Bloggifying after a long time

During July our Fall 2006 batch guys had a great get together party month. i.e. throughout the month we kept on meeting and having get togethers. We had a lot of fun. By the end of Summer Semester all our batchmates left for getting a job. (Check out my Fall 06 Batch gettogether Blog)
Studies and Workout:

On July 28th, I went to work and worked out in the gym according my scheduled workout time and worked on my ADO.net project.
On July 29th, I didn't go to work coz I had to finish my project. I sat till 2:20 pm and finished the projects with some doubts which I clarified with classmates and submitted still having some errors in the project. As the professor gave students some more time till end of class I sat and finished it there.
On July 30th, I went work earlier than I was supposed to come in and went to class after finishing work. Submitted the Final project and then went to Bobby's to eat Ice Cream after a week of wait and postponement.

The Last Trip with Jay:

Jay wanted to see the great things of St Louis which we haven't seen so we chose a Saturday before he left Edwardsville for good and selected a few hot spots to check out, like the Anheuser Busch Beer factory, Art Museum, Botanical garden, Farmer's market and some other places. We had a great day roaming the St Louis downtown area too, listening to music and walking all the way.
Then soon Chetan, Jay and Sandeep left Edwardsville one after the other on different days. We had a great time hanging out together. We wished that we should have hung out like this during the past few years too.

Outing with Raju to Pere Marquette:

We had a get together with Raju the day before he left to India in his own style. Me, Sai, Shruthi, Hara and Raju who were left in edwardsvillle from our batch went to Pere Marquette State park in the eveninig and then while driving back from the park along the beautiful river bank we stopped at a restaurant which we never observed before and checked it out. It was called Fin Inn. It was a great looking restaurant with aquarium around the table having a variety of fishes which they serve and have it in the river. I and Hara had french fries and breadsticks while the others enjoyed various fish items which was cheap and good. After such a great get together the next day Raju left with some of my stuff which I gave to him to take it to India and the in a few days Shruthi left.
Now only Me, Sai and Hara were left and we enjoyed the school to the fullest by going to the cougar lake boating with some new friends and then one day Hara came and told that he is leaving today and flew away, very short notice. I didnt even realize that he was leaving edwardsville or leaving to some place for fun. Now only me and Sai are left in Edwardsville.

Outing with Abhay before he left:

I saw Wall-E, Wanted and some other great movies during the summer break. It was an amazing summer with my friends. After all my batchmates were gone. One day Me, Tenzing, Granil and Abhay went to the Indian Temple and then to the Zoo park after 2 years. We all had a great time at the zoo.

The entry of new kids into Edwardsville:

Soon we were about to enter a new semester, so a lot of new kids flew in from India. One of the kids brought 2 pairs of eye glasses from India through my Mom. She selected exactly the model of eyeglasses which I never wanted to have! But everyone said I looked very sharp in those glasses so I was ok with the new ones. Plus I had no other option as my other glasses which I had were already broken.
That guy and other 3 guys came in to Sai’s room as Jay left. Anna as usual got them and started the ragging session. Those 4 guys got the same kind of welcome from his as we all got. 1 of them moved to a different area to live and 2 of them filled 2 vacancies at Sai’s house. And the 4th guy was just a bakra to Anna’s ragging from some other apartment.
In my room I needed 1 new guy after Sachin, Purushottam and Abhay left, but the guys who picked up the new students from airport dropped TWO new guys in my house and asked us to provide shelter to them until a permanent house is found for them. So we got along very well in the 1 month we were together. When Anna finally after 6 years, decided to move out from Edwardsville one of the two new guys moved to Sai’s house and everyone was happy.
I have been very famous among the new kids because everyone knew me even before I introduced myself to them. When i said my name was Ranjeesh some people would go “ Ohh! you are Ranjeesh, The pendrive man”. Thats because I used to have a pen drive hanging on my neck all the time showing off that I am a tech guy. I have a great time with all the juniors. Its just my nature that I mingle with everybody no matter what their age is. I think its because I dont have a big ego problem like others do and I donot usually take any comment to heart (Most of the times). Overall I am good with everyone.

Sai’s New Car":

Sai’s car (Nissan Altima) met with an accident because of some old lady’s reckless driving on the highway and he had to pay the price coz he hit that lady’s car from the behind and here in the US the fault is always of the person who hits from behind. Sai’s car insurance paid off all the damages for the old lady’s car But he had to TRASH his car in the junkyard for $350 because it was repairable.
We had some good memorable trips on Sai’s old car and we remember those trips a lot and within that week he bought a better car (Dodge Neon) for even cheaper ($1800 vs $3000). Srinivas anna said that Sai is very great coz he bought a new car within one week of the accident and no one usually does that so confidently. Hats Off!

Lots of Gift getting @ Work:

At Work, as I was the employee of the month again, I went and collected my $10 gift card and saved it for future to buy a gift for somebody someday from the University Bookstore.
Again took the $10 gift card for employee of the month and got accumulated 13 points for good workmanship. If I collect 15 points I can exchange it for a Free movie ticket.

Spetemeber 18th - Birdthay party cake allover room cleaning ... work unpaid due to underload problem! ISS fix no work to get pay...paper talk with Jerry and Blythe Flop..89/100 A in CS 516 quiz
September 25th - Went out with Tenzing and Granil to Buffet city after getting 100 in fujinoki quiz without asking, Borders - realize Tenzing Bday
Sept 26th - Planned Tenzing Bday party, Cake cutting, Movie Eagle Eye, Shop n Save
Sept 27th - Temple and Boating with So called GF
Oct 2nd - Career Fair ,Racism, Dr White, Nidhi, manisha, Sai the bloody, Dinner at Mr.Curry's
Oct 4th - Boating with all as last weekend of boating
Oct 5th - Haraleft
Oct 6th - Granil Bday Party
Oct 7th - paper Registered
Home coming week - Free drinks, library, Library study, Homecoming Football, Bam Bams,
International nite 2008
Mid Term 2 bakwaas
paper progress
Quiz 100
Workout and challenge of Nates Phone laptop modem connection , eat in Gokul Chat


Dec 12th - Wii for Gagan, gamespt + Walmart few more

Finding and Getting the items for cheap on eBay.com (Bidder's View)

My background regarding electronic gadgets:

I am a student and love to buy electronic items. I have bought almost every kind of electronic gadget (a cheaper version of it because I am money minded). I have been a crazy deal seeker since the week I came to the United States. But to buy all those I need money, rite? which I don't earn so much that I spend on hobbies. I had around 6 Walkman (personal cassette player) before buying my first branded Walkman and I owned 3 different unknown branded Flash MP3 players before I got a CREATIVE MUVO and then the iPod. All these were different looking and variety kind of gadgets. My friends couldn't tell what it was by just looking at it and that made it even more cool! Whatever I buy I use almost every function of it. I take care of them as if they were living things. I am such a hobbyist of electronics that I want to buy whatever gadgets come in the market.

"Where there is will there is a way!"

So to meet my "need" to buy electronic gadgets for cheap with good brand name, I started looking for items on some deal sites like deals2buy.com and dealnews.com and bought several items for even $0 (i.e. Free) using the Mail in Rebates and promotional offers. Later I got addicted to selling used items like my friends's broken or/and working items which they want to get rid of and buying new and used items which were not in too bad condition on eBay for cheap. Selling is easy on eBay but searching for the right deal is a biggie.

 

Stage 1

When I was a beginner in eBaying I used to just search for an Item with its keyword (like New Nintendo Wii for Wii) and get thousands of results. Then I used to sort the results according to lowest price first, this used to bring the cheapest Wii's on top ($0.99 + some shipping price) with a few days left for the auction to end. I watched these items for a few days to buy the Wii for less than what we buy in any retail store but eventually the other ebay users of the world bid like CRAZY on the item. They bid 100s of dollars in one go and the price went to way over the MRP (appx. between $400 to $1000 when the MRP was $249.99). I tried this a number of times but always failed because there were not many people in the world who thought like me.

"If every person in the world who uses eBay thought like me, they would stop bidding high amounts at once and let others win for less if the bidding price was reaching more than the MRP, so that if not me atleast let the other guy get it for cheap, I can try another one because there are so many opportunities."

 

Stage 2

After realizing that this sorting according to price is not working out for me, I observed the pattern and found that people bid in the last few hours on the item. They keep a watch on the item and wait for the last few hours and then bid on it like crazy and thats where the prices go high. So I started searching for items and then sorted them according to ending time. This helped me get better results because I ended up finding few results with lower prices faster with only few minutes left. But even this had the similar flaws of technique of Stage 1. We are not controlling how the users think. The bidders are still bidding in the last minute and trying to get the items for themselves at ridiculously higher prices even if they can get it for cheaper somewhere else. In this case, people like me feel out numbered because there are more people who want it and have money to buy it but people like me still look for deals for cheap.

"Sometimes the CRAZY bidders pay even more than 75% of the new items price for a broken or non-working item. This is really crazy."

Stage 3

For quite a while I wasted time searching for the items for cheap. It is almost impossible to find a cheap deal these days on eBay unless no one else in the world is bidding on eBay. I came across a few resources while searching Google for methods of getting cheaper items on eBay. Few websites mentioned that some people on eBay dont know what they are selling so they either donot write their description appropriately or misspell the item names. For example a "Digital Camera" could be written as a "Digtl Camra" and PS3 might be mentioned as a Huge heavy box [:p] by an illiterate person! So the best way to get cheap deals is to search for misspelled items on eBay using the websites which help you do that. because the number of people who would reach the "NINTEND We" will be a lot lesser than "Nintendo Wii" because everybody is looking for a nintendo Wii but not a Nintend We. I have been using this technique for a couple of weeks now and have successfully found some nice inactive items on eBay for a DS and iPod.

"Think like a person who doesn't know anything about the item you are looking for and describe your item in his words and you might get what you want."

I have been addicted to eBaying and have been searching many techniques/methods of getting deals for cheap on eBay. I also sold some items I got in Garage sales for something more than what I paid for and earned some money to buy something which I want.

 

I just like to share what I learn so I write it in blogs. Hope this helps you guys.

Thanks for reading.