eBay My World: madevasellscomics( 1307)

On March 1st 2008 I left the nursing profession after twelve years to sell full-time on Ebay. The hours are considerably longer but the company I keep is infinitely better due to the super-cool customers and vendors that I communicate with daily.

I sell comics; all types. I am severely unfamiliar with some genres, especially Romance & Westerns but Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has helped me enormously.

Ultra Pro comic bags and boards, as everything I ship gets sent out with new ones, Marvel stamps from USPS.com and a new halogen bulb for Jack my pet snake are a few things I recently chose to buy over paying my bills.

Old railroad wrenches, antique eyeglasses, brass belt buckles, more Mad magazines, Seventies clothing with real polyester, not the flimsy non-flamable fourth generation polyester that's sold today, Sixties-era magazines and anything put out by E.C in the 1950s, especially Panic.

English, Spanish

Snakes, especically finding and taking photos of them in the wild, jogging, biking, hiking, pruning trees, taking naps and reading.

The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, Appointment in Samarra by John O'Hare, U.S.A Trilogy by John Dos Passos, The Book of Job, The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter Thompson, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, Making a President by H.L Mencken and War of the end of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World, All about Eve, Picnic, Thomas Crowne Affair, On the Waterfront, Bullit, Hair, A Rage to Live and North by Northwest

Poncho Sanchez, Prince, Grateful Dead, Santana and Harry Chapin

Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, The Honey Mooners, The Twilight Zone and Bob Newhart with the dreamy but recently departed Suzanne Pleshette.

I studied political science before going into nursing before going into listing Batman. Needless to say, neither field prepared me for Ebay. Thank God I have the presence of mind to recognize that there are multitudes of people willing and able to teach me; all I need to do is seek them out and ask. Many comic vendors that I have had dealings with are some of the most professional people I have come across. So I just try to emulate them, without sacrificing what makes me unique.

Paypal, checks and money orders.

I ship daily. Media mail is slow enough without my sitting on a package for a few days. Plus, I am always impatient while waiting to get whatever I've ordered so it would be hypocritical of me to make others wait unnecessarily.

In 1994 Debbie Reynolds opened the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino and performed in the theater attached to the complex. She still took time to thank every fan that paid to see her, knowing the huge array of choices they had available on the strip. That's how I feel about my customers on Ebay; they chose me from among the throngs of other vendors and I need to make sure they leave satisfied with the experience. Enough said; I guarantee customer will be satisfied and as the tired mantra goes, or their money back.

cocochanelli@comcast.net