “Almost Makes Sense” so I could write about how I feel about my strangely advanced stage in life. It’s like being a preteen all over again, but instead of looking forward to the freedom and excitement of being a teenager, I am “looking forward” (not) to the un-freedom and non-excitement of being a senior citizen. Obviously, I am at an awkward stage and have some work to do, to repair my bad attitude. Time to take some risks, try some new things, streeeeeetch out of my comfort zone. Learn2Web2, here I come!