Ahhh!! A most terrible misfortune has befallen me! Now it’s confirmed …there is no God. I was just walking back and forth in our garage enjoying the sweet morning dew when a huge moth resting on top of the car caught my eye. It was huge and it looked leathery or furry like a nice little girlie wallet …my inner wannabe photographer got excited so I ran to my room to get my 7.2MP sony DSC-P200 digital camera worth 20k when brand new. I wanted to get macro shots of the insect so I really got close. The insect looked so big and clumsy that you just don’t expect it to react too quickly or even fly but like a little wonder athlete it did.

Have you heard people who’ve been in accidents say that everything seems to go in slow motion? It was like that for me. The insect flew towards me and it was almost like I consciously threw the cam at the insect so it wouldn’t fly towards my face. Everything seemed to be in slow motion while the camera was making a glorious arc through the air. It seemed like I said a dozen “oh god no no no”s and I think I still had some spare time to compute the deductions in the market value of the cam in my head while the cam was airborne.

It actually landed on the roof of the car first but as fate would have it didn’t stay there. despite my pathetic pleas, it fell to the rough, pebbled, very hard ground. Luckily the cam is still fully functional. There’s a not so inconspicuous dent now though on the top of the cam. And there’s a little bit of space in some of its joints

The cam has been with me for quite some time and I was actually happy that that morning I had two buyers lined up for it Now I’ll have to make full use my marketing skills and my “putting it lightly” skills to make sure they don’t panic and cancel the deal. I might consider selling it at a loss though or just a marginal profit

 

The aftermath                                  The criminal

I’ll try to talk about something of substance in my next post 

Btw I would really like to apologize for the layout of my site I’m still figuring out how I want it to look. I added some pics of my early artwork in my gallery

Currently listening to: pantera, slayer, bach and debussy
Currently feeling: stressed

jaywalker_1982

Currently listening to: radiohead, soundgarden
Currently reading: still crime and punishment
Currently feeling: snobbish

I thought it was going to be a happy ending for my Sony cybershot DSC-P200. I thought She had finally found hands that were willing to welcome her despite her dented body. To her credit, even with the dent I gave her, she still felt like the upmarket camera that she was -Very polished and  “chromey”. Little did I know that her story was destined to be a tragedy

I woke up early in the morning excited by the prospect that my cam will finally find a new home. The meeting place was gateway starbucks, the meeting time was supposed to be 1:30. I was so quick in preparing that I was only thirty minutes late -way better than my average.  When I arrived, two nice ladies were waiting for me. I thought to myself, this could also be an opportunity for me to sharpen my small talk skills. So I tried chatting them up a little bit …”Is this your first camera?”, “what other models have you had?”, “would you also like to see this camcorder that I’m selling” “ahh you already have a camcorder …what model is it?” It may have been a bit dry but for someone who grew up in a cave I wasn’t too bad.  If the meeting lasted a little bit longer I could’ve been a lot more creative  
So after the camera was thoroughly tested and the payment was given, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I did some window shopping, ate at a fastfood and got a haircut. While I was having a haircut, I got a text message from the buyer saying that the lens wouldn’t retract. I was so confident about my sony p200 that I thought maybe she just didn’t know how to turn off the camera or maybe the battery just ran out. I’ve sold a lot of cameras and to my knowledge, none of them has broken down yet.

When I got there I saw that the camera was turned off and the lens was sticking out. I tried to turn it on and off again but the lens just wouldn’t retract.

At the time, I was tired, sweaty, having a slight asthma attack and it also didn’t help that I just had a really bad haircut. I felt like the universe had just imploded on me. That’s almost 1/5^th of my capital lying dead on the table

I was faced with a dilemma Do I return the cash or not. On one hand: I didn’t want them to think that I was a scammer; The buyer told me that she worked hard for that money; I didn’t want to destroy my reputation in bidshot and They were such nice people ….on the other hand: The camera was fine when I handed it to them; From my experience, cameras don’t break down so suddenly without any signs beforehand; I dropped the camera almost two weeks ago and it didn’t have any problems since then 
If the camera was really in good condition when I handed it to them, it wouldn’t have failed in that short period of time unless it was dropped but since it didn’t have any signs of being dropped other than the ones I had made, the best conclusion I could derive was that maybe the camera wasn’t in good condition when I handed it to them. The camera may have had some alignment problems when I dropped it and it was just a matter of coincidence that the lens got stuck a couple of hours after I sold it …such problems though are not major and are easy and cheap to fix, I hope

Most of my deals are on paper. I outline there explicitly that my warranty would only cover hidden damages that were not tested at the day purchase and that all features tested to be functional at the day of purchase would not be covered if ever they would cease to function. But that day I forgot to bring the papers because I was really in a hurry. Not that I think that would’ve mattered since I would’ve returned the item anyway 
After a couple of minutes of hesitation, I returned the money to them and went home with a broken heart

…Such was the tragic fate of my little sony P200. If she can’t be salvaged anymore, may she find peace in gadget heaven

In case they’re reading this, I’m not blaming them at all. Fate may have just played a nasty trick on us

There are times when depression seems strangely alluring. Sometimes even if I have nothing in particular to be sad about, I find myself dimming the lights and searching for the most depressing song I can find. When I was still into painting, I was never able to create anything unless I was depressed

My latest sale

Items I've sold so far this month

I’ve been in powerselling mode lately. Instead of holding on to your items until a reasonable offer arrives, you jump at the first or second offer that gives you a decent profit. So far this month, my net profit is at 17000. I’ve sold 7 cameras so far. I still have 2 camcorders in my inventory and 2 digital cameras including my ill-fated P200. Someone has already bid on one of my digital cameras but you can never really be sure of a sale until you get the money. I could power sell my remaining items so I’d reach  at least 19k before the month ends. Call center people may make just as much money in a month but unlike them I don’t really work for the money I just meet buyers 3 or so times a week. If this rate is sustained until October my net profit would be 70k+ by the end of the trimester