I've been silent on this blog for some time for good reason. I no longer sell things on eBay. I found a better gig. I've sold out. And life is good.

You'll be saying, how do I get on that train? And I'd be more than happy to tell you.

I'm coming back to the PICA TBA festival, extending the A in AC to Andrew and teaching come one come all how to Sell Out in 27 steps.

When? September 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th. 6:30 pm sharp.

How much? $20, $15 for PICA members. Not really much at all, considering how much you stand to make if you follow my steps.

Where? The Wieden+Kennedy atrium. My new place of business. In fact, there's a whole circle-remains-unbroken thing going on with that. The folks who work there saw the eBay seminar. They hired me to do a little pitching for a sneaker company named after the Greek Goddess of Victory. And I'm still there.

AC is no exception. What am I selling? Tickets to the New York City premiere of the AC Dickson: eBay PowerSeller seminar. That's right folks, AC is headed to the big Apple.

When? December 12th, 13th and 14th.

Where? The EFA gallery at 23 West 39th Street in New York City.

Why? Well, my good friend Molly has curated a show called the Searchers about eBay and Generation Net.

How can you or your New York friends come? By buying a ticket on eBay, of course.

Actually, not of course. Amazingly, I've never thought to do this before, by Molly, smarty pants that she is, suggested we sell tickets on eBay. And so we have. Get 'em here!

I'm waiting another a week or so to give the show a big calling all cars email alarm, but if you know any eBay fiends in New York or any press types, please tell them about the show, or get in touch with me about getting in touch with them.

What else has been going on?

eBay has been in the news quite a bit lately in regards to the new PS3 game thingamagigy. A few enterprising souls hired strangers off of Craigslist to wait in line over night or nights so as to be able to get around the one console per person rule. Their plan? Sell them for three, four, five times their value on eBay. Many of the entrepeneurs were all too happy to tell reporters of their scheme and grab front page headlines in the process.

AC is torn. On the one hand, this is the way capitalism, and hence eBay works. Find something people want, find a way to buy it for less than its worth, and sell it at its true value (or above) for a profit. But there is a place where capitalism and eBay veer off. See, eBay has a soul. And as eBay members we have look deep within that soul and decide whether or not our actions are honorable. Do they do the greater community harm or good? I'm going to come down of the side of harm as far as the PS3's are concerned.

Keep in mind, I withheld judgment on the eBaypreneurs who bought Madison Square Garden's U2 tickets at face value and sold them for 4 times that on eBay. Yes, hearts were likely broken. But such things are part of the nature of events. And by and large rock shows are for adults, or at the very least young adults. Who should by now understand the life isn't fair principle. So what is about the PS3's that chafes AC?

I may be a little naive here, but video games are by and large for kids. I know, lots of adults play video game, just as lots of adults collect comic books, or throw tantrums in public, and most video games these days are probably best not seen by young eyes. But at the root of it, video games are games and games are designed for children. And like all things designed for children these days, the consoles were released for the holidays. And hence the only kids who will be getting a PS3 have parents with the free time and fortitude to camp out in line, or rich enough to buy one at inflated prices online. Which seems to leave the working class kid playing PS2. Which I guess isn't such a bad fate, I mean it beats working in the coal mine, but that's not the point. The point is there's something grinchy about the whole thing and it turns AC off.

So, what to do to get that grinch off your back?

Check this out. Curiously, that Tradition Keeper fellow looks like he could almost be AC's long lost brother. Strange.

Victoria is the perfect sized place to explore on foot. Start with a two hour walk from downtown past the endless shops of Canadiana, through the glorious Monaco-esque inner harbor towards the fisherman's wharf (don't forgo the freshly caught fish and chips) and continue on towards serene Clover Point park with its views of Washington. Tell me living anywhere along that journey wouldn't be heaven. Going the other way, further into the city, you'll find an abundance of great thrift stores. A good handful are a short walk from the harbor. And with that favorable US to Canadian dollar exchange, it's like the whole city is having a 12% off sale. AC would also heartily recommend the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, a fantastic contemporary art center that recently hosted Live Art 2 featuring the AC Dickson seminar. It's a nice walk up Fort Street from downtown. The Szechuan soups at Noodle House are a must on the way there or back.

Victoria is also either the miniature capital of the world, or AC and Susan were stuck in some rabbit hole Matrix of all things small. First off, there's Miniature World. Housed in the Empress Hotel complex (arguably the classiest, if most touristy hotel on the West Coast), Miniature World was the Empire State Building of the miniature world when it was constructed in the 70s. Today it's a little dated, but we like that. Don't forget to use your AAA card when you pay and enter a world of painstakingly recreated scenes of Civil War battles, Swiss Family Robinson, and Gulliver's Travels. But don't take my world for it, feast your eyes on these small but savory digital pics.

As if that wasn't enough, doll house stores and culture seemed to permeate every nook and cranny of our Victoria experience. Even the liquor bottles in our hotel room mini-bar were tiny! Then, as if things couldn't get any smaller, we met with the winners of the auction listed during our seminar... brunch or drinks (winner's pick) with AC and Susan.

Having fetched a princely sum of $30, we met Jean and John for an East Indian buffet brunch at the Bengal Lounge in the Empress (where else?). We knew Jean from the show two nights before as she was the only PowerSeller in attendance. More often than not, the seminar audience is a sea of rare and non-users. Soft putty in AC's hands. But it also was a pleasant surprise to see fellow experts.

What does this PowerSelling lady sell? Do you even have to ask. Miniature stuff! More specifically handmade miniature books and tiny sewing kits! We had a fantastic time and we even invited back to their house to see where the magic happens... you know, where they make their miniatures. We were also granted entry in the collectible room and showed a bounty of antiques bought at bargain at local thrifts stores and eBay itself. And just to close the circle, it turns out their gorgeous modern house was designed by a local architect whose work was part of the show at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Do you hear that? That's AC setting down his soap box and standing on it. This is the true promise of eBay folks. Bringing people together. Finding connections across countries, generations, and collectible categories. So what are you waiting for? If it's been a few weeks (or months!) since you hopped on eBay, check it out. It misses you. We miss you.

Like most of you AC has gotten tons of emails from friends like you with links to hilarious and entertaining online clips over the last year or so. AC checks them out, then deletes the emails. Oops. I should have been keeping a running list so I could go back and watch my favorites

So, I'm hoping you all might help AC put his master list together by commenting to this post with links to your favorite videos online, or perhaps a link to a site or blog with a list of tasty online morsels.

In the interest of two way street-ism, here are a few of my favorites.

1) AC would just as soon throw Kevin Smith movies to the lions, but as a stand-up comedian, he's two thumbs up. Check out this clip of him talking about writing a draft for a Superman screenplay ten years ago. It's long, but well worth it. And if you want more, poke around for his tale of shooting a movie for the man in purple, Prince.

2) George Washington is probably the funniest animation I've ever seen. And the music isn't bad either.

3) Finally, here's a little video I put up for some business associates of mine that showcases their ability to get premium sports autographs out at the Nike World Headquarters. Get your pencil and paper ready.

Your turn?

The last week? 6 seminars in 6 nights. Susan and AC were lucky enough to be invited to the Noorderzon theater crossover festival in Groningen. Nestled in the northern part of Holland, Groningen is a nice spot. A college town of about 200,000, it's easy to walk from one side to the other in half an hour and is jammed with shops, bars, restaurants, and bikes. Like most cities over here, it's ringed by a beautiful canal.

The festival was modestly described to us as 'little' by the festival director. Ha! We arrived on a Saturday and wandered in our jet-lagged haze across town to the vast city park. The festival had taken over. We turned up at 10pm and couldn't believe our eyes. Thousands of people eating, drinking, listening to live music, watching street performers, streaming in and out of theater tents. It was crazy! It was the town's big summer festival, only with a heavy dose of performance art.

The AC show set up shop in a Spiegeltent, essentially a mirrored cabaret tent that travels to wherever the fun is.
The tent had a handsome bar at one end, a lavish stage on the other, and tables and chairs for a few hundred in between. A more than adequate place to spread the eBay gospel.

The week run went quite well (or "quite all right" as the Dutch like to say.) I was a bit surprised when we were asked to do 6 shows. I didn't expect there would be enough audience, after all, AC isn't exactly a household name in Holland, and eBay is just gaining a foothold over here after buying the competition Markt Plaats. http://www.marktplaats.nl/

But come they did. Every night a few more, until the last 3 shows were sold out completely. At first I thought the Dutch audiences were a little shy, but by week's end AC was talking just a bit slower, leaning on the jokes that worked the best, dancing with an extra pep in the step, and wouldn't you know it the audiences rose to the occasion. By the 5th night, people didn't even bother to raise their hand to talk or ask a question. They just spoke up. Which is how AC likes it.

The festival was a freaks come out at night kind of thing. The first shows didn't start until evening and most of our shows were at 10:30 pm. We'd usually finish up about midnight, grab a dinner in our dressing room and mosey back into the tent for a drink. Around 1:30 the tent would fill up again for the nightly artists and festival crew late night party. Every night. Until 6 or so. AC and Susan, needing our beauty sleep, never made it past 4.

It was more than quite all right.

And now Amsterdam. In many ways the anti-Los Angeles. You don't need a car, it's super compact and everyone bikes. Water is everywhere, in the air, in the canals. Someone I met said prophetically that it's the city of future. When we run out of oil all cities will resemble Amsterdam. You'll bike everywhere and use the canals to move heavy stuff. I could get used to that. The living is easy.

AC and Susan have passed the time walking to Indonesian restaurants for ten-course meals, looking for bargains at vintage stores (polyester ties!), enjoying the photo museum for a spectacular exhibit of American photography, and strolling along the canals in quiet, cool parts of town with not a red light or tourist in sight. And did I mention that the coffee is amazing?

We get on a plane momentarily and head back to the anti-Amsterdam.

Pictures coming!

Coincidentally or not (she claims not) Tori is putting sellers like AC to shame. She's selling off her entire wardrobe through an eBay user who goes by the tag syes.

AC did his research and it looks like well over a hundred dresses, purses and other assorted finery from the usual suspects (Prada, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, etc) have already sold. Still, over 50 pieces are currently for sale, like this pink Yves St. Laurent gown which is currently clocking in at close to 3 bills with as many days to go. And something tells me that Tori's lifetime supply of please wear our brand to the award show/charity dinner/polo match loot is far from exhausted.

AC has to admit, he's a little jealous of Miss Syes, otherwise known as Sharon Yost, professional estate sale executor. When AC moved to Los Angeles, he figured being an eBay PowerSeller was his ticket to entree into a celebrity posse: "I'd like you meet my bodyguard, my personal trainer, my astrologist, and my personal eBay PowerSeller, AC. Any and all autograph requests go through him."

Alas, it hasn't happened. But I can live vicariously through Sharon. Appears she recently sold off pieces from the estate of the late great mid-century female magician Aree, Queen of Hearts, and now Tori Spelling; who could be next? I wait with bated breath.

In other news, I'd recommend checking out my friend Mr. Outrageous eBay Auction's new blog that tracks the very best of eBay pulse aka the hottest auctions around.

My current favorite is this young lady who's offered to hold her breath for a length of time in relation to the eventual high bid. I suppose the doing it in a short pink skirt part is the draw if you go in for that sort of thing. What's nice is that this blog has the most watched auctions not just overall, but within categories. Scroll down to see the most-watched cars or pieces of sports memorabilia. Some serious money is changing hands.

Bookmark it, kids.

In case you haven't been paying attention, the minimum insertion to post an auction is up to 35 cents from .25. And eBay now takes a final value fee of 8% from store sales, up from 5.25%. Don't forget that auctions that sell get a final value fee tacked on, and store sales have an insertion fee. And old man PayPal gets a piece of most of your sales to the tune of 3.3%. So it adds up. Still, AC believes there is plenty of money in them thar eBay hills.

Any eBay sellers out there who want to vocalize their annoyance can sign this online petition. 27,000 sellers and counting.

Sellers who want to be called whiners for being annoyed at the fee increases can get an earful from Terry Gibbs. For those of you who don't know Terry, he's a piece of work. While AC is a seminar man with a closet full of antique postcards, Terry is the go-to guy for all things model railroad and a juggernaut when it comes to musings on the philosophy of online auctions. Serious sellers might consider getting on his email list; he's got many a trick up his sleeve so long as you don't mind his sometimes-superior tone and the constant hard sell for his $20 downloads. I mean "E-books."

As for AC, I'm getting back in the eBay saddle.

Why, you ask? AC and the lovely Susan Beal are headed to Holland as the AC Dickson: eBay PowerSeller show makes its Dutch premiere later this month. Next stop, the Noordorzern festival in Groningen, Holland. If you have any friends in or around the Netherlands, please let them know.

The festival looks remarkable, with performances from past PICA TBA festival artists like DJ Spooky and Daniel Bernard Roumain, and some of this year's roster on tap as well, Stan’s Cafe and the Nature Theater of Oklahoma to be exact.

Most timely is a half-hour documentary called the "March of the Bonus Army." It plays tonight on PBS at 10:30 in both of AC's dual hometowns, Portland and Los Angeles. Check your local listings.

Now what is this show all about and why is AC so hot and bothered about you watching it? The answer to the latter is that it's a based on a book my father Paul wrote. If you've been to my seminar, you know that he turned me onto eBay circa Y2K. Believe it or not, he and AC's mom Nancy also beat him to e-mail and dragged AC kicking and screaming into the brave new world of the double-you double-you double-you.

In addition to reforming Luddites, my father is author of dozens upon dozens of books, the latest being The Bonus Army: An American Epic, co-written with Tom Allen. Allow me to quote from one of its many five-star reviews on Amazon:

Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen set out to chronicle an event, but wound up giving us a look at how politicians deal with the pesky problem of what to do with returning veterans. One of the most shocking aspects of The Bonus Army is how quickly the same men who cheered from the grandstands as these soldiers went off to war in 1918 now wanted them washed away and forgotten.

As an American war veteran I am grateful to Dickson and Allen for writing this book. It should be read by every returning Global War On Terror (GWOT) vet. Like freedom itself, when it comes to holding government to their promises after the trumpets fade, you only get what you are willing to fight for.

The documentary will include archival footage, photographs and interviews with the veterans--a must-see on this Memorial Day weekend.

In current eBay news, Susan recently spotted a flyer for a contest the USPS and eBay have jointly concocted called Ship It Win It, which offers you the chance to win $10,000 to spend on eBay. If you ship a package in a large flat rate Priority box (the $8.10 size, that is) over the next five weeks, just enter the code on the box on the site and cross your fingers. The USPS will award gift certificates ranging from $25 to $10,000 in cold hard PayPal cash. I say if you're shipping stuff anyway, why not enter the contest? And if you win, why not browse a few antique postcards and collectibles? Just a thought.

Ur Ho honcho Mikey sent me the link this morning. It represents the utopian model of eBay. A chance to make a difference, the power of a online communication, and the potential for community on a global scale. This is exactly the kind of auction eBay should be promoting on it's home page (which was pimping Square Pants Sponge Bob stuff last I checked) or at the very least the Pulse page (which today features 3 of 10 auctions selling the opportunity to advertise on a sexual organ).

eBay stands a crossroad with their competing policies of self-policing and philanthropy at odds. Is eBay going to step in and make their site and my livelihood something the millions of members and hundreds of thousands of full time sellers can be proud of? Or are they going to let a overwhelling sense of tackiness and bad apple members shame us all.

What's it going to be Meg?

Sadly, eBay CEO Meg Whitman is a Bush supporter, so I somehow can't imagine she has a problem with rampant greed becoming the hallmark of our greater culture much less the eBay culture she has ultimate control over. But I would love for her to prove AC wrong.

The bad news is that you have to pay taxes on your eBay earnings. According to the I to the R to the S, if you make more than $400 outside of W-2 and 1099 wages, you got to report that cash as earnings. So, if you have the occasional yard sale, or sell the occasional record on eBay, you're fine. But once you cross the $400 threshold, you gots to pay the piper.

Ignore the temptation to the ignore paying taxes. The only thing the IRS can put you in jail for is not reporting income. How do you think the Mafia and Pro Athletes pro athletes get taken down. In recent news Survivor champion Richard Hatch is fighting to stay out of prison blues for 'forgetting' that he made a cool million winning the reality show.

So how do you figure out how much money you made on eBay? Keep records. I print out a summary of my winnings off my "my eBay" page every month and keep the print outs in a file. But you got to keep up, eBay wipes everything clean after two months (although I'm sure they keep records to show the IRS). At the end of the year, I tally it up. Bingo, that's the magic number as far as income goes. You can also check your PayPal sales for the entire year at the end of the year and cross reference them with your bank statements for people who paid with a personal check or money order.

Assuming you're making more than $400 a year on eBay, this is probably what the IRS would consider a business, hence you report this sum total on the Schedule C. It comes in the big ass 1040 booklet you get at the post office or in the mail.

The good thing about reporting your eBay income on the Schedule C is that it's a treasure trove of deductions. That's the good news. You can legally deduct everything having to do with your eBay business so that the amount you'll actually have to pay taxes on is significantly less than your total sales. Let me count the ways...

First off is the cost of goods. In other words, what did it cost you to buy all the stuff you sold on eBay during the year. Having receipts from thrift stores and estate sales is ideal. If you don't (for instance if you're selling your childhood toys), a conservative estimate of what they cost back in the day should keep you out of hot water.

Right off the bat you deduct the costs of goods from the eBay income in the Schedule C section I. That's a nicer number, huh?

Now comes the deductions from running a business. Here are the big ones.

eBay fees. This will likely be 5-8% of the total eBay income. Your eBay fees probably come off your credit card, so checking your old statements or getting an online summary should yield a yearly total pretty easy.

PayPal fees. Another 3.3%. Again, check your yearly total for your PayPal account. PayPal will tally your total PayPal fees per month. I put both the eBay fees and PayPal fees on the back side Section V of the Schedule C.

Another expense I add is my Internet charges. Not the whole bill mind, you but a realistic tending towards conservative guess as to what percentage of my Internet is used for eBay. 25%? Then take a quarter of your yearly Internet bill as another Section V expense. Keep in mind if audited, you'll have to justify this to the IRS, but I figure showing them the amount of time it takes to list an auction, answers questions, send an invoice and deal with customer emails will satisfy them.

How about office supplies? Envelopes, bubble wrap, rubber bands, pens, and the like. I put these in the Section III under supplies.

Not let's no forget driving around finding stuff to sell and hauling it to the post office. Every mile you drive on these errands is deductible to the tune of 48.5 cents a mile (40.5 before September 1st, 2005). That means if you drive to your favorite suburban thrift store 10 miles away to cruise for eBay stuff you can take just shy of $10 off for that trip alone! That adds up pretty high pretty quick. The pain is that you got to a keep a detailed mileage log throughout the year to show the IRS you're on your game. Which is tough. After years of training I finally have the discipline to write down my mileage every time I go anywhere. You then fill in Section IV on your Schedule C with your total mileage for the year, and the total mileage for eBay errands. Keep that mileage log handy. If you ever get audited, you bust that out to prove to the IRS you weren't just whistling dixie but in fact were going to the post office once a week (round trip 3 miles, 50 trips a year, almost a $75 deduction). And hold onto things like your post office receipts to back up your case.

But wait, there's more. Did you buy a new computer this year? If so you can depreciate it. Click here for a PDF of IRS form 4562 online. First you need to figure out the percentage of time you use the computer for eBay (or whatever your business is for you professional artists). If it's over 50% you can use the 179 deduction, which basically means you can take the entire deduction (say $750 if you use your new $1000 iBook 75% for eBay) in the year your purchased it. You can also deduct it over the life of the computer (which you have to do if you use it for under 50% business). The IRS figures a computer lasts for 7 years, so you can deduct the business percentage of your computer over 7 years. There are some very hard to figure out charts and diagrams but you'll roughly get (in the $750 example above) a deduction of over $100 for the next 7 years this way. If that sounds confusing that's because it is. But it's worth figuring out to save money, right? Whatever this number ends up being you put on Schedule C line 13.

Okay, so now you total up the Section V expenses, enter them on Section II and add up all your total Section II expenses. This is the amount of money that comes off the total of your eBay income minus the costs of goods. A much lower amount to pay taxes on. But wait again, there's more still. Assuming you still have a positive income you can deduct the business use of your home.

Do you use any part of your house or apartment exclusively for eBay? A room, a basement, a part of your room, a closet? If so you can get your self the IRS form 8829. Now if you have a house... I envy you, but I also pity you. This form is pretty simple for us renters, if you own a home, good luck to you. But if you rent, it's easy. Break out the tape measure. Figure out the square footage of every room in your house. I'm talking the shower, closets, the works. Now figure out the total square footage of your eBay empire. Form 8829 will help you figure out the percentage of your place that is for eBay. Let's say 8%. Now, you add up your rent and bills (water, electric, gas, not cable or phone) for the year. You then can take 8% of that total as another expense. Nice.

The total from your 8829 then gets deducted on the bottom of Schedule C part II. This is the income you have to report to the IRS. It goes on your 1040, but also on Schedule SE, a tax that self-employed people have to pay so that we get Social Security and MediCare take out of our income. It'll end up being a little less than 15%. Which is a lot, but you can also deduct half of this tax from your total income on the 1040. Plus, if you have Schedule C income and pay a monthly health care premium (out of pocket, not with help from your day job), you can deduct that entire expense on your 1040.

(At this point you should picture AC pleased by exhausted sitting back in his chair, arms folded).

If you any questions fire away. Believe it or not there is a part of my that kind of enjoys figuring all this out. Of course the other part rues the day the IRS invented all these forms and would like to have the last two weeks of my life back.

I mean really. Go to the eBay home page. Soak it in. Does that make you want to shop? Is it inviting? Of course not. Now scroll down and check out the featured auctions. I can't tell you exactly what will pop up because they rotate ever time you go there. But I can tell you any Tom Dick or Jane can pay a few hundred bucks and get front page coverage for their CRAP. Yeah, crap. It's always crap. Weight loss programs, a discounted dish satellite, a real estate deal that sounds too good to be true. And that's why I thought eBay should bring a little class to the site and put some of the premium headline grabbing auctions on the front page. eBay didn't listen. But they did create the pulse page, one of dozens of pages just a click off the home page. Good enough.

And for awhile life was good. Pulse offered news of amazing auctions that the eBay nation and serious publications like USA Today were captivated by. But someone broke the code. They figured out how to get on pulse immediately. I don't know exactly how, just like I don't know exactly how you'll lose your money if you call one of those get rich quick numbers on a piece of cardboard nailed to a telephone pole. But I get the jist. You call the number, you pay $25 for a package teaching you how to put cardboard signs up on telephone poles.

How do people get on the pulse page with someone no one really cares about? No doubt it involves a collaboration of a number of unscrupulous eBay members in collusion to watch each others auction into Pulsehood. Or more likely there's a way for an individual to manufacture enough eBay accounts with phantom credit cards to watch one's own auctions enough times to become pulsed. The end result... on a given day 8, 9 even 10 of the 10 most watched eBay auctions in the world are crass get rich quick tricks. They'll give you the secret to becoming a millionaire for a mere $29.99. You and thousands of other people can buy the very same $29.99 "package" that will no doubt make the original seller a million dollars while giving you and thousands others the dirty end of the stick.

It makes AC sick.

And so, eBay, I say clean it up. Get rid of pulse or figure out some way of cleaning out the pyramid schemes. And while you're at it consider giving the home page a once over. Right now the visual look is on par with Wal-Mart. That's right WAL-MART. Politics aside (and I know that's putting a lot aside) part of the reason everyone hates Wal-Mart but is fine with a place like Trader Joe's (which is also non-union, puts mom and pop grocers out of business, and gets most of their food from 3rd world countries putting American butchers out of work) is because the aesthetics of Wal-Mart is awful. They have the worst visual look. Lots of white, a smattering of primary colors, bad fonts, and a prominence of cheap consumer goods. A lot like the eBay homepage. All that's missing is that yellow ping pong ball pirate.

You know the saying about the water rising all our boats? It works in reverse too. And AC isn't big on drowning.

But I do have some thoughts. Stay tuned...

In the meantime I have to give props to one of the best eBay sites around. The Darkside of eBay is your one shop stopping site for weird eBay auctions. Take a peek. Where else are you going to find that taxidermy squirrel riding an ATV?

Nuts. Pine nuts. Cashew nuts. Walnuts. You get the picture. Now Trader's Joe's is usually my go to source for nut needs, but the other day AC was running short for time so he trucked it on over to the Ralph's supermarket emporium a short walk away.

The funny thing about buying nuts at a traditional supermarket like Ralph's as opposed to Trader's Joe's is that there is more than one place to find them. In the snack area. Near the alcohol. By the fancy cheese and meats. In the baking section. Hanging out on a shelf. But you know where the cheapest nuts can be found? On the bottom shelf beneath the apple bins, inches from the floor. AC found a huge bag of Pistashio's for $2.50 hidden from view. Sunkist brand no less! A smaller bag cost twice that in the baking section and three times that by the smoked gouda.

Where's this going? I could rant and rave about product placement within a store and the audacity of hiding the cheapest products where consumers are least likely to find them. Or how Trader Joe's is so successful because Americans are bombarded with choice and having nuts in one place as opposed to six in the same store makes life easier. Or how I don't why Macademia nuts are so overpriced. But it strikes me that there are probably dozens of other bloggers ranting and raving about these very same ideas. It makes me wonder if there is anything new to say. Are there any new insights to be made? Am I special or unique? Of course I am.

Because I'm an eBay PowerSelling dealing in hard to find items. Many of the turn of the century postcards I sell aren't available for sale anywhere else online. You have to go through me. And some of things I sell are completely unique and one of a kind. Like the spot on Ultimate Blogger. Which incidentally is up to $201.

Speaking of which, will there be a pop-off tomorrow? Is there any more room for it go up? Time will only tell. If you're hanging out around noon west coast time manana and need to stretch your legs, put on something with a good beat and help me dance it up.

As I write this it's already been bid up to $22.50 with 6 watchers and over 180 page views. If you're an eBay member use the watch option to keep an eye on the auction. It's a long shot, but if we get enough watchers we could get on the front page of eBay pulse where the ten hottest auctions in the eBay are featured for all the world to see.

AC will admit, it won't be easy. This week we're competing against the likes of "For Sale: One Talented Man" with over 11,000 hits and a lovely Victorian Home in Missouri that looks like a great deal!

Make no mistake, AC has nothing to gain directly from the Ultimate Blogger auction directly. The winnings are all going to the support the game. But tangentially, AC would be a fool not to position him for a financial windfall. Listen and learn.

Now, AC already has over 350 items sitting pretty in his eBay store. But most of what he's selling are NASA photographs and antique postcards. Not exactly the kind of things Bloggers are likely to go loco for. So, AC has listed 15 week long auctions to bookend the Ultimate Blogger free pass that should be right up the alley of today's hip savvy and stylish blogger. Such as...

The Weirdest T-shirt in the World HIPSTER GOLD Shock & Awe. Now that's a title. Interestingly enough, while putting "hipster" and "gold" into the eBay search engine will yield 22 auctions, AC's in the only that features something that isn't physically gold. For the literate crowd I've got a Psychedelic copy of A Clockwork Orange. Extremely nice piece of eye candy for your bookshelf.

And I defy you to resist clicking on this one. How smart are you? Find out if you're MENSA material. Note the title technique, first off I don't tell the potential bidder what I'm selling. Instead I challenge them. Who doesn't think they're smarter than everyone else.

AC isn't the only one looking to cash in on the Ultimate Blogger fanfare. As James noticed earlier today, an eBay seller going by the tag of GRAWL has a nice eBay business selling domain names (FluMedicine.org went for $20.51). Ending this afternoon is UBHQ.com. And GRAWL has a few suggestions of who this might be a great site for, such as University of Buffalo HQ. But the one he uses in the auction title is Ultimate Blogger HQ. What do the UrHo head honchos think? A deal for $9.99 or too little too late? Either way I'd take it as flattery.

I'll check in later in the week and see how the auction is progressing. Will I see your user name as the high bidder?

Bristol was fantastic. We were part of the Arnolfini In Between Time Festival and saw some amazing works. Until Thursday combined some truly remarkable old school rapping with an evangelical home shopping salesman. Paul Granjon demonstrated the robots he built to have sex with each other, and Lone Twin performed a great piece where they walked the equivalent of a journey to the top of Everest. All told about half the British performers we met are two guys who use a rock band type stage name. Maybe AC and Susan need to try that. Like Primal Horde. Or how about The Cheatah's (combining the animal with cheating)? Any suggestions on a good name?

Birmingham was a particularly pleasant surprise. We got hooked up by our friend Vladamir with a lovely couple who run the very cool 7 inch cinema. They invited Vlad over for a Vladmaster tour and was nice enough to put us in touch with the Flat Pack gang who hooked us up with an eBay show two weeks later. I had heard various negative things about Birm before we got there; super industrial, bleak, bad accents. But found it a splendid place with a lot to write home about. First off there's a ferris wheel in the center of city. So that's cool. Secondly there are awesome museums, all free, and lots of interesting new architecture. It also has the coolest looking mall this side of Japan. Plus Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin are from there, making it the birthplace of Metal. Lastly our show was at the Custard Factory, an old... well, custard factory with bars, shops, a theater, production companies and deign houses. Finally it has more canals than Venice.

As AC settles back in life stateside, expect some big things both here on the blog and through eBay in the next few days. Stay tuned...