Lisbet is my most beloved Ukrainian cannibal of all time, standing heads and shoulders above her compatriots.
It’s fun seeing what else the people who buy my items on eBay are purchasing. As I’ve admitted before, I really enjoy watching the TV show Hoarders because mocking these people who are tens of thousands of dollars in debt from compulsive shopping who live in filth and have to shit in buckets behind their homes because a plumber cannot physically fit into the bathroom to get the sink, shower, and toilet working again makes me feel better about my own minor foibles.
Of course, the one question that’s always on my mind as I laugh at these basketcases is where they get all this stuff. I always wonder if the people buying the old books I occasionally sell are like the people on that show. Sometimes I find evidence that they are.
I’m not proud of the fact that I sometimes look at the purchase history of my buyers, but I’m sure others do the same. People know that others can view their feedback profiles and they also must know that each feedback entry, save for private listings, has a link to the item for which the feedback is for. That’s why I never buy stuff that could later come back to haunt me on eBay. That’s what proxy services are for.
I wouldn’t be so interested in looking at purchase histories if it weren’t for the fact that the books I’m selling are such garbage. There are kid’s books, very old textbooks that are surely outdated and nearly useless (eg. a book on Photoshop from 2000), school books, detective novels, movie scripts, and occasionally some old game-related books.
As it turns out, at least some of the people buying my items buy other garbage as well. Here’s a case history of my most recent customer, who bought a kid’s book from me:
- a vintage hobo-shaped pin complete with bindle
- an army strongbox for storing documents
- a toy treasure chest for storing cash
- a custom made motorcycle tag
- several motorcycle-shaped pins
- several motorcycle themed stickers and other ornaments
- a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter
- egg-shaped novelty salt and pepper shaker set
- a pumpkin-shaped pie mould
- an apple-shaped pie mould
- 2 moon-shaped pins
- 3 candles shaped like little girls
- a pendant souvenir from the book/movie Eragon
- numerous vintage postcards
- another novelty cookie cutter set
- a cookie recipe
- a green, plastic, St. Patrick’s Day themed wreath
- a pig figurine
- various china dresses like China-san’s from Spirit of Wonder
- motorcycle themed temporary tattoos
- a novelty drinking glass with dancers painted on it
This is all from February. In all fairness, it is a leap year, but even so, that’s far more rubbish than I would purchase in any given month. Not that I’m complaining, since, without this sort of person, I wouldn’t be selling my books filled with scribbles and underlining and, of course, a person with my profligate spending tendencies is really in no position to preach. Nonetheless, I genuinely find it entertaining seeing what interesting folks like this customer are buying.