Ebay Droppings Thread.

[IanW]

My take is that "vintage" and "antique" are simply words indiscriminately applied to any object by sellers in order to justify asking some absurd price for it...

Cheers,

[Bushmiller]

Actually, even more galling than the clearly fraudulent and indiscriminate use of "vintage' and "antique" is the misuse of "rare." It fair make me blood boil it does to the extent that i start scrolling the listings for hunting knives .

Hiroller summed it up beautifully a while back when he said that Ebay descriptions with "rare" in them are a bit like countries that have "democratic" in their description:" Most likely not in either case!

Myself, I prefer the more modest "uncommon" and reserve "rare" for the way beef is sometimes cooked.

Regards
Paul

Ps: The EH (and maybe EJ ) Holdens are quite sought after either to hot rod or in original, authentic condition.

[Bill Houghton]

Hi Paul. I always thought my (long since gone) EJ Holden station wagon was a classic. Nice to know it's official

Digressing here, but, sitting here in the U.S., I'm always intrigued by some of the design choices Holden made. The EJ looks to me like the stylist was in love with the early 60s Rambler designs, not the General Motors designs of that period.

There were some nifty Holdens, though. Too bad they rarely made it across the big pond.

And, returning to the main topic: on eBay and in other online sales places, terms like "rare" and "antique" are just space fillers, with no real meaning, often, I think, because the sellers have no idea what's in front of them, but those words sound good. Here in the U.S., if you see a listing for a yard/estate/garage sale (do y'all call them "boot" sales like they do in England?) with the word "huge" in the listing, you can just skip right over it, because it will almost always be the opposite of huge, and what little is there is generally junk.

[Bushmiller]

(do y'all call them "boot" sales like they do in England?)

Bill

Boot sales are purely a pome thing ("pome" comes from "Prisoner Of Mother England" and stems from the convict days of immigration ) . Our car boot sale equivalent is a "swap meet," which is in fact a large outdoor gathering and may be worthwhile.

Regards
Paul

[IanW]

And we do have 'garage sales'. I think we adopted the term from you folks across the big water.

They can be very mixed bags - a few pearls, but too often just stuff they're too lazy to take to the tip!
Cheers,

[Lappa]

Another that makes my blood boil is the over use of the word “hero”..

[IanW]

Another that makes my blood boil is the over use of the word “hero”..

"Iconic" is my current pet hate, the most (incorrectly) over-used word in the country atm.....

[Bushmiller]

Lappa

I hope I'm not splitting hairs (I nearly split our printer in half a moment ago when it decided to go into recalcitrant mode) but are we talking about two different concepts here? The first being simply the misuse of a particular word, while the second is modern usage. Your word "hero" is a little like "tragedy" in that they are used too often and indiscriminately, but that is how the language has evolved whether we like it or not. These words have a diminished value as a result: A little like swear words and the example I would give here is the word that rhymes with duck and is so commonplace today that it has little dramatic or forceful effect.

Regards
Paul

[GraemeCook]

....... A little like swear words and the example I would give here is the word that rhymes with duck and is so commonplace today that it has little dramatic or forceful effect.

Regards
Paul

Reminds me, Paul, of a stunt at a University of Sydney parade in the 1960's. Four students wore T-shirts with a single large letter printed on the front, and a different letter printed on the back. The letters - in alphabetical order, of course - were C, F, K and U.

The students walked abreast up the road and every every 50 metres they randomly changed places, so the letters on there front and back were randomly rearranged. They were duly charged with committing a public obscenity and were marched off to court.
[Note: There are 24 ways in which four letters can be rearranged - 4x3x2x1=24.]

Their court case attracted a lot of attention and their barrister asked many leading questions of the police proscecuters:

• Were the students always obscene, or only occasionally so,
• Can your back be obscene but not your front,
• Are you saying that they were only one-twenty-fourth obscene,
• How could they know when they were allegedly obscene,
• Can one unknowingly be obscene,
• Is the word duck 75% obscene.

Case dismissed.

[ian]

A little like swear words and the example I would give here is the word that rhymes with duck and is so commonplace today that it has little dramatic or forceful effect.

Paul,
I prefer to reference the word you allude to as "the universal adjective"

[Lappa]

Bushmiller,
I can see where you are coming from but in some instances, I believe they can be one in the same.
- both a misuse and modern usage. I place the word “hero” in this category.

[Bushmiller]

Bushmiller,
I can see where you are coming from but in some instances, I believe they can be one in the same.
- both a misuse and modern usage. I place the word “hero” in this category.

Lappa

I understand and I am not that pedantic that I would dispute the issue anyway. Funnily enough, I heard on the radio today somebody being described as a hero: Somebody who had died, but I don't remember who, which demonstrates exactly your contention. I don't wish to belittle a person who has passed on, but I did find myself smiling and thinking, "I hope Lappa is not listening."



Regards
Paul

[Lappa]

Just checked my blood temperature and it was normal so I must not have heard the radio story

[clear out]

There’s a great audio by Kamran Tavakoli on the ‘universal adjective’.
Its not just an adjective
H

[ian]

Funnily enough, I heard on the radio today somebody being described as a hero: Somebody who had died, but I don't remember who, which demonstrates exactly your contention. I don't wish to belittle a person who has passed on, but I did find myself smiling and thinking, "I hope Lappa is not listening."

I think the "hero" who had died might have been Susan Ryan -- Minister for Sport (?) in the Hawke Government, more recently (2011 - 2016) she was appointed the Age Discrimination Commissioner and the Disability Discrimination Commissioner. She was a long time advocate for women's equality.