Archive for July, 2010

If You’re a Collector, Here’s a Special Item for You

July 27th, 2010

Elvis Presley’s piano is coming up for sale

Dedicated collectors will understand the importance of this news and will start thinking about how high they will be prepared to bid and then how they can put the finances in place in case their bid is successful. There will be many different bidders on an item such as this: collectors of Elvis memorabilia, piano collectors, Rock and Roll collectors and others. This sale will arouse a great deal of interest.

Elvis Memorabilia

The piano and the purchase agreement for the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Graceland mansion and a letter Presley wrote in 1955 to his then girlfriend shortly after entering the US army, are among the highlights of the 270-lot Elvis Memorabilia auction on August 14. Doug Norwine, director of music and entertainment at Heritage Auctions said the piano was “an emotionally-charged prized possession of the King himself”. Other items include Presley’s personal address and phone book, a pair of custom gold-framed sunglasses and his gun.

The piano

Elvis Presley’s white grand piano and his 1955 contract with RCA Records are going up for auction in Memphis next month, with the piano expected to fetch more than $1-million. The white Knabe piano was owned and played by Presley for a decade. The singer bought it in 1957 from the Ellis auditorium in Memphis where it had been played by visiting gospel performers for more than 20 years. The piano stood in Graceland’s music room until 1969.

Auction sales

Auction sales are as old as the hills and are the hunting grounds of collectors. It was the coming of the Internet that changed the collecting habits of many collectors and lured many into the world of collecting. Here were unlimited auction sales that anyone could attend without leaving home and where he or she could dabble in unlimited collection subjects. Founded in 1995, eBay is one of the notable success stories of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries.

The beginnings of eBay

The online auction website was founded as AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, in 1995, by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar. The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: “I’m a collector of broken laser pointers.” Omidyar was astute enough to understand that anything could be sold on his auction site; there is a collector for everything.

Anything goes

Anything and everything can be sold on eBay including services and intangibles. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. In June 2005, there were more than 15,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates.

Posted in Personal / Internet | No Comments »

So You Think You’re Poor?

July 26th, 2010

Can you watch the pictures of the starving poor on television?

Here is the general definition of poverty: “The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country.” In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

The common international poverty line

The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day. In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity. Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. This approach is needs-based in that an assessment is made of the minimum expenditure needed to maintain a tolerable life.

In the US

This was the original basis of the poverty line in the US, whose calculation was simplified to be based solely on the cost of food and is updated each year. In developing countries, the most expensive of these resources is typically the cost of housing. Economists thus pay particular attention to the real estate market and housing prices because of their strong influence on the poverty threshold. Individual factors are often used to account for various circumstances, such as whether one is a parent, elderly, a child, married, etc. The poverty threshold may be adjusted each year.

Television

I was watching a CNN “Inside Africa” program the other evening. It was the end of a long, busy day for me. I filled a bowl of mixed nuts, tore open a packet of potato chips and opened a beer, ice-cold from the fridge which is turned up to maximum for the summer. I settled into my usual position in the deep armchair and jabbed the remote at my 40 inch TV set. There it was in front of me, Africa in brilliant colors.

Africa

Africa, parched and cracking under the searing heat. The children with swollen bellies and their faces covered with flies. Pictures of women walking for miles with a jug or bucket balanced on their heads to fetch the day’s supply of water from a barely trickling river. No electricity, meaning no lights, TV, fridge or computer. No water, meaning no sewerage or waste water system. Schools and hospitals? Probably not. Medicines? What’s that?

Life expectancy

Life expectancy in the top 15 Western countries is over 80. In Lesotho, Sierra Leone Zambia and Swaziland, all African countries, the life expectancy is in the low 40’s. Not much to look forward to when you are in your 20’s, is it? Can you imagine what kind of life you would be living if your income was $1 per day or $365 a year? At that rate of income, even thinking about improving your life must be hopeless. What was that you said about being poor?

Posted in Economy | No Comments »

Stuck At Home This Summer Because You Have No Money?

July 25th, 2010

Take a fast Cash Advance Loan and save your vacation!

It’s hot, you are exhausted from the heat and the humidity and you’re dead-tired of your job, your boss, the routine, the commuting and the never-ending oil-spill, Afghanistan and the White House merry-go-round. You are ready for a summer break, a getaway, a refueling, some different food and a cooler climate. But a 3 second accounting exercise tells you that you do not have the money for such a luxury. In fact your last holiday was in the good old days before the recession came crashing down and wrecked all the fun.

Take a loan

Well, don’t despair. A quick Cash Advance Loan can help you out of your money crunch. Running out of money can put a damper on your vacation fast and so can an unforeseen drain on your funds, such as having your car break down before you even set out on your trip. Get your vacation and car back on the rails and avoid having to spend one more day at the corner of East Ninety-Ninth and North Maple You could get to a lot of different places with a quick Cash Advance Loan.

What is this quick Cash Advance Loan?

Take a look at this list of loan features and then tell me that they don’t apply to you or that you are not interested.

Accessibility – you can apply for such a loan from anywhere in the world.

Availability – you can apply 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Convenience – the loan application is fast and easy.

Credit check – credit check not required. Repeat: credit check is not required.

Easy – there are no complicated application forms to complete.

Fast – the application takes less than three minutes.

Response in minutes – response is a fast as application, a matter of minutes.

Money – can be available in as little as two hours.

Amount – up to $1,500 deposited quickly, upon approval.

What you can do with the money:

Basically, anything you like. You will probably not be asked what the loan is for.

Vacation

Car repairs

Weather emergencies

Medical emergency

Dental emergency

Airline tickets

Lost or stolen wallet

Hotel room upgrade

Extended stay

Underestimated costs

Back to your vacation

How many times have you faced a potential vacation disaster and wished you had fast access to extra cash? It may have been an unexpected transportation problem or you simply want to extend your vacation to explore more places or upgrade your room in the hotel. In order to get a quick Cash Advance Loan, all you need is a computer with an internet connection and you can have the quick Cash Advance Loan money you need within hours. No matter where you are in the world, you are just a few minutes away from a quick Cash Advance Loan that can put you back on the vacation track.

Posted in Finance, Loans | No Comments »

« Older Entries

Newer Entries »