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sellhart53
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Name: Brian
Birthday: 9/4/1981
Interests: My Passion:
I love sharing the gospel to children! I know that small children can become saved because of my personal testimony and that is one reason I get so excited about AWANA. I'm thrilled that I can use my gifts in Awana by helping teach and mentor kids as well as helping them understand and memorize God's Word!!
Outside of Awana, my passion is for business. God has built finance and numbers and entrepreneurial skills in me from an early age. I currently work for the government as a financial manager. I could see myself starting my own full-time business or using my business and finance know-how for a non-profit Christian organization in some capacity.
Expertise: The Bible, anything financial (investments, budgeting, loans, retirement, stewardship), entrepreneurship, Ebay, baseball/softball, Ultimate Frisbee, Table Tennis, Alan Trammell, sportscards, AWANA youth program, Cedarville University (2003), University of Michigan Football.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
9/22/2005
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| For those asking about the accent wall, it turned out better than anticipated. It looked quite blotchy a few hours after completion, but now it looks very acceptable. Take a look:
Trammell Collection Divestiture update: My collection has now dropped below 1000 unique Alan Trammell cards for the first time in a long time. Approximately 150 Tram cards have been sold for a net of ~$4200 after selling fees. I figure I have about $1500-2000 more to go before I'm done selling. I've had a lot of people contact me through Ebay and end up purchasing a good chunk of cards offline which helps me save on the Ebay and credit card fees!
Charged Electronics update: Sales are going well!! I have now sold out of iPod Touches. Those sold really well for me. I'm trying to get more stock, but supplies are tight at the moment. One of my suppliers just approached me about buying 120 MacBook Pro laptops for $1200 each. They have a very attractive margin on them....now if I can just scrounge up $144,000 to complete the deal...sheesh. I'm working to see what kind of "creative financing" we might be able to arrange. I am still contemplating selling the business next year, so if you know someone who is interested, let me know! Price would be about $55K and includes about $20K of re-sellable inventory at cost.
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| If you want to go out on Black Friday and try for a super-hot doorbuster, what should you do?
I have lots of advice. Make sure to call ahead and don't take "I don't know" for an answer. There is somebody who knows. Ask for a manager if necessary. You probably won't want to call until next week. Sometimes there is late breaking info on how things will go, how many units they have etc, so I always call on the Wednesday or Thursday before Black Friday. I've called back and asked multiple times and have gotten 3 different answers. Make sure the person you talk to knows for sure. For electronics (DVD player, Wii, Xbox, HDTV etc), ask to talk to the Electronics department. Ask if they're going to give out tickets or just form a line in the electronics department or outside the store. Make sure you know where the line starts at. Once in the line make sure you get to know the person/people in front and behind you and watch out for each other's back. People will try to cut if it's an awesome deal.
Sometimes different stores will do different things or give out different info. Some stores won't tell you how many units they expect to have. Some will. Others will say they don't know. I'd call multiple Walmart's, Best Buy's etc in the area to see if they're telling you the same story. It will also help you gauge which store to go to.
If past experience is any guide, people start showing up around breakfast on Thanksgiving Day for 5am specials the next day, so almost a 24hr wait. For crazy-hot doorbusters, they may only have 10 or so units, so you need to be one of the first in line. It's best to go to a store that has multiple things that you want. Under almost every circumstance, if you wait until the evening on Thanksgiving to start standing in line you will be too late for most of the best deals.
If you have any Black Friday questions or specific questions about stores, items offered this year etc, just leave a comment. I can tell you what I know from past experiences. As a frame of reference, I've been going out on Black Friday for the last 5 or 6 years. I have the most experience with Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Meijer. In the early years we would show up shortly after midnight, but more recently we've been camping outside with plenty of extra time on our hands to talk to the extreme hard-core BFers.
Oh, and if you didn't see the comments on my last post, Walmart just announced a $598 50" HDTV, a $248 32" HDTV, a $78 Blu-Ray player, a $198 laptop and a $59 TomTom GPS. Until Best Buy comes out with their final deals, Walmart is looking pretty doggon' good.
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| Black Friday is coming upon us. Do you go shopping then? As you may know, it has become somewhat of a family tradition for me to go out shopping on Black Friday the last half decade or so with my Dad and brother. It has been interesting to observe the trends over the last several years. It has gone from a stampede at the front door to tickets being handed out hours before opening times for "doorbuster" items. The general trend has been for people to show up earlier and earlier and in greater numbers. Stores would open @ 6am where now the standard time is 4-5am. I've seen a midnight and a 3am opening this year. For me, it's rather fun to be a part of the mayhem, but still be done shopping by 5:30am!  Our family goes and eats breakfast after shopping then we go back home to bed.
Below are the best anticipated deals of the season that I've come across so far:
Sylvania Blu-Ray Player - $89 (Meijer)
Nintendo Wii Console w/ Wii Sports - $199 w/ $50 gift card (Meijer)
Westinghouse 32" LCD TV 720p - $246 (Target)
From the rumors there should be some sub-$200 laptops out there. Everyone is waiting for Best Buy and Walmart's last minute deals.
Deals that have already been sold out in the last week include an Xbox 360 Arcade Console for $200 w/ $100 Walmart gift card and a $250 laptop from Best Buy.
We'll see what else comes out!
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| After a brief hiatus, the RQoTM is back. This is a basic question, but it seems that enough folks have gotten it wrong to warrant some deep thinking on the issue.
Q: What is love and how do you know you're in it?
I know there will be less of an audience since this isn't transferring over to FB, but I would appreciate it if I could get responses from a diverse spectrum of people. Please share your thoughts.
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| Time to harp on one of my pet peeves....There is absolutely no place I can go to look at the ballot I will see on election day! You would think in this day and age that it would not be difficult to have a PDF copy posted on a state or county website of every ballot that every precinct/district will see, but NO!! After visiting the Ohio website, my county's website and Google-searching for a Dayton Voter's Guide, I have to hope and pray that I've found all the issues and people I'm supposed to be knowledgeable on. On top of that, with the exception of a Dayton Voter's Guide which I assume many areas of the country don't have, forget trying to find out who the best qualified candidate is. There is no information! SO FRUSTRATING!!! Why not have an area on every state and county website where all the candidates are laid out with their website or at least their resume and an answer to a question or two relating to the office they're trying to win?
Personally, I would be fascinated to take a pole to see how people voted for their candidates and why, especially for the local elections. I hypothesize that a significant chunk don't know who they vote for when it comes to the local elections where no one is really a Democrat, Republican etc. They'll vote the incumbent or go with the person they saw the most signs for along the side of the road. What does that say about our democracy?! It's almost to the point of asking how you can blame them because there is no information out there.
After all my searching, I still walked to the ballot box and missed a race. I had no idea I would be voting for Township Trustee. So, guess what....I just didn't vote for anyone there. It's pitiful that that had to occur.
Ok, I'm done.
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