Auctiva Blog

Sunday afternoons are usually my only free time to relax, and during the summer I’m as happy as a clam if there’s an A’s baseball game on. This last Sunday I plunked myself down on the sofa for some quality “veg out” time. The A’s were playing; I had my box of Crunch ‘n Munch and a large glass of iced tea — perfect.

I was happily munching away when I noticed an unusual piece of toffee-coated popcorn. It was an exact replica of a human brain, but obviously a much smaller version. The color of the toffee made “the brain” seem even more realistic. It even had the squiggly membranes and a line down the center dividing it into halves. After turning the “brain” around and inspecting it thoroughly, I popped it in my mouth and continued with my relaxation.

It wasn’t until two days later when I mentioned the “popcorn brain” to my co-workers that I realized I may have eaten a tidy profit. I’ve come across dozens of stories over the years of people raking in a pretty penny for a piece of toast with the image of the Virgin Mary, a potato chip that looks like Alfred Hitchcock’s profile or some other food oddity. My popcorn brain might not have been that rare, but it might have been a lot of fun to put it up for sale and see what kind of bids it attracted.

I mean, a hot Cheeto that resembled Michael Jackson doing his famous moonwalk, according to the seller, did sell for $35.18 earlier this summer.

Maybe next time I find something weird I won’t be so quick to dispose of it and will list it. The entertainment value alone would be well worth the 15-cent insertion fee.

I may not even have to wait too long to see what other fun food I come across. I could buy “bread stamps” and make my own religious toast.

Rebecca Miller

Product Analyst

Congratulations to Auctiva user Miriam Otto for winning eBay’s first “I am eBay” contest this month!

Otto, an adult education instructor, impressed judges by telling how her eBay business has affected her life and impacted the lives of others.

Otto is a PowerSeller and the owner of Blue Frog Shoes. She’s been teaching retirees how to sell on eBay for years and does all she can to make sure her students succeed and have fun selling online.

“I call them my kids,” Otto tells us. “My boss says, ‘They’re not kids, Miriam, they’re students — but most are 60 to 80… and here they are, hooked into a new career. It’s awesome.”

It was this enthusiasm that impressed the judges and earned Otto a $1,000 award, notes Evonne Gomez, an eBay spokeswoman.

To learn more about Otto’s win, read our Auctiva EDU article. 

And congratulations again, Miriam!

We introduced several new features last week to help our users keep their image-hosting usage down.

Have you ever wanted to delete an image folder and all the images contained in that folder? Well, now you have that option!

We have also taken the first step to automate image deletion by allowing users to enable our new “Auto Delete” feature when they upload images. This allows to set your images to be deleted at a specified interval after you upload them, which will help to keep your Image Hosting usage down and your uploaded images organized. And, for your security, we’ll ensure these images aren’t in any Auctiva-launched listings before we delete them.

You can also choose to view 250 images on a page–instead of 100 per page–which will be very helpful when you’re managing/deleting large numbers of pictures at one time.

We’re committed to helping you save time and money, and these recent updates to our software will help you do just that.

Rebecca Miller

Product Analyst