FastFreddy2

An interesting week. Sold a pair of very nice shoe boots I don't wear (the third of four pairs I bought 3 years ago), and a pair I thought I would never sell .... But I can't wear hem so why keep them? The shoe-boots were my first item to get listed at a fixed price. I didn't get the full price, but I got £10 more than I did for the other two pairs that I put into auction. The pair of courts I thought I'd never sell, were (i) too hard to walk in, and (ii) had a patent finish that would simply draw too much attention if I wore them out anywhere. Three of the last four pairs I bought from the auction site, were returned. Possibly, my need to collect is waning? Though I've been spending a lot of time pricing up/looking at mountain bikes recently ....

Beginning to think I may not be able to sell my 'used' bike this close to Christmas. Shame, as I've already priced up it's replacement...... Giant Talon with 27.5 (650b) wheels.

As long as the concrete hardens without cracking (6 or 7 degrees C here over the next couple of days) I may have finally finished the man-hole cover restitution. Did pictures over the weekend that I will post soon.

I bought these new Next shoes for 99p. Was something wrong with the way the left shoe was made, so they went straight to the charity shop (along with a pair of Primarni courts I had bought in a sale some months ago for £5.) I had asked for the seller to not leave me any feedback, as I was in delicate negotiations over an expensive item (now sold). I REALLY wanted/want to leave some feedback over the carriage. Charged me £5-20 and only spent £2-80 at the Post Office. A rip off, but I did choose to buy. With people looking for discounted -new- bargains, "used" is getting a back seat. Even so, I had 3 or 4 pairs of new shoes on sale, and sold one. All high ticket prices, ranging from £35 to £45, which is quite high for me so I hadn't expected to sell them all. Oddly, I didn't sell the pair I had expect to go, as they had over 100 views and 16 watchers? You'd think someone would have bid? I pretty much charge the same, and explain how/why. RM charges me £3-90 for Second Class Signed For. I add the fees that will be taken from me when payment arrives, and bump that figure up to £4-50. I don't charge for packing, nor the trip to the P.O. although both cost me money. I'm aware that selling at auction is good for buyers, not so good for sellers, so I 'swallow' my losses to get a sale. Some bits haven't sold, no matter how many times I've tried to sell them. Not sure why .... Other than I don't tend to 'gift' stuff away.

Still no photo's? We did the digging out, but time has stopped us filling in. Cold weather has arrived, and it's now either too wet or too cold to fill in the huge recess we made... oops! I finally managed to get the two replacement fence panels up and finished in my back garden. Apparently the neighbour was very pleased to see them up. I still have to finish off the man-hole cover, but rain and temperature has slowed that down a bit. (I am actually quite keen to get the job finished now the hard bit is out of the way.) Two days of moderate weather (promised for the coming weekend) should see the job concluded. The down-side is, this time last year we had two fence panels and a manhole cover. 12 months and probably 2 to 3 weeks work later, we still only have 2 fence panels and a manhole cover. I suppose the difference is, given how long the originals lasted, the new panels and cover will outlast me. Not sure that's a good thing for me though? Have been taking pictures along the journey, so need to post them too.

As we in the UK now know, the 2013/2014 Winter/Spring was the wettest on record. Consequently, I didn't use the bike I bought in December last year at all during that period. By the time the rains had subsided, the super-duper £800 bike had become a confirmed ornament. From about late August/early September it was put on sale at a well known auction site because I realised I was never going to ride it. Why? Seems that while I like owning nice new things, I prefer to own the new things rather than use them. Shouldn't be a surprise to me really, my current car only had delivery mileage on it for the first year ..... (Duh.) Recently I bought a third bike, that is/was used when I bought it. It's got marks on it already, signs of use!! I'm aghast, but it'll get used. In fact it looks more used than the hard-tail I've owned for 4 ..... 5 years? (That I'll be putting up for sale soon too). The thinking is I won't be reluctant to use something that already isn't in perfect nick. So a couple of days ago, I finally sold my lovely £800 bike, for £750. It was a good price really, given what I know about the bike now .... The rear disc wasn't completely flat (as supplied) and produced a squeak that will only ever disappear by being replaced. If it doesn't go when the disc is replaced, then the caliper will need to be replaced. Neither one is super expensive to change, but it would make it "non-standard" and could affect the outstanding warranty. The new owner seemed very pleased with their purchase. He thought I was nuts persuading him to take it home inside his vehicle, rather than on the boot mounted rack. (It was raining!) He promised me, my lovely bike is going to get fairly dirty, fairly often. As it was made to be I suppose. Anyway, I've now agreed to Mrs Freddy's request, I stay away from new bikes. (Yes dear. )

Think I've already mentioned, I've struggled in the past ...... Postage costs seem to have an effect. Many commercial sellers do "free carriage" (that is built into the selling price of course), and I suspect many buyers now see that as the norm. It transpires that sellers don't have to charge VAT on something they give away, so there are tax and pricing advantages to offering "free" carriage to anyone who is VAT registered. I recently bought a new pair of Next high heels with generous size 8 for 99p but the seller charged around £5-60 for carriage that actually cost £2-80. I just looked at it being some shoes for £7. There was something wrong with the cut of them though, so straight to the charity shop, along with a new pair of size 7's from Primarmi that had developed a 'clicky' heel. I'm just about to put 4 or 5 pairs on, and nothing under £25. Hopefully there'll be people out there looking to treat themselves.

Hello, and welcome.

By way of checking an error I was experiencing, I thought I might try to find this site a different way from the desktop shortcut I usually use. Got a lot of hits - obviously, including one for related images...... Imagine my surprise for me to find my avatar is one of those images? Google, together with I'm sure Bing and Yahoo, has sucked out (trawled) every image from the galleries here. So a word to the wise ..... Don't publish anything, you don't want the world to see/know.

I guessed a delay was the error just getting 'noticed', so I'm not surprised by your reply. I'd never seen the problem until recently, and it has happened 2 or 3 times in a short period. It's being sorted out quite quickly, so it's a minor inconvenience at worst. In fact I only mentioned it in case it was related.

I don't know if this is the same thing. but I keep experiencing an intermittent "database not available" message when trying to browse. Usually lasts a couple of days, then things get back to normal.

I'm sure that's not right. Have you advised the auction company your return carriage costs have not been refunded? Usually the T+C's of a trading company will state return carriage costs due to their failure will be repaid.

I suppose I do the same. I've never worn a high heel shoe or boot on plain view, nor do I ever intend to. To do that would mean wearing a skirt or trousers/jeans that were waaay too short, or boots over leggings/jeans. The boots over jeans style is one I'm not overly keen on for myself, mostly because I have fairly slim legs, and have yet to find a longer boot that even came close to looking like it fitted. These sites do provide a lot of (moral) support and encouragement for our unusual interest. I believe that reading about others who have ventured out in daylight wearing a heel, got me doing the same. I find the more frequently I do it -wear a heel out- the more comfortable I am doing it. Meaning, if I don't go out in a heel for a while, I'm more self conscious when I do. If I go out twice in a week, the second time I feel completely at ease in a heel. Looks like you may have found someone you can share your interest with. I've found I get a LOT fewer looks when I'm with a girl and I'm out in heels, though I still do get looked at from time to time even when I have a female companion. Until recently I had believed it was the sound of the heel that was the "teller", and still believe it might be responsible for 80% of the looking. But recently I went out in some stupidly high 5" heels (I'm a UK8/US10) that are all but silent, and I still got looked at once or twice, apparently because I was walking (sashaying) like a girl.... Oh well .....

Way to go. If you've mentioned it elsewhere, forgive me for asking again, but do you wear a heel outside?

I'm tempted to suggest it's the way to know you're out of the closet, not being alone with your 'thing' (for heels).... But I think it must be more than that. "Acceptance" means not only are you out of the closet, but you don't have to go back unless you want to?

Puffer, what a great find. Nothing there that immediately shouts at me to buy, but I recognise 'a nod' here and there to some designer styles too. I'm sure I'll get tempted soon enough.

To be honest, there appeared to be very little done here to help, so why would he respond further? A note to say he was 'sorted' might not have gone amiss, but he might also be thinking a second pair might be handy since womens shoes aren't usually made with the expectation a man will be walking in them for miles?

They are almost certainly copies of more expensive originals. When I look at shoes (trawling), it wouldn't be unusual for me to look at over 5,000 styles in a session. I've looked at the auction site 3 times using different search criteria. So far, nothing. Heels with 4.8" height, just aren't common, especially at that price point, as I've mentioned before. Finding a slim heel at 4" high is easy. A slim heel at 4.5" not so easy, but they're around - usually at a price. (Though Primarni would be my first point of call at the budget end.) Finding a slim heel at that height in an ankle boot for less than £100 is almost unheard of. I know of one other that started life at £160, and there's only one pair left (anywhere) at £99, and that pair is "ex-display".

At this time, none of that is available to me. The pictures came with the title "Eva", but do a search for 'Eva' with/without the tag shoe, and zillions of records come up because "EVA" is a type/method of cheap shoe manufacture. I'm sure these are Chinese imports bought in bulk by a single business, and sold through 4 or 5 auction site based retailers throughout Europe. My only chance of getting a pair, is to stumble across a Chinese retailer selling to Europe. I don't spend ANY time looking in that direction (returns are impossible) so it's unlikely I'll get a second chance. Although ......

My shoe-buying budget has almost entirely been directed at courts for most of this year. Consequently I have not been trawling auction sites or retailers for (ankle) boots, which is my usual wearing style. I quite like the idea of knee/OTK boots, but finding them for my skinny legs? Last night, while looking for something else (cycle bits) an auction house made some suggestions based on my previous search/purchase history. Sadly for me the suggestions came too late as my size is no longer available in the two styles I liked. Have a look: These look slim enough to NOT have felt/looked like wellies. Stunning.

Of course you would, as sensible people should. Plainly didn't happen with your order though, unfortunately.

So, you've PM'd Krazy Kev with a picture, and asked if he'd like you to donate them?

This sounds like a retailer to avoid?

One of the charity shops I visit (out of habit) recently had some nice looking heels marked as UK8. It wasn't until I had a look inside, and saw "Nine West 8W", I realised I had lusted after them for no good reason. I pointed out the 'rookie' error to the two male volunteers, one of whom sounded so camp I suspected he should have known better. 4+ years ago TK Maxx used to have seasonal influxes that made the store worth a visit - but it's no longer the case. I can't remember the last time I visited, and saw something I liked. EVERY time I walk out of the store, I swear I'll never visit again! I often visit what I believe to be the ASOS sponsored "Today I'm wearing" style-image site. A significantly larger percentage of girls with possible African heritage wear heels, over what could be considered Western girls. To put that in perspective, one in ten Westerner girls might be in heels, one in five girls of what could be African descent, might be wearing heels. (Sometimes it's actually closer to 3 out of 4.) So I wasn't thinking they might be making donations to charity shops, rather that those new to our shores who might not have been able to experience the joy of wearing heels abroad, might be seizing the opportunity to buy bargain priced heeled shoes before I get to see them. You have met my walking friend, who lives around 400-500 yards from a church. I have been at her house on a Sunday, when the church congregation has left the late morning service. As you might know, being an active Christian isn't unusual for those coming directly from Western and Central Africa. I have watched many women leaving the church and walking past, wearing heels that would be considered unsuitable to many people born here, who believe churches are a place for drab/sober looking styles. These ladies are dressed up to the nines wearing the very best (and often the most colourful) clothes they own. Honestly, I been tempted to go too, JUST to watch the post service fashion parade.

I wouldn't bother with a cobbler. They are not perfect, so "not of merchantable quality". Full refund on original purchase and all return postage costs please.... That is one seriously wide shoe box. Obviously not designed for UK postal system, or it would be 1cm narrower.