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I have both pc and mac and I find that mac users are elitist fanatics and pc users are tasteless low-brows. I need a third option. And no, non-use is not an option. Sorry, wasn't trying to offend anyone. It's that stupid angel/demon on the shoulder thing going on... and the demon looks like Martha Stewart and the little angel looks like Dennis Kucinich. If I listen to Martha everything works and my life is filled with hand-made dinner centerpieces. If I listen to Dennis I have to use recycled toilet paper and eat llama-flavored tofu.

There just never seems to be any middle ground and someone just beat me at ebay for a red guitar by bid-sniping. I was counter-sniping but manually and he got me. Kinda brought the whole day down. Now I'm going through that "Kubler-Ross" 5 stages of auction loss... and I'm in the grief stage. I'll get over it. I keep telling myself that I haven't owned a guitar since I gave my MelodyMaker to Dang Hu Thanh, a vietnamese refugee, in 1979, and that now that I have 3 or 4 I won't miss a color variation of one I already have.

I must admit, I've only had one satin-finish instrument before: a Romanian dulcimer. Something about my satin finish guitar keeps drawing me in. It feels both organic and futuristic at the same time. I plan to reverse technology the finish and get one of those build-your-own-violin kits and finish it in exactly the same way (and yes, it would be cheaper to buy a chinese model for $20 but I've always wanted to build a violin and the one I want is $200). Maybe I'll keep it, maybe I won't. Maybe I'll fiddle-fit the bridge, maybe I'll piezo it. Maybe I'll just sell it immediately. Maybe I'll glass-shot the whole thing to remove even the very semblance of natural wood or maybe I'll sand-shot it to make it look like cedar. Amati would roll over in his grave.

That wasn't so bad. I've forgotten the red guitar already. Time to get selling again. Gotta set up 1/4 of the basement for woodshop, and 1/8 for photo studio again, then take shots of 30 books for my challenge: to sell over 50% of books listed at ebay. Books are not big sellers. But with the right photos and write-ups, maybe a gimmick "FREE SHIP" or two, I'll do it.

Wanna know how I photograph for ebay? I tape large sheets of art/construction paper: manilla or beige for the backdrop and brown for the table, but make sure it's pretty dull and non-reflective. I use little blocks or pillows for hidden supports. Then I use two or three 200W to 300W tungsten movie floodlamps: one sun-height 45 degrees right, one sun-set 45 degrees left, and if needed, one either direct overhead (for shadow/texture) or for background/large arrays. Camera on tripod: always set lens for greater than 50mm. Under 50mm will cause distortion due to wide angle effects. 80mm is perfect. Frame object perfectly in center and you won't have to crop later. If you preset camera for tungsten balance and frame to preclude cropping, you can take small file/low res for quick upload. If not, then do all that in photoshop. I keep a brush and a moist sponge handy to fix little blems. Keep in mind that the amount of light falling upon the object depends on the distance from the light source. If you move your lamps too far away to diffuse the footprint you will have to have a slower shutter speed and digital cameras are prone to "noise" in low-light situations. I keep all my notes on an antique, wooden clipboard and write everything down, weight, dimensions, before I start listing. I keep all the products down in the shipping area in one box to segregate them from sold and next-list bundles. About 1/4 of the buyers ask questions so I have to read my email several times a day. If you list more than 10 items be prepared to go crazy keeping track of what-goes-to-whom.

Think small: the cheapest way to ship is US Postal Service, First Class (stamps). After that it's media-mail but that can take several weeks and hardly anyone likes that. USPS Priority is great if you can fit your item in the fixed-rate 8X10 mailer. USPS delivers on saturday for no extra charge but UPS will deliver larger items faster and more reliably with an automatic insurance for items worth $100 or less. USPS Priority uses shipping notification (to email) but UPS has a great tracking system on the internet. FedEx beats them all but costs a little more. If I had to ship something worth $100 but weighed less than 50 lbs, I'd always choose FedEx. I've been behind the scenes fat several shippers and I can tell you FedEx is one crack operation. It costs more to replace/refund than insure: either insure it or use delivery confirmation. Hope that makes you want to start ebaying.