Do this, as an exercise, the next time you’re standing in an airport newsstand waiting for your gate to be called: Take a magazine, leaf through it and tear out every page that has a double-page ad on it. (Probably, you should buy the magazine first.) Now, examine your over-priced issue of spanking boobs and bondage, or whatever high-brow literature you purchased and eviscerated. ‘Bout half as thick now, huh?
And you paid HOW MUCH for that?
Have you browsed through Ebay these days? Really, why would anyone even log on there, unless by accident? I admit, it was fun in the early days of the internet after the dot.com bust. We were like online pioneers, boldly cutting trails through unknown horizons in the virtual reality that is cyberspace. The thrill of defeating some faceless schmuck with a handle like “lovegod786” for a set of “The Muppet Movie” Burger King glasses.
But the web has germinated thousands of places you can now buy rare, used, or hell, even non-existent crap for 1/10th of the prices on Ebay. Remember their high-powered marketing campaign they waged against humanity a few years back? That faggy 70’s-style lounge smoothie with the shit-eating grin that went on for days, singing the virtues of online bidding;
“Midgets that SING, Calculator THING, A nice cock RING,
THAAAAAAAAAAAAT’s ON EEEEEEBAAAYYYYYY!”
Ebay has turned into a novelty website for overpriced toys that become even MORE overpriced once the bidding starts. If something is offered on Ebay, do a quick scan of places like Overstock.com, or hell, even the manufacturer. Usually, it’s noticeably cheaper, and shipping is free. Which brings me to my next target: Amazon.com
Amazon is slightly better, but only by a narrow margin. I recently found a huge score on the complete Ray Bradbury Theater, and since the price was so cheap I racked up a few more orders from the “used” list. Hey, a book’s a book, I don’t need a dust jacket to enjoy it. So, total order price:$37.00 Shipping: $24.00
Ungh.
When you order from multiple sources, each charges a shipping rate from the magical fluctuating postage scale. I ordered a book for .99 cents. Shipping was $3.00.
Bastards.
For a lark, I did a price check on the Bob Orlando book that I was touting a mere two articles ago. On the left is what I found at the highest going rate for new. On the right, used.
2,400.00?!?!??
2,400.00?!?!??
And the description is “Used- Good”.
Not "New"
Not "Like New"
Just "Good"
More like "Good God!" And $3.99 shipping to boot? At that price, the book better come with a fully poseable life-sized Bob Orlando action figure, fighting Boba Fett on Hoth!! Delivered by hand from some teen Asian cheerleader selling cookies!
No offense to Orlando, I’m positive he’s not getting a cut of that sweet deal…Which you just KNOW some moron is going to see, and cash in junior’s college fund to get, thinking he’s scoring some rare artifact.
You really have to be careful with online shopping these days.
Sharks patrol these waters.
6 comments:
Quick, get this before it's gone.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=220377089395
Actually I used Ebay not too long ago to pick up some nice well seasoned pizza pans. As anyone who lives in the Seattle can attest, there is no truly good pizza here.
Even "The Hut" is worse than usual.
I would contest that with Pizza Brava in the U-district, across from radio shack. You have to get it before noon, but their Sicilian pizza is tremendous.
Pagliacci's sucks warm sick through a short straw.
Yes, Pagliacci's is repugnant.
I honestly haven't been tempted to visit the U-district all that much. It just seems to be steadily going down hill compared to a few years ago. Of course, any pizza on Capitol Hill is entirely too trendy to have a truly proper pizza dive.
But I'm desperate so I'll give about any place a try at this point.
Northlake Tavern wasn't too bad, but their pepperoni was a bit too spicy and seemed to overwhelm the pizza.
I'll check out Northlake, thanks for the tip.
The U has friggin' PLUMMETED in recent years. It was such a great place to go for an afternoon, back in the mid to late 90's, when Wizards of the Coast had a fortress up there, the falafel shacks were good (although I wouldn't eat inside one of those filth conservatories for a million bucks) and all the Pho & Thai restaurants.
Now it's like a stroll through Tombstone. There's nothing going on there anymore.
I've only lived here for a year, but my visits since 2005 have seen the U go quite downhill.
You'll have to get to Northlake early. It's a pretty small shop (they do take-out though) and they fill up in a hurry past 5:00 in my experience.
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