Fourteen dollar atomic watch
Honest John
watches. I picked one up on a lark (I just love new
gadgets) and it actually works very good. Eventhough
I live right by a mountain the watch received its signal
from Colorado with 4 bars and reset the time to the
atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado.
These watches are sold under the line of "Athletic Works"
There are several styles of this "radio controlled" watch.
I got the most appealing to me; The one looks most like
a skin-diver's watch with the silver and black bezel rings.
Plus the watch actually resets itself every night if one
takes it off and puts it in a "Hot spot" in one's house.
The "hot spot" is found by pushing the receive button
on its side and finding a location where one can lay the
watch down flat and have 4 bars show up on the dial.
This watch sure makes it easier to adjust the time on
the watches that I repair everyday. My old method was
to click on the satellite TV time to check; Now I have the
"exact" time with me on my wrist. This is so COOL !
If someone had told me in the 60s or 70s that these
radio controlled watches could be had for less than
15 bucks, I would have accused them of smoking dope
or of being just plain nuts. Everyone should treat themselves to one
...just for fun.
Erik
"Honest John" <nann...@earthlink.net> wrote:
You can find radio controlled wall and travel clocks sometimes down to
$10 too... They use NIST radio station WWVB.
http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/
They're also great for things like 'sniping' eBay auctions at the last
second, before anyone else has a chance to up your bid. You can pick
them off regularly with less than 5 seconds to go. I think lots of
people do this. (There is software that'll do this for you too..)
eBay seems to stay synced tick on with NIST in my experience.
Erik
Jack Denver
wear a digital. Partly a matter of style, partly that I think that an analog
face gives more information faster - call it the original "graphical
interface" - Windows .001.
"Erik" <er...@mydeja.com> wrote in message
news:erik-6BC425.1...@news.verizon.net...
Honest John
second, before anyone else has a chance to up your bid. You can pick
them off regularly with less than 5 seconds to go. I think lots of
people do this. (There is software that'll do this for you too..)
Neither my computer nor I could act that fast on an
e-bay auction (I tried it a few times). If I want something
in a bid war I just bid high enough to get it; Otherwise,
I ask myself if I really want it that bad.
Much thanks for the info though, I didn't know about
the wall clocks and such.
Honest John
It's really like learning to drink black coffee or
unsweetened tea. Think of it as a physical
challenge.
Moka Java
Don't know much about tea but with black coffee it really depends on the
quality of the coffee. Good beans, freshly roasted, brewed properly is
wonderful black. A good shot of straight espresso is incredibly sweet.
The swill most people are subjected to tastes like reconstituted rubber.
Richard "a denzien of alt.coffee along with Jack" F
Jack Denver
wall. No problem strapping that digital on. My fingers do the clasp just
fine. The challenge is in my head - "digitals are for children and uncool
people." my brain says.
I remember when it was otherwise. When I was a freshman in college, the
richest most obnoxious spoiled kid had a Hamilton Pulsar LED watch. He'd
press the little button and the time would come on in red #s for a few
seconds. By the time I was a senior LCD's had replaced LEDs and the price
had dropped considerably, so I got a Timex LCD (which I still own) to
replace the funky Omega Dynamic (which I also still have) that I had owned
since I was 13 and which had started to keep poor time (probably needed a
cleaning). The Timex kept great time and even had a back light button so you
could see it in the dark.
I even remember a prof in grad school who was a partner in a Wall St. firm
(read big $$) and who wore a very fancy digital that I remember looking at
enviously - this must have been circa 1980.
But at some point after that, digitals became "uncool" - by 1985, I'd say
quartz analogs were "in" and digitals were "out" where they've pretty much
remained ever since.
Bob Finkle
Gordon wear an atomic watch? Dick Tracy?
Eric Jorgensen
"Honest John" <nann...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> They're also great for things like 'sniping' eBay auctions at the last
> second, before anyone else has a chance to up your bid. You can pick
> them off regularly with less than 5 seconds to go. I think lots of
> people do this. (There is software that'll do this for you too..)
I recommend jbidwatcher. java application, should run on just about
anything. Synchronizes it's own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it. The other side of
the coin is that due to the fact that I almost exclusively lowball, more
often than not all I'm doing is driving up the still-quite-low price for
someone else. Which i guess is bad for you if you're bidding against me,
but, meh, dog eat dog world and all. Probably would have gone worse for the
other guy if i'd bid early like a sucker, anyway.
Most recent snipe is a Poljot Buran 3133 chronograph for $98. New, in
box, with papers. Older style with more angular coin edge bezel. poljot.com
still has a couple like it in stock for $220, so I dunno if i'd call it new
old stock or not.
The fact that the hands and numbers are green paint rather than luminous
paint that happens to be green does indicate that it may be older stock -
poljot uses superluminova these days. The poljot experts on watchuseek say
that this is indeed exactly how their circa late 90's buran watches were
made. I'm told that the luminous watches coming out of moscow at the time
would only glow for 30 seconds or so anyhow.
Honest John
Silly me, I thought that the biggest "perk" of being
a senior (like myself) was being able to be as uncool
as one wanted to be.
Revision
> I recommend jbidwatcher. java application,
> should run on just about anything. Synchronizes it's
> own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
>
> It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it.
eBay is a lot of fun, and a big part of it is getting to see a market in
action. Most of us have seen someone snag a decent vintage Swiss watch
for a low price.
I have often seen a nice watch languish for days at $10, snipe it at $20
hoping to get it for $12, only to have one or two bidders run it up to
$18 during the last two minutes. I mean, heck, they lost the auction and
cost me seven bucks for their trouble.....hahhahaha.
One thing I have come to appreciate is the ones who post pictures of
watches that look like the thing had been left lying in a dog run for a
week. I mean, with the wrong lighting you can make almost invisible
scratches show up. I bought a watch last week that looked so awful that
I was planning to do a rehab, won it for $11, and when it arrived it was
pretty near mint. So if you see a watch that looks scratched or rusty it
may just be the photo.
Revision
funky looking photo of what turned out to be an okay watch.
http://www.geocities.com/kent_betts/scratches.html
John Rowland
news:20040906213902.4bb0a1d9@wafer...
>
> I recommend jbidwatcher. java application,
> should run on just about anything. Synchronizes
> it's own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
>
> It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it.
What's the point? Why not decide how much you are prepared to pay, and then
bid early? If the other bidders bid less, you get it for slightly more than
they bid. If the other bidders bid more, you didn't want it enough to pay
the price.
--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/7069/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes
Moka Java
> "Eric Jorgensen" <al...@xmission.com> wrote in message
> news:20040906213902.4bb0a1d9@wafer...
>
>> I recommend jbidwatcher. java application,
>>should run on just about anything. Synchronizes
>>it's own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
>>
>> It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it.
>
>
> What's the point? Why not decide how much you are prepared to pay, and then
> bid early? If the other bidders bid less, you get it for slightly more than
> they bid. If the other bidders bid more, you didn't want it enough to pay
> the price.
>
Yes, do that. Thank you.
Richard "Ebay buyer and seller" F
Revision
"John Rowland"
> What's the point?
There would be no point if each bidder bid what were willing to pay.
There is a point, if the bidder thinks he can get the watch he is
"willing" to pay $32 for but bids $20 to try to save $12, which happens
constantly.
The strategies are not simple.....you can put in your best bid with 15
seconds left and still lose the auction. This is similar to your thesis
that the person who wanted it more got the item. Putting in a bid for
the max you care to offer is a viable strategy...no problem with that.
But sniping increases successful results, and has absolutely no ethical
shortcomings, so to say that it works so well that one feels guilty does
not make sense to me or have any real basis.
I have won some $50 items for $6 due to lack of interest. In this case I
generally wait for the seller to contact me to close the deal. Sometimes
I never hear from them and am happy to let them try again another day.
Eric Jorgensen
"John Rowland" <jo...@journeyflow.spamspam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> "Eric Jorgensen" <al...@xmission.com> wrote in message
> news:20040906213902.4bb0a1d9@wafer...
> >
> > I recommend jbidwatcher. java application,
> > should run on just about anything. Synchronizes
> > it's own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
> >
> > It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it.
>
> What's the point? Why not decide how much you are prepared to pay, and
> then bid early? If the other bidders bid less, you get it for slightly
> more than they bid. If the other bidders bid more, you didn't want it
> enough to pay the price.
>
Well, the way things are, I decide how much I'm prepared to pay, and bid
late. If other bidders bid less, I get it for slightly more than they bid.
If other bidders bid more, I didn't want it enough to pay the price. Works
for me. I'll stick with it.
Bo Williams
> Well, the way things are, I decide how much I'm prepared to pay, and bid
> late. If other bidders bid less, I get it for slightly more than they bid.
> If other bidders bid more, I didn't want it enough to pay the price. Works
> for me. I'll stick with it.
Yup, that works great as long as you're honest with yourself about what
that number is. Right after a person gets on eBay for the first time,
s/he often pays more than s/he wanted to for the first couple of things,
because it's easy to get caught up in the competition. I did. Now, for
me, it's much more pleasant to bid what I'll pay to start with and not
get caught up in sniping.
--
Bo Williams - will...@hiwaay.net
http://hiwaay.net/~williams/
Eric Jorgensen
I don't get caught up in sniping, jbidwatcher takes care of it for me
while i go about my day.
Bo Williams
> I don't get caught up in sniping, jbidwatcher takes care of it for me
> while i go about my day.
Well, but that's not the point. You're just removing yourself
physically from the process. Your bidding philosophy is still a sniping
one, and I don't enjoy that as much as I do being honest with myself up
front about what I'll pay, and if I lose an auction, then it went for
more than I was willing to pay. Obviously, YMMV.
Tony Miller
<kentnobettsspam@techispdotcom> wrote:
> "Eric Jorgensen"
>> I recommend jbidwatcher. java application,
>> should run on just about anything. Synchronizes it's
>> own timer with ebay official time, regularly.
>>
>> It's so effective i almost feel bad about using it.
>
> eBay is a lot of fun, and a big part of it is getting to see a market in
> action. Most of us have seen someone snag a decent vintage Swiss watch
> for a low price.
>
> I have often seen a nice watch languish for days at $10, snipe it at $20
> hoping to get it for $12, only to have one or two bidders run it up to
> $18 during the last two minutes. I mean, heck, they lost the auction and
> cost me seven bucks for their trouble.....hahhahaha.
Happens to me quite often. I have been bidding on cuckoos for
restoration.
-Tony
--
Reliable, Unix shell accounts. http://www.jtan.com/proshell/
cl00bie @ IRC - /server cookie.sorcery.net 9000, http://www.sorcery.net
We welcome WebTV'ers - http://www.sorcery.net/help/index.html#WebTV
Moka Java
> Eric Jorgensen wrote:
>
>> I don't get caught up in sniping, jbidwatcher takes care of it for me
>> while i go about my day.
>
>
> Well, but that's not the point. You're just removing yourself
> physically from the process. Your bidding philosophy is still a sniping
> one, and I don't enjoy that as much as I do being honest with myself up
> front about what I'll pay, and if I lose an auction, then it went for
> more than I was willing to pay. Obviously, YMMV.
Yes, please, nobody snipe. As an Ebay seller I love to see bidding wars
for my stuff. As an Ebay buyer I hate it when all those pesky bidders
bid up the price on me.
Richard "please, everybody, stop all this sniping" F
Bo Williams
> Yes, please, nobody snipe. As an Ebay seller I love to see bidding wars
> for my stuff.
Oh, me too! I didn't say I don't watch the last hour closely and hit F5
a bunch when *I'm* selling something. :)
Honest John
snipping software ? Let's get back on track. Can
anyone tell me if Elvis is still rumored to be alive ?
Carl West
> ... Let's get back on track. Can
> anyone tell me if Elvis is still rumored to be alive ?
Nope, he's gone. I saw "Bubba Hotep".
--
If you try to 'reply' to me without fixing the dot, your reply
will go into a 'special' mailbox reserved for spam. See below.
--
Carl West carlD...@comcast.net http://carl.west.home.comcast.net
>>>>>>>> change the 'DOT' to '.' to email me <<<<<<<<<<<<
"Clutter"? This is an object-rich environment.