eBay's controversial paypal-only payment system has kicked in, along with some other changes and it seems to have collectors calling for someone to challenge the auction giant. While there is a grace period, we are no longer able to pay with or accept money orders, checks, etc. Imagine if your local grocery store did this.

It seems like almost every day, I read several new threads about people's dissatisfaction with eBay. Whether it's the paypal thing, or the new feedback system, which allows buyers to give sellers a negative feedback, but doesn't allow sellers to give buyers a negative feedback, or even the freezing of funds in your paypal account if your user rating drops below 4.3 on a five-point scale.

Collectors continue to become more angry with each new major "improvement" announced, although it's so difficult to just pick up and leave. When you still need to sell, it's tough to go to a site with significantly less eyes and traffic. When you want to buy something, especially something that is tougher to find, it's nearly impossible to not scour the largest selection on the internet. We'll see if another auction site can come along in the next year to give them some competition.

I am coming off my week-long suspension from blogging after posting that nasty eBay auction and I'm going straight to the Luke Walton story. We've all read the reports about a woman being arrested for stalking the Lakers forward and I'm sure some of us have envisioned some blonde, SoCal hottie following the Lukester to the beach during the entire offseason.

Well, that may have been true, but I sincerely hope not. Have you seen her? Walton must have been scared to death during all of this mess. Thanks for a site called http://bittenandbound.com, we can now share in Walton's misery and view her mugshot.

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As you may know, I'm a major Lamar Odom fan and I'm not happy with how Phil Jackson has gone into the pre-season determined to mess with him. First, he said Odom might come off the bench this year in favor of Trevor Ariza. Now, he's trying him out at point guard and ripped his performance in the first game pretty badly. If you aren't familiar with Odom, he's 6"10', handles the ball like a point guard, finished seventh in the NBA last year in rebounding and is one of the most unselfish, team players in the league. He's actually more point guard minded than anyone on the Lakers roster and I like this experiment, but it's not fair to rip on him that badly after one pre-season game. How many players in the league can play power forward one year and then point the next?

It didn't take long for Topps and Upper Deck to come up with Sarah Palin cards. They had issued most of the notable candidates in products already, but since Palin come out of nowhere somewhat, she wasn't featured yet. Well, we didn't have to wait long.

Palin will have two cards in future Topps products with one picturing her as she appears today and the other picturing her as an Alaskan Beauty Queen. The Beauty Queen single will be in Topps Update & Highlights, which hits the second week of Oct. and will have a limited print run.

Upper Deck will add to its Presidential Predictors insert with a pair of illustrated cards, featuring Palin (PP-15) and Joseph Biden (PP-16). They will be available in SP Authentic Baseball, which hits this week. Biden is depicted as longtime Washington Senator's pitcher Walter Johnson, while Palin is shown atop a dogsled and sporting a tiara.



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Also, I will briefly share this crazy eBay item I found with the help of PSA's forum. The item has been pulled by now, but luckily I did a screen grab of it. It has the title: "Husband left me and his Griffey RC..." The description adds that her husband left her, but forgot to take his sports card collection so she is selling it. The most bizarre part is the photo she includes with the auction listing. A picture tells a 1,000 words, so I'll just post the screen grab. I've read the auction a few times and still have no idea what she's selling.

I was 11 years old the last time the Brewers made the playoffs and though I can't say I've been a faithful fan through those years, the fact that they are in the playoffs and start today at 2:07 central time is big. Most of my co-workers are taking half days so they can watch every minute. I'll through lunch and leave early so I can catch the end of it.

I did stumble across a website today that was quite disturbing. I think the URL says is all: www.peeyourpantsforthebrewers.com. Yes, it's a site with fans pledging to pee their pants if the Brewers made the playoffs. It has 7,200+ names pledged to do this. And yes, it has some video.

While I hate to give attention to the site, it's just so disturbing and, ok, funny, to ignore. I can't help but think of the phrase "Act like you've been there before" though as I see the list of fans pledging to pee themselves if/when the Brewers make the playoffs.