5/13    "Jasper Johns' 'Flag' fetches $28.6M at NYC auction"
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/ap_on_en_ot/us_crichton_art_auction
        Why on earth is this painting worth $28.6M?  The idea was just painting
        a copy of the US flag, and the technique looks high-school quality to
        me.
        \_ It's worth $28M because a lot of people think it is. You may not
           appreciate it, but others do.

2/16    Car with stuck accelerator crashes into crowd at Georgia auction:
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100217/ap_on_re_us/us_car_crash_auction
        ...... But it's not a Toyota.

5/23    I'm seeing a bunch of old German copy stuff w/ Swastika on it
        selling on eBay. Doesn't eBay ban Swastika? Or I got it confused
        with other stuff?
        \_ These are only banned in Germany.
        \_ and in France.

1/14    I'm an eBay power seller. In the past couple months I've had
        a bunch of people claiming that they never received their items
        and they're all from the AL, MO area. I'm going to start adding
        tracking (75 cents more) which will eat up my profit margin
        significantly since the items I sell are really cheap (sub $10
        and $5 items and eBay+PayPal are already eating up 10% of fees).
        Is is a well known trick for eBay buyers to pull tricks like this
        or is the USPS really lousy in the AL/MO area?
        \_ Welcome to the Obama Depression.
           \_ And the cycle of Republicans wrecking the economy and leaving
              the blame to Dems continues.
        \_ I'm the op. I reluctantly refunded this woman who complained
           several weeks ago. Today, to my surprise, she told me she just
           got her merchandize. That's after 3 weeks of shipping out the
           merchandize even though I used first class. Anyways, I feel bad
           for stereotyping people who live in the South. I am ashamed
           of myself.

12/15   I have a few 100G and 200G drives that I want to dump. Do people
        actually buy used legacy HD on eBay?
        \_ Yup they do -- researchers doing articles on the lack of safety
           of data on computers often go to eBay, buy used hard drives,
           and mine all sorts of goodies from the not, or poorly, wiped
           drives.

12/14   Got really screwed by this eBay buyer (says he'll pay, then
        waits, then says he'll pay by check, then makes up a story,
        then at the end says you're rude and doesn't want to pay
        anymore). eBay refuses to do anything about it. WTF? What
        is the best way to get back at this guy?
        \_ That's hardly "really screwed."  You still have the item, right.
           Fucking suck it up and sell it to someone else.
        \_ Hack into the EBay computers to get his IP address, then impersonate
           a police officer to get his ISP to give up his home address. Then
           go to his house and fill a paper bag full of dog poop, put it on
           his doorstep, light it on fire and ring the doorbell. This is
           hilarious, as he will come out and try and stomp out the fire.
           \_ That IS pretty funny. So what do I need to do as step 1
              e.g. how do I hack into eBay?
              \_ You expect me to explain everything to you???
        \_ ebay won't do anything?  What do you expect them to do?  When this
           happened to me ebay refunded me the listing fee and the guy got
           bad feedback.
           \_ Starting September 2008 sellers can no longer leave bad
              feedbacks to buyers. Presumably, there are a LOT more
              bad sellers than bad buyers.
           \_ oh noes, bad feedback! Whatever will he do?!!
              \_ Again, what are you expecting ebay to do?  Charge the guy
                 with fraud?  Castrate him?  What?

10/3    Question about eBay. Say there are two accounts (A and B) bidding
        on one item. Starting price is $10, and A bids $50. Then B bids
        $55. The price is so high, no one else bids on the item. Then
        for some reason A retracts the bid. Does the bid go back to $10?
        \_ I don't think you can retract a bid that isn't winning the item.
           And there are lots of auctions that work like ebay does.  Google
           "dutch auction."  That pretty much works the same way.  Everyone
           says the max they are willing to pay and the high bidder gets
           the item for the next higer bidder + 1.
        \_ Why would it when there is a bid at $55?
           \_ Because eBay bidding system works differently than any
              auction known to mankind. If you bid $55 when someone else
              bids at $50, then eBay says "ok you can get the item at
              $50+($1 increment)", and you walk away with the item at $51.
              eBay bidding says "the amount you put in is the highest you're
              willing to pay, but the actual price is the second highest
              bidder plus increment."
              \_ I'd imagine this system is for cutting down site traffic by
                 bidders who would otherwise need to constantly check if they
                 have been outbid.

8/25    A guy wants to buy my domain name using http://escrow.com. Are they
        shady or are they decent, compared to PayPal?
        \_ http://escrow.com is legit. I would not use any other escrow site.
           \_ I just used it, and it's REALLY FAST and simple to use
              unlike (#**$(# PayPal. So far so good, will let you know --op
           \_ I wish my escorts take e-escrow services. "I will pay
              you via PayPal full price for a BBFS job."

3/31    I just saw the world's largest diamond auction on TV, featuring a
        relatively symmetrical well proportioned but otherwise really flat
        & plain looking Asian woman holding the diamond up for photographers.
        You know, if I were to auction the world's largest diamond,
        I'd feature nice busty Irish+German woman instead. Why? Because
                \_ Dude, no one would notice the freakin' diamond, with
                   a woman like that.  You WANT a plain background so
                   as not to distract people from the main event.
        their big round blue eyes & long eye lashes complement the sparkle
        of the world's biggest diamond 1000% better than Asian girls who look
        like little boys and in fact do have little boy figures. It's way
        beyond me why the seller featured an Asian women.
                                        -Irish+German women #1 fan
        \_ JACKIE JOHNSON!!! Big robust white women rule!
        \_ Consider who the market for this diamond might be.
           \_ White software engineers?
           \_ Arab princesses?
              \_ Arab princes.
                 \_ They like blonde chicks, not Asians.

3/5     My gf was a victim of an ebay scam. She bought a high priced item
        from a "reputable" seller and the item never arrived nor has
        the seller responded to emails. What legal actions can she
        take against the seller to reclaim her money? She has filed
        a complaint with ebay but ebay doesn't offer any protection.
        \_ Maybe call the cops?  That said, good luck.  eBay seems to
           be fraud central.
        \_ How did she pay for it? Paypal and your credit card have ways
           to get your money back. How much money was it? Any idea if the
           seller is in the United States?
           \_ The seller had a mailing address in the United. Unforunately,
              the seller also requested a cashiers check which she
              obliged. The item was for $1500.
              \_ Depending on your definition of "reputable," a power seller
                 requesting a cashiers check should be a clear sign of
                 fraud these days.  You should consider it a lost cause,
                 and maybe deduct it from your income tax or something.
              \_ "requested" or "required"?  If the former, that was dumb.
                 If the latter, that should have been a sign.
        \_ You're screwed unless the seller lives close to you. It won't
           be worth your while to fly somewhere for $1500 in small claims,
           if you ever find the person and collect on the judgement.
           Consider it a lesson learned.
           \_ You're dimwitted, and a total ass.
              \_ I'm not the pp, but what about that is dimwitted?  Call
                 the police in the city where you mailed your check, and
                 kiss your money goodbye.  Chances are so slim that you will
                 get anything back that it is not worth the investment.  Fraud
                 sucks.
            \_ Fraud sucks, but sending a cashier's check is just stupid.
               Sorry about your gf getting ripped off but it was a cheap
               lesson.  Don't use cash for business transactions or anything
               else where you can't afford to lose it.
        \_ This is a fairly common ebay scam, because there's no way to get the
           money back.
           \_ yeah, it's too bad not everyone knows that requesting a cashier's
              check / money order on eBay == >90% fraud
           \_ BTW, even so, I would recommend calling the cops there anyway.
              Even if you don't get your money back, it's a public service.

2/8     When do we usually get the 1099-INT from PayPal? It's already
        February and I still don't have mine.
        \_ If you got less than $10 in interest, you don't get a 1099-INT.
           But since PayPal is a money market fund, it's probably a
           1099-DIV. I'm not sure what the rules are on that.

10/12   Awesome.   http://csua.org/u/jq0
        \_ What is awesome about Limbaugh trying to rewrite history?
           He tries to do that all the time.

10/3    Paypal is paying 5.21% interest rate, much higher than my
        checking/savings/money market accounts. It's a little less than
        my CDs (Countrywide and Indymac at 5.50%), but it's very liquid
        and very convenient.  \_ Paypal also has an ichy trigger finger
        about locking down
           accounts for fraud, and gets around banking regulations by
           just saying "we aren't a bank".  If you trust a large chunk
           of money to paypal you are a fool.  \_ They have my bank
           account numbers. Am I screwed?
              \_ Probably not, but it does mean if someone does a
                 chargeback you may have the money yanked from your bank.
        \_ Paypal also has an ichy trigger finger about locking down
           accounts for fraud, and gets around banking regulations by
           just saying "we aren't a bank".  If you trust a large chunk
           of money to paypal you are a fool.
           \_ They have my bank account numbers. Am I screwed?
              \_ Probably not, but it does mean if someone does a
                 chargeback you may have the money yanked from your bank.
        \_ http://www.paypalsucks.com for other people's (a lot of them) anecdotal
           evidence on why you shouldn't trust paypal.
           \_ if you're too lazy to read http://paypalsucks.com, the basic summary
              is that PayPal can and will lock you out of your account for
              whatever reason they want and you can't do anything about it
              because they are not regulated like a bank. Your money would
              be safer if you shoved it under your matress.
        \_ http://www.paypalsucks.com for other people's (a lot of them)
        anecdotal
           evidence on why you shouldn't trust paypal.  \_ if you're
           too lazy to read http://paypalsucks.com, the basic summary
              is that PayPal can and will lock you out of your account
              for whatever reason they want and you can't do anything
              about it because they are not regulated like a bank. Your
              money would be safer if you shoved it under your matress.
        \_ you get the extra return for not being insured by the FDIC?

11/01   PayPal got bombed.
        http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_305004735.html
        \_ Anyone surprised?
        \_ obNegativeFeedbackJoke
        \_ PayPal - Someone set up us the Bomb!
           Google Checkout - All your bucks are belong to us!

11/1    PayPal got bombed.

9/27    I bought something on ebay (~45). I paid and had few email
        exchange with the socialist seller. But he still hasn't shipped it. I
        haven't heard from him for 2 days. The seller has 180 ratings
        and it was all good. Is this norm? Should I wait longer? At
        which point should I leave nasty feedbacks? This thing is so
        cheap it seems silly to risk a rating... Thx. -ebay newbie
        \_ I would write him an e-mail every day.  If after two weeks you still
           haven't gotten a response, or after three weeks you haven't gotten
           it, assume you got screwed.  Do not delay too much beyond this,
           since there are timers on reporting screw-ups that cheaters exploit.
           \_ Thanks! I just got a response with the tracking info, so
              looks like my first ebay purchase is preceeding
              normally. Phew!
        \_ 2 days isn't that odd.
        \_ 2 days isn't that odd.  If I don't hear from someone in
           a week is when I'd get nervous on ebay.  (The worst I had
           was 4 days, which yeah wasn't as fast as I'd like but wasn't
           that big of a deal.)

9/25    Property for sale on eBay, great view, bit of a commute:
        http://csua.org/u/h02

4/1     A 1st Folio is up for auction in July:
        http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1743711,00.html

3/13    Who here works at eBay? I have a question WRT feedback policies.
        I hate to do this because my eBay rating is over 100+ and 100%
        positive rating so far-- A newbie buyer on eBay has been harrassing
        me because he's unhappy with an item he bought even though I stated
        clearly what the item is (he didn't read). Now he's asking for full
        refund WITH his shipping as well, and cussing and getting really
        childish about it. Ideally I'd like to warn the rest of the community
        members by giving him a bad feedback. The feedback policy says you
        have 60 days to give a feedback, does that mean you can't give a
        feedback at exactly the 61th day? If so, I'd like to give him a
        bad feedback on the 60th day so that by the time he sees it, he
        can't retaliate anymore.
        \_ ah, feedback sniping.

1/26    Have a Paypal interview. any experience on what to expect?
        also have online preliminary test..
        \_ http://www.paypalsucks.com  The way a company treats their customers
           says something about the kind of people in management.  But good
           luck on the interview.
          \_ thanks.. i told them i am no longer interested..
             \_ wow... picky.  should just go in to get the offer leverage.
             \_ Wow.  You could have at least gone in for the interview
                and asked them about the stuff on http://paypalsucks.com, which
                might have been interesting.

9/14    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050913/od_nm/philippines_imelda_dc
        Imelda Marco is ok with being guilty but she will not allow the
        government to sell her precious jewelries.

9/2     I'm selling something on ebay, and I just got this as a question
        from a possible buyer: "dear seller i viewed ur item at ebay and
        i developed and i want to know may be this item is in good
        condition and i want tell that if you ready please mail me ASAP"
        Anyone have a guess at a translation?
        \_ How is this?
           "[D]ear seller,
            [I] viewed [your] item [on] ebay and [I] developed [an interest
            in it] ... [I] want to know ... [if] this item is in good
            condition ...
            [I] want to tell you that [I will buy it from you] if
            you [are] ready [to sell it to me directly].
            [P]lease [e]mail me ASAP."
            \_ finally, someone who understands language
            \_ [PS: I am a hot Vietnamese chick who will show up in person
                to buy your item. I will wear my slutty outfit so you will
                sell it to me cheap, but then my boyfriend will show up so
                you will become sexually frustrated. We will laugh at you
                afterwards.]
        \_ I got this reply from my car ad on craigslist.  "Hi my name is
           Katrina and Im interested in ur integra. I was wondering where
           are u located. Im located in San Jose California. Let me noe
           wassup. Thanks =)".  Turns out Katrina is this uber-hot Vietnamese
           chick.  Pity she came to look at the car with her dad.
           \_ You won't date a chick who has a father?  What?
              \_ I wasn't about to date her.  She doesn't write well, and I
                 do have standards.  However, I would have cut her a deal on
                 the car in exchange for services rendered.
                 \_ Wow, you're vile.
                 \_ Just say you can't bring yourself to date a "Katrina"
                    right now.
                 \_ So you only date English majors who write perfectly in
                    emails to ebay sellers?  And hookers who would put out
                    for a used car discount.  Yes, you have standards.  Not
                    very good standards, but standards.
                    \_ What do you have against a consensual business
                       transaction between 2 adults?
                       \_ Who said I did?
                       \_ that particular service can't form the basis
                          of a business transaction in 49 states.
                    \_ You really need to work on your reading comprehension.
                       \_ Whatever.  My post is on target.  If you'd like to
                          make a specific correction, please do.
                          \_ craigslist != ebay.  Like I said, your reading
                             comprehension needs work.
                             \_ and that somehow makes what I said off base?
                                maybe you have a better point to make and
                                would like to try again?  or better yet, just
                                give your car to some hooker.  whatever.

6/20    I just got my Citibank with unlimited One Time Virtual Number that I
        can use and dispose. Does this mean I can now create many eBay
        accounts?

6/30    http://csua.com/?entry=33887
        \_ I applied for the PayPal settlement and today I got my
           paycheck. $13.59. It's about time big corporations pay
           for their incompetent and inconvenience to us little
           guy. It is my pleasure to cash in $13.59. Fuck you Paypal.

6/23    Lunch with Warren Buffet to be auctioned off on Ebay starting today:
        http://www.forbes.com/facesinthenews/2005/06/15/0615autofacescan02.html

6/15    George Bush bust/sculpture on eBay for only $4300. "...the artist
        commenced sculpting on September 14, 2001 in order to capture the
        strength and determination that are required to lead our nation.":
        http://tinyurl.com/8l7ez

6/10    For the fellow who bought the bad ram a week or two ago and was
        bitching or moaning about how it had an "as is" disclaimer
        on it buried somewhere on the product description on ebay,
        you can still take the guy to court on the basis that the
        disclaimer was not conspicious.
        \_ Just contact EBay complaint resolution service. Much cheaper
           than a lawsuit and just as likely to get you satisfaction.

6/2     Help. I purchased 2 RAM modules from eBay, and the listing says
        "These units were pulled from a Compaq Proliant Server being
        stripped for parts and are in excellent condition." At the same
        time, it says "Item sold as is." When I got the RAM they have a
        strong burnt smell, and just as I feared, they don't work on ANY
        of my motherboards. I contacted the seller and he says sold
        "AS IS." This guy is dishonest. I feel jipped. Can I actually do
        something to remedy this, besides giving negative feedbacks? Does
        dispute resolution actually work on eBay?
        \- you can set up throw away accounts and mess with his future
           auctions. --psb
           \_ I thought about that but I don't have throw-away credit cards
              required by eBay. Come on, isn't that kind of childish?
              \- you can try googlebombing him then.
                 if you cancel a CC does ebay find out about it?
                 \_ oh, googlebombing, I'm sure the seller is SCARED!!! OOOO
        \_ Skipping all the mumbo jumbo about legality and what not,
           if it came from Proliant, I'd guess that they're registered
           DIMMs.  What kind of motherboards are you putting them into?
           Most consumer boards don't support registered memory.
        \- You can resort to credit card dispute resolution service.
           that has worked for me 3-4 times. dunno how that will work
           in this case [assuming you paid via paypal].
        \_ Isn't that totally the point of AS IS? What you should look
           for is a "DOA guarantee". "As Is" means "buyer beware".
           \_ Unless the post said that they were working, it's your
              fault.  I always avoid "AS IS."
                \_ Excellent condition would imply working.  The seller
                   probably had no clue if they worked or not and didn't
                   want to test them out.  The seller is just covering his
                   ass, he should refund you your money but he doesn't have
                   to since it was "as is".
                   \- i do agree that if you didnt even bother to ask
                      the seller "did you even try to verify it is working
                      or do you have no idea" the fault is yours.
                      a nice seller out to refund minus shipping maybe
                      but ethical and legal obligations diverge ...
           \_ I honestly didn't see the as is claim. Looking back, it's
              embedded in a very small print, "Seller's payment instructions
              Please see item description Item sold as is." It's a run-on
              sentence too. Argh, not happy about this.
        \_ Based on what I remember from contracts (and a quick search
           on lexis), "as is" effectively cuts off any liability the
           seller may have had.
           \- the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
              i doubt you have any legal recourse that makes sense to
              pursue. it's a matter of cost-benefit now ... i.e. is a
              bad review worth the money to the seller, how much time
              do you want to spend on this being an asspain etc.
              \_ Actually OP says that the "as is" clause was in the
                 small print which he didn't really see. This may
                 change things.
                 iirc, a statement that the ram is in "excellent
                 condition" could be viewed as an affirmative
                 representation of the quality.  Even in used
                 goods, this can give rise to a limited warranty.
                 If OP had seen or should have seen the "as is"
                 statement then the warranty would be waived, but
                 if OP couldn't have seen or had no reason to see
                 the "as is" statement, then the warranty may not
                 be waived. Contracts wasn't my best subject so
                 I could be a bit off here.
                 I agree that it isn't worth bringing a case in
                 small claims ct over this, but OP might have a
                 valid claim.
                 \- as you know even if he gets a small claims judgement
                    he will never get the sheriff to go collect for him.
                    how much money are we talking about anyway? what is
                    LOCATION of seller etc.
        \_ My location is CA, his location is WI. Cost is $40. I can spend
           $30 on small claims+serve, plus $600 plane ticket. I don't mind
           doing in on the basis of PRINCIPLE. That motherfucker needs
           to learn a lesson. On the other hand, it may be just as
           worthwhile to create eBay accounts, win, then give him bad
           ratings. The second option looks very tempting so far. How do
           I go about creating disposable eBay accounts? And will they
           affect my existing accounts?                         -op
           seller may have had. If you had asked him if the ram worked
           and he had said yes, you might be able to rescind the sale.
           Absent this, you can't really do much other than give him
           negative feedback and maybe annoy him by calling him up
           randomly and leaving irate messages on his voice mail.
              i doubt you have any legal recourse. it's a matter of
              cost-benefit now ... i.e. is a bad review worth the
              money to the seller, how much time do you want to spend
              on this being a pain in the ass etc.
           \- you may wish to read Martin Amis: The Information
           \_ The eBay way to handle this is to request a refund, and if denied
              leave negative feedback to the effect that he knew he was selling
              burnt-out goods.  He will either leave a negative feedback on
              you, or negoriate to get you to withdraw your feedback in
              exchange for a partial refund.

5/23    So, I'm curious. With all the risks associated with using Paypal,
        why do people do it? If you don't think there are risks, try
        contacting a real person at customer support sometime. The contact
        isn't even an 800 number.
        \_ I have never had a problem and I have used it for five years
           for all my EBay purchases. It makes both paying and accepting
           EBay payments very easy. Why don't you just use email?
           \_ So far, I've not found anything that emails to a real person.
              Please divulge.
              \_ Yeah, so far all my emails just seem to go to a very
                 complex eliza program.
                 \_ Why do you say your emails just seem to go to a very
                    complex eliza program?
                    \_ You sound like M-x doctor.
                       \_ Your emacs fu is weak, young padawan.
                       \_ Earlier you said you are only truly alive
                          when you are covered in polka dots and taco
                          sauce?
                       \_ Are you sure?
                          \_ Ahh!  M-x kill-buffer

4/1     What is a good alternative to paypal for selling stuff on ebay?
        It must be able to take international payment.
        \_ Small, unmarked non-sequential bills. E-Gold. Western Union.
           What are you trying to do, commit fraud or become the victim
           of it?

2/23    Someone please explain this eBay bidding pattern to me.  It looks to
        me this guy's just bidding against himself, raising the second-highest
        bid and the amount he has to pay.  Is there's any game-theory
        explanation for this behavior?
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $699.99      Feb-20-05 13:14:34 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $699.00      Feb-20-05 13:14:24 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $698.00      Feb-20-05 13:14:14 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $690.00      Feb-20-05 13:13:57 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $680.00      Feb-20-05 13:13:43 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $675.00      Feb-20-05 13:13:04 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $650.00      Feb-20-05 13:11:47 PST
        lizard81081 ( 7 )       US $625.00      Feb-20-05 13:11:29 PST
        l.mohamed ( 3 )         US $600.00      Feb-20-05 13:06:09 PST
        l.mohamed ( 3 )         US $550.00      Feb-20-05 13:05:28 PST
        joe8730 ( 3 )           US $522.00      Feb-20-05 09:43:28 PST
        \_ What was the winning bid? It should have been $625. I think you
           can raise your highest bid even if you're the highest bidder.
           So the guy winning at 2/20 13:11:29 with a bid of $625, and
           thought to himself the bidding might go higher than his current
           high bid, so he kept upping it. Why he did it incremently so much
           is dumb.
           \_ The winning bid was $699.99.  See why I'm confused?
              I just had an idea.  If there was a very high reserve price,
              the winner may have been probing for it so that the he'd win the
              item, even if nobody else was willing to pay reserve.
        \_ What was the eBay item #?
        \_ It's pretty simple.  On ebay, if an item has two matching bids,
           then the item goes to the earlier bidder.  You can also state
           the highest bid you're willing to make when you initially bid, and
           let it bid for you automatically if someone else bids higher than
           your current bid.  It looks like what happened here is that
           lizard81081 placed a bid when l.mohamed was the current high bidder,
           and told ebay he was willing to go as high as <some number at least
           $699.99>.  Ebay took that as an initial bid of $600.  Someone else
           attempted to bid $625, but lizard81081 was willing to go that high,
           and had the earlier bid, so ebay upped his bid and kept him as the
           high bidder.  This happened several times, but the other bidder
           never went past the highest bid lizard81081 is willing to make.
           The highest bid won't go to another bidder until that bidder makes
           a bid higher than lizard81081's highest possible bid.
           \_ Uh, if that were the case, then why aren't the opposing bids
              listed?  The theory about probing for reserve price makes more
              sense.
              \_ Because they aren't actual bids.  The earlier bidder that was
                 willing to go higher already pwned the prospective bidder.
                 \_ I don't think that's how it works.  I think *all* bids
                    are recorded.
                    \_ nope. pp is right.
                       \_ not disagreeing with you, but I always wondered
                          why eBay doesn't list the competing bids that
                          triggered an automatic re-bid
           \_ So someone is probing for Lizard's highest bid, but finally
              gave up?
              \_ It's more accurate to say they wanted to outbid Lizard with
                 the smallest margin necessary, or, just gave up when the
                 amount was too high.  If the auction ended 10 seconds later,
                 it's possible the second bidder just ran out of time.
                 \_ Couldn't he have bid $1000 and it would automatically
                    win w/ the smallest margin necessary? Or... just bid the
                    maximum he's willing to pay, which will result in him
                    either not getting the item or getting it w/ the smallest
                    margin necessary.
                    \_ Your psychological maximum changes over time.
                       It may be that after you win it, you regret it.
                       People are not perfectly predictable.

2/15    I bought a DVD from this guy on eBay and it turns out to be a DVD
        copy. It has no cover, and the DVD label is printed with an ink
        jet printer (it smears). What's the best way to get my money back?
        Should I confront with the seller, or report it to eBay authority
        which I know will take more than 3 months to resolve? I've been
        screwed before and eBay never seemed to care about it so I'm
        hesitant to report it at all...
        \_ How did you pay him? If you were smart and paid by credit card,
           you can get your credit card company to deny the charge.
        \_ Is it a good copy?  Do you really really care about the booklet
           and case, or does the principle of it just make you mad?  If it's
           the latter, tell eBay and the FBI and whoever else is listed on
           that warning at the beginning of the movie.  Otherwise, just
           watch & enjoy.  -John
           \_ um, if it a collector's item like XYZ Trilogy or Quad Set or
              something like that, I'd be really really pissed. Also it is
              just plain wrong to misrepresent. In addition it is ILLEGAL
              and against the law to duplicate copyrighted materials.
              and against the law to duplicate copyrighted materials and then
              sell it for profit.
              \_ Of course it's illegal, but that's not the point.  He/she/it
                 is obviously aggrieved by the probably impossibility of
                 getting anything done about it (isn't using your SSN to
                 identify you anywhere illegal by US law?  Ever tried arguing
                 about that with someone?)  I'm just making a pragmatic
                 suggestion.  Point taken about the collector stuff though.
              \_ By U.S. law, as soon as I create anything it's copyrighted by
                 default.  That includes this post, and I do *not* give you
                 permission to copy it onto your computer in order to read the
                 motd.  So fuck you.
                        \_ You're so dumb. You post to the motd specifically
                           for the reason of other people reading your post,
                           which is only possible if your worthless post is
                           copied to my computer. So fuck you. Hope your job
                           gets outsourced to India.
                           \_ No.  I post exclusively for profit.  You and
                              your fellow communist thieves with no respect
                              for intellectual property are undermining my
                              business model.  Pay up, bitch.
              \_ Wow, is it high being up on that horse?
              \_ No it isn't.  In this particular case, yes, but in general
                 there is this thing you need to consider called fair use.
                 \_ Fair use doesn't include "sell for profit". kthxbye
                    \_ Brush up your reading comprehension.  I already said
                       that it was illegal in this case.  And the "... and
                       then sell it for profit" part of the parent post was
                       added later.
        \_ Tell the seller you know it's a pirate copy and say you're willing
           to ship it back to him and leave positive feedback in exchange for
           a full refund including all shipping costs.  Don't threaten to narc
           on him to eBay/FBI/MPAA because that will make him angry/scared
           and defensive.  You might want to phrase is as "you may not have
           known that you're offering bootleg merchandise but...".  If he
           starts acting like a dick, denying a full refund or threatening you
           with negative feedback, then it's time to narc him out.

2/2     I received an email ostensibly from http://paypal.com, saying that my account
        has been flagged and asked me to verify my info at 210.221.194.*
        I find it very suspicious and I am not sure if I really had a paypal
        register under that email addr?  Is this real or just phishing?
        How could I tell in general?
        \_ It's a scam. I've had this happen to me for various banks to which
           I do not hold an account to. For example, if it was CitiBank they
           would ask you to go to a site called <DEAD>citibanksecurity.com<DEAD> or
           something like that where they would ask you to enter your
           username, password, and bank account number. But if you try to
           resolve citibanksecurity, or whatever fictitious name they use,
           it would resolve to something else.
        \_ Seconded that it's a scam.  If you want to assure yourself, look at
           the HTML source of the email.  Look at the actual link target.  If
           it goes to a dotted-decimal IP, HTML-secape-code address,
           <DEAD>paypal.com.something-else.com<DEAD>, <DEAD>paypal-something-else.com<DEAD>, or
           http://paypal.com@something-else.com you know it's bogus.  If you have to
           assuage your fears that it might be legit, delete the email and
           manually type in http://www.paypal.com and log in to your account like
           normal.  If they actually have a message for you you should see it
           then.  But it's definitely a scam.
        \_ Scam.  Paypal promises that they will never send you an email
           with a link in it.  No other financial institution should do
           this either.
           \_ Another useful tip specific to paypal is that the real paypal
              mail will always address you by your name, and never as "Dear
              Paypal User."

1/19    Thinking of changing jobs.  I asked about this before but my post
        got trolled.  And I won't post my name for obvious reasons.  I'm
        interested in a position at Ebay or Apple.  I heard the bonuses
        at Ebay are pretty good.  How about Apple?  Any current employees
        would like to comment on the salary/bonus and general atmosphere?
        Thanks.
        \_ If you get married Steve Jobs has the right of first opportunity.
           \_ It's called Prima Noctis.  Ugh.  Ignorant savages all of you.
           \_ That was the case when my pixar-employee friend got married!
           \_ What does it mean?
          \_ During feudal times, the feudal lord had jus prima noctis,
             the "right of the first night" with the brides of any of his serfs.
              \_ During feudal times, the feudal lord had jus prima
                 noctis, the "right of the first night" with the
                 brides of any of his serfs.
                 \_ Wow! Better than the emperors in ancient China!
                    \_ Yep, that's so fucking uncivilized.
                       \_ It makes me want to rally the Scots and take on
                          the King of England!
                          \_ It's good to be the king!
                 \_ It never happened.  Just a story.

1/7     My parents were recently burgaled.  How good are most pawn shops at
        keeping an eye out for (easily identified) stolen goods?
        \_ hahahahaha
           \_ I didn't know Nelson Muntz was a CSUA member.
        \_ Decent, they have to be.  But these days the fence of choice is
           ebay.  Get with the times.
           \_ while you are on ebay, get a uv-light pen
           \_ Oh, I'm already watching eBay and craigslist -op

12/7    Anybody here work at Ebay/Paypal or have friends that work there?
         I'm interested in applying for a position.  I've heard rumors that
         they don't give out a lot of stock options but that their bonus
         plan is pretty good.  How about their base salary?   How about
         working hours?   This is for a senior position.  Thanks.
         \_ sign your post?  Come on man.
            \- it seems like this is the kind of post that is reasonably
               anonymous ... may not want employer to know about application
               etc. --psb

11/7    Please explain why people who paid too much for items on eBay
        deserve restitution? If the price got too high they should have
        pulled out. I have been to real-live antique auctions and they
        have no qualms about telling you that there may be bidders working
        for the auction house - same as poker players in Vegas. Never bid
        more than it's worth to you. I don't see the illegality here.
        \_ Uhm, no. It is generally breach of contract
           to have agents of the auctioneer
           to be competing for bidding on goods. The Universal Commercial
           Code, adopted by the majority of states and highly persuasive
           in Federal Courts has a specific subsection on this. Essentially
           Ebay can get sued in any of the fifty states plus Federal Courts
           by its customers. In fact, if this were to actually happen it
           would be grounds for a very large class action lawsuit. In addition,
           certain states have specific statutes derived from the UCC
           that specifically prohibit this practice. This has been a
           very classic case in contract law. -williamc
           \_ As an aside, I believe it's also specifically against eBay's
              terms of use.  -John
           \_ Having been to auctions I can tell you that it is common
              for there to be bidders working for a salary. I don't recall
              if they work for the auctioneer or the owners of the items,
              but they exist and they inform you of their existence.
              Besides, no one put a gun to these people's heads and made
              them pay more than they wanted to!
        \_ what the heck are you talking about?
           \- i think part of what one discovers in an ebay auction is
              the secondary mkt price. if this is artificially inflated,
              people make false assumptions about what they really are
              paying for something. maybe a paperback is $8new, but the
              resale value at moes is $2 cash or $3 credit ... well then
              the new cost of the books is really $5-6 [if you live in
              berkeley]. now say moe's sells it for $5 used ... if you
              for some reason believe you can re-sell it for $4, then you
              may over pay since you are only willin to really spend $1
              on it, but you are actually paying $2-3. on ebay if you
              raised you bid on something from $15 to $17 after somebody
              else bids $16, you reasonably assume "if i want to sell this
              the day after i win, i know there is somebody willing to
              pay $16 out there". if you paid too much because of the
              non-manipulated winners curse ... well too bad [like people
              who buy a piece of camera equipment or a dvd they could have
              gotten new from amazon or bhphoto fro $1 more. --psb
              \_ I meant why is the OP even discussing this?  Is someone
                 suing or charging eBay with something?  url?
                 \_ Read the news once in a while.
                    \_ I searched slashdot and http://news.com for recent articles
                       about eBay.  I didn't see anything related.
                       \_ There's a story on it on cbs. Slashdot isn't exactly
                          news. The story is pretty easy to find.

10/18   Has anyone been a victim of ebay fraud?
        \_ Yes, although it was for shipping costs rather than the full
           price of the item.  Sold $600 of records to a buyer in the UK.
           Shipping was over $200.  He sent me a "FedEx id number" that the
           FedEx driver accepted, but which later turned out to be fraudulent.
           I was later charged the full amount for shipping and threatened with
           collections if I did not pay up.  The buyer disappeared, and since
           I had already given him "good feedback" for his payment of the
           goods cost, I couldn't ding him through the feedback system.
           Ebay was COMPLETELY unresponsive on this issue, and I have heard
           *very bad things* about their response to fraud issues.
           \_ If I were selling $600 stuff on ebay, I'd have required buyers
              w/ excellent feedbacks only.  What was that guys's feedback?
              \_ Uniformly excellent.
                 \_ Isn't this a special case of the 'collusion problem'
                    Google's trying to solve?  -- ilyas
                    \_ Not necessarily.  This guy got ripped off but has
                       now joined the others who gave positive feedback.
                       \_ Right.  Lesson learned: don't give any feedback
                          until ALL costs are sorted out, and never believe
                          that a FedEx or UPS account number is real until
                          double checking. --ripped off guy.
           \_ Is there some credit-reporting agency in the UK you can talk to
              to shit all over this guy's credit?
        \_ I have. Bought an item and similar (but less valuable) item was
           shipped in return. I took it as a loss. I had very many good
           experiences also, but I am thinking fraud is more common now
           than it was when I used eBay more heavily (5-6 years ago).
        \_ I was indirectly.  A company I briefly worked for had a service
           where you could buy a money order with a credit card and have it
           mailed to a purchaser (to allow eBay buyers to pay with a money
           order).  When I heard about this my immediate reaction was something
           like "Um, isn't this a huge risk?".  The next month we lost $5000 in
           charge-backs from people who didn't get their purchases.  They all
           bought from the same seller who did good business for 4 years and
           then moved to Turkey.  Oh yeah, when I heard about this I looked at
           the seller's address and recognized it as the International House.

8/12    Oh great, google auction to begin on Friday the 13th, haha.
        \_ not funny, I'm being forced to file tomorrow :P (summer filing
           deadline)

7/28    Are you going to do anything about the Paypal Class Action Suit?
        \_ URL?
           \_ http://www.paypal.com/settlement

7/23    scamming the scammer. a powerbook eBay prank. hilarious
        http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook
        \_ Old but still f-f-f-funny
        \_ I had not seen this. It is damn funny, the response from ebay had
           me rolling because I have gotten analogous letters when reporting
           specific problems to companies.  (of course it pissed me off like
           mad at the time, but it is funny when it happens to others!) -phuqm
        \_ so what happened to Jeff? Did he get killed by the computer
           mafia?

5/24    Richard Biggs (played Dr. Franklin on Babylon 5) died this week at age
        41 (unknown cause--likely a massive stroke or aneurysm).  He leaves
        behind a wife and two children.  There are auctions on eBay to go to
        memorial fund: http://tinyurl.com/2az5w
        Donations can be made by PayPal:
        PayPal Account:  RBiggsMemorial@aol.com
        \_ This makes news on the motd vs. Alistair Cook's passing a couple
           months previous?
           \_ Most sodans never heard his "Letters From America" off BBC News.
           \_ A sudden death of a young person is always more news.
        \_ Why does an actor's family need donations?
           \_ Well, he's not a big time rich actor.  I suppose they aren't
              doing much better than middle class.  Although why you'd
              want to donate money for ANYONE's funeral, I don't know.
              \_ It's a Japanese tradition to contribute funds to offset the
                 costs of a funeral for a relative or close associate; It's
                 called "koden".  Not that Biggs' family is Japanese, but
                 there's precedent.  In Western funerals, people send 50-100
                 dollars of flowers, why not send money to help pay for the
                 casket instead or for the costs of burial/cremation?

5/6     i am shopping for digital camera's battery.  where is a good
        reputable place to get it?  i looked at ebay.  the prices are
        attractive but i don't want my battery to explode and damage
        my camera.
        \_ i just went to fry's to buy a spare for my canon s45
        \_ ebay, fry's, amazon, http://bhphotovideo.com

2/17    Want to buy an F18 at ebay?
        http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/17/jet.fighter.ap/index.html
        \_ http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3079057375&category=4672

1/14    Anybody have problems with having given their checking acc't info to
        EBay in order to sell stuff?
        \_ Yes, especially considering this:
                Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
                Content-Location: http://ebay.com/index.html
        \_ I did it about a year ago and so far no problems. -ausman

1/7     Don't EVER, EVER, EVER send money order to any seller on eBay. eBay
        has absolutely no control of anything and does not make refund when
        you're screwed. I learned it from the hard way.
        \_ ebay has no fraud department? i'm shocked.
        \_ use a credit card, sucker!
        \_ details?
        \_ Uhm, duh?  Next you'll be telling us that PayPal has fucked you
           over, too.  Ebay's policy is online and you can read the PayPal
           policy at http://paypalsucks.com
        \_ Especially if the seller's address is the International House.  I
           worked for 6 mos. at a company that (unbelievably) took credit card
           orders, purchased money orders and sent them to sellers--with no
           item escrow (oh, and that was the side business, not anything I
           worked on).  One seller from IHouse (I recognized the address when
           it was being passed around the office) legitimately sold
           electronics for 3-4 years, and then skipped town (to Turkey) after
           taking $10,000 in payments and shipping nothing.  Last I heard, the
           FBI is getting into it, but the company basically got
           screwed--credit card payments got reversed even though we performed
           the service (because the buyer didn't receive the product).  Did I
           mention how quickly I went to another job?  [formatd]
           \_ I'm confused.  What role did your company play in this?
              \_ The buyer purchased a money order from us using a credit card.
                 We (well, not me) then sent the money order to the seller.
                 Scary, eh?
                 \_ Is that company still around?  I'd like to do some
                    business with them.
                    \_ That part of the business is closed.  The other part (the
                       part I worked on) is doing quite well.
        \_ so what's the safest method of payment on eBay? Is it this order?
           dangerous|  cash->MO->check->paypal->credit card   |SAFE
           \_ I'd send cash in a clear plastic envelope before I used PayPal.
              http://paypalsucks.com
        \_ Watch 'Catch Me If You Can', good movie
        \_ Don't buy stuff on eBay unless you're willing to risk being
           ripped off, or willing to pay for escrow.  Also, the buyer
           should pick the escrow company.  There are a number of cases of
           crooked sellers reccomending fake escrow companies.

12/15   What's your experience with CheckFree?  Better than paypal?
        \_ they seem like apples and oranges.
            \_ that's basically what i was about to say.
            \_ Ok my question was silly.  I won a bid on ebay and both paypal
               and checkfree are payment options.  Which one should I choose
               and why?  I lack experience with both.

11/26   Given that most ebay transactions I see assume a paypal transaction
        is one basically writing off ebay transactions if one is too leery of
        PayPal's Terms of Service to use them? I can imagine a rule of thumb to
        the effect of: "Use paypal for no larger an amount than you are willing
        to simply kiss away to bad luck." IMHO http://paypalsucks.org does not address
        this issue very well.
        \_ I see very few eBay sellers who require PayPal only.  You can always
           mail a check or money order, although it is slower.
        \_ know of any alternatives for free low-volume fund transfers?
           \_ Isn't using the PayPal bank withdrawal feature free?
                \_ Yeah, for personal accounts. I'm wondering if there
                   is an alternative service that is also free.
              \_ Given their behavior with people's credit card accounts,
                 I would not give paypal that kind of access to my non-credit
                 accounts but YMMV.

7/8     YAPayPalScam: http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2232421
        \_ anyone using paypal at this point deserves what they get.

3/31    http://news.com.com/2100-1018-994810.html
        The patriot act at work.
        \_ You realize the patriot act was first introduced by the
           Clinton administration in 95-96 by Janet Reno, right?
           \_ who cares who introduced it?  (Although I would like
              to see documentation on that claim, it would be interesting)

3/2     Is there a site that specialized in back issue magazines?  I tried
        searching on Ebay but can't find it.  No, I'm not looking for porn
        I'm looking for an old issue of Worth magazine about land owners in
        the U.S.  Thanks.
        \_ I recommend the library for non porn.
        \_ Lemme know if you find out.  I'm looking for a Playboy or something,
           which my HS spanish teacher was allegedly in.
           \_ What year?  I've got 1965 or so until 1985 or so.  What's her
              name?
              \_ Are there any CSUAers who went to high school in 1985?
                 Seriously.
                 \_ psb.
              \_ Yes, tell us. I find the idea of your HS Spanish teacher
                 posing nude to be really hot. --aaron
                 \_ But she's probably not asian.
                    \_ Funny, Alberto Fujimori is asian and speaks
                       Spanish, but then, no one would want him to
                       pose for Playboy.
              \_ Just google her name. You'll find the truth then...
        \_ if you are just looking for an article or articles, there are
           many search engines for this type of thing... check the ucb
           library website
        \_ I'm looking to BUY the back issues.  This is not the only one
           I'm looking for.  Library or just getting the article won't work
           for me.  I'd think the ebay would have it.  Apparently not.
           This is a niche market waiting for some dropout to go after!
           \_ Not really. Shelf time for most magazines can be counted in
              months not years. If you want back issues, check with the
              publishers or the magazine themselves directly. You may be
              paying a slight premimum, but it's not much.

10/24   Anyone works at eBay?  I have a technical interview with them
        and would like to know in advance on what type of questions might
        be asked.
        \_ All your base are belong to us!
        \_ Just be arrogant, like say "If you're asking questions like that,
        you must really be desperate!" Or, "are you serious?" Even better,
        before you agree to go in, tell them you've been offered every job
        you've interviewed for, and are therefore requesting a technical test
        via email before conceding to a in-person interview, to make it worth
        your while. Worked for me. Wtf could ebay possible need anyway? None
        your while. Worked for me. Wtf could ebay possibly need anyway? None
        of this is rocket science.

9/24    Does anyone here have any experience with purchasing used laptops
        on the Internet? If so, care to suggest a reliable site for it? Tnx.
        \_ I do.  eBay
           \_ I did fine with ebay - found a vendor in New England that does
              high volume (hundreds of postive feedbacks) and sells thinkpads
              with service contracts good for another 9-12 months. -jor
           \_ Reliable?
              \_ Strictly speaking, it claimed to be a cancelled order (I didn't
                 care--it had the right specs for the right price).  It works
                 great.  The seller's rating was over 200, with nary a negative
                 comment, and he'd been selling for 2-3 years.
                 \_ I wish I had a link to the guy who had a 6300 rating, was
                    selling since 1997 and then skipped town with $300k stolen
                    from ebay.  It was in the SF Comical last week.
                    \_ Part of the research is checking what other auctions
                       someone is running.  If they suddenly have a lot of big
                       ticket items for sale and didn't before, you should be
                       concerned.  If that's the case I'm thinking of, it's old
                       news, and the ripped-off people formed a community to go
                       after him.  I haven't seen the full outcome for that guy,
                       but I know they ID'ed him and turned at least some of
                       their info in to the FBI.
                       \_ Ok, you're really smart, you'll never get ripped off
                          at ebay, you're right, I'm wrong.  Good luck.
                    \_ I work at an eBay-related company, and we just had a
                       person scam $5K worth of auctions this way (in $200-$500
                       increments).  The funny part?  He lived in the I-House,
                       and is now at home in Turkey.  The FBI is investigating.
                       He was likely an international student just finishing up
                       his time in Berkeley--going out with a bang.
        \_ Mac or PC?
           \_ Duh.  No one uses Macs.  No one with any sense anyway.
              \_ S00ry, I f0rg07 that B5D i5n'7 1337.
                 \_ BSD good.  Mac bad.  Why pay extra for Apple hardware?
                    There's *nothing* special or unique about it.  Go run BSD
                    on x86 hardware at 1/3rd the price.
        \_ I bought a used Vaio on eBay (in the box, w/ all orig packaging,
           etc) and it worked out fine. The guy was even in China or something.
           A friend however bought a PowerBook from some guy in Vietnam and
           never got the box after he mailed the money.
           The lesson here: buy PC's not MAcs of course... er, buy from China
           not Vietnam? I dunno... interpret the results as you will.
           \_ Ebay: roll the dice and get lucky sometimes.
              \_ Do your research and don't get burned.
                 \_ You can *always* get burned on ebay.  Plenty of people got
                    taken in ebay ripoffs by people with great ratings.  You're
                    not super smart, just lucky not to get burned... yet.
        \_ bought mine on ebay. it was traumatic, but I eventually got it.
           only buy from someone with spotless feedback. better yet, only use
           escrow or COD.
           \_ What are some good escrow companies?
           \_ I thought escrow companies are only for buying/selling real
              estates.
              \_ Check out escrow.ca or http://escrow.com.

5/22    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1733878304
         \_ Hey, yermom has the highest bid!

12/19   http://www.y2khai.com  damn ph00ny!

12/8    http://www.paypalwarning.com/Default.htm
        \_ I'm not a paypal user however I did read a critique of this site
           which claims there's tons of lies on it.  Do your own research.
           Just because you read it on the net (or god forbid, the motd) does
           not mean it is true.

7/1     Anyone know where I can sell all my used computer books?
        \_ ebay, amazon, deanza/college bookstores, used-book-stores
           in Berkeley/SF, .market newsgroups

4/30    What's a good eBay/PayPal alternative? Thanks.
        \_ The bank and your local garage sale.

2/6     Anyone know a restaurant that accepts PayPal?
        \_ paypal is dead
           \_ Why do you say PayPal is dead?  It appears to be doing quite
              well, especially with some of their latest deals with other
              companies.

10/24   What is the absolute cutoff time to leave a feedback for a user on
        eBay? A stupid seller is refusing payment, eBay is not doing
        anything about it, and if I leave a negative feedback right now
        I will surely get one back. To protect myself I'd like to leave
        a negative feedback a few hours before the cutoff so that he cannot
        retaliate. But what is the cutoff time?
        \_ http://pages.ebay.com/services/forum/feedback.html

10/13   I remeber seeing a saved page somwehere of a class of first
        graders being sold on eBay. It was kind of sick yet funny.
        Anyone have a link? This reminded me of it:
        <DEAD>cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=459210614<DEAD>

9/26    Used Priceline to name my price and got it. Then I found out that
        the flight did 3-4 different transfers before my destination. I
        ended up wasting )(#*)$(#$*(# 10-12 hours waiting at the airport
        at a mere discount of $XX. I am NEVER NEVER USING PRICELINE AGAIN.
        \_ caveat emptor
           \_ cogito ergo eres
              \_ Another one born every minute
        \_ when you name a price, there should be a setting that asks
        the greatest number of transfers you're willing to accept.

9/6     This guy on eBay sells a lot of cool (but illegal in the US) pyro
        stuff. Should I get it from him? Could it be one of those FBI trap?
        BTW, I'm not blowing up professors.
        \_ Wouldn't recommend it. Ebay is just too obvious of a place for
           feds trolling for suckers. Probably safer (at least in the law
           enforcement aspect) to buy it off a _site_ which is in a 3rd-world
           country. Although those are rare, yes.
        \_ Looking for a boyfriend in prison?

8/28    If someone at eBay bids $10.00 and I bid $20.00, does that mean
        I will pay $20.00 at the closing bid, or $10.00 + increment?
        I just had an unusual experience where I bid $39.99, but I'm
        only paying $31.99. Yes I'm happy about it but what's going on?
        \_ your bid is the highest price you're willing to pay, by default.
           You will pay the amount of the highest other bid + increment.  -tom
           \_ So does that mean that if the last bit of an item is $12 and the
              increment is $1, I can go ahead and bit $1M to drive everyone
              else away, then pay only $13 for that item???  -- yuen
                \_ yes but if someone bids 900k for it be prepared to pay
                   900k + 50 dollars and be in pain.
        \_ why is the phrase "the highest amount you are willing to pay and
           ebay will automatically bid for you until that amount" so
           difficult for you all to understand? seems pretty simple and
           straightforward to me -uctt
           \_ Well, I've never actually visited the eBay web site.  Now I see.
              Thanks.  -- yuen

7/24    If PayPal doesn't cost the consumer a single penny, how the heck
        does it make money? What is its business model?
        \_ Just like any other websites, Advertisings.
          \_ How much money do websites make off of those banners?
                \_ Varies widely.
        \_ It makes money like the banks make money: if you keep it on
           their account and do not deposit it to the bank, PayPal
           gets interest on it.
          \_ They charge big customers a fee for bulk transactions, too --oj
          \_ The only problem is credit card transactions cost them 1-3%.
             If the credit card transaction cost was free, it would make
             more sense.  -nweaver
                \_ Maybe they have a deal with the CC companies.
                        \_ I personally doubt it, but they might. -nweaver
   companies with a large amount of transactions can negotiate for a lower _/
   fee for their transactions -oj
        \_ they enforce a two week waiting period between you paying them
           and them crediting your account.  Kinda sleazy.
              \_ I read that it took them 2 weeks to actually credit your
                 account.  This was on the PayPal website too.  It made me
                 mad and I decided to not use them.  -aspo
                 \_ Why'd it make you mad that they publicly posted their
                    policy on their website?  Don't like it?  Don't use it.
                 \_ electronic funds transfer in: 7 days
                    personal check deposit: 1-2 weeks
                    electronic funds transfer out: 3-5 business days
                    check from PayPal: 1-2 weeks
                    these all sound pretty reasonable. i can't find
                    another reference of "2 weeks" in the fine print. -jwang
                    \_ 7 days (bussiness?) for an electric funds transfer
                       is still WAY too long.  They get the money in like
                       10 minutes.
                          \_ Well, they got to hang on to your money
                             as long as possible in order to make
                             money.  Do you blame them? -nweaver
                                \_ if you're buying something, it's not
                                   "your" money anymore.  -tom
                        \_ Actually, it like seconds.

7/11    Anybody know if there is a better way to buy used stuff other than
        ebay?  I found the used golf clubs that I wanted at ebay, but I must
        have wasted at least 5 hours total looking through listings and bidding
        for it.  I need a service that will let me enter an EXACT description
        of the things I want and let the sellers come to me instead.  I read
        about intelligent agents that will mine the internet for very specific
        information automatically.  So where the hell is it?
        \_ garage sales, tag sales, yard sales, depending on what part
        of the country you live in. fuck the internet.
            \_ driving around town looking for garage sales would waste MORE
               time, not less.
        \_ What's a tag sale?  Same thing, different name?
        \_ http://eWanted.com, the reverse version of http://eBay.com
             \_ ideally, that should work, but b/c most of us are selfish
                bastards and want the most money we can get for our shit,
                most stuff gets posted at ebay instead of ewanted.
                i.e. why would i want to sell some dvd for $12 when i can
                rack that stuff up to $21 and above and ebay?
                \_ Death to evil pig dog capitolists!
                   \_ At least have the decency to spell that right,
                      welfare leech.
                      \_ How is the misspelling indecent?  --pld
                      \_The peeple will not be oppressed by your capitolist
                        spelling!  Die evil dot com scum!

2/3     Elian Gonzalez poll:
        Send the kid to dad in Cuba:   1
        Keep the kid in the US:        2
        Use King Solomon's solution:   2.5
                                        \_ This was funny.
        Make him tjb's apprentice so
        he can return to liberate
        Cuba with the power of his
        professional turntabilism:     1
        Auction the kid off on Ebay:   6
        Auction the kid's kidney on Ebay:   1
        "none of the u.s. government's fucking business": 3
                \_ You morons.  Of course it's the government's business.  One
                   way or another a decision is required.  Idiots.  You think
                   we should let pro/anti Castro Cubans shoot it out on the
                   streets in Florida to resolve the situation?
                   \_ ok, how about "none of the legislative or executive
                      branches of the u.s. government's fucking business."
                      the only u.s. govt ppl who should be involved in this
                      issue are the INS.
                        \_ The INS *is* part of the executive branch.
                        \_ No.  It's an issue for the courts.  The INS is just
                           a bunch of paper pushers trying to clear their
                           inbox.
                           \_ the courts should maybe be involved, but
                              definitely not the other two braches.
                                \_ If not the courts, then who?  The group of
                                   pro/anti Castro Cubans in Florida with the
                                   most firepower?  Let the courts decide.
                                   \_ yes, the courts.  not the president or
                                      the congress or whoever the hell else
                                      wants to pick up elian's name as a
                                      convenient standard to bear...
        \_ um, how about "none of the u.s. government's fucking business"
        \_ ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD! Means of dealing with Elian.
           \_ ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD! Overused phrase.
             \_ shouldn't that be
                ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD!! ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD!!
                ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD! is the STANDARD! Overused phrase.
                ?
                \_ can you suggest a good way to get to work and a good
                   operating system to use?
                        \_ No.  Don't beg for it.
                           \_ pleeeeeeeeeze?!?!?!????
                                \_ Not even if yermom asked.
                                   \_ ED! ED! ED is the STANDARD! Yermom.

12/8    http://warlock.blackops.org/~msk/T

9/10    HP Infosession Monday, September 20 from 4 to 7 pm in Wozniak
        Lounge - Soda Hall.
        \_ Anyone try telneting into their Dreamcast or connecting to it
           with a web browser?
        \_ comp.graphics.apps.gimp or ask Manish to ask on #gimp maybe
           \_ No, but I used it to hack a few web pages this morning.  I got
                \_ I bought my kidney and 2 of my children on ebay.  Great site!
              the Platinum Edition DC, so that's possible for me.
        \_ Ebay!
                \_ I bought my left nut on E-Bay.