mikeythemars

The prospects for increased cruise tourisim in Martinque isn't going to be helped by the unfortunate fact there is growing social instability there:

Martinique cancels yearly carnival, cites unrest

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29303058/

Martinique: French riot police occupy territory amid general strike and growing unrest

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090213173517464

French Caribbean Islands hit by drop in tourism as strikes continue

http://www.france24.com/en/20090214-islands-hit-drop-tourism-strikes-enter-third-week-http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090213173517464

Tatka,

The reason I said that you need to check e-bay everyday is that you never know when the ship you want will be posted for sale. I was not referring to bidding. I agree with you that when you bid many times you are actually bidding against yourself. I always set a timer and punch in my max bid when there is only about 10 seconds left on the auction. Its fun sneaking up on people like that! :)

What you are describing is (in eBay terms) called "sniping" and you don't need to tie yourself down to being at a PC to manually do it. There are online services that can automatically "snipe" for you.

You simply sign up, put in the item # and top amount you are willing to bid and the system does the rest. Most will even alert you via email if the bidding prior to auction end goes above your maximum (so you can decide whether to raise your max). Beyond the fact they'll snipe that auction you desperately want to win that happens to end at 1:30am, the systems can put in a bid less than 10 seconds before auction end, so they always beat "live" snipers.

Here's my favorite. Has always worked, never missed a single bid:

http://www.bidnip.com

Wow, this thead sure has staying power!!!

I posted on it last year about how I'd just found a model kit of the first ship I ever sailed on, the S.S. France. Well, over a year later, it's finally done (the build was not easy), and I'm now the proud owner of the below two foot long memory of childhood:

A few months ago, I also found (on eBay) a smaller scale model of the Italian Line Michelangelo. So my collection is slowly but surely growing!!