30 Sep 08 Bargain bagged, and moving forward

Well, since my last blog post i have managed to bag a BARGAIN on ebay! I have won a unused, 2g iphone for £174!

I know its NOT a 3g one - but i really could not find one for £200 or under that wasn’t broken or something. Anyway, after weighing up the difference between a iphone 2g and a iphone 3g, i decided to opt for the 2g one for now - and if i find im being held up by its lack of 3g-ness then ill upgrade after xmas (when there are lots of unwanted xmas prezzies on eBay )

I’m still waiting for it to be delivered, but i already have the apps, games and hacks bookmarked on my PC!

In other news i am in my final week of slave-labor at the box, i should get a lot of money through for my last week or so, and hopefully ill have enough money to put another £400 in the bank, and have enough left over to spend a bit on the car.

4 more shifts to go!

THANK FUDGE!

Tags: ebay, hacks, iphone 2g, the box, xmas

19 Sep 08 How to bag a bargain on eBay

I have been working hard in a factory as well as for the business for a good few months now, its really starting to affect my knees, my back and although i have lost lots of fat, and turned it into muscle i still ache all the time and generally feel sorry for myself 

But, i have managed to earn enough money to get straight with rent - and that was the main reason for starting there again in the first place. I finish there in two weeks time, and by the end of it i should hopefully of saved up enough money to tax my car too, maybe even MOT it.

And depending on how much overtime i cram in, i may even be able to treat myself and buy myself a little present.

Ive been looking for a new phone on eBay for a while now, and ive looked at everything from blackberrys to nokia N82’s, and more recently the 3g apple iphone.

Now im aware its quite fashionable to have an iphone at the mo, but i want one for the simple fact they are so clever, they are designed so well, and it means i can access the internet and do anything i need at the drop of a hat.

The only problem with fashion, is that it usually causes the price of popular “fashionable” items to rise considerably, and this is bad news for people who actually want it for its functionality, and not for the kudos you’ll get from your mates down the pub.

So here is my guide to finding bargains (not just iphones) on eBay!

Olstars eBay Bargain Hunting Guide

This guide is 100% my own, and is not a guarantee. I have just found that by following this process closely i have found items for really good prices on the jungle that is eBay.

Step 1 - The most important!

Think of a rough (realistic) price that you will pay for the item you want. Once you have this figure, write it on a post-it and stick it on your monitor - and make sure you stick to this price! You are trying to bag a bargain here!

I am looking for a 3g iphone, and i want it for £200 ovno.

Step 2 - Find out what cha’ workin’ wit

Search for the item you want using its name, but dont be too specific. So if you were looking for a 16gb 3g apple iphone, initially just search for “iphone” then narrow your search using the category links on the left hand side.

Browse through the results, and analyse the following

• The current price of the item
• The amount of bids
• The time left
• Item location

Step 3 - Narrow the search

Look for items that are below your price range first, then narrow them down with the specifics of your requirements. In my case i want a 3g one, so all the 2g’s have gone. I don’t want one that is scratched or that has no photos of the actual iphone that is being sold - this is a very important point, if they don’t show you actual photos then its not worth the bid, you may pay £200 for a piece of shit.

I’ve now got a handful of items in my watched list, so i will move onto the more in depth cleansing of the list.

Step 4 - Psychology

If the item has been started at 99p, and is at say £100 with a lot of bids, then get rid of it. People who enter a bidding war tend to stay with it. They lose sight of their price range and end up bidding just becasue they don’t want to lose.

Try and find an item that is already at £100, and has no bids or only 1 or 2. This item is likely not to of been picked up by the all of the people initially looking for this item.

Its also handy to read the description, sometimes people can be very misleading and tell you what you want to hear yet magically miss out or avoid the bad bits. I’ve seen an iphone description said it had small white lines on the screen but they were hardly noticeable. They included photos of said white lines, and the photos were blurry and you could hardly see a thing. What you could see was the very top of a 5mm white line that ran down the screen. Nice try!

Step 5 - The stragglers

One of the best things about eBay, is that some people are morons. And by that, i mean they cant spell, punctuate, and have no concept of how to list a product properly on eBay. This means that if you play about with a few misspellings of name of the item you are looking for, you can find items that have totally slipped under the radar!

I got a pair of limited edition 100% genuine adidas superstar underworlds for £27 once, because the guy was a moron and had no idea what he had, or how to spell!

Step 6 - Stakeout

The last step is to wait, and watch the auctions carefully. If one you are watching is nearing the end of its time and is still below your budget, then stick a cheeky bid in. NEVER bid with more than a few minutes remaining. If you bid and there is a day left then your just bumping the price up and giving someone a whole day to out bid you. You should never leave it too late either. Some people put a max bid on so as soon as you lay yours down, you are outbid straight away. You need to leave a few minutes so you can put 3 or 4 bids in until you are the highest bidder. Only ever bid the minimum amount as well.

If your target figure is breached, then BACK OFF. There must be millions of items listed on eBay every day, and unless your item is rare, then its likely it will come up again soon and you can do this whole process all over again until you reach your goal.

Wish me luck in my quest for a £200 3g iphone - and i hope this may help someone else bag a bargain on eBay!

10 Sep 08 Being away from the ones you love

Gemma’s car broke again. It was only about 3 months ago when we had to shell out nearly a grand on a new gearbox, new clutch and a new starter motor. It had never been right since it was done, it never felt like i expected it to feel when it was being used - and it was leaking oil.

We tried to get it sorted once, but the guy we were sent to obviously didnt do a very good job as the leak continued. Anyway it leaked out most of the oil, and now its needed a new clutch - well we hope thats all it needed.

The car is currently being put back together and hopefully Gem will be home tonight some time, as i haven’t seen her properly since Monday morning. She stayed at her mums as its closer for her to get to work.

We are currently going thru a bit of a stressful patch, with money, jobs, and now cars. And this has certainly put pressure on our relationship. Its not until times like this, and more specifically time spent away from loved ones, that you realise how important these people are in your life.

I have been so lonely at home by myself, no one to talk to, no one to cuddle up to on the sofa. And no dog to play with as Bonnie has been at gems mum’s too. I know that may sound quite selfish, but thats how i feel at the mo.

I guess im feeling sorry for myself a bit too, im doing a temporary job i hate and want to jack in straight away, but i cant because i owe my landlord money for rent. I have a business that is being held back becasue i need to sort my personal monies out - see previous sentence. And all this puts pressure on me, which in turn makes me miserable, and that causes friction with everything else.

Anyway, i am starting shift 3 of 4 soon, and need to prepare my things.

I hope i dont have to spend much more time at home alone as i really dont like it.

02 Sep 08 Prison Break Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2 S04E02 & S04E01

Well - that long awaited moment has arrived! Prison break has been thrust back onto our screens for the 4th consecutive season. The last season was cut short due to writers strikes, and unfortunately the lost time that they have made up with this double whammy airing of the new season has left me with a slight sourness in my mouth - wait that’s just my drink!

The rest of this article contains spoilers

(more…)

Tags: four, Prison Break, season 4

01 Sep 08 Another 123-Reg Nightmare!

Once again, 123-Reg have shone through and have fucked up good and proper. We must have 35/40 domain names in our 123-Reg account, some ours, some are our clients - all important.

Anyone who has visited my blog before may remember the earlier entry about the 123-Reg auto renewal issue that we had. They basically automatically renewed a domain name we didn’t want renewing. If they were gonna automatically do it then why send us emails every week telling us to renew it?

Anyway, following on from that same issue, we basically got our money back from the bank, then it got sent back to them, and then we got it back again. They have now totally shut our 123-Reg account down, we cant access any domain names to make changes, we have two sites we cant publish as we cant edit domain name details.

They even told Dave they had deleted our account!

We are waiting to hear back from the people up high apparently, and the only way to contact them is by email. They are probably on their sun lounger in the Bahamas replying to emails on their blackberry. Tossers.

We’ll update you as things progress!

Tags: olympics, rebecca adlington

01 Sep 08 Rebecca Adlington won 3 gold medals.. Not Mansfield!

As i have mentioned in a previous blog entry, i think rebecca has done amazingly well and she should be proud of her achievements for the rest of her life. Im sure she has a promising career in sport and on TV etc and i wish her all the luck in the world with it.

What really gets to me (and probably her) is that Mansfield seems to want to ride off the back of her success and rise from the ashes into the spotlight! Im sorry mansfield, but surely thats something Mansfield should achieve by itsself? If Mansfield brought up and trained some great swimmers who all went on to win at something like the olympics, then great - well done mansfield! But that aint the case is it. As far as im aware Becky Adlington didnt even train in Mansfield as the facilities were not good enough - iirc she said she now trains in Nottingham.

I live in Mansfield, i was born here, and have been raised here. We once had things to be proud of, the brewery.. err.. the brewery.. and now all we have to be proud of is a young girl who totally off her own back (with the help of friends and family of course) has trained and gone on to become the most successful female swimmer in great britain. We can only be proud that she was born here though. Not that Mansfield made her the olympian star she has become!

Anyway, rant over - let becky have all the spotlight as she deserves it.

19 Aug 08 Congratulations Rebecca Adlington

A big well done to Rebecca Adlington for winning two gold medals and breaking a world record making her the most successful female swimmer to come out of England in the last 100 years. Its really amazing to see a young girl from Mansfield go so far - and do so well!

Well done Becky!

Its a very reassuring thing for Mansfield, as this area doesn’t exactly have many shiny people in the spotlight who we can be proud of. The last “Celebrity” from Mansfield ended up getting fired from his TV job for snorting coke! So having a young Mansfield girl go to the Beijing Olympics and earn two gold medals is just fantastic!

Big up yourself luv!

Tags: mansfield, olympics, rebecca adlington

12 Aug 08 Past regrets, Present truths and Future plans

Ive probably done a few posts like this before, but a lot will of changed since then. As the title suggests, this post will fall into 3 categories, past, present and future.

Past Regrets

I have done a lot of things in my life that im not exactly proud of, and would never shout about them or promote them to other people as “the right thing to do” - but i do not regret them. I belive that all the things you do in your life define who you are and make you the person you are today - as long as the things you have done in your life have never hurt anyone (other than maybe yourself)

My past regrets are mainly to do with people. I regret losing touch with people and i regret not spending as much time with family. I guess the fact i live quite far away from my family is the reason im not as close to them as other people are to theirs, although its not really far enough not to visit more than i have.

My biggest regret from my past is losing touch with a certain person who had been my best friend (or at least one of them) for as long as i could remember. We had our run-in’s but always came out mates, i knew his dad, mum sister etc etc. And i lost touch with him over some stupid fucking teshirts that casued a massive argument between me him and dave - and he just vanished.

Apparently he has cut himself off from a lot of his friends, maybe i know why, maybe i dont.. I have no real way of contacting him to find out.

My only other regrets are probably not making the most of my education. I didnt exaclty dick about in school, i worked as hard as i could - i just wish i had carried on and finished my course, or changed it - as now i dont really have anythign to fall back on in case things that are going on at the mo backfire.

Which brings me on to my next subject.

Present Truths

At the moment i find myself in a rather annoying yet thankfully temporary situation. We still have the two businesses and to be honest hey are doing pretty well. Although like any small business many people take the piss when paying bills, which means cashflow is like a rollercoaster. And unfortunatly all the people i pwe money to (E-on, BT, AOL, TV Licence etc etc) dont seem to want to be paid every so often, they keep bangin on about monthly payments. So i had to do something about it.

Thankfully bills are starting to be paid, debts sorted, and i have actually put some money in my savings account today for the first time since i have owned it. I would like to work as much as possible there while the work is there and put some money away for future investments.

I would love to see MMS and dijitul go to the next level, and i belive they will. But i dont think i will be satisfied at just that. Me and gem have already spoken about a business idea, and i would still love to own a shop selling trainers. I read duncan bannatynes book and it gave me a lot to think about. How he started, what he did to make himself what he is today.

Its made me realise that company debt isnt a bad thing as long as you can afford to pay it back and stil make money. So im going to sit on a few ideas of mine and see what situation im in in a few months. If im more financially stable them im going to the bank with a business plan.

Which again, brings me on to the final part of the blog entry.

Future Plans

I guess i just want to be comfortable in the future. I dont really want to work my arse off until im 60, i would much prefer to work like a slave until i was about 4o then retire - but who knows what is gonna happen. I belive the two businesses me and dave have will do well, and we will be able to let someone else run that allowing us to do other things.

I still want to travel as well, me and gem are both in agreement that living somewhere warm would be a much better idea than staying in this damp cold miserable country. I will only travel once any business ideas are either in motion or have been forgotten about, as i do not want to have to work my way around the world, i would much prefer to be paid to do it!

I guess i have my work cut out, and looking forward i know its not going to be easy - but its what i have got to do, and its what i will do.

Anyway, less blabbering, more work. Bye

Tags: life, regrets

19 Jul 08 More progress and developments

Well, the last blog post was pretty much completed. The airbag stuff is in, the lid is secured, and everything is tested! It all works very well, and we just have a few little things to look at and the airbag stuff will work 100%.

It is much better than before, better than when DS Engineering robbed me of £2000 to initially set it up. In fact i would even say they made a complete abortion of it. It had to be sent back once to have some welding finished that they had left in a dangerous state, and they just bolted all the stuff in the back on a bit of wood - completely exposed to the elements!

Now we have it in a fabricated box, all bolted down to the bottom of the caddy, and i have used much bigger solenoids, much bigger (like, LOADS bigger) pipework and a pressure switch that actually works!

When i first had the airbags, i was totally dissapointed with it. It was slow, didnt seem to move much.. Now i am extatic, as it moves RATE fast, and go’s PROPER high and really quite low as well!

We have lots of wiring to do, but after that i will put some vids up of it moving up and down etc

In other news, im feeling much better now i am sorting things out money wise. I may be burning the candle at both ends by staying up late and only getting 5 hours sleep max a night, but its nesscery as at the moment im trying to do a lot in order to both secure my future, and my present.

As soon as i am up to date with bills, and the caddy is on the road and working - i am gonna start putting some cash away to help start a little sidelline venture me and dave have been speaking about for ages.  It involves something we both love, and is probably something we can make a fair bit of cash at if we stay on our toes and bring in a few people to help us along the way

Im off to sleep now, more work to be done tomorrow, then monday i am set for a VERY long day!

10am till 5pm at a clients, then 10pm till 6am at the box.. Wont be getting much sleep that day(s)!

15 Jul 08 Progress report

Well im a few weeks into my working-two-jobs lifestyle, and i am finding it very hard to squeeze everything in. I am working 8 hours at tha box, then coming home and doing up to 8 hours on the pc at home. I am totally exhausted, but right now i am also totally buzzin!

The main reason for working at the box, is to earn enough cash to get a bit ahead with my bills, and to get the caddy on the road. So over the last few weeks i have been collecting the odd part for my airbag system, such as fittings, solenoids and a shiney new compressor.

Newth kindly set the solenoids up for me, and has been tonight to help me (well, i just made coffee actually) fit all the stuff into my car, now that stu had been and welded my box in.

Tonight, we managed to;

• Secure the box lid - no one is stealing my shit again!
• Fit and wire up the compressor
• Fit and pipe up the tank
• Fit and wire up the solenoids
• and….
• Test the airbags!!!!!

I am pleased to announce that all 4 of my airbags seem to be working fine, no leaks, nothing!

And i initially wanted fast movement, but it was crap.. Now.. well, lets just say newth might be right about bending the caddy in half!

Pics to add tomorrow!

Thank you newth, scot and stu!

You are all legends!