Tuesday 27th September 2005 - Jigsaws

Posted on 2005/09/28 08:31:51 (September 2005).

I was so taken by my work-related experiences that I have forgot to speak about the marvellous jigsaw puzzles that I have recently acquired through E-Bay. I have been looking for these items for 8 years now. It is a 7 jigsaw collection form an american company called ICE (Iron Crown Enterprises), now closed. They used to make everything Lord of the Rings related, starting from the Role Playing Games ending with figurines and cards.
At first I was able to geth hold only of 2 jigsaws, but I was desperately craving for the other 5, when totally by chance I have decided to look for them on e-bay (after even calling ICE offices to know if they had some stocks). Surprise surprise, I have managed to find them.
Both sellers got them during a bankruptcy auction, so they were rather cheap. I am totally happy about them, need to find enough space on the wall to hang them now!

Person of the day: The perfect salesman
Yet another colleague of mine, very short hair, always in white shirt with a tie matched to the client that he has to visit, dark trousers and leather shoes (not too expensive in order not to put the client at unease). Always busy, affected with ADD (Attention Distraction Disorder), on the phone at the same time with Tokyo, New Dheli and Mumbasa, just because he can.
He doesn't care about the rest of the company, the colleagues, the workers. He just cares about the client, the total turnover, the delays in production.
Nothing scathes him, after all he never makes mistakes, he doesn't spend too much time thinking about the world around him, he's just superior, he needs to work with other people because he cannot do it all by himself.

Yes, I know what you mean, Lox. Ebay just sometimes surprises you! Your salesman sounds a bit too efficient, but I guess he gets some form of commission? Trouble is, if you ignore your colleagues you can find yourself all alone when disaster strikes!!

Posted by Nigel at 2005/09/28 09:44:02.

E-bay is way cool. If you think about it the system that they set up it's really "safe", as it impinges on the feedback that you receive as a seller and buyer. It's a sort of e-society where things go most of the time as they should go in real life (where you cannot trust your neighbour!!).
As for the salesman he's extremely efficient, doesn't get a commission but as far as I know he's got an hefty wage. Disaster will strike sooner or later, it will be interesting to see what these people are going to do... I wish I was just an observer sometimes...

Posted by Lox at 2005/09/28 09:59:33.

Personally I think that Ebay is the biggest evil ever, even bigger than multi-nationals. It blatently
encourages people to sell stuff of dubious nature i.e stolen stuff or things somehow of illegal in nature.
Whats really scary is ebay is something like the 5th biggest economy on the planet. An economy based
on tat an stolen stuff. Grrr that makes me angry and pretty much NOTHING makes me angry!

Posted by Kev at 2005/09/28 22:44:28.

In fact, to continue, Ebay probably encourages serious organised crime in the same way that buying fake gear like cds and dvds from flea markets and car boot sales does, just in a more nicer, friendly, less nicaklable by pc-plod-able way because its all nice and anonymous on the internet kind of way.... GRRRRrr I wish I hadn't read your blog now Lox I am ANGRY ;) lol

Posted by Kev at 2005/09/28 22:49:48.

Angry or Happy doesn't matter, as long as what I write makes you feel something (apart from the usual sickness). :)
As for stolen goods, I don't know, there are certainly cases, but it's a bit of a generalization don't you think?

Posted by Lox at 2005/09/29 07:57:58.

Good points Kev. However *I* sell on ebay, but it's always my own stuff and usually at a frightening loss!! :( You *can* actually trust me... I have to do this to finance my new toy acquisition. Having kids means I need to justify buying that new PDA etc.!! How the general punters can distinguish me from the crooks though, is more tricky...

Posted by Nigel at 2005/09/29 09:16:41.

Ok, so its was a bit strong saying *all* stuff on ebay is stolen, what I really trying to get at is that the anonyimity
of ebay *could* encourage stolen stuff to be sold. Obviously as a user of ebay you have to make an informed choice
based based on the limited details you have to work with for an item, but the point is you can't really know if something
is illegal on ebay or not. Who actually polices ebay anyway?- noone I suspect, since its probably just too hard to do so effectively
unless joe public whos bought a pda without any cables or a *new* car stereo without the proper attachments thinks
"hey this might be nicked I think I'll report it" - which I also suspect would never happen because most people arn't
going to be bothered going to the police about how they bought stolen goods off a fence on ebay.

Of course I will admit that most sales are going to be legit, mostly tat, but legit :), being bought and sold by nice people like Nigel and Lox
who can be trusted but its the not knowing that makes me nervous about using ebay!

I think all a person needs is a bank account, but they are pretty easy to get - maybe there should be some kind of registration
required that can actually be validated to make people accountable for what they sell ( a good reason for ID cards!! )?

Also while I am ranting, does ebay conform to distance selling rules or is this another rather convienient lapse by
ebay ( does ebay have in-built insurance to prevent you getting ripped off ? )

The other thing that winds be up about ebay too is the postage. It looks like your getting a bargain, but by the time you
add postage its actually rather expensive for that £1.50 item that you got for a song.
Thats it I am done.

Posted by Kev at 2005/09/29 10:00:41.

Well, let' start saying that whoever got e-bay started is a smart ass.
They offer the platform, but everything to do with frauds or stolen goods is (clearly advised on the rules) beyond their responsibilitis.
If you get ripped off you can report it, the nationals e-bay workers will investigate lightly on the matter, and then they will try to get the two parties to come to an agreement (partial or full refund). If that doesn't happen whoever was ripped off can leave a negative comment, that stays on record and everyone can see it. The more frauds you pass on the more negatives you'll have (or even get your account closed by e-bay), the bottom line is that nobody will want to do business with you.
I only buy from sellers that have 99% positive comments, most of them have an e-bay shop and do that for a living. So far I am an happy client.
Of course I would never buy a 200pounds article from someone that I cannot trust fully... This is why I say that it's a "good" system. If you play by the rules you are allowed to continue, otherwise you are out, mostly due to your actions.
I do agree that more info and ID cards might be useful, but whoever wants to trick the system is not scared by these measures. As for postage it's also true, I ended up spending more money for the post than for the jigsaws, but then again I had no choice as, to say it in economics terms, supply was somewhat un-elastic... (i.e. couldn't find it anywhere..).

Posted by Lox at 2005/09/29 15:38:30.

Yeah, quite true guys. The only Ebayers that have ever caused me grief are those with low feedback ratings - numbers rather than actual scores. I personally am up at about 650 at the mo' and recently had to be checked by Ebay - normal apparently based on a set value you sell. Once you pass the line you get checked. This involved setting up a direct-debit (for Ebay to check I had a legit bank account) I had to phone the US to confirm my phone number (Ebay paid) and I had to reply to a letter. to confirm my address. Truth is I suspect, that the crooks are in the low feedback numbers, and generally without "Shops".

The points Kev made about distance-selling rules and compensation are good ones. I suspect it works a bit like Google. They can drag up all sorts of dodgy sites if you do a search, but conveniently can't be touched if those sites are illegal or anti-social. Likewise Ebay probably considers the seller/buyer contract to be between the two parties involved and not themselves at all.

Posted by Nigel at 2005/09/30 12:16:41.

Post a comment