More pondering...

Selling stuff on eBay, part II.

Right. Stuff I could sell on eBay:

Theremins. Sure, some theremins go for plentymuch money, but there's theremins and there's theremins. There's ickle kiddy science-project type theremins, and then there's amazingly complicated theremins that have loads of whistles and bells. Now, one could buy in a few kits and build from those, but that requires a little outlay: most of the kits I've seen go for between 40 and 50 quid. Now, I've looked at the parts lists and frankly they're ripping the mick; most of them shouldn't cost more than 15. Which leaves building from scratch. However, before I rush out to the local electronic hobby shops, I need a circuit. All the circuit diagrams I have seen online seem to be copyrighted, so it's reasonably illegal (and dashed unsporting) to make and sell theremins constructed soley from those diagrams. I posess enough knowhow to do some reverse-engineering and thus create my own original circuit, but this will be time-consuming.

(A pared-down baby theremin with only pitch control and no volume is another possibility. I can design a Wein bridge oscillator without moving my brain; all I'd need to do is replace one of the variable capacitors with a suitable antenna. Then there's just the filter to get shot of any r.f. muck, bung on a speaker and away we go. Woudn't really be a musical instrument as such, but I bet half the people who buy these things don't want to play them. They just want to put them on the sideboard next to their Hulk lunchboxes and lava-lamps and go "look everyone, a theremin! WooIIIEEEooOOOoooIIIeeee!" The other advantage to this is that I already have most of the componants floating around somewhere, including a shedload of op-amps which I really ought to use up.)

Hacked torches that shine brighter than everyone else's torches so you get the best seat on the alien spacecraft and they let you sit up front instead of having to ride in the back and get probed and stuff: Still costing the parts. But if I decide to go for it, there's my sales pitch.

Other stuff with LEDs: Like, I dunno, wands and stuff. A wand with an LED on the end would rock.

Beadwork: Hmm. Not sure I'll get much interest. My stuff is nice, but is it supernice enough to attract a price which will compensate me for work, parts and postage? Maybe sell ensembles, that way I could charge more but incur lower overall shipping costs.

Dolls: Again, hmmm. Now, I like my dolls, I think they're cool, but when you get right down to it they're still just 20c Barbie knockoffs that I took a craft-knife to. Not sure how happy the Lucky Bidder is going to be with that. I certainly didn't sell any fly-pitching.

Other toys: Slightly higher-pitched hmmm. I'm quite good at making ugly little felt critters with pipe-cleaners inside. Now, you wouldn't think people would buy many ugly little felt critters with pipecleaners inside but it turns out that if you stick a lot of googly-eyes on them, and feathers, and maybe some porcupine quills or something, and give them a name and make up some stupid story about them, where they came from and everything, people will pay actual money for that. But only on the internet.

So, in conclusion: I need pipecleaners and super-bright LEDs.

Anyhow.

I didn't make it to Sitges this weekend coz it pissed down, but I did see the new H*rry P*tt*r flick. Nice hippogriff.