If you're going to go in the water, you're definitely going to want to wear the other item I won from lil-betty: the eBay 3…2…1…Meins! Badehose (3…2…1…Mine! Bathing Suit). It's a bright blue Speedo-style garment by Arena — makers of high-tech clothing and swimwear — in bright blue 100% Polyamide. The full-color eBay logo is on the front, and across the seat it says "3…2…1…Meins!" which is another line from an eBay Germany advertising campaign. It means "3…2…1…Mine!" and is intended to capture the excitement of winning an auction. This beathing suit was commissioned for a TV commercial in which the guy wearing it jumped or dove from a tower into the water. I'd love to see that commercial, wouldn't you? But at least you get to see the bathing suit. I won it for just 3.53 Euros (about $5). A steal of a deal for this "eBayana rarität" (rarity) and "Einzelstücken" (unique item, to quote the auction description).


While you're up and moving, why not play a few beach games? We've got plenty of 'em. The eBay Shop currently offers an eBay Suction Cup Catch game that's fun away from the beach too, even indoors; it consists of a ball made of suction cups that players toss back and forth between two paddles. It comes with its own black carrying bag bearing the eBay logo in white. Or tote along The eBay Shop's eBay 3-in-1 Game Set, which also has its own red and gray eBay-mongrammed carrying bag. It contains, as the name suggests, three entertainment sources: a Velcro ball toss game with a Velcro ball and two Velcro paddles, a lacrosse-type game with two net-pocketed rackets and a soft rubber ball, and everybody's favorite beach toy — a kite! The kite was also sold separately by The eBay Shop, and it's a high-tech 3D bird-type model in a vivid rainbow of colors and a tail of red, blue, yellow, and green. It comes in a bright red pouch bearing the eBay logo in white.


If paddling on shore as well as in the water is your racket, you definitely will want to play a round or two of beach tennis with the eBay beach tennis set from the eBay-Fanshop at — where else — eBay Germany. It consists of two bright blue industrial-strength plastic paddles with a big full-color eBay logo. I've added a green foam rubber squeezie ball with a black eBay logo to slow down the action, but the original bright red hard rubber ball will really keep you on the run.


Then there's everybody's favorite beachtime pastime: Frisbee, of course! And we've got even more eBay frisbees than we do eBay flipflops. First there's the eBay frisbee set from the late, lamented eBay-Fanshop at ebay.de, with flying disks in all four colors each bearing a full-color eBay logo. We sold our set to our dearly beloved eBayana-collecting friend xoxmas, who hung them on the wall as eye candy. And there's the eBay Summer Picnic Fun frisbees, which I've seen in red, green, and blue but not yellow, from the employees-only eBay Summer Picnic Fun 2000 beach bag. It's bright red with the eBay Summer Picnic Fun 2000 logo, a round cooler bottom, and a mesh drawstring top sack that contains a plethora of eBay goodies, including the frisbee and a water bottle, if memory serves me correctly. The frisbees say "ebay Summer Picnic Fun 2000" in white, with white waves below the eBay logo. The bag itself is as great as its contents, and so handy for the beach.

But before we get into beach bags, let's finish up with the frisbees. For mellower players or use indoors, there's the soft green floppy ebaycareers.com frisbee recently offered in the eBay-ana category by kilita1 of Vancouver, CA. Having been among those who lost their job when the eBay Vancouver Customer Service Center closed down as of August 1, 2009, kilita1 is  liquidating all of their eBay employee swag. Woohoo! But I'm sorry about the loss of those jobs; several eBayers I know have been put out of work.

Getting back to the frisbees (and I am using the word with a lower-case "f" as a generic term, because not all of these flying disks are genuine Frisbees), my personal favorite is a red screaming light-up frisbee with the full-color eBay logo. It's got bright red LEDs that turn on at the flick of a switch, which also activates an alien-like whistling noise that changes pitch as you toss the frisbee. Needless to say, it is waved through the air more than tossed, because heaven forbid it should get broken. I wish I could remember where I got it or knew why it was made.

Last but least, there's a white eBay Canada frisbee with the full-color ebay.ca logo, recently offered in the eBay-ana category by seller munastreasures. It's pictured here along with some other nifty beach accessories, namely an eBay Live! 2003 red  nylon cooler bag featuring that year's "You're the Star" feedback star logo in white and a yellow neoprene visor celebrating eBay On The Road, a 1999 promotion that had eBay staffers criss-crossing the country in an early version of eBay University.


Speaking of visors, let's get you some sun protection before we move on to beach bags, coolers, and water bottles. Do you want to borrow my eBay Motors chapstick? It's a handy pop-up style you can wear around your neck. And those eBay On The Road visors have a curly elastic backstrap and come in all four eBay colors — perfect for the beach, since they're made of seagoing neoprene. (We're going to leave the cloth gimme/baseball caps and visors at home for today, because that's a whole 'nother guide.) What's also perfect for the beach are the eBay bucket-style fisherman's hats, of which again we have an elegant abundance. I have them in white from eBay Germany and eBay Italy, with their respective ebay.de and ebay.it full-color logos. Then there's a reversible model from The eBay Shop back in the day, which reverses from khaki to navy blue — with the full-color eBay logo on each side — and is water-resistant for rainwear. The eBay Shop currently stocks an adorable child's version of the fisherman's bucket hat in white with the full-color eBay logo, perfect for protecting your baby's delicate scalp.


Since you're wearing your eBay fisherman's hat, I suppose you're going to want to go fishing? No problem! It just so happens that I am the proud possessor of an iCast eBay fishing lure. Why, you ask, was an eBay fishing lure produced? I have no idea. But here it is. It was the very first item of eBayana I won from close.shave, who has become a dear friend and from whom we won quite a bit of our choicest eBayana.

By now you're probably wondering how all this gear can possibly be toted. Luckily, The eBay Shop currently offers an all-purpose mesh bag in black with a yellow front panel bearing the eBay logo in white. It's perfect for the beach, the market, the gym — the possibilities are endless. It's It is 17" high by 14-1/2" wide by 8 1/2" deep and features a front zip pocket and drawstring closure with backpack straps. It doesn't come in any of the other three eBay colors, but at least for once yellow isn't getting short shrift.

The eBay Shop also has (or at least had) eBay beach bags in each of the four eBay colors and black. They're made of industrial-strength nylon with a side-zip front pocket and a drawstring top plus several grommets to let sand and water escape. Perfect! If you were really lucky, you might even have won yours for answering the Secret Word question on eBay Radio. The photo here is provided courtesy of Griff, known on eBay as uncle_griff, who posted it on the eBay Radio Super-Secret Chatboard.