My used computer has a bid on it on eBay, with a bit more than a day to go in the auction. I am pleased that I will be able to to get it to a new home. I hated that it was just sitting there, though, with hindsight, there were lots of other things I could have done with it.
The funny thing about one bid is that one bid often leads to three, while the same merchandise being listed with no bids at a lower price is less attractive and likely to end up without a bidding flurry. It's a more chaste and respectable version of the old and somewhat distasteful (if, sadly, not entirely untrue in all situations) saw that the quickest way to add to one's allure to single women is to put on a wedding ring.
I like that when one is a buyer, on the other hand, eBay teaches one that with patience and the willingness not to bid too high, one eventually gets an incredible deal. I do not think there is an old romantic saw about that. If I made one up,it would have something to do with maintaining one's values and not to pay too high a price,which is a bit more attractive as old saws go than trading on one's allure derived solely from the fact that someone else wants one.
In some ways,I find eBay the purest and best social media. Posts on eBay can be creative or bland. Pictures are optional but informative. Feedback is frequent and often personally enriching. People often act courteously and promptly. Nobody ever leaves for Facebook. It's human but somehow impersonal in the best way. People send you mail. The only private posts are more or less disgusting and are best avoided. The rare troll is often outed by the community and expelled by the moderators. But, I must admit, it's not perfect. Everyone still gets all bent of shape about the tiniest changes in the Terms of Service.
I had signed up for a free coursera course in using a piece of software unfamiliar to me to make music. Sadly, though, the first assignment was due on Monday of last week, and I had to unexpectedly travel on Sunday, the day I had hoped to work on the matter. I am unfamiliar with coursera, so I have to look up whether it is possible to catch up somehow.
I am trying to decide between driving the hour up to Hagerman National Wildlife Reserve and driving seven minutes to the Connemara Nature Preserve eight a.m. bird walk. The former offers the chance of bald eagles, but the latter offers congenial company and a great bird guide who always identifies the birds. It's a dilemma. But this is the kind of problem I want to have.