I'm never in a hurry to turn over sales items. If they don't go right away, they will eventually, and if they don't take up much space, what's the problem?

Anyway, I had a nice piano keyboard (not Fender but of that quality) on eBay at $1,200 in a buy it now or make offer listing. It was for local pickup as it was two pieces and each weighed over 80 pounds and they were big too.

Thirty days go buy, couple of watchers, no offers.  Relisted it for another 3 days. Couple of days in a guy from about 75 miles away offers $800 and I take it. Says it will be buy two mornings later. We exchange info for the pickup. I get up 2 hours before the pickup...email waiting for me which said basically "WE, just don't have enough in our budget right now for this."  Translation: My wife says I can't get it.

Three weeks go by. Woman 400 miles away in L.A. are offers $1,000. I take it. Time passes..no communication AT ALL.  Finally, put in a case with eBay. Takes the usual amount of time to get it through, but it does.

Now the 3rd 30-day listing comes up. A week in a guy pays the full-tilt $1,200 asking price using PayPal. I'm in my glory having proven (after two failed attempts) that there is "always" someone who will come through.

The delivery of this item was interesting, but that is ANOTHER story.

Moral is: don't give up on an item and hold out for bigger bucks..especially if you got it cheap.
The keyboard above set me back $180 at a piece by piece auction.

I just don't think you would get enough to make it worth the time and expense. I don't even paint stuff. The extent of my refinishing is wiping the wood stuff down with a wood restore product to get rid of surface scratches or maybe a little gorilla glue here and there....

I agree. Of course I never was much into buying lockers with furniture anyway, but when I did get a nicer piece I would do just what dbr said above.

Once I did get an old (newly upholstered) Victorian couch that I made good money on, but I didn't have to do anything to it.

Then I got a little settee (old wood frame in good shape) and it TOO had been reupholstered...in what I called "cathouse red" material...but it sold !

How can someone be sentimental over a riding lawn mower?

Not the same thing of course, but I'm sentimental over the days starting (for me) in 2004 when I could spend $200 and get a locker that today would go for $1,000 to $1,500.

I have a friend who is similarly sentimental over his first buy 25 years ago. Imagine what HE is feeling.

And the answer is.....65% of adults....according to ONE study.

It was 75% male and 55% female so boiled down to 65% of adults watch NFL football.

I've never really been a sports fan, so I was happy to see at least SOME other people were not watching as well.

Invariably when "the better half" and I go for one of our Sunday hikes there are a few guys out there hiking, and when we see a small group (two or three) women walking we're guessing the "husbands" are at home watching "the game"...seems like we're right.

Powers that be (not cell manufacturers or carriers) are pushing for kill switch technologies which they say will cut down on "apple picking". In some parts of the country (major metros specifically) the theft is quite high.

If the phone is a brick using the kill switch...it will have the value of a brick...not 800 bricks !

******

In Australia they have had kill switch tech for a decade and guess what...no problems of the kind the carriers are suggesting (hacked phones, unable to use 911, etc).  It's just another expense for them so what do they care...right now I guess if one gets stolen it means the victim goes out and buys another one !

I echo everything sanford said in his reply #18 ! 

I would suggest not getting too worked up until you see how long it actually takes, I bought a tv remote control from a guy in the LA area. He shipped it DHL golbal also for some reason even though I am a 2 hour drive from him.

Yes, that is a possibility...a quick delivery not a 12 day delivery. I was thinking of the Global aspect of it but as you say they could pick up just a couple of hours away. Will be interesting to see where it came from and how long it took.

The seller (I LATER saw) had over 2 million feedback as I said. They had a LOT of negative feeback...I think it was 40 or so in one month and over 150 in a year, so that is a concern too. When I looked at some of those feedback it was almost always a cell phone cover ! (Still, out of over 2 million feedback that amounts to nothing percentage wise).