pt 2
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After working hard for my money, the least I could do is to have some online fun. That's what motivates me to keep making money.
I mean supporting welfare parasites and fraudulent government programs like Social Security is not exactly motivational. I'd rather deal with more trustworthy organizations anyway.
Of course, governments will try to tell me how best to spend my money.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Most online games are far better than their mortar and brick counterparts.
Some actually allow you to win real money (rather than mere gold points) and bring home what you win. That's suitable for those who value their time and don't want to pointlessly spend hours and hours on meaningless game-play.
Me, for example, I like playing PPC arbitrage where I buy
traffic and sell it to affiliates. My brothers like stocks.
Some people like to play poker.
Take http://843joe.com/, for example. You'll get up to $2400 first deposit bonus, free software, and fair play. They offer Black Jack, Slots, and Roulettes.
Players from all countries are welcomed.
They have many clients from US, Canada, English, Italy.
It's like poker with your friends. But it's secret, anonymous, safe, and online.
So, you can win money from someone you don't know rather than your best friends.
Now, that's fun.
Bricks and mortar games cannot compete with this. They have to pay for the building, for employees, etc. Not to mention that you have to expensively fly to Vegas to play. There goes the players' edge. There goes the fun.
With online games, I can also more easily test my systems, and techniques.
I then get feedback of how good it is right there right now.
If the system failed, I just get experience and fix the system.
If the system works, I can be a billionaire. All, just a few clicks away.
One day, most of our activities will be online.
===========================================
eBay Articles
How To make $9.95 Extra Income on Almost Every eBay Auction That Closes Successfully
Skip McGrath
Copyright © 2005
I used the word "Almost" in the title because this technique can work most of the time as long as you are selling one or two categories of items. You may have to use your imagination to come up with ideas, but if this works for you, it will generate a steady stream of income that will increase your profit on almost every auction you close successfully.
The concept has been around a long time and has been written about by several eBay gurus –but very few people take advantage of it.
The key to making this work is to be selling in a niche market. It won't work if you are selling different categories of products each week.
What is the technique?
Ok – What if you are selling bird feeders? The auction closes and you send an email to the customer with payment and shipping information. The last paragraph of the email says, "Would you be interested in my book, How To Attract Songbirds To Your Yard? You can read about it by Clicking Here." (The "clicking here" would be a hyperlink to your web page or eBay store where you display sales copy about the book)
The book is nothing more than a 15 to 25 page PDF file (e-book) of techniques to attract songbirds to your yard. If you don't know how to attract songbirds to you yard, just go to the library and read up on it. Now, don't plagiarize someone's copyrighted material, you just want to learn the techniques and then write about them in your own words and style.
If you really don't have any writing ability, hire a English-major college student to do this for you. You can get a simple project like this done for about $100. You only have to sell eleven books, to come out ahead.
You can also sell the books to people who view your auctions, but don't bid or win.
Every seller can create an About Me Page on eBay. This is the one place where eBay allows you to provide a link to a non-eBay web page. That web page could contain the sales copy for your e-book. In your ebay item description, simply place a paragraph that says: "Please visit my About Me Page to learn how to attract songbirds to your yard." (The words "About Me Page" would be the actual hyperlink to your page.)
If you don't have a web site, you can also create an eBay store item that you use to sell your book. In fact, you can also sell your book via eBay auctions. In this example, you would create an auction describing the book and use eBay's list in two categories feature. The main category would be non-fiction books, and the second category would be birdhouses under the home and garden category.
It doesn't matter what kind of product you sell, there is always a market for information about that product or product category. Just use your imagination to think up a connection that would interest someone looking at your category of product. If you sell pet-related items you can write a book about dog training tricks or pet health.
If you sell designer clothing, you could write a guide to locating outlet malls that carry designer items and where each designer's factory outlet store is located.
If you are really stuck, visit the Government Printing Office web site at http://bookstore.gpo.gov. The government writes or pays professional authors to write books on virtually every subject. The good news is that thousands of the titles are copyright free. In other words because they were written with your tax dollars you can use them at will.
Good luck and good writing.
Visit Skip McGrath at his website to learn more about making money on eBay: http://www.skipmcgrath.com?kbid=1056
7 Things You Can Learn from Competing eBay Auctions
If you haven't discovered the benefits of legitimately "spying" on your competition, then it's time to start looking at your competitors’ auctions, starting today. Why? As the old gold-rush miners use to say, "thar's gold in them thar hills!"
How to Reduce eBay Buyer Complaints
Buyers are funny creatures, aren’t they? One minute they’re over the moon because they’ve got themselves a bargain, and the next they’re upset because their bargain seller doesn’t provide first-class customer service. There’s only really one way to reduce complaints: give these people what they want!
Negating Negative Feedback On eBay
Within minutes (perhaps seconds) of the auction's end, I was being awarded negative feedback. Not only did I not receive any chance to fulfill the order or to right any wrong that I may have committed, I also received an e-mail from the perpetrator threatening to have me suspended from eBay if I didn't meet certain demands.
Four Huge Mistakes Ebay Sellers Make
Over the last seven years, I’ve been making a great living buying and selling products on eBay and other online auction sites, and I’ve perfected a technique that pretty much guarantees anyone can start making a profit right away. That technique starts with avoiding mistakes like these -- mistakes I’ve seen people make every day for those same seven years.
Taming the eBay Search Engine
If you know what you’re doing, you can quickly find what you’re looking for on eBay – and the more you know about how buyers find you, the easier you’ll find it to be found. Here are a few golden searching rules.
When It Comes To eBay, Don't Follow The Herd
While it's true that selling products on eBay can be a quick, low cost way to launch an online business, following the herd by selling the "hot product" of the moment, is not a great idea. To the contrary, chances are you will be stomped in the ground by the herd and left lying in the dust with your unsold inventory in hand.
The Rules of Linking From Your eBay Auctions
Very few other issues will get eBay sellers arguing about the rules no more than the rules on linking to and from your eBay auctions. eBay has some very firm rules when it comes to liking and it would be wise of you to follow them to insure that your eBay auctions stay online and profitable.
Is Selling On eBay Just A Hobby Or A Real Business?
With so many people selling on eBay these days this is a question I get all the time. To many eBay sellers the thought of running an actual business is about as appealing as getting negative feedback, so they go out of their way to convince themselves that selling on eBay is really "just a hobby" and therefore, should not be susceptible to income tax laws.
Taxing Your eBay Profits
As a small business person-slash-advice columnist I dread the first quarter of the new year. Not because in my mind my own business fortunes start at zero again every January or because I have already dismissed every New Year’s resolution I made when the clock rang out the New Year. No, the reason I dread the first quarter of the new year is that my email box floods with questions about business taxes and the IRS, my two least favorite subjects on earth. It’s not that I am opposed to paying my fair share of business taxes. It’s that I consider the IRS to be a little like Beetlejuice, the movie demon who appeared only after his name was called three times in a row. My fear is if I write too many IRS columns their dark agents may appear on my doorstep, ready to drag me away to an uncertain fate.
===========================================
We will be offering the Tom’s “Attic Collection” over the next month. This is a very special and unique collection found several weeks ago in the attic of a house outside of Hartford, Connecticut.
We were called in by a Estate Cleaner who was commissioned to clean out the house and get it ready for sale. This was no easy task considering the house was buried in collectibles from records to comics and toys. While in the massive attic, a bin of 200+ comics were found including Spiderman #1 to #18.
When we arrived on the scene, I was convinced there was more and we went back into the attic. After an entire day of work, more than 3,500 comics were pulled from the attic in various locations. The collection spans mostly 1955 to 1967 with some outliers and is both Marvel and DC as well as some Charleston and others.
Tom was somewhat of a young artist and being 7 to 10 years old during the earlier years, some books have his name and personal touch on them.
====================================================================== HEY, HER HEAD LOOKS A LOT LIKE...
I don't think we have to or even want to go there. Comic collectors know this notorious cover all too well. Hidden phallic implications are really secondary though--to some pretty amazing artwork style by cover signing artists, EKGREN. One gets the sense that covers like this were "bar bet" works. ("Yeah, I bet you a Manhattan I can get this one past the editor and publisher!"--"You're on!"). Obviously STRANGE TERRORS #4 got past everybody and made the stands. In time it has joined the incredible double entendre BAKER cover for TEEN-AGE ROMANCES #9 in the memorable sly sexy cover Hall of Fame.
STRANGE TERRORS #4 has its great cover backed up by some pretty cool contents. Text that includes a strong JOE KUBERT story that utilizes some surprising coloring to tell a tale entitled "The Curse of Khan". Other chapters deal with a yarn spun about Indian spiritual rituals, and a well illustrated piece called "Murder By Myth". Nice but of course all those adventures are subordinate to the main purchase motivation for STRANGE TERRORS #4--EKGREN'S MONA LISA (so to speak).
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YOU CAN SEE WHY TORMENTED #2 WAS A BEST SELLER TO BOYS
Yeah. It's pretty obvious that the publishers were pulling out the stops to be bought. The comely trapeze lass is attractive and showing potential buyers her best assets. I've always been fascinated and amused by the "covers" that comics used for blatant peekaboo art. Beaches, beauty contests, chorus lines...and the circus were favorite venues that explained (or excused) the fleshy, leggy, and sometimes flagrantly erotic (see cover photo here) artwork that seemed to be an integral part of comics like TORMENTED #2.
TORMENTED #2 was the second and last issue of a very explicit and graphic horror title. As the cover promised (and the contents delivered) "shocking", "eerie" stories included a beheading title page splash, an EC swipe cryptic narrators, circus freaks and an EC style steal--the grisly "Face on the Floor". Overall this second issue of the renowned release defines the pre-code horror genre. All barrels were firing and no compromises were given in TORMENTED #2. It was the unrestricted method used by the publisher to grab some attention in the glutted horror market and (possibly) to compete with the constricted TV programs of the period. Plus if you were at the circus when the trapeze act was playing, you could see...
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WHY IS SHE IN THAT BATHING SUIT? IS BLUE BEETLE A SUPER LIFEGUARD TOO?
Oh. I think we know. A bathing suit is a little more appealing (and revealing) than some old frumpy dress. After all, the idea was to SELL the comic.
MYSTERY MEN #11 is one nice number from the splendid FOX FEATURES SYNDICATE run of 31 that spanned 1939-1942. This series is well described by Ron Goulart in his excellent COMIC BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA. Mr. Goulart says: "As the name implies, the magazine was chock full of mystery men--both masked crimefighters and superheroes. Published by the enterprising Victor Fox...MYSTERY MEN COMICS introduced FOX'S most successful character, the Blue Beetle. For good measure there were also the Green Mask, the fez wearing Zanziibar the magician, Rex Dexter of Mars (a creation of Dick Briefer) and the insidious Fu Manchu clone Chen Chang. ...All early material was produced by the Eisner-Iger shop... and they even added a bumbling teen age character months before ARCHIE...MORTIMER." It might have been Mortimer running after those cuties from Riverdale if the comic had survived past 39 releases.
MYSTERY MEN #11's wonderful cover is from JOE SIMON and the content includes some pretty cool stuff--like firewalking. My favorite MYSTERY MEN 11 piece is--by a light year (pun intended)--THE MOTH who uses his mothly powers to destroy the closets and cotton garments of the unlawful everywhere. (yuk yuk...)
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INDIANS #5--GHOST #2
FICTION HOUSE was a premiere comic book publisher. They employed a foolproof formula of combining well written, well drawn stories with lots of comely females. A simple plan that worked successfully for 20 years and for some of the most memorable titles in the history of comics. Nameplates like PLANET, JUMBO, FIGHT, RANGERS and JUNGLE had defined the publisher well and the popularity of their staple titles encouraged them to branch out. Drawing from their heroes and heroines, FICTION HOUSE introduced a bunch of new titles like KAANGA, LONGBOW, SHEENA and FIREHAIR. They also sourced their stories and published books like the two being offered here...INDIANS and GHOST. They also remembered what brought them to the dance and made sure that their new titles were dominated by quality artwork, writing and...babes.
GHOST #2 is one of a total run of eleven and is characterized (like most of the issues were) by a provocative cover. This sizzler shows a lovely femme who shows off her best features (which just happen to be a set long perfect legs and another set that's a superb compliment to those legs. The title had its roots in the stories from WINGS and JUMBO which were the spiritual flying adventures "Ghost Squadron" and the supernatural tales (made immortal by the incredible JACK KAMEN) called "Ghost Gallery". Though the stories were more prone to girlie art than credible accounts of apparitions, they were exceptionally imaginative and very readable.
INDIANS #3 is a nice entry into the comic market. Mind altering in that it overrode many of the "redskin" stereotypes from "cowboy and indian" comics and movies. Native Americans took center stage in INDIANS and in the nicely crafted 52 pages the braves were brave and even the maidens (like the winsome "Starlight' in #2 here) were courageous and a champion of the lawful and righteous. Nice WHITMAN cover, bondage panels and torn dresses confirm that it is truly a FICTION HOUSE product.
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NO MATTER HOW HARD IT TRIES...
...Crime can't win. But you might not be able to tell who the victor is in pre-code Crime Comics like CRIME CAN'T WIN #11 offered here since titles like this championed the criminal and glorified crime. This number from expert crime comic publisher, MARVEL/ATLAS is no exception to that attitude with stories like
"D. O. A." which offered high jacking as a viable career option. "One Must Die" a tome that pleasantly observes and enjoys a vicious mob feud filled with gang violence and brutality. "The Hoods" which gave the reader insight into that element of the culture that shoots policemen through the eye. And "The Man Who Had To Die"--yes, he did if not only in order to provide some graphic violence for the pages.
CRIME CAN'T WIN #11 even though it's presentations are on the wrong side of accepted behavior is a well done comic. One only has to scan the cover come-ons to get the tone. Two beatings and two gundowns are heralded to entice the reader to purchase. Or if you find these things amusing--like I do--you can appreciate the billboard for EL ROPO cigars or ACME jewelers (where the finer coyotes shop).======================================================================
ONE WAY TO GET THE BEST GOLDEN AGE
... is through these reprints. This collection of three books from Reprint maven BILL BLACK includes the following:
1 -- GOLDEN AGE GREATS -- VOLUME ONE
From PARAGON and published in WINTER, 1994 with (for then) a pricey $9.95 cover. The crisp b/w pages have a wild bondage torture cover with the interior stars pictured (THE HOOD, CATMAN, THE KITTEN, MISS VICTORY, ROCKETMAN, ROCKETGIRL and THE GREEN LAMA). The stories are well selected and remind us that these early adventures were not only exciting but pretty damned sexy too. FIRST EDITION of many to come -- a very popular reprint series.
2 -- SKY GAL #2
From AC Comics and published in 1994 with a $3.95 cover price. SKY GAL presents some of the best of MATT BAKER'S leggy flying waitress GINGER. It's MATT BAKER at the top of his GGA game with nude bathing panels and plenty of flesh. There's a full color updated adventure of the sweet dish disher, a full color, full page pin-up of SKY GAL by MATT BAKER and a total of four BAKER stories.
3 -- THE OFFICIAL GOLDEN AGE HER & HEROINE DIRECTORY -- VOLUME ONE
A marvelous collection of great artwork from (too many to list) GA stars but here's a few:
Frazetta, Kirby, Ditko, Eisner, Simon, Fine.
There are 70 pages of reference work chronicling the superpeople from the '40s. Too many to list but here's a few:
Phantom Lady, Captain Midnight, Crimebuster, Black Cat, Black Angel.
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SIX PACK
Here's a nice array of vintage comics for comic book fans. Six neat titles from the '40's and '50's.
1--SUZIE #81 (ARCHIE) --Some surprisingly good GGA in this ARCHIE spin off. She's kind of a cross between MY FRIEND IRMA and Riverdale Archie sweetheart, BETTY.
2--CRIME MUST PAY THE PENALTY #40 (ACE) --Pre-code crimer with good quality writing and art.
3--A DATE WITH JUDY #37 (DC) --She's pert. She's cute. She's DC's entry into the teen comic market. Bathing suit/beach motif.
4--CANDY #7 (QUALITY) --Quality teen comic and a nice early issue in the 60+ run. like most QUALITY COMICS CANDY #7 has excellent artwork and earnest if not somewhat edgy storytelling. And there are headlights and taillights
5 &6--LITTLE LULU #s 60 &73 (DELL) --These are always worthwhile. No comic maintained a more consistent high standard than the loveable moppet series of comics created by Marge and presented by the incomparable JOHN STANLEY.
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THE HALO SUITS YOU, SIMON
Simon Templar, (aka The Saint) was a favorite of mystery fans. He was identified by a haloed stick figure--an insignia that achieved international recognition. Saint Detective magazines and magazine stories were ultra popular in their time and the detective's pulp exploits gave rise to an excellent twelve issue comic book (1947-52) run from estimable publisher, AVON.
Noted for their terrific covers that featured pretty distressed damsels and nicely crafted painted works for #'s 7,8 & 10-12, THE SAINT series was well received and has become a desirable collector's item. Given that, it still was rather intriguing that the damsels looked familiar on every issue, but Simon the Saint never seemed to be the same guy on any cover. THE SAINT #11--like the run--was composed of very well drawn stories that used a twelve panel page layout that--unlike many comics--allowed the stories to be fleshed out, detailed and complete. In THE SAINT #11, there are two fully packed escapades of the crimefighter--and they were fully packed in another sense of the phrase since Mr. Templar was always accompanied by or interacting with attractive ladies.
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IF YOU READ THE FUNNIES...
...you'll love this massive two volume set of comic strips and comic characters. The subtitle accurately describes THE COMIC STRIP CENTURY. It says it "Celebrates 100 Years of An American Art Form". That's it. From THE YELLOW KID to THE FAR SIDE, this superb collection is a wonderful recreation of the funny paper folks we all grew up with. Yep. KRAZY KAT, ALLEY OOP, LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE, LI'L ABNER and a whole bunch of others are remembered here. And..they are printed on brilliant white high gloss stock and the color reproduction is crystal clear and rich.
Published by KITCHEN SINK in 1995, I'm pretty sure that it's out of print today. It's a must for collectors and funnies fans. Original cover price was a (for 1995) $79.95.
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Gregory Rodriguez:
Pursuing too much happiness
The idea is ingrained in Americans, but it may be doing us harm.
October 22, 2007
Storm clouds on the horizon? Been feeling kind of blue? Then count your blessings. It turns out that there's such a thing as too much happiness.
A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that those lucky few who enjoy high levels of well-being -- and I assume that includes large swaths of the newspaper reading public -- can reach the point of diminishing returns. In other words, the people with the most positive attitudes toward their lives tend to enjoy the little things that happen to them on a daily basis less than those who have lower overall expectations of life. When you're happy, it seems, positive daily events lose their impact.
Does that mean the more content we are, the more we become, in the words of Pink Floyd, "comfortably numb?" Not exactly.
The study's authors found that general contentment -- defined broadly as having more good things happen to you then bad -- can give the inevitable negative events in your life more weight. That helps explain why studies find so few people report being "very happy," and why the very happy rarely remain that way for long. You see, if good things happen to you a lot, they consequently affect you less, and bad things, which you're frankly not used to, tend to affect you all the more. So, in order to keep being a very happy person, you'd have to constantly improve the ratio of positive to negative events in your life, and that's hard to do, particularly because you're also spending a lot of time and energy just getting over the negative events that irritate you so much.
So have we reached a plateau of well-being and happiness? Is it possible that everything in every way won't just keep getting better and better? Absolutely. Happiness surveys of Americans have been stagnant for decades. But that doesn't discourage the happiness industry, which makes big bucks promising to teach us how to live more pleasurable, fulfilled lives. Quite the contrary. From all accounts, the search for happiness is more intense than it has ever been. And that's creating brand new problems.
"We've invented a new type of unhappiness," says Darrin M. McMahon, a professor of history at Florida State University and the author of "Happiness: A History." "Now we have the unhappiness of not being happy."
It'd be easy to blame it all on consumerism. But it's not just that today's most successful consumer brands tell us relentlessly that their products will help us achieve happiness. It's that the very pursuit of it is part and parcel of our identity as Americans. Before the Enlightenment, happiness was understood to be the province of the virtuous few. But starting in the 17th century, men such as John Locke let the cat out of the bag and proclaimed that "the business of man is to be happy in the world." No one clung to that doctrine more fervently than Americans, whose forefathers even codified it in their nation's founding document. And this drive for happiness is, in part, what makes this country so extraordinary.
But once we reach the point of diminishing returns, won't our high expectations of happiness hurt us? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, the drive for happiness keeps us striving for fulfillment and for new ways to solve the world's problems. But on the other hand, according to the new study, it may also undermine our ability to respond to negative events. Remember Osama bin Laden's taunt: Americans have gone soft. I don't think he's right but, as the study suggests, we don't respond well to bad things that happen to us.
You can see it in our public policy as we overreact to tragedies and under-react to long-term threats on the horizon. High expectations for future happiness don't lead to good long-term planning for the inevitable tragedy. Our policymaking tends to be reactive rather than proactive. When bad things happen, the public gets hysterical, then angry; politicians exaggerate, cast blame and scramble for position; and hastily written laws and policies are enacted to put everyone at ease.
The fervent search for happiness may have gotten us where we are, but now that we've reached the point of diminishing returns, it's time to inject a healthy sense of tragedy into our worldview. Read Hawthorne and Melville -- they'll show you that it's just as strong in the American character as the pursuit of happiness. At the very least, a nod to the dark side will make us smarter. We won't be so surprised the next time tragedy strikes.
After working hard for my money, the least I could do is to have some online fun. That's what motivates me to keep making money.
I mean supporting welfare parasites and fraudulent government programs like Social Security is not exactly motivational. I'd rather deal with more trustworthy organizations anyway.
Of course, governments will try to tell me how best to spend my money.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Most online games are far better than their mortar and brick counterparts.
Some actually allow you to win real money (rather than mere gold points) and bring home what you win. That's suitable for those who value their time and don't want to pointlessly spend hours and hours on meaningless game-play.
Me, for example, I like playing PPC arbitrage where I buy
traffic and sell it to affiliates. My brothers like stocks.
Some people like to play poker.
Take http://843joe.com/, for example. You'll get up to $2400 first deposit bonus, free software, and fair play. They offer Black Jack, Slots, and Roulettes.
Players from all countries are welcomed.
They have many clients from US, Canada, English, Italy.
It's like poker with your friends. But it's secret, anonymous, safe, and online.
So, you can win money from someone you don't know rather than your best friends.
Now, that's fun.
Bricks and mortar games cannot compete with this. They have to pay for the building, for employees, etc. Not to mention that you have to expensively fly to Vegas to play. There goes the players' edge. There goes the fun.
With online games, I can also more easily test my systems, and techniques.
I then get feedback of how good it is right there right now.
If the system failed, I just get experience and fix the system.
If the system works, I can be a billionaire. All, just a few clicks away.
One day, most of our activities will be online.
===========================================
eBay Articles
How To make $9.95 Extra Income on Almost Every eBay Auction That Closes Successfully
Skip McGrath
Copyright © 2005
I used the word "Almost" in the title because this technique can work most of the time as long as you are selling one or two categories of items. You may have to use your imagination to come up with ideas, but if this works for you, it will generate a steady stream of income that will increase your profit on almost every auction you close successfully.
The concept has been around a long time and has been written about by several eBay gurus –but very few people take advantage of it.
The key to making this work is to be selling in a niche market. It won't work if you are selling different categories of products each week.
What is the technique?
Ok – What if you are selling bird feeders? The auction closes and you send an email to the customer with payment and shipping information. The last paragraph of the email says, "Would you be interested in my book, How To Attract Songbirds To Your Yard? You can read about it by Clicking Here." (The "clicking here" would be a hyperlink to your web page or eBay store where you display sales copy about the book)
The book is nothing more than a 15 to 25 page PDF file (e-book) of techniques to attract songbirds to your yard. If you don't know how to attract songbirds to you yard, just go to the library and read up on it. Now, don't plagiarize someone's copyrighted material, you just want to learn the techniques and then write about them in your own words and style.
If you really don't have any writing ability, hire a English-major college student to do this for you. You can get a simple project like this done for about $100. You only have to sell eleven books, to come out ahead.
You can also sell the books to people who view your auctions, but don't bid or win.
Every seller can create an About Me Page on eBay. This is the one place where eBay allows you to provide a link to a non-eBay web page. That web page could contain the sales copy for your e-book. In your ebay item description, simply place a paragraph that says: "Please visit my About Me Page to learn how to attract songbirds to your yard." (The words "About Me Page" would be the actual hyperlink to your page.)
If you don't have a web site, you can also create an eBay store item that you use to sell your book. In fact, you can also sell your book via eBay auctions. In this example, you would create an auction describing the book and use eBay's list in two categories feature. The main category would be non-fiction books, and the second category would be birdhouses under the home and garden category.
It doesn't matter what kind of product you sell, there is always a market for information about that product or product category. Just use your imagination to think up a connection that would interest someone looking at your category of product. If you sell pet-related items you can write a book about dog training tricks or pet health.
If you sell designer clothing, you could write a guide to locating outlet malls that carry designer items and where each designer's factory outlet store is located.
If you are really stuck, visit the Government Printing Office web site at http://bookstore.gpo.gov. The government writes or pays professional authors to write books on virtually every subject. The good news is that thousands of the titles are copyright free. In other words because they were written with your tax dollars you can use them at will.
Good luck and good writing.
Visit Skip McGrath at his website to learn more about making money on eBay: http://www.skipmcgrath.com?kbid=1056
7 Things You Can Learn from Competing eBay Auctions
If you haven't discovered the benefits of legitimately "spying" on your competition, then it's time to start looking at your competitors’ auctions, starting today. Why? As the old gold-rush miners use to say, "thar's gold in them thar hills!"
How to Reduce eBay Buyer Complaints
Buyers are funny creatures, aren’t they? One minute they’re over the moon because they’ve got themselves a bargain, and the next they’re upset because their bargain seller doesn’t provide first-class customer service. There’s only really one way to reduce complaints: give these people what they want!
Negating Negative Feedback On eBay
Within minutes (perhaps seconds) of the auction's end, I was being awarded negative feedback. Not only did I not receive any chance to fulfill the order or to right any wrong that I may have committed, I also received an e-mail from the perpetrator threatening to have me suspended from eBay if I didn't meet certain demands.
Four Huge Mistakes Ebay Sellers Make
Over the last seven years, I’ve been making a great living buying and selling products on eBay and other online auction sites, and I’ve perfected a technique that pretty much guarantees anyone can start making a profit right away. That technique starts with avoiding mistakes like these -- mistakes I’ve seen people make every day for those same seven years.
Taming the eBay Search Engine
If you know what you’re doing, you can quickly find what you’re looking for on eBay – and the more you know about how buyers find you, the easier you’ll find it to be found. Here are a few golden searching rules.
When It Comes To eBay, Don't Follow The Herd
While it's true that selling products on eBay can be a quick, low cost way to launch an online business, following the herd by selling the "hot product" of the moment, is not a great idea. To the contrary, chances are you will be stomped in the ground by the herd and left lying in the dust with your unsold inventory in hand.
The Rules of Linking From Your eBay Auctions
Very few other issues will get eBay sellers arguing about the rules no more than the rules on linking to and from your eBay auctions. eBay has some very firm rules when it comes to liking and it would be wise of you to follow them to insure that your eBay auctions stay online and profitable.
Is Selling On eBay Just A Hobby Or A Real Business?
With so many people selling on eBay these days this is a question I get all the time. To many eBay sellers the thought of running an actual business is about as appealing as getting negative feedback, so they go out of their way to convince themselves that selling on eBay is really "just a hobby" and therefore, should not be susceptible to income tax laws.
Taxing Your eBay Profits
As a small business person-slash-advice columnist I dread the first quarter of the new year. Not because in my mind my own business fortunes start at zero again every January or because I have already dismissed every New Year’s resolution I made when the clock rang out the New Year. No, the reason I dread the first quarter of the new year is that my email box floods with questions about business taxes and the IRS, my two least favorite subjects on earth. It’s not that I am opposed to paying my fair share of business taxes. It’s that I consider the IRS to be a little like Beetlejuice, the movie demon who appeared only after his name was called three times in a row. My fear is if I write too many IRS columns their dark agents may appear on my doorstep, ready to drag me away to an uncertain fate.
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We will be offering the Tom’s “Attic Collection” over the next month. This is a very special and unique collection found several weeks ago in the attic of a house outside of Hartford, Connecticut.
We were called in by a Estate Cleaner who was commissioned to clean out the house and get it ready for sale. This was no easy task considering the house was buried in collectibles from records to comics and toys. While in the massive attic, a bin of 200+ comics were found including Spiderman #1 to #18.
When we arrived on the scene, I was convinced there was more and we went back into the attic. After an entire day of work, more than 3,500 comics were pulled from the attic in various locations. The collection spans mostly 1955 to 1967 with some outliers and is both Marvel and DC as well as some Charleston and others.
Tom was somewhat of a young artist and being 7 to 10 years old during the earlier years, some books have his name and personal touch on them.
====================================================================== HEY, HER HEAD LOOKS A LOT LIKE...
I don't think we have to or even want to go there. Comic collectors know this notorious cover all too well. Hidden phallic implications are really secondary though--to some pretty amazing artwork style by cover signing artists, EKGREN. One gets the sense that covers like this were "bar bet" works. ("Yeah, I bet you a Manhattan I can get this one past the editor and publisher!"--"You're on!"). Obviously STRANGE TERRORS #4 got past everybody and made the stands. In time it has joined the incredible double entendre BAKER cover for TEEN-AGE ROMANCES #9 in the memorable sly sexy cover Hall of Fame.
STRANGE TERRORS #4 has its great cover backed up by some pretty cool contents. Text that includes a strong JOE KUBERT story that utilizes some surprising coloring to tell a tale entitled "The Curse of Khan". Other chapters deal with a yarn spun about Indian spiritual rituals, and a well illustrated piece called "Murder By Myth". Nice but of course all those adventures are subordinate to the main purchase motivation for STRANGE TERRORS #4--EKGREN'S MONA LISA (so to speak).
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YOU CAN SEE WHY TORMENTED #2 WAS A BEST SELLER TO BOYS
Yeah. It's pretty obvious that the publishers were pulling out the stops to be bought. The comely trapeze lass is attractive and showing potential buyers her best assets. I've always been fascinated and amused by the "covers" that comics used for blatant peekaboo art. Beaches, beauty contests, chorus lines...and the circus were favorite venues that explained (or excused) the fleshy, leggy, and sometimes flagrantly erotic (see cover photo here) artwork that seemed to be an integral part of comics like TORMENTED #2.
TORMENTED #2 was the second and last issue of a very explicit and graphic horror title. As the cover promised (and the contents delivered) "shocking", "eerie" stories included a beheading title page splash, an EC swipe cryptic narrators, circus freaks and an EC style steal--the grisly "Face on the Floor". Overall this second issue of the renowned release defines the pre-code horror genre. All barrels were firing and no compromises were given in TORMENTED #2. It was the unrestricted method used by the publisher to grab some attention in the glutted horror market and (possibly) to compete with the constricted TV programs of the period. Plus if you were at the circus when the trapeze act was playing, you could see...
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WHY IS SHE IN THAT BATHING SUIT? IS BLUE BEETLE A SUPER LIFEGUARD TOO?
Oh. I think we know. A bathing suit is a little more appealing (and revealing) than some old frumpy dress. After all, the idea was to SELL the comic.
MYSTERY MEN #11 is one nice number from the splendid FOX FEATURES SYNDICATE run of 31 that spanned 1939-1942. This series is well described by Ron Goulart in his excellent COMIC BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA. Mr. Goulart says: "As the name implies, the magazine was chock full of mystery men--both masked crimefighters and superheroes. Published by the enterprising Victor Fox...MYSTERY MEN COMICS introduced FOX'S most successful character, the Blue Beetle. For good measure there were also the Green Mask, the fez wearing Zanziibar the magician, Rex Dexter of Mars (a creation of Dick Briefer) and the insidious Fu Manchu clone Chen Chang. ...All early material was produced by the Eisner-Iger shop... and they even added a bumbling teen age character months before ARCHIE...MORTIMER." It might have been Mortimer running after those cuties from Riverdale if the comic had survived past 39 releases.
MYSTERY MEN #11's wonderful cover is from JOE SIMON and the content includes some pretty cool stuff--like firewalking. My favorite MYSTERY MEN 11 piece is--by a light year (pun intended)--THE MOTH who uses his mothly powers to destroy the closets and cotton garments of the unlawful everywhere. (yuk yuk...)
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INDIANS #5--GHOST #2
FICTION HOUSE was a premiere comic book publisher. They employed a foolproof formula of combining well written, well drawn stories with lots of comely females. A simple plan that worked successfully for 20 years and for some of the most memorable titles in the history of comics. Nameplates like PLANET, JUMBO, FIGHT, RANGERS and JUNGLE had defined the publisher well and the popularity of their staple titles encouraged them to branch out. Drawing from their heroes and heroines, FICTION HOUSE introduced a bunch of new titles like KAANGA, LONGBOW, SHEENA and FIREHAIR. They also sourced their stories and published books like the two being offered here...INDIANS and GHOST. They also remembered what brought them to the dance and made sure that their new titles were dominated by quality artwork, writing and...babes.
GHOST #2 is one of a total run of eleven and is characterized (like most of the issues were) by a provocative cover. This sizzler shows a lovely femme who shows off her best features (which just happen to be a set long perfect legs and another set that's a superb compliment to those legs. The title had its roots in the stories from WINGS and JUMBO which were the spiritual flying adventures "Ghost Squadron" and the supernatural tales (made immortal by the incredible JACK KAMEN) called "Ghost Gallery". Though the stories were more prone to girlie art than credible accounts of apparitions, they were exceptionally imaginative and very readable.
INDIANS #3 is a nice entry into the comic market. Mind altering in that it overrode many of the "redskin" stereotypes from "cowboy and indian" comics and movies. Native Americans took center stage in INDIANS and in the nicely crafted 52 pages the braves were brave and even the maidens (like the winsome "Starlight' in #2 here) were courageous and a champion of the lawful and righteous. Nice WHITMAN cover, bondage panels and torn dresses confirm that it is truly a FICTION HOUSE product.
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NO MATTER HOW HARD IT TRIES...
...Crime can't win. But you might not be able to tell who the victor is in pre-code Crime Comics like CRIME CAN'T WIN #11 offered here since titles like this championed the criminal and glorified crime. This number from expert crime comic publisher, MARVEL/ATLAS is no exception to that attitude with stories like
"D. O. A." which offered high jacking as a viable career option. "One Must Die" a tome that pleasantly observes and enjoys a vicious mob feud filled with gang violence and brutality. "The Hoods" which gave the reader insight into that element of the culture that shoots policemen through the eye. And "The Man Who Had To Die"--yes, he did if not only in order to provide some graphic violence for the pages.
CRIME CAN'T WIN #11 even though it's presentations are on the wrong side of accepted behavior is a well done comic. One only has to scan the cover come-ons to get the tone. Two beatings and two gundowns are heralded to entice the reader to purchase. Or if you find these things amusing--like I do--you can appreciate the billboard for EL ROPO cigars or ACME jewelers (where the finer coyotes shop).======================================================================
ONE WAY TO GET THE BEST GOLDEN AGE
... is through these reprints. This collection of three books from Reprint maven BILL BLACK includes the following:
1 -- GOLDEN AGE GREATS -- VOLUME ONE
From PARAGON and published in WINTER, 1994 with (for then) a pricey $9.95 cover. The crisp b/w pages have a wild bondage torture cover with the interior stars pictured (THE HOOD, CATMAN, THE KITTEN, MISS VICTORY, ROCKETMAN, ROCKETGIRL and THE GREEN LAMA). The stories are well selected and remind us that these early adventures were not only exciting but pretty damned sexy too. FIRST EDITION of many to come -- a very popular reprint series.
2 -- SKY GAL #2
From AC Comics and published in 1994 with a $3.95 cover price. SKY GAL presents some of the best of MATT BAKER'S leggy flying waitress GINGER. It's MATT BAKER at the top of his GGA game with nude bathing panels and plenty of flesh. There's a full color updated adventure of the sweet dish disher, a full color, full page pin-up of SKY GAL by MATT BAKER and a total of four BAKER stories.
3 -- THE OFFICIAL GOLDEN AGE HER & HEROINE DIRECTORY -- VOLUME ONE
A marvelous collection of great artwork from (too many to list) GA stars but here's a few:
Frazetta, Kirby, Ditko, Eisner, Simon, Fine.
There are 70 pages of reference work chronicling the superpeople from the '40s. Too many to list but here's a few:
Phantom Lady, Captain Midnight, Crimebuster, Black Cat, Black Angel.
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SIX PACK
Here's a nice array of vintage comics for comic book fans. Six neat titles from the '40's and '50's.
1--SUZIE #81 (ARCHIE) --Some surprisingly good GGA in this ARCHIE spin off. She's kind of a cross between MY FRIEND IRMA and Riverdale Archie sweetheart, BETTY.
2--CRIME MUST PAY THE PENALTY #40 (ACE) --Pre-code crimer with good quality writing and art.
3--A DATE WITH JUDY #37 (DC) --She's pert. She's cute. She's DC's entry into the teen comic market. Bathing suit/beach motif.
4--CANDY #7 (QUALITY) --Quality teen comic and a nice early issue in the 60+ run. like most QUALITY COMICS CANDY #7 has excellent artwork and earnest if not somewhat edgy storytelling. And there are headlights and taillights
5 &6--LITTLE LULU #s 60 &73 (DELL) --These are always worthwhile. No comic maintained a more consistent high standard than the loveable moppet series of comics created by Marge and presented by the incomparable JOHN STANLEY.
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THE HALO SUITS YOU, SIMON
Simon Templar, (aka The Saint) was a favorite of mystery fans. He was identified by a haloed stick figure--an insignia that achieved international recognition. Saint Detective magazines and magazine stories were ultra popular in their time and the detective's pulp exploits gave rise to an excellent twelve issue comic book (1947-52) run from estimable publisher, AVON.
Noted for their terrific covers that featured pretty distressed damsels and nicely crafted painted works for #'s 7,8 & 10-12, THE SAINT series was well received and has become a desirable collector's item. Given that, it still was rather intriguing that the damsels looked familiar on every issue, but Simon the Saint never seemed to be the same guy on any cover. THE SAINT #11--like the run--was composed of very well drawn stories that used a twelve panel page layout that--unlike many comics--allowed the stories to be fleshed out, detailed and complete. In THE SAINT #11, there are two fully packed escapades of the crimefighter--and they were fully packed in another sense of the phrase since Mr. Templar was always accompanied by or interacting with attractive ladies.
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IF YOU READ THE FUNNIES...
...you'll love this massive two volume set of comic strips and comic characters. The subtitle accurately describes THE COMIC STRIP CENTURY. It says it "Celebrates 100 Years of An American Art Form". That's it. From THE YELLOW KID to THE FAR SIDE, this superb collection is a wonderful recreation of the funny paper folks we all grew up with. Yep. KRAZY KAT, ALLEY OOP, LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE, LI'L ABNER and a whole bunch of others are remembered here. And..they are printed on brilliant white high gloss stock and the color reproduction is crystal clear and rich.
Published by KITCHEN SINK in 1995, I'm pretty sure that it's out of print today. It's a must for collectors and funnies fans. Original cover price was a (for 1995) $79.95.
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Gregory Rodriguez:
Pursuing too much happiness
The idea is ingrained in Americans, but it may be doing us harm.
October 22, 2007
Storm clouds on the horizon? Been feeling kind of blue? Then count your blessings. It turns out that there's such a thing as too much happiness.
A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that those lucky few who enjoy high levels of well-being -- and I assume that includes large swaths of the newspaper reading public -- can reach the point of diminishing returns. In other words, the people with the most positive attitudes toward their lives tend to enjoy the little things that happen to them on a daily basis less than those who have lower overall expectations of life. When you're happy, it seems, positive daily events lose their impact.
Does that mean the more content we are, the more we become, in the words of Pink Floyd, "comfortably numb?" Not exactly.
The study's authors found that general contentment -- defined broadly as having more good things happen to you then bad -- can give the inevitable negative events in your life more weight. That helps explain why studies find so few people report being "very happy," and why the very happy rarely remain that way for long. You see, if good things happen to you a lot, they consequently affect you less, and bad things, which you're frankly not used to, tend to affect you all the more. So, in order to keep being a very happy person, you'd have to constantly improve the ratio of positive to negative events in your life, and that's hard to do, particularly because you're also spending a lot of time and energy just getting over the negative events that irritate you so much.
So have we reached a plateau of well-being and happiness? Is it possible that everything in every way won't just keep getting better and better? Absolutely. Happiness surveys of Americans have been stagnant for decades. But that doesn't discourage the happiness industry, which makes big bucks promising to teach us how to live more pleasurable, fulfilled lives. Quite the contrary. From all accounts, the search for happiness is more intense than it has ever been. And that's creating brand new problems.
"We've invented a new type of unhappiness," says Darrin M. McMahon, a professor of history at Florida State University and the author of "Happiness: A History." "Now we have the unhappiness of not being happy."
It'd be easy to blame it all on consumerism. But it's not just that today's most successful consumer brands tell us relentlessly that their products will help us achieve happiness. It's that the very pursuit of it is part and parcel of our identity as Americans. Before the Enlightenment, happiness was understood to be the province of the virtuous few. But starting in the 17th century, men such as John Locke let the cat out of the bag and proclaimed that "the business of man is to be happy in the world." No one clung to that doctrine more fervently than Americans, whose forefathers even codified it in their nation's founding document. And this drive for happiness is, in part, what makes this country so extraordinary.
But once we reach the point of diminishing returns, won't our high expectations of happiness hurt us? Well, yes and no. On the one hand, the drive for happiness keeps us striving for fulfillment and for new ways to solve the world's problems. But on the other hand, according to the new study, it may also undermine our ability to respond to negative events. Remember Osama bin Laden's taunt: Americans have gone soft. I don't think he's right but, as the study suggests, we don't respond well to bad things that happen to us.
You can see it in our public policy as we overreact to tragedies and under-react to long-term threats on the horizon. High expectations for future happiness don't lead to good long-term planning for the inevitable tragedy. Our policymaking tends to be reactive rather than proactive. When bad things happen, the public gets hysterical, then angry; politicians exaggerate, cast blame and scramble for position; and hastily written laws and policies are enacted to put everyone at ease.
The fervent search for happiness may have gotten us where we are, but now that we've reached the point of diminishing returns, it's time to inject a healthy sense of tragedy into our worldview. Read Hawthorne and Melville -- they'll show you that it's just as strong in the American character as the pursuit of happiness. At the very least, a nod to the dark side will make us smarter. We won't be so surprised the next time tragedy strikes.
posted by LUXXXCORP at 8:41 AM
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