Friday, June 04, 2004

Surplus contacts

I'm in a frenzy of Ebaying today.
When I retired my 1991 BMW K100RS motorcycle last year in favor of a 2002 BMW K1200GT, I decided to part out the old bike. My dealer advised me I'd be lucky to get $2,000 out of it as an intact motorcycle, since it had more than 160,000 miles (all of them mine) on the odometer.
I decided, instead, to part it out on Ebay, suspecting I could easily surpass the $2k figure. Turns out I was right.
So far, I've sold almost all of the fairing, the seat, saddlebags and after-market exhaust system for more than $2,200 and there's still a whole lot of parts left.
I've been going out to the garage every month or so, unbolting a few parts, photographing them and listing them on Ebay to make my monthly payments on the new bike.
So far, I've only made one out-of-pocket payment since last October.
So today, I listed the dual Fiamm air horns, the rear fender, the main upper fairing part (They cost nearly $1,000 new) and the headlight.
As is usually the case, once I start listing things on Ebay, I can't stop. I cast my eyes over all of my stuff looking for likely auction fodder. I had the stock AM/FM radio, cassette player from my '94 Honda del Sol sitting around, having replaced it with a CD player a month ago. So into the auction it went.
Next, I found myself eyeing (no pun intended) a couple of boxes of Johnson & Johnson Acuvue contact lenses. My prescription changes from one year to the next and these are still sealed in their original package in brand new condition - they're just not my current prescription.
So I was all set to list them on Ebay when I read the fine print on the box that says, "Caution: Federal U.S.A. law prohibits dispensing without prescription." Rats. So even if I managed to fly under the Ebay radar, I'd still be asking for trouble from the Feds if I tried to recoup some of my investment. I'd even thought of a clever dodge in hopes of getting around the "dispensing" language - sell them for entertainment purposes only. Stick them on the neighborhood cat or dog and watch them lurch around. That oughta be good for a laugh.
But there's probably a whole bunch of bad animal karma associated with that kind of behavior, so I'm stuck with two boxes of perfectly good disposable contact lenses. I guess all I can do is hope my eyes return to that prescription range someday.

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