There are certain denizens in eBay who could just sour the experience for everyone involved.  I just got stiffed by this woman who won the bidding on the 22" Energizer Bunny I had up for auction. At first she sent me an e-mail saying how excited she was.  Then she sent a lame follow up, explaining that she won't be able to buy the bunny because she was "buying it for a friend who already had one, but didn't want two."  Jeez, not-quite-blondie!  Would it have hurt to check with your "friend" first?  So that cost me a re-insertion fee not to mention eBay's piece of the action.

Then there are those ingrates on whom I bestow positive feedback upon the conclusion of a positive transaction, then don't even bother to return the favour!  That really steams me, folks!

I've also come across some winners.  Whilst the bidding was underway for my mint unopened Madonna "Sex" book, some woman e-mails me asking me to sell to her direct because she's been trying to buy the book "for her sister, who's been sick for two months."  Right, and I'll be ...  Got your sick sister right here!

I love eBay!

My brother Verne introduced me to this wonderful exercise in free market capitalism, and I've been hooked ever since.  I spent a weekend gathering less-than-memorabilia or doubles of junk I had, and started taking digital photos with Verne's camera.  I uploaded the photos, followed his instructions and waited for the bids to come in.  I was pleasantly surprised when a Flip Barbie doll we bought in the old country for $8 went for $26.50, a lot of rock concert programs went for $85, and a Manchester City football jersey for $41.  Butt the prize of the litter, a mint unopened Madonna "Sex" book, which I bought in 1992 for $50 and forgot about until this year sold for $305.  I love eBay!

I've also sold stuff/junk that I didn't think anyone in his right mind would buy, like 40 matchbooks for $3, and 40 promo buttons for $3.50.  And I also made a few mistakes.  Like the Peter Max Poster Book that Verne found in the basement that I had bought many moons ago.  He told me to expect $40 for it.  I didn't believe him at first until it went up for auction and another eBayer e-mailed me and offered $50 if I pulled the book out of auction.  Eyeing a quick profit (the book cost me $4), I agreed.  The dude even promised to update my positive feedback.  He never did.

And there are the items I just can't get rid of.  I've put up my philatelic items for sale and have been successful only half the time, and at best I've broken even.  No one wants to buy my complete set of 7 Kodak Kolorkins, even after I've put them up for sale twice.!  Take my Kolorkins, please!

Ranting and frothing at the bit

If you're a Flip or hang around Flips, no doubt you'd have been exposed to the phenomenon that is Taglish.  It's a hybrid "language", one that can't decide whether to be one or the other.  A few years ago, I received a series of brochures in the mail marketing a phone service targeted to ex-pat Flips.  The ratio of English words to Pilipino was so egregious that it made me wonder why they bothered to stick in any Flip words.  Click here for one example.  In these examples, I changed the name of the telecom company and their products, but for the most part the formatting and text are faithful to the original text.  The second example is a little better.  Granted, the Pilipino language is sorely lacking in numbers compared to English, but the marketing folks should have done a better job than this travesty of the national tongue!

Rave on!

It's been ages since I'd seen a Flip film that I could feel good about.  The last time I actually enjoyed a film of this genre was Lino Brocka's Julia, broadcast on PBS.  Then Merly and I ventured to see the best Flip film of all time, Jose Rizal -- the Movie.  It's our dusty old history lessons come to life.  And well done at that.  Marilu Diaz-Abaya's seminal opus is more than a history lesson, but rather a socio-political document that sheds light on the people and events that shaped our recent history.    Everything in the film was thoroughly researched, and documentary feel did not get in the way of the story.  Having the dialogue spoken in Tagalog, (Castillian) Spanish, German, Latin, English and local dialects lent authenticity to the enterprise.  And the subtitles did justice to the spoken dialogue.  When I was a high school student at FEU, I was acknowledged as looking the most like Rizal in my class, and as proof, for ID I would just flash a one peso bill!  But I'd have to take my hat off to Cesar Montano.  He really looked and acted the part, and the awards that he, the other actors  and the film itself were well deserved.  We viewed the film, which was part of a roadshow, in a theatre in Sacramento, for $12.  Although the price was a bit steep, the 3 hour film was well worth the price.  So if this film makes the rounds in your town, do go and see it.  The only thing that ruined it for me was that the actress who played Maria Clara had a thicker moustache than I!  Buckets of blood.  Two native girl breasts.  Non-gratuitous violence.  The DangerDude sez, check it out!