...isn't ebay a gift for the touters?

I saw an article in the Mirror the other day about Stella McCartney launching a budget clothing range in Australia as she did for H&M in the UK recently. There were the predictable people queuing over night, the scrummage as the doors were opened and then the grabbing began - all of the range was sold by 10am.

What was almost as predictable was that the items bought that morning would appear on ebay within the hour for twice the price. Ebay is seen by most as a kind of digital yard sale, minus the homemade rose perfume. And this is the side that most of us will have discovered whilst doing this latest assignment - hence the random collection of entirely worthless items that were picked up 'on the cheap' (though how do you put any price on a bag of stick insects!?). But the other side is that many of the items that appear on ebay are not a 'bargain'; in fact they are way over the high street price. There is even a review on ebay written by a customer warning people not to buy Primark clothing at over twice the high street price.

So whilst ebay has certainly made the dream of a global car boot sale a reality, don't believe that everything you find their is a good deal.

...isn't hiding your identity online a bit sad?

If the world wide interweb is meant to be the greatest advancement in communication since - I don't know - the voicebox; it seems a shame that its core users choose to hide their identities behind strange symbols and semi-intelligible names.

Whilst there is certainly a degree of exhilaration and emancipation in being able to adopt a different persona from your own, it can surely never be as satisfying as standing tall (or short) and saying, 'I believe this - judge me for it, I don't care if you agree.' In a world gone mad with PC terms for any identifiable characteristic, feature or belief, wouldn't it be more satisfying, more liberating, to stand visibly for something? To be judged for who you are and what you believe? To be accepted as an individual?

To that end I feel it is only right to tell you that I am not NoChildGenius, my name is Phil, I am 42 years old and run a marketing business; and I wish for a life on the ocean waves. Or am I?

Til next time...