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Like I said before about eBay, it's the best. My favorite search terms these days are "antique oddity lot junk drawer," "vintage courrèges," "vintage cacharel," "vintage ungaro," "vintage louis feraud," "antique medical bedpan urinal enamel," and "vintage enamel vase." Also fun to mis-spell things that should be very expensive and see if anyone has discovered them, e.g. "Gugci purse." (You can check out some of my recent eBay purchases here: https://ottessathisottessathat.substack.com/p/my-stuff)
Jan 28, 2025
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From the thrill of discovery, making bids, the buzz of a score or anguish of a could-have-been, a random box showing up that has been packed by some dude in Minnesota… I love it. The best way to shop is either setting a hyper-specific alert for something and finding it five years from now or by typing in all the potential typos it could have, or either searching for a vague combinations of names and details and seeing what comes up. Embellished pearl sweaters? Art deco servewear? Plastic organizers? There’s probably also something good about reuse and sustainability here too. The only thing I don’t love is that my saved searches and watchlist are full so I have to keep deleting and replacing, but never change, eBay.
Jan 26, 2024
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💻Sometimes it’s cool to just type something ridiculous in the search bar, just to see if someone is selling it. The things people sell on there man.
Feb 15, 2024
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The United States Postal Service is, second to the Department of Motor Vehicles, my favorite American institution. I'm a hoarder, I order a lot of things off eBay, so I'm always looking out for the mailman. Rain or shine! And I have so much reverence for those who work in the actual post office behind the counter. I'm always impressed by the intense emotions they can inspire in customers standing in line--panic, fatigue, stress, fury, ego-mania, depression, denial...I also really loved Post Office by Charles Bukowski when I read it in 2013. I wonder if it holds up.
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Wearing Velcro-strap ankle weights around the house helps me feel grounded and productive. Beyond walking my dogs, I get zero exercise otherwise. I like wearing them when I work because they remind me not to get up from my desk every twenty seconds--those extra few pounds provide me with just the right amount of lag. And somehow I also feel more spiritually integrated on days I wear them. I guess my ankle weights are my "hair shirt."
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🎤If I were to recommend any of the Youtube channels I watch most frequently, I would feel irresponsible. It's a lot of crime scene clean-up, thrift-store vloggers, raw police interrogation footage, at-home cyst-lancing, segments of "The Oprah Show" home video-taped with a camcorder off the TV in the 80s, etcetera. Maybe less shameful--but just as dangerous?--is my affection for Eddie Vedder. He had just quit stage-diving, I think, when I saw Pearl Jam play Boston Garden on their "Vitalogy" tour in April, 1994, a few days after Kurt Cobain died.