As a specialist in historic restoration I earn more in two hours work on your mother’s favorite chair than a Nurse’s Aid will earn in an entire shift on your mother’s care.

I’d rather sit on the ground with my mother than sit alone in some old chair.

~

I’d like to be an advocate for OBRA.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Bottom Line is: I just sold a Tonka for $18.49 and I received $13.96
It’s April first but this is not a joke. 

The final sales price of my Tonka was $18.49. The buyer also paid for a calculated shipping charge. Here’s how it broke down for me:

• $18.49 Sales price of item
• $ 9.98  Shipping price paid by buyer.
• ==========
• $28.47  Buyer paid
• ($  1.13) PayPal fee
• ==========
• $27.34   Money received
• ($10.67) Actual shipping cost
• ===========
• $16.67  Payment Held (see previous article) Money Received
• $16.67    Received.
• ($  1.66) eBay Final Value fee
• ($    .90) eBay Final Value fee – Shipping
• ($    .15)  Extra photo – to be more accurate
• ($    .00) Free listing fee this month.
• ===========
•  $13.96   Total money received for Tonka.

Add use of my vehicle costs to drive into town to pick up boxes from behind a local store and the cost of packing noodles I ordered from Amazon and the half hour time to take a photograph and make the listing and the printer ink and paper and packing tape and …. What did it cost to get rid of that truck on eBay? …Wait a minute did I say that correctly? “Cost” me to sell?

The overhead is extreme. Consider if you already owned a digital camera, a computer, empty boxes, packing material, packing tape, a printer, paper, plenty of time and electricity… you could earn close to 75% of your sales. If you don’t have a free supply of computer equipment and packing materials and time on your hands then you will have to sell approximately sixty $18 items to break even ~ That’s assuming you don’t have to pay a penny to deliver them to the Post Office.

I guess if you order all these things from Amazon.com and sit on your butt all day working and then hand the packaged sales to your post man, you could earn a profit.

I am an exceptional eBay seller with an impeccable 12 year track record. I have never received negative feedback and have only had one returned item. That solitary returned item was sold “As-Is with No Returns” yet striving above and beyond my obligation I allowed the return and even paid the return shipping cost. I go the extra step, even if it ends up costing me a few dollars to keep my buyers very happy. I am a seller of the highest integrity~! But now, I am being punished for it.

PayPal recently enacted a scheme to penalize eBay sellers who refund partial payments by holding all of the seller’s incoming funds for up to 21 days.

When I sell an item on eBay, Paypal sends me a letter that says:

Your funds are pending – please process this order

You received a payment from S0-and-So.
This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance.  It will be held for up to 21 days. While it’s being held, it won’t be available for withdrawal.
We’ll move the money to your available balance after 21 days as long as your buyer hasn’t reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered and 3 days elapse or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.
To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.

What’s the reason they are holding my auction winnings? Well, PayPal wants to make as much interest off my money as they can. ~ No wait, that’s conjecture. They do claim I’m irresponsible… but with only a single returned item in 12 years, I’m going to tell you what’s really going on. (Beside the fact they are down-right greedy.)

In the past two months, while laid-up at home with an injured neck and no income, I’ve been selling whatever I can at auction instead of claiming Social Services benefits like the rest of the disabled and unemployed in this here Good Ol’ USofA… So, when I list an item and use a “calculated shipping” cost, the buyer pays for that “calculated” amount. In the past few months there have been times when the buyer has paid a few dollars more than the actual cost so I refunded them the over-calculated amount out of my PayPal funds as an act of kindness, in good faith. Paypal is punishing me for giving back some of the money.

Do I mind paying the increasingly higher and higher fees for selling on eBay? Do I mind that the payment system is a monopoly run by eBay? Do I mind that I pay listing fees, final value fees & transaction fees all for a few dollars income while I’m disabled? Not really…

I do mind being lumped in with the lot of unprofessional sellers of ill-repute and having my money be held for 21 days so PayPal can earn interest on my only source of income? Do I mind being labelled as untrustworthy because I felt that eBay overcharged my buyers so I gave them a few dollars back? Yes, I do.

Paypal’s message here is: If you are a seller on eBay – don’t refund anyone anything unless you are forced to or they will punish you by holding your funds for up to 21 days.

-

What’s worse is PayPal stole $75 from me recently and won’t respond to my inquiries. I went to a gas station and swiped my card. The pump said: See Attendant. I went inside and paid the cashier for $20 worth of fuel. Paypal “held” $75 from my account, and deducted $20. A day later the $75 was “released”. But then, 10 days later PayPal took $75 and linked it to that gas station transaction.

There was never a point when my balance increased by $75 but unfortunately 10 days later PayPal took $75. I wrote them repeatedly about this to no reply!

In order to avoid this hate/hate relationship they have against me, I no longer use my PayPal debit card to buy things and take every single penny out of the PayPal account and deposit it into my bank account where I am FDIC insured and where the bank will act responsibly and ethically toward me as a customer. Thankfully, my bank does not punish me for being considerate.

Things are not getting better, they are only getting worse. The world is not a friendly place. It is dog eat dog, big fish eat little fish and you are on your own. Take what you can and horde it. Love nothing but the bottom line. Fight to survive. ~ LOL… there’s no love an peace in the auction world but I am still going to act professionally, list and sell honestly and refund over charges in order to maintain the highest level of integrity. I don’t care if there is a god or Karma, I act the way my mother taught me.

Here are some of my tanks that I never got around to destroying. They are Tomy 1/87 scale replicas of the life-sized war vehicles. Included in this photo are the US M60 and M-42 and the USSR SU-85 and T34.

I love the word ‘combat’ so I thought I’d post these on somethinginteresting.com for posterity. Especially since I will sell these to the winning bidder and won’t see them again. They’ll sell as a lot to one lucky collector.

These tanks are all stamped on the bottom with TOMY 1974, Scale= 1/87
M60 Tank  – USA.  (No.1, No.2, No.3) and the M-42 Tank – USA  (No.13)

And the famously labelled,  SU-85 Tank – USSR (No. 9) and T34/85 Tank – USSR (No.

What makes these 1974 Combat Tomy tanks something interesting is the fact there aren’t any examples on eBay at the moment. That makes creating the listing and setting a starting price all the more difficult.

I believe these came as kits. They are all unpainted. I read on Mikes-Tanks.com about these particular pieces. I haven’t located the stickers that came with these… or didn’t know what they were if I tossed them. Combat Tomica is mentioned on the Tomy page on Wikipedia.

Most of my military vehicles were melted or blown up before I reached age 12. Being a kid was more fun when I was young… and I’m guessing it was even better 40 years before that… and so on and so on. I wish I was more intelligent. At least I can type without looking.

Can you believe I still have the little plastic soldiers that came with these tanks in 1974? Now that’s organized. (Wait ’til you see how many G.I. Joe accessories I still have… but you’ll have to wait another 20 years ~ they’re still in mouse-proof storage.)

What is it? I’m pretty sure most people would have tossed this but the homeowner’s were wealthy and collected Japanese art. The paper is yellowed, indicative of something old. Here’s the artist’s signature, which looks more like a doctor’s prescription.

First name starts with a T and last maybe an O or A. Could it be a Tezuka Osamu? He was the famous Manga artist….doesn’t look like it. This print is number 187/200. My guess is pre-1970. Where do you find a gallery of artist’s signatures? Do I have to hang on to this until the next Antiques Roadshow? One never knows what one will find in the garbage.

I talk a lot so if you’re looking for the poster it’s down a bit. The images on this page are up to 1280 pixels. Perhaps a right click will help view them large

I’ve lived in the same house for about 15 years. In that time seems like I’ve collected more crap than a junk yard even though I’ve tried my darndest to part with the unnecessary. I began parting with my excess on eBay 12 years ago. Since then, I have proudly sold over 200 items. ..that leaves about 2 million to go.

Empty space begs to be filled. 

These days collecting crap goes against my neat tendencies so I do my best to make wise purchases and not fill the empty space of my home just because it’s there.

A while back I took a job helping someone move from a large house to a small apartment. Together we donated, sold, stored and packed away the possessions of decades of living. Overall, the amount of garbage bags we filled seemed reasonable. My payment for that job was a mass of tools from their outbuilding, including a Stihl chain saw! When the job was complete, with the owner’s permission, I rooted through their trash and took a few more things including a roll of posters because the one on top was an old military poster… and I love war…err, because I’m a military history buff.

A lifetime of living paycheck to pitiful paycheck nurtured an appreciation for dumpster diving. From living on city streets and eating discarded food to working construction and awaiting the days our clients would fill them with prizes, I still cannot walk past a dumpster without peeking inside.

Before we had a real home, dumpsters provided meals, clothing and sometimes shelter. Later, when we got an apartment, dumpsters provided furniture, reading material and other sweet scores. To this day I cherish a real Swiss Army Knife, a 1966 gold Bulova watch and a couple of prints I later framed that still hang in my bedroom.

That’s how my appreciation for fine art combined with the fine art of dumpster diving led to my second Jo Mora Poster.

My first Jo Mora poster belonged to my grandfather who died when I was a few weeks old, leaving very few things behind. When I finally settled down, my mother gave me a matted, framed and entertaining 1931 poster of Yosemite. (I didn’t know it was a ‘Jo Mora’ until this morning.)

When I got home from that moving job, I took out the posters from the tube and tossed them on top of a cabinet. Two were ‘something interesting’ but I was less than enthusiastic about the military posters and left them for another day. Since I’m not working (injury not laziness), I’ve been scouring my house for things to sell and referred to the top of that cabinet for those posters.

Look what I found in that dumpster and left sitting atop a cabinet in my house unnoticed: It’s a 1933 Grace Line Carte by Jo Mora and it’s near mint condition. Other than four thumbtack holes, this 1933 poster doesn’t have a single mark, bend, tear or sign of age. The edges are straight, the colors are crisp and it’s unlike any other I’ve seen online:

If you’re curious, I’ve decided to keep it. Now that I have two, I have a collection.

Well, if that didn’t take the cake… Yesterday I was at the very same store. When I returned to my car I watched this employee relieving himself on the shopping carts.

At first I couldn’t believe my eyes but then I saw the small river flowing between the carts, the shake and the zip up.

The lesson here: You have no idea what goes on when you aren’t paying attention. If you’re going to shop at Walmart, you’d better visit the hand sanitizer isle, buy some and use it before you contract syphilis and die.

According to the CDC
“Syphilis cannot be spread through contact with toilet seats, doorknobs, swimming pools, hot tubs, bathtubs, shared clothing, or eating utensils.”

I guess that includes credit cards and shopping carts but either way… YUCK~!

I couldn’t help but snaps some shots as I drove along. It doesn’t look like this often. I wished I could have stopped and stared for a while but I was in the fast lane. 

The pics are so amazing I can’t choose just a single image to share so here’s a gallery of them all:

[Show as slideshow]

I didn’t think twice about the scene. I snapped these pics with my old iPhone 3GS and thought I might use one as a wallpaper when I got around to it. (I posted them big in case you want one for your phone’s wallpaper. right-click.)

A few nights later, I’m talking with a friend who’s mother is one of those environ-’mental’ conspiracy theorists. I’m glad I can’t read her website because I am not compelled to believe in aliens, information that isn’t meant for civilian ears, or the insanely speculative.

So… First thing she says is.. “You remember when I was telling you about H.A.A.R.P.?”

“Yes” (’cause I posted an article about it, right here on somethinginteresting.com, after we talked.)

She says: “Wait until you see the pictures I took on Tuesday.”

I interrupted: “Hold on, let me get my phone” (talk about insanely speculative; I blurted out that “I took the same pictures.”)

“Well the sky…”  Before she could say more, we simultaneously showed each other the exact same pictures.

A conversation about HAARP ensued.

The checks are “a % of the final selling fees that sellers were overcharged by eBay.”

Someone in this thread received a check for $18406.26

The postage was 25x more than the value of the contents.
I wonder how much the lawyers got?