Tech Table Wednesday, December 4, 2013
December 4, 2013
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest.
Justin: Happy Wednesday!
Diana: Happy Wednesday, Justin! How are you today?
Justin: You know, I’m good, and we’re going to talk about something fun today.
Diana: Yes.
Justin: This is Web Wednesday, and we’re going to talk about eBay.
Diana: Oh, eBay! You know, I used to use eBay a lot more than I do now.
Justin: Right. Yeah, I used to get on there and shop for things quite a bit.
Diana: There’s a couple reasons for that but I still do like to look at eBay, especially for those hard-to-find gifts.
Justin: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. You can find basically anything on eBay. So, you know, this time of year, we’re looking for interesting Christmas gifts or even not interesting, I mean, you can find basic, common things on eBay.
Diana: Sure, sure.
Justin: But if you want something unusual, there are some unusual things on eBay.
Diana: Yeah, it is the world’s largest online marketplace, right?
Justin: Yeah, it is. They still hold onto that title. I think it even says it on their page. What is eBay, I guess is a good question.
Diana: Right.
Justin: It’s a place where anyone, being you, can sell anything.
Diana: Yeah, or buy.
Justin: You can list things for sale and then you can go on there and, you know, shop all the listings.
Diana: Right, so even if you just have something random at your house, you can earn a little extra cash by putting it on eBay.
Justin: Right, and it used to be an auction site, but now there is a lot of buy-it-now options so, literally, you don’t have to wait for the auction to end if you’re not into that. I used to love the auction but I’d be so ultra-competitive, if you know my personality. I was that person who would get upgraded Internet just so I could click the button faster than the person in Texas I was bidding against, and so I would always win, pretty much.
Diana: Well, I should say thank you because I know some of those items you won were for me.
Justin: I did. One of the things I used to shop for for you, you’re an avid Barbie collector, and there were a lot of Barbies that you couldn’t buy anymore but you could get them on eBay from other collectors or whatever.
Diana: Right, just because a current merchant doesn’t have them anymore.
Justin: So, collectibles are a really big thing on eBay, antiques, things like that. And then, every seller has ratings, which you should always make sure that you look at, too, to see if they have a high approval rating. It’s safer to shop with them because people do sometimes get ripped off by eBay merchants, but like I said, keep on eye on that user rating that they have on there. And if you have a bad experience, you can complain and report that, too.
Diana: So, here’s some really interesting, unique finds on eBay. They recently had the world’s largest Lite-Brite.
Justin: I wonder how big the world’s largest Lite-Brite is.
Diana: I don’t know. That would be cool.
Justin: Interesting. And then the town of Bridgeville, California was actually sold on eBay in 2002, and it’s been up for sale three times since then.
Diana: Oh, my!
Justin: Owning a town is really not a lucrative thing.
Diana: Population 25.
Justin: Right, exactly. Do you get the people included? I don’t know.
Diana: Yeah, now, in late November 2005, the original Hollywood sign was sold on eBay for $450,000.
Justin: Cool, very cool. Disney sold a retired Mono-Red, it’s like part of their monorail system, for $20,000 so that’s really interesting. And someone sold some water that was said to be left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from.
Diana: Wow.
Justin: And that was $455. So, if you find some water that someone famous has apparently left in a cup, you could try to sell it on eBay.
Diana: Wow.
Justin: Yeah, I’m going to try to sell some water from my cup.
Diana: Okay.
Justin: See what happens. What do you think I’ll get for it?
Diana: Fifty cents?
Justin: Great. Well, until then, thanks, you can visit eBay and see if you can find the water I list for sale. Until next time.
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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