Random thoughts...

[saginawhorror]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hopefully everyone gets a new book under the tree!

[Ben Staad]

Me too. I was tempted but didn't pull the trigger on anything.

I did not score any Grab Bags, Sales or Scratch and Dents this year. Part of that is from being selective, I really didn't see anything I wanted. We'll see what the New Year brings. Happy Jólabókaflóðið to all my Bookish Friends!

[mhatchett]

I did not score any Grab Bags, Sales or Scratch and Dents this year. Part of that is from being selective, I really didn't see anything I wanted. We'll see what the New Year brings. Happy Jólabókaflóðið to all my Bookish Friends!

[Sock Monkey]

I ventured over there to sell a few items and it's really it's not worth my time. One book I cleared around $10.00 and the other $24.00 in profit.

Better than yard sale profit but really not worth the hassle IMO.

If I didn't already have recycled packing supplies that $34.00 profit would have been reduced even more.

Yeah, this is exactly why I keep all my boxes and packaging from orders.

[Ben Staad]

I ventured over there to sell a few items and it's really it's not worth my time. One book I cleared around $10.00 and the other $24.00 in profit.

Better than yard sale profit but really not worth the hassle IMO.

If I didn't already have recycled packing supplies that $34.00 profit would have been reduced even more.

My experience is that the only profit to be had is if a book skyrockets in price. It’s not just the fee percentage, but how eBay eBay implements their fees that make it difficult. They charge their fee on the total final price of the item including shipping and sales tax, which, frankly, I think is excessive; I get the shipping due to possible manipulation of the system by charging a lower item price and then charging excessively for shipping and handling to make up fee-less profit, but the sales tax is rather brutal on the seller in my opinion. I get that they are taking care of getting the sales tax in the right hands for the seller, but it still… The hobby seller just doesn’t have the margin or sales volume to really make any money.

[Sock Monkey]

There is almost no way to make a decent profit on Ebay. The fee is just way too findmuch.

My experience is that the only profit to be had is if a book skyrockets in price. It’s not just the fee percentage, but how eBay eBay implements their fees that make it difficult. They charge their fee on the total final price of the item including shipping and sales tax, which, frankly, I think is excessive; I get the shipping due to possible manipulation of the system by charging a lower item price and then charging excessively for shipping and handling to make up fee-less profit, but the sales tax is rather brutal on the seller in my opinion. I get that they are taking care of getting the sales tax in the right hands for the seller, but it still… The hobby seller just doesn’t have the margin or sales volume to really make any money.

[Dave1442397]

There is almost no way to make a decent profit on Ebay. The fee is just way to much.

Yeah, I haven't sold anything there in a long time.

[Ben Staad]

There is almost no way to make a decent profit on Ebay. The fee is just way to much.

[RonClinton]

I was hoping it might be my order from almost four years ago. I almost ordered the more expensive edition, and I'm glad I stuck with the cheaper one.

Bloch, Robert The Vampire Stories of Robert Bloch Haffner Press 1/5/2020

I'm probably going to give the Balladeer books a pass...while I'd like to have them, I'm trying hard to convince myself that the Night Shade volume I have of his stories is sufficient.

I'm really looking forward to that Bloch vampire collection as well...I hope it sees the light of day soon. Also looking forward to the two Ed & Am Fredric Brown books (and Vol. 3 of his stories). Those're four books I can't wait to be able to order...but at the rate Haffner books are being released these days, it might still be a very long wait before they all hit the streets, unfortunately.

[Dave1442397]

Just saw the Haffner newsletter and that they finally have "The Complete John the Balladeer" in-hand. I didn't think this day would ever come. Can't wait to receive a shipping notice and get this one off my pending orders list!

I was hoping it might be my order from almost four years ago. I almost ordered the more expensive edition, and I'm glad I stuck with the cheaper one.

Bloch, Robert The Vampire Stories of Robert Bloch Haffner Press 1/5/2020

[sholloman81]

Just noticed that Haffner has finally posted a shipping date for "The Complete John the Balladeer", 05/15/23! Am so excited. This was my first ever order from Haffner and I haven't had the best experience; so, I'm relieved that there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. In the future, much like RonClinton suggested in a previous post, I will be waiting until publication day before ordering a Haffner title. That being said, the cover/book images provided by Haffner look amazing and I'm really digging all the bonus content to be included. Â

Just saw the Haffner newsletter and that they finally have "The Complete John the Balladeer" in-hand. I didn't think this day would ever come. Can't wait to receive a shipping notice and get this one off my pending orders list!

[Ben Staad]

Update on Kim with Camelot Books.

https://camelotbooks.com/

[Sock Monkey]

Remember the signs in the video stores: "Be Kind, Rewind"...? And of course inevitably it seemed like half the tapes I rented had been previously rented by unkind people.

That was the worst! You'd get everything all set up and be ready to sit down for the movie and--bam!--nope, let's take what was probably like four or five minutes but seemed like twenty to rewind the cassette. That was complete buzzkill.

[RonClinton]

LOL!! No joke, huh? I also get cranky when my streaming resolution dips for a second, while we used to put up with some pretty awful video from VHS tapes.

I haven't thought about renting a VCR in years, but, man, does that bring back memories. And for some reason the ones that I remember us renting were those massive toploaders that weighed a ton. If we're going down memory lane a bit, I'll jump a couple miles down the road and remember how we marveled over the fact that DVDs never had to be rewound. With VCRs it felt like an eternity waiting for the tape to rewind. We were never cool enough to buy one of those separate tape rewinders that were in the shape of a sports car.

Remember the signs in the video stores: "Be Kind, Rewind"...? And of course inevitably it seemed like half the tapes I rented had been previously rented by unkind people.

[Sock Monkey]

Do you remember the XBR (eXtended Bit Rate) line? It was a level up from the regular Trinitron, and I didn't go for it at the time. I think it cost an additional $250 or so.

I was such a SciFI nerd in the '80s and predicted that one day we'd have huge flatscreen TVs hanging on the wall. Needless to say, my classmates thought I was nuts. Back then (in Ireland) most people rented their TV from a local shop, and if you were lucky it was a color TV. We finally switched to color in 1980, but as you can see in the pic, we still only needed six buttons for channels. Actually, we only need five until November 1982, when Channel 4 started up in the UK. Not me in the pic


John_11.jpg

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Unfortunately I don't remember the XBRs from back then. It probably seemed WAY too out of our league, like looking for Corolla but wandering through the BMW dealership first. It's interesting that Sony still uses the XBR branding, though, for their televisions.

To go a bit nerdy, I'm actually a big fan of the picture quality of Sony televisions. My wife's family all go for Samsungs, I think due to their brightness, but I always feel like the Sony televisions give a deeper, richer picture. Of course, that's probably my own personal bias showing as I don't think I've ever owned a television that wasn't a Sony.

That is also a fantastic picture!