Sometimes you have to appreciate what you have

December is always tricky for me. I get very busy at work, my online sales take a huge boost, and I get to look back at a handful of tragedies that have hit close to home.
This past week, I remembered a young man who I had been close to many years ago that passed away 2 years ago December 14. It was 5 days after his 21st birthday. I had not seen him since he was 16 when we moved away, and the next time I saw him was as he laid in the chapel 2 years ago.
Nothing can prepare you for seeing the body of someone you loved and helped raise for several years of his life. I could not speak, shed a tear, or smile after seeing him all the way on the 3 hour drive home. I could barely breathe for about 5 minutes after seeing him. Life gets in the way sometimes, and sometimes you can't control anything but how you react to it. As the last 2 years have passed, I have learned that this affected me profoundly, and the way I look at life was forever changed.
All life is precious, and the life we have is the only one we are guaranteed. If you are not happy with your situation, make a small change that makes you happy every week until you are happy every day. I promise, it works, even if it is small. When you make these little changes, maybe just waking up 5 minutes earlier to sit outside for a few minutes and breathe fresh air, your life will change. When you change the way you look at life, your life changes.
Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Glorious Kwanzaa, and today, Happy Solstice.

Here's a tune to take you out, Ghosts of Days Gone By - by Alter Bridge.

Longing for the days of the "St. Elsewhere" marketplace, Volume 1

We are all nostalgic by nature as online sellers. Whether you sell for hobby, for extra money, or for your primary income, you remember the days on now-dead marketplaces you loved.

I started a small marketplace for some friends from these old marketplaces, such as Wagglepop and Plunderhere, and named it Quest for Bids. Check it out sometime: http://www.questforbids.com

My first installment is Wagglepop. View the site at the internet archive:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061108032948/http://www.wagglepop.com/bin/Auction

While Wagglepop looks very amateurish by today's marketplace standards, in 2006 when it launched it was the "cat's pyjamas" of eBay alternatives. $10 a month got you a store, hundreds of shoppers a week, and for me, over 500 sales in a year. There was a vibrant community, active members, great seller tools, over 900 stores at it's peak, and the admin was far ahead of the Google game that businesses now cannot survive without.

The store layouts were almost identical to the eBay store layouts at the time. It was a phenomenal clone of eBay built on a stable platform, with all the potential of being the next big thing.
View my store shortly before I left the site:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070610120726/http://www.wagglepop.com/stores/movieaddict?

In fact, this was directly on my "About Me" page on Wagglepop from 2006:
"While I don't plan to talk about why I left that other site this year, I will tell you why I am at Wagglepop. Wagglepop has a community unlike any other I have found online. The sellers, while competitive, are always looking to help other sellers. In other communities, it's every seller for themself, but at Wagglepop, it is every seller for the greater good of the site and community!"

So, why am I talking about a site I left in 2007? Because, it holds a special place in my heart. It was my first non-eBay selling experience, and it was a damn good one. It was so good, that I fell in love with smaller marketplaces and really never returned to eBay or Amazon again except for a few items here and there.

Sadly, the owner of the site began raising store fees dramatically, as high as $60 for the lowest tier store, when sellers flocked to sites like Bonanza and eCrater, and the site dwindled to a slow, expensive death in 2009. It was,however, probably my favorite "St Elsewhere" site, and always holds that nostalgic feeling in my heart when I submit a new item for sale on a marketplace.

What was your favorite "St Elsewhere" site?

Weekend Warrior project returns! $9 shopping cart: material.com

When first setting up a website for ecommerce, there is a natural trend to spend hours on end designing, formatting, laying out, and so on. Today though, I tried a "Beta" version of a site called Material, and have never been more impressed in such a short time. I like to locate sites like this through Stripe's integration page: https://stripe.com/works-with

Pro's
In less than 30 minutes, I had the entire site layout done with 5 products added to the site, which met the free store maximum. The layout editor & theme selector was very simple, adding products was one page with 4 lines, and setup on the back end with payments and shipping took less than 2 minutes. Overall it is the most simple webstore builder I have ever seen.

Con's:
There are a few lacking features, such as the ability to charge extra per item for shipping, and only accepting Stripe payments. There is only a flat rate and free shipping model, but this is not a huge deal for someone like me that can ship 3-5 items for slightly more than 1.

I have not experienced the full monty of the store since I only used the free account, though I am tempted to change that in the coming week just to see what options I have.

Keep in mind, Material.com is still a beta site. They will make many changes based on feedback from users.
Check out 30 minutes of work:
https://Video-Warehouse.mymaterial.com

I made a promise...

I made a promise I would make a blog post every week here, so here goes!

This week has been one hell of a week for me. 8 days ago, my brother's wife gave birth to my first niece, the first grandchild for my parents. I still remember holding him in my arms when I was 11, and he had just been born. I was so proud to be a big brother. Now, I am even more proud that I have someone new to love.
Say hello to Emily Payton Cribb.

Sadly I have not been able to meet her since I have been fighting a cold for over a week. That day is coming where Uncle Duane will meet and spoil her!

That emotion carried over into Tuesday when I was dealing with a coworker. It was hard to express why something so small caused the emotion that came through, but it was uncontrollable due to all the feelings running through my head and heart last weekend.

Then, Tuesday night, a result in which I still do not know how to feel, Hillary Clinton won 410,000 more votes than Donald Trump, and conceded the election to the electoral college. Regardless of what side of this election you landed, please join me in saying, "A WOMAN WON THE POPULAR VOTE FOR PRESIDENT." So yes, Emily, you can be anything someday, even President.

And finally, I can chalk up another year. Another year I have not spent passing out on a nightly basis, waking up wherever I landed, ready to, let's just be honest, not be here anymore. 15 years ago today was my first full day without a drink, and I have continued this for more than 15 years as of today. I will not forget that one day, 11/10/2001, when an old friend basically took control of my life and kicked my ass into shape for a few months. The first full day was really 11/11, but it never felt like it since it took well into that day to sober up. So today, I have been completely sober for 15 years. Now with even more to live for than 9 days ago, I can truly be thankful for something else.

This week has been one hell of a ride. I won't get all emotional over it, that's basically happened already, but I can say truthfully life can not be much better for me at this moment.

This song sums up the feelings of this week. I hope you enjoy.

Why I quit watching college football

This post marks my return to this blog after an absence, and has absolutely nothing to do with selling online.  I am going to chronicle how I quit watching football by copying a few posts I made elsewhere. Keep in mind, Saturdays for more than 20 years, every fall I have been glued to a TV with my remote glued to my hand flipping channels to watch the games. Last year ended it. I've called it my descent into madness against college football, but really it is just a complete withdrawal of my financial support from watching unpaid athletes pay coaches and television networks millions to abuse them.

September 20, 2015 · 

Does anyone else think about this too...

out of $50 million that a school like University of Alabama made off tonight's game, just from the tickets, merchandise, parking, sponsors, and TV money included, the only people on that field making a dime off that game are the coaches and ESPN staff. A $15000-$20000 annual scholarship is barely minimum wage to get their heads beaten in for 6 days a week. T

his goes not only for all top tier college football teams, but also all college football in general. Get a minimum wage pay "scholarship" job just so you can have brain damage in 4 years and be unable to perform in your chosen career, or maybe be the 1 in 40 who goes pro and exacerbates your brain trauma another decade before they spit you out too. Oh, and don't forget, you have to give "all the glory to God" like he wanted you to beat the hell out of each other to make your coaches, colleges, and ESPN executives wealthy.

I have to say, I think I'm done with college football.

December 4, 2015 · 

So this year I made a decision to not watch any football after September 19, when Alabama played Ole Miss. The Alabama QB took a really bad hit, which usually would have been a high point in the game for me, but instead when the 22 year old kid ran to the sideline the offensive coordinator blasted him. Nick Saban was yelling at everyone coming off the field. The commentators said something along the lines of "Boy I'm glad I'm not that offensive line at halftime." And that was it for me. I think I posted something similar to this, but as much as I have always despised Alabama football, I felt really bad for those kids. They are getting a free education, worth about $20000/year. That is equivalent to about 9 bucks an hour. Target would pay them that to run the cash register. Meanwhile, Nick Saban is pulling down nearly $7 million a year, and his assistants also making in the millions, to yell at them when they make a bad play, all while living like kings on the bodies of college kids. These kids are getting their bodies beaten, brains scrambled, and often their confidence crushed because they aren't perfect every play. I switched channels and saw the same thing going on in nearly every game. Multi millionaire coaches screaming at players because they weren't perfect. I just decided that was not worth my time to watch anymore. I still got to have my annual FSU/Miami bet with Mike and still got to harass a few people about Bama shirts, and even know kind of how bad my teams are doing, but my TV has not shown a football game since. I just couldn't support that type of abuse.

So now, 10 weeks later, I have virtually zero stress on the weekends. I don't eat really bad junk food on Saturdays. And I actually have done some really constructive things with my Saturdays. And you know what? I don't even miss it.

All of this was just to say, you don't have to stand up for something by marching in the streets, screaming at the top of your lungs, or posting really nasty things about what you think is wrong all over social media sites. Sometimes, just take your support away from what you see as immoral and watch your life get better.

September 25, 2016

Things like this are why I quit watching college football last year.
OK, so mostly it was because I watched 6 million dollar man Nick Saban screaming at his quarterback who could barely walk off the field for his $20000/year scholarship. But yeah, stupid things like this add fuel to me never watching another game. It's amazing how much less stress I have on Saturdays now too. 

October 9, 2016 at 10:37am · 

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/alabama-football/video-arkansas-lineman-pins-alabama-qb-jalen-hurts-neck-int/

It's ok to have us pay $100/ticket, or watch billions in advertising, to let kids beat each other's skulls in to get a free education, but not ok to let them have that education with our tax dollars?
I'm still trying to figure out how this stuff surprises anyone? Take kids who are mostly unable to financially go to college, give them a scholarship whose value is less than a full time sales job, scream at them to hit harder and be more aggressive, yell at them when they miss a hit, and threaten to take away their only hope for a future when they are not aggressive enough, all to pay a multi-million dollar salary to the coach and shove hundreds of millions more back into the athletic department. If all that money went to tuitions, we would have 100% debt free college.
This is why I quit watching last year. I won't support something that takes kids, yes, 18, 19 year old KIDS and teaches them to be more aggressive when they attack another player who just wants an education too.
It's all about the kind of society you want to live in. Glorify this for money, or glorify education with the money.