Amazon's Trade-In Service

I don't know about other people, but I got sick of selling things online a long time ago. Selling each and every item online was such a time sink. You have to take photos of the items, list them, pack it up, ship it, etc. Ugh ...

Eventually, I began to sell things on Craigslist, offering collections of goods at a discount. I figured someone out there would want them at the steep discount or the power-eBayer would buy it off me and sell each individual item at a profit. Also, since I'm selling to people who live nearby, I don't have to go through the hassle to packing, shipping, etc.

With video games, I got lazy and eventually just took the cash and/or store credit at Gamestop stores. Gamestop doesn't offer a great deal on trade-ins, but I'm willing to give them the profit margin in exchange for the convenience. I was able to dump the vast majority of my CD collection on Amoeba, Rasputin, and Tower Records before CDs got old.

Today, I decided to give Amazon's Trade In program a whirl. I'm shipping off some DVDs, video games, and one book for (what I believe to be) a pretty good trade in price. Plus, I get credit for all of Amazon, not just video games or music or books. I do have to box up my trade-in items and ship it, but the shipping is free from Amazon. I'll see this works out and if it was a good experience or not.

Update (1/17/11):

Well, my opinion of Amazon's trade in service is mixed. I sent another box of books soon after the above original post. Amazon was quick to give me credit for all of the video games, but they are quite finicky on books.

1) It appears that they want books that are in virtually mint condition. Slightly used textbooks that have highlighting are apparently a no-no. I guess my interpretation of "good" condition was different than theirs.

2) Despite sending in a book that had the exact ISBN listed on their website, they returned an item stating that it was the wrong item. I don't know if different items can have the same ISBN or not, or perhaps their ISBN checker made a mistake, but it is sort of irritating that the mistake was made.

Overall, I'll use them again for trading in items, but I will probably avoid trading in books.

That Hyundai Commercial With The Addicting Holiday Jingle

So I keep on seeing/hearing this Hyundai commercial on TV with this incredibly addicting jingle.



It reached the point that even hearing the first second or two of the commercial would immediately make me think Hyundai. (Good job Hyundai marketing. Unfortunately for you, I bought a new car just 12 months ago.) Thanks to Yahoo's frontpage (can't find the link, sorry), I now know that the jingles are the work of a YouTube-famous indie band named Pomplamoose. They do a lot of interesting covers, but this cover of Mr. Sandman is probably their best one.



(Humorous aside, when I first saw the link, I misread it and I thought it was a cover of Metallica's Enter Sandman.)

In addition, I learned that their jingle is actually a cover of an old Jackson 5 song called "Up on the Housetop".

Yahoo Layoffs Before the Holidays

There have been rumors for months of layoffs at Yahoo, and they finally occurred yesterday.  Reports are around 4% of staff (~600 people).  Everyone has an opinion on what Yahoo should be doing to move forward, or if Carol Bartz is doing a decent job, but I'll leave those opinions for another day.

Mellanox acquires Voltaire

So I learned a few days ago that Mellanox acquired Voltaire.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-networking-management/mellanox-acquires-voltaire-and-creates-an-infiniband-duopoly.php

This wasn't too much of a surprise, somebody was going to pick them up at some point.  The question is, will someone now go after acquiring Mellanox?  A friend of mine at work noted that Oracle already owns about 10% of Mellanox.

"I'm a Man I'm 40"

A friend of mine just turned 40.  I was going to buy him a "I'm a Man, I'm 40" mug or t-shirt.  However, I didn't buy it because I eventually realized that he and all my geek friends would have absolutely no idea about the origin of the quote.  It was in sharp contrast to my cousins, who all immediately understood "You're a man, you're 40", when I wrote it in a cousin's birthday card.

So as an educational service, the quote comes from Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State's head coach, in 2007. You can see it below at about 2:15.