Just My Opinion

For Fun & Profit

Actually our experience with Ebay selling over the past 6 years has been more fun than profit.  We are retired, enjoy playing on the internet, and got into ebay pretty much by accident.  We were having a big garage sale, and our daughter was home from college.  She asked if she could sort out a few of the t-shirts we were trying to sell for 50 cents, and first thing we knew she had taken photos and listed them on ebay, and was selling them for $10-15 each.  Hmmmm.

So with her help, we got started in ebay selling, with clothing, books, knives, and things we had around the house.  We needed a digital camera, so we looked for things we could sell to raise some money for a camera.  I had a collection of books and hunting knives, so we sold some of those.  We got into buying t-shirts, books, and jerseys at garage sales, thrift stores, library book sales, wherever.  It is fun to list an item you have paid a buck or so for and watch the bids climb to $10, 20, even higher.  We use the proceeds for our bingo fund.

There have been some remarkable successes over the years.  I had a hunting knife I bought for fifty cents at a garage sale, used it for 20 years, and sold it for $900.  We have bought shirts for $1 and sold them as high as $100.  I sold a collectible hunting book for $200, then found another copy for $2 and sold it for $325.  An old empty shotgun sell box sold for $95.  Those make it interesting.

Ebay selling is not difficult, if one follows their rules, and knows the basics of computers.  We take our own photos, upload them to our server, then use them on the auction listing.  Before listing an item, we like to research similar ones that have sold or are selling.  We never copy another seller’s listing information or photos.  Good clear pictures and a good description are very important, as well as details on shipping cost, payment methods, etc.  For example, if you tell bidders that you accept cash, ebay will cancel your auction.  Not allowed.  Paypal costs a little more, but works best for buyer and seller.

Give it a try, and have fun.

And that is Just My Opinion.

Tags: auctions, e-bay auction, Ebay, internet, sales, selling

I have been doing photographs for many years, starting with a little German 35mm I bought while in the army.  I moved to a Minolta with zoom lens, then got into digitals, which are great.  I like to photograph nature and animals and wildlife, so need a long distance lens that works with low light and fast speeds.  My first digital was an Olympus, then I found the Kodak zoom digital, starting with a Z740.

I am told that Nikon and Canon and some of those have some fantastic long lens digitals, but they are away out of my price range for casual shooting.  My Kodak 740 was reasonable priced, took beautiful photos, and had a fairly good zoom, though it was near impossible to use when fully zoomed except on a tripod.  It also did not handle low lighting well, such as evening or cloudy days, being only 4 or 5 megapixels.

Kodak’s latest version, which I just bought, is the Z1015IS, which is 10 megapixels and a 15X zoom, which multiplies to 75X.  Reaches right out there.  I have not really had a chance to use all the features yet, but with the photos I have taken, the colors and clarity are excellent, and it seems to work really well in evening light conditions. Also it seems much less sensitive to movement distortion than my older kodak.   I especially like the burst feature, which allows a series of photos with one shot.  I have yet to try the video.  There are so many gadgets and features I may never get to try them all.  They put a lot in there for the price-under $300.

The one feature I may have problems with is the power, which comes from a rechargable battery pack, and they even provide the charger.  Only drawback is that it takes about 3 hours to recharge.  From what I have read so far, it does not work with AA batteries, as my old kodak did.  Perhaps I can find a spare battery pack.  Also, kodak provides a lens cap which pops off when the camera is turned on.  Nice feature, but this makes the cap very difficult to keep in place when you are carrying or storing the camera.

Overall, if one is looking for a very efficient digital camera with a powerful zoom and a reasonable price, you really should consider the “Z”.  This model has not been on the market long, but I believe it will be very popular.  I do not print a lot of my photos, as I prefer to download them to my computer, process and store them, but the kodak also features (sold separately) the easyshare developing and printing attachment, allowing you to just set the camera on the easyshare, download your photos, and print them right away.  Neat.

And there you have it: Just My Opinion.

Tags: digital camera, kodak, photography, wildlife photos, zoom lens camera