EBAY-MANIA

Some people will buy -- or sell anything! We try to keep the prices low in our little charity thrift store. We are small and do not have a lot of storage space. Also, people expect low prices in thrift stores. Unless you are shopping in "Goodwill Stores" where the prices are God-Awful high!(But that is a story for another day!)

Also, there are certain items we just do not feel comfortable selling in the store - machine guns, do it yourself lobotomy kits ... no, no, just kidding. No guns, no medical stuff. However, we do sometimes get racy underwear etc that we would rather not see the local "cross dressers" trying on! For real!

We do put items on Ebay that we know will sell for more money than we can ask in our store. We are the grateful recipients of home improvement supplies from the 2 major home improvement stores here in town. While we do mark the items down to approximately 1/3 of their original cost, customers still groan and tell us "we are a thrift store and the price is high!"

To eliminate that, we sometimes revert to EBAY. This past week, I sold an old, uncared for trumpet -- I was thrilled to get over $600 for it!Woo-Hoo! In our store, we could not have gotten over $50.

I am beginning to learn the hot brand names as well, FUBU, JUICY, SEAN JOHN etc.

Back to the cross dressing thing... I have learned that if we put sexy lingerie - especially larger sizes - on EBAY- some guy will buy it! Naive me !! I assumed at first that all these guys were surprizing their wives with a special gift from Victoria Secret! Well, I have been enlightened! I was wrong!

One of our local friends told me that the guys who bought those clothes were probably gay or cross dressers. (Buy online - no questions, no stares, no disapproving grunts!)Okay - that's cool with me - as long as their payment is good and I do not have to watch - they can wear all the red lace teddies they want!

Not sure how long this EBAY thing will last - they have become very un-friendly to sellers. Feedback is a big deal - and now buyers can leave negative feedback - but sellers can't. How fair is that? People jump on Ebay - bid and then disappear into the night. We always try to be overly honest about the condition of an item - lots of pictures. We pack items very carefully and still you can be burned by a person who spent too much money for something they probably did not need.

Enough ranting! We just got home from the dentist. Ed and I finished last week with our semi-annual checkups and today was Scott's turn...Oh how I dread that.

First of all, I hate dentists. (No offense Dr Lynn & Dr Andrew) - I had very bad experiences as a child and now I shake like a leave in a hurricane to go into a dentist office.

Armed with promises of bookstores and lunch out- we headed out. I had gotten about 1 mile from home when I realized to my horror that we had not brushed teeth!Nooooooo! Not acceptable! Pulled U-Turn in the middle of 41 A and back to the house we ran. Raced through the front door- ran to bathroom and got the brushing accomplished and set out again for a 10:15 appointment.

Scott did really well with the cleaning exam with a few verbal reminders to open wide- and "Open really wide like a bookstore mouth!" Well, that confuses the doc, but bribery is not beyond my character.

My fears were realized when they found one filling was loose and will have to be replaced - and another tooth was chipped and will have to be ground down a little to make it smooth.

FLOP SWEAT - get the picture? It is bad enough when it is me - but I hate for it to be Scottie! I will go with him and stand next to him and give verbal cues as what he needs to do. He will come out of the dental chair all patched up and happy to leave - and I will be soaked to the skin in nervous "flop sweat!" I will feel every prick and every grind of the equipment. Every muscle in me will be in spasm until he is done for another 6 months.

Scott may forget the experience but I will pile it up on my dental stack of memories to add to my terror the next time I go in to see the dentist.

With all of Scott's medical problems - and the myriad of medications he must take, there is not a lot they can do - for him - maybe they can slip ME something for the anxiety!