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?