Love 'em or hate 'em... - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

17 Nov 2000

On November 17, Megan wrote:
...
  Excuse me?  $70k spent on stuff from ebay in two
years?  Some of 
  You seem to be assuming that anything I buy on eBay is "playtoy stuff"
that comes out of the "playtoy budget".  The car I bought on eBay I
would have otherwise bought from a dealer or an individual outside of
eBay.  As it turns out I got a pretty good deal.  Let's not overlook
the fact that some of it is stuff that got resold for major profit,
and a lot of it directly supports my work.

  Sure, that $70k is a solid one-third of my income.  But when you
consider that I buy nearly everything except groceries, gasoline,
household utilities, and medical care via eBay most of the time,
that's not a very big number.

  The notion that EVERYTHING that gets sold on eBay get sold for more
than it's worth is incorrect.  Also incorrect is the notion that
everything that gets sold on eBay is for hobby or play activities.
Further incorrect is the (seemingly prevalent) idea that all the
computer-related activities of the folks on this list are pure
hobbyist activities and are thus expendable as "play", even with our
older machines.

...
  us don't have the budget for more than a few
hundred a year for
 stuff... 
  Ok, so that means I'm not supposed to buy the things I want to buy?
See above.  Add your "automotive" budget to your "playtoy" budget.
Then add in your "equipment to support work for customers" budget.
Does that affect those numbers?

...
  And the fact that you pay more than is reasonable (and
it appears
 you have the deep pockets to do that) has a direct affect on the
 prices of things for the rest of us... No wonder prices on ebay
 are unreal. 
  Oh yeah, it's ALL MY FAULT.  Shoot me now.  Many of the people I
frequently bid against (to astronomical numbers) are on this list, and
they have MUCH deeper pockets than I.  I have an income that is
reasonable for a person with my level of experience, which is no less
or no greater than most of the folks here.  I'm very lucky that I
currently live alone, have no children (yet), and have a girlfriend
that doesn't presume to tell me what I can do with the money that I
make.  Since that will probably all change within the next couple of
years, I'm getting my "goodies" purchases done now, so I won't have to
fight for them later...the Crays, the electron microscope, stuff like
that.

  Sheesh.  This is the LAST place I'd expect to get criticized about
obtaining and hacking on cool stuff.

               -Dave McGuire