Come On, Pay Attention

A cobalt Van Cutsem ball

Rants by Ralph Finch

You would think that as old as the bottle hobby is now, and as advanced at the internet is, and as long as eBay has been in use, people would sure seem smarter.

Still, I know better. I’ve been using eBay for a few decades, and I’ve been complaining that eBay should give an IQ test, and if you can’t prove you aren’t an imbecile, you can’t use it!

I know people who couldn’t recognize the diff erence between a rock and the Hope Diamond, and also don’t seem to care.

I have long ago given up trying to gently explain to eBay sellers that what they have is in error. I can off er websites where they can fi nd information showing what they actually have, but all too often I’ve been told by sellers that, basically, they don’t care. In fact, a few of them seem proud to be stupid. I guess that explains the mess the country has gotten into.

People go to the time and eff ort to off er a gizmo on eBay, and don’t bother to look that ten other similar — or exact — gizmos are listed. On the same day!

For example, the other day on eBay I found a cobalt Van Cutsem ball listed. Several, in fact. (And, fyi, the Van Cutsem may be the most common target ball in the world.) Still, on the same day, three were off ered, with minimum required opening bids of $255, $165, and $29 (most with shipping of $8). And most were described as “rare,” and “from the 1800s.” Th at certainly nails down the time frame.

I know how long it takes to photograph, describe and list and then to pack and ship. Why not take fi ve more minutes to try and fi gure out what you really have? Janet spends hours listing her items.

eBay has done one thing for sure. It proved that Darwin was wrong. Each generation isn’t evolving or getting smarter. We are breeding a lot of dumb and dumber people.

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