The eBbay Mysteries

Movie or TV Series Based on an eBay Sleuth

  

Actually inspired by a New Hampshire uncle of mine, Bruce Filiault, who lived with us through the 1960-61 school year. I was in the 3rd grade and he was in the 9th, shared a bedroom and a two-level bunk bed. Every morning he would get up in his underwear and first thing do pushups on his finger tips and knuckles. Come my 9th grade, I could do 100 pushups myself, but that isn’t pertinent to the plot:

Premise:

·        Set in a New Hampshire small town, good stock of genuine individualist-types and rich local history, state motto is ‘Live Free of Die’, has changed some following the Massachusetts influx.

·        A mildly eccentric guy like my Uncle Bruce ekes out a modest, bumpy living by rummaging through estate sales, flea markets, auctions, etc, and selling to a network of antique dealers, but mostly per eBay

·        In the course of these activities [here we diverge from true-life], he solves all kinds of mysteries

·        The bullets above create a universe of possibilities

·        The nature of this work guarantees all sort of discovery

o   Clues to old, unsolved crimes, or to contemporary investigations

o   Discoveries that crimes were committed in the recent or distant past – crimes hither-to-now undetected

§  murders, swindles, frauds, forgeries, etc. [discovery of which ultimately rights some wrong, personal or communal, like save the town from some commercial exploitation]

§  some discoveries at local, some at state, or even national-level

o   Discoveries do not always have to center on crimes

§  Human interest, like townsman X [alive or deceased] is an unsung/unknown hero in some way

§  Wide open to imagination

·        Discovery comes through

o   Interaction with buyers/sellers

o   Direct inspection of physical items, journals, etc

o   Research necessary to understand and market ‘findings’

§  There is a LOT of potential in this one, see *Note below]

o   Etc.

·        The eBay connection allows a national and even international scope for discovery and interaction

·        To reiterate, a universe of possibilities.

*Note: The true-life work is really intriguing, he buys often quite mundane stuff on a hunch it might be worth something to collectors with specialized interests, then researches the find [for example, smoking pipes, old tools, books, historical signatures, all kinds of things] just to learn if it might have value to some group of collectors, and how to ‘pitch’ the find [if it seems feasible] on eBay. Opens doors to all kind of possibilities, with a lot of intrinsic interest in this-and-that topic this-week-or-the-next.

Text Copyright 2009 Stephen Rowe