Good Deals Can Happen!

Every once in awhile, I get a funny feeling that I can find a good
deal at the Goodwill Store here in Mesquite. I'll stop in there and
mostly I can, but every now and then I just have the feeling and
there's nothing there.

Well, I got one of those feelings the other day and stopped in there.
I went to the electronics area and I found it. I found a USB film
scanner! I looked at the price and it was $3.99. I figured it was
worth the gas to bring it back if it didn't work and so what would I
lose? I went ahead and bought it and got home, downloaded the drivers
(took all of about 5 minutes), put a power supply on it that I had
laying around here and a USB cable. Presto! It worked.

For those of you who don't know, a film scanner is like a small
flatbed scanner that instead of putting in a document of photograph,
you insert either a negative or positive film from 35mm and it scans
that creating either a positive or negative image on your computer
which can then be doctored up and printed from there.

I just thought I'd share that with all of you.

PS, I also bought (a couple months ago) a Agfa flatbed professional
scanner from there for $14.99...which saved my butt because I was
needing to scan clothing material and all the scanning options I had
at the time would distort the colors and/or texture.. Maybe if I hang
around there long enough, they'll have the rest of the studio that
seems to be closing out.

 

I must have missed the point. How does this relate to Texas motorcycles?

 

it doesn't have to directly relate. At least Brian posts shit about
bikes as opposed to X89 or whatever the **** his name is that doesn't
post shit about bikes and then comes up with all this weird off-topic
shit from time to time.

If he rides and he posts, let him speak his peace!


--Fullstate

 

Off topic, yes. But I think we can afford some latitude for a regular.

 

better than that, here's the guy busting on the kid about the free bike
someone else gave the kid and now he's bragging about hitting the
Goodwill store? wow....

--
jm

'73 R75/5 Toaster (not for sale)
'99 R1100RT (in use)
'00 FLHRCI (sold!)
Iron Butt Assoc, WATR 3X, EIEIO, AEIOU etc blah blah

 

Maybe you missed a couple of points AV.. ever think of that.. Nobody is
"bustin" any kid about anything.. A few are asking questions about just how
deserving this "needy" kid was in the first place.. Been in a few Goodwill
stores, too.. Maybe that might be good advice for that "needy kid".. huh ?

 

oh yah, i unnerstanz that, and it does have a certain, uh, feel to the
way it's come across the net. on the one hand, it's a 14 year old you
are dealing with and i sure haven't met him or the family, so i can't
judge it. imho, it's between the donors of the bike and the kid, it's no
skin off anyone elses' noses. if there was a scam going on, i don't
think they'd be asking for title over usenet but just go on about
getting it themselves. on the other hand, it is kinda cheesy for the
uncle to be riding it, and the kid has gotten one bike free over the
net, so what's a 14 year old gonna do but ask again? nothing to lose.
when that deal was going down, i was wondering about the potential
liabilities in giving an underage stranger a motor vehicle and then
something unfortunate happening. lawyers come running to the sound,
forget any releases and waivers.

yah,could be. they do have lots of stuff there, even bicycles good for
a kid his age, but i don't think they'd sell him a motorcycle, even if
they had one. <g>

--
jm

'73 R75/5 Toaster (not for sale)
'99 R1100RT (in use)
'00 FLHRCI (sold!)
Iron Butt Assoc, WATR 3X, EIEIO, AEIOU etc blah blah

 

Certain feel to it.. sure...
I can appreciate the efforts of everyone coming together to get that kid a
bike.
Course, the kid is 14 and the bike is too big for him. Guess what, he's got
almost no cash to fix it and completely lacks the skills to diagnose a carb
problem. So, the "uncle" fixes it for him.

A scam? Nah... If so, the guy is too dense to know how to obtain a title.
More likely, the "uncle" sees a free ride.. A free ride that he helped fix.
I can't say that it's totally unexpected?

Ideally, what would have happened? The kid learns to fix bikes a bit.. Then
what? He puts the bike in the garage until he's 16? As Dr. Evil would
say... "Rrringht..."

 

It doesn't and I don't care.

But, getting back to the original...it's a really cool scanner! And
for 4 bucks, it can't be beat.

 

What's wrong with the Goodwill store? It's like an all-time garage
sale. People hit garage sales all the time...almost every weekend.

Much of what is in the Goodwill stores are items that retailers
(Target, WalMart and such) carry and either they clearanced but didn't
sell or someone bought and returned. The retailer bundles the stuff
(slight to no damage...mostly no box, but stuff they can't sell
again...unless they're Fry's or BestBuy) and sells to places like
Goodwill at a "pound" rate. How many times have you been in a Target
or something and bought a clearance product that was only an opened
item?

Granted, there are the junk donated items that should've been left on
the curb at the trailer...

And I'm not "busting" him for a free bike...I'm "busting" him because
he doesn't seem to appreciate the value of the "free bike" he's been
given. The people who saw this one coming (even the liability) will
say the same thing as I'm saying about it. While I'm at it, I'm also
"busting" Sunny for getting this free bike thing started and saying
how wonderful it is that Chris is now giving this motorcycle to his
uncle when she herself won't make any sacrifices...like give HER
motorcycle to the uncle. It seems it's okay for Chris to give a
motorcycle away that people gave him, but it's not okay for Sunny to
give her motorcycle away.

Now, unlike this other thing, I'm not in this newsgroup begging for
motorcycles or begging for parts/gear. I don't put a kid up to posting
here begging for the like. I make sure my son stays where he belongs
(pbskids.org). I also don't have people suggesting that I "mooch" off
any of you here to get something free.

So, I don't care if you don't like me going into a Goodwill
store...I'd prefer you not EVER go...that way there will be more of
the good deals for me at better odds!

 

Dude! I love those movies!

I just have to be VERY careful when I watch them (kinda like my porn
that I've been meaning to get someday when I grow up and get 2"
taller) because my son picks up EVERYTHING and I don't need him
picking up the part about "Fat Bastard". The last thing I need is him
to be sitting in church or at the mall and make comments like that.

Speaking of movies!

Finding Nemo DVDs are SO COOL! That's the way DVDs are supposed to be
printed. There's one copy for the big screen theater in the living
room and one copy for the tv in the van on road trips. You don't have
to jump back and forth with the DVD and worry about not seeing the
letterbox version in the small screen for the van, but you don't lose
the theater from the full frame on the big screen.

All this talk about not selling movies and making money, and Finding
Nemo sold OUT the first week and hit an all time record for the most
DVDs sold in such a short time period.

Oh, and I'm still pissed about George Lucas releasing Indiana Jones on
DVD. Up until that point, the only format you could get digital was
Laser Disc. I have a prestine copy still in plastic...and now it's
worthless! I'm going to go rent the DVD and copy it just to take a
little bite out of Lucas' pocket. I might even put the copy of it on a
couple sites so it can be downloaded.

What does all this have to do with motorcycles? Nothing...

I'm up in the middle of the night with a migrane and decided to post
some crap...just to piss off the topic police. Anyone who'd care to
chime in is welcome to do so!

 

i don't think that's out of the question, in fact i think it's expected
if he was that interested enough to chase down a free bike. of course
it takes some guidance by the adults around him to steer him that
direction too and say, "you got it, now learn about it". he's got two
years to figure it out and grow into the bike. i think it would be a
great project bike to learn on. he's at the age where boys start to get
interest in working on cars and such, and if he screws it up, no loss.

if he can't get it running for 18 months, there's no loss either as he
learns what makes a bike tick. a non-running but repairable free bike
would be a great platform to learn on, especially if there were others
around to guide him, but let him do the actual work. as it is, someone
else did the heavy lifting, the kid hasn't necessarily hands-on learned
anything about motorcycles and engines and that's too bad. like i said,
it's no skin off my nose, just looking at both sides of the situation,
some good, some not so great. maybe i am being too much of an idealist,
but it's not my kid nor my bike, so it doesn't matter to me anyway. if
he wants to ride that badly, he should ride bmx for a couple of years
and he'll be a much better dirt rider for when he's finally ready for
the m/c.

--
jm

'73 R75/5 Toaster (not for sale)
'99 R1100RT (in use)
'00 FLHRCI (sold!)
Iron Butt Assoc, WATR 3X, EIEIO, AEIOU etc blah blah

 

Your post in this discussion is not really the issue.. Any effort to help
some "needy" kid is commendable.. At issue is the circumstance surrounding
the entire episode.. From the outset, generosity of people on this group
were appealed to and they came through like the good people they are.. In
light of the subsequent events and comments by this "needy" kid, some on
here question the representation of himself and his sponsor as a "needy
kid".. Some suspect that he is taking advantage and imposing on the
generosity of very good and well meaning contributors who don't deserve to
be disrespected.. When the appeal was first presented on this newsgroup, it
did become the "business" of the contributors on here.. A public appeal
opens the doors to speculation and inspection of motives.. One of my friends
was a contributor in this cause, and if his generosity was imposed upon, it
is my business.. The public appeal in this newsgroup made it so.. It is a
little bit late to post a comment "sticking your nose in someone else's
business"and not very appropriate..

Your friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

My question, after all this has happened over the past several months
with him, is whether he'd have received the same response if he'd
posted "I'm looking for a free motorcycle for my uncle who has no
transportation"?

Sorta takes on a different look when it's put that way, doesn't it?

 

that's what begs the question: was the bike for him or not in the first
place? i understand what you're saying and it's entirely possible.
i don't know enuff about the situation to tell one way or the other and
the only ppl who would are the folks who met and gave the bike to him,
and of course el kiddo and his fambly. i can see it evolving either way,
but i don't see it as a scam, imo, just because a scammer wouldn't be
stoopid enuff to ask for title once they had the bike in hand. most good
con jobs are slicker than that and they can go get a salvage title with
out much worry.

now uncle ernie jumping in to take advantage of the situation where the
bike can't be ridden by the kid so he uses it? yah i can see that
happening where the bike was originally intended for the kid and the kid
can't very well say no. heh, watch ernie wreck the bike and the kid
never get to ride it. or they sell the damn thing. pffft....

either way, it doesn't affect me so i don't care. i'd never do a deal
like that, there are loads of cheap beater dirt bikes out there to be
had locally than to go begging. however, there are kind hearted ppl who
felt differently about things and that's their prerogative. that
doesn't affect me either. i've got an old honda 250 dirt bike that's
been rusting at the beach for years, but i'm not giving it away. might
make an interesting mailbox stand someday.

i'd never be comfortable giving a minor who wasn't a member of my
immediate family a motor vehicle in any way shape or form. liability
exposure is just too great.

--
jm

'73 R75/5 Toaster (not for sale)
'99 R1100RT (in use)
'00 FLHRCI (sold!)
Iron Butt Assoc, WATR 3X, EIEIO, AEIOU etc blah blah

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't care either...as far as someone scamming
or not.

I do have a problem with someone taking advantage of others' goodwill
and giving nature where they trust others around them to be up front
and honest about any intent. I also have a problem with someone
putting others up to begging for handouts and when it's asked about
the valid state of the request, then they're told to mind their own
business. Had the original request (mooch) been phrased as to the end
intent, I doubt seriously anyone would've been close to considering
anything short of telling the uncle to get a job and buy a motorcycle
or take a bus.

Also, I clearly recall telling this kid to stick to a schwinn or buy a
moped. I guess uncle ernie is too lazy to peddle his ass so the kid
getting a motorcycle is the next best thing.

The offer still stands for Charles to borrow my trailer (of course
I'll have to buy one, but it'll be for a good cause) to go get his
motorcycle back.

 

Apparently I'm still missing the point. How does buying a USB film scanner
or an AGFA flatbed scanner at Goodwill relate to Texas motorcycles?

 

Now he can scan the pictures of his bike and post them on here.
Thats how I see it fiting in here... Plus they put good people to work and
some of them have to drive a motorcycle because that is all they can afford at
this time.
BTW
you can get good motorcycles at the goodwill auctions also.
IceMan

 

Dude, move on. I already said it doesn't and I don't care. So what's
your point?

BTW, we're so far beyond that and back to motorcycles...in this same
thread.

Please keep up. Even with me being on Google, I'm able to keep up
better than you are.

Oh, give you a bit of insight here...NO ONE CARES!