Old Random Thoughts Thread or OT Chit Chat Thread :) • Page 66 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Old Random Thoughts Thread or OT Chit Chat Thread :)
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Badmike
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:56 am

Has anyone seen Ebay's totally unenforceable policy about stopping excessive shipping fees? Why do they waste their time on this crap?

Sellers may charge reasonable shipping and handling fees to cover the costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the items they are selling. While eBay will not prescribe exactly what a seller may or may not charge, eBay will rely on member reports and its own discretion to determine whether or not a seller's shipping, handling, packaging, and/or insurance charges are excessive. Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of the final sale price.

Sellers who want to be sure they are in compliance with this policy may charge actual shipping costs plus actual packaging materials cost (or less).

In addition to the final listing price, sellers are permitted to charge:

Actual Shipping cost: This is the actual cost (i.e. postage) for shipping the item.

Handling Fee: Actual packaging materials costs may be charged. A handling fee in addition to actual shipping cost may be charged if it is not excessive.

Insurance: Sellers offering insurance may only charge the actual fee for insurance. No additional amount may be added, such as "self-insurance". Sellers who do not use a licensed 3rd party insurance company may not require buyers to purchase insurance. This is a violation of state law.

Tax: Only actual applicable federal, state, country, city, VAT, and equivalent taxes may be charged.

For cross border transactions, sellers may not collect tariffs and duties. However, buyers may be responsible for actual, applicable tariffs, and duties as requested by respective country laws.

Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

Listing cancellation

Limits on account privileges

Account suspension

Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

Loss of PowerSeller status

Like Bill Clinton, who famously stated "It depends on what the meaning of the word "IS" is", it all depends on what Ebay considers "Excessive" which seems to me to be purely objective. I can only assume that the most egregious offenders will be stopped (i.e., someone charging $30 to ship apiece of paper overseas to Killjoy

), but still it is so open ended as to be virtually useless, at least IMO.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
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"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
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Blackmoor
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:58 am

Badmike wrote:Has anyone seen Ebay's totally unenforceable policy about stopping excessive shipping fees? Why do they waste their time on this crap?
Mike B.

I got the E-mail as well and I also got a good chuckle out of it. Time to issue complants :twisted:

Games can get you through times of no money but money can not get you through times of no games!!

Badmike
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 1:37 am

Blackmoor wrote:
I got the E-mail as well and I also got a good chuckle out of it. Time to issue complants

Well don't complain about me...see, I only charge "actual" costs and since I buy all my supplies at this REALLY expensive store that charges like $20 for a roll of tape, I'm only charging actual cost for my supplies, plus of course a "reasonable" and "non excessive" handling fee that Ebay at it's own discretion will hopefully decide is adequate.
I don't mean to downgrade the problem of sellers charging excessive shippng, but shouldn't the marketplace weed them out? Why does Ebay have to stick it's nose in with some totally vague policy that is public relations and nothing more (want to bet after a few weeks of "crackdowns" this policy quietly stops being enforced?)
Nice do know my additional charges Ebay is foisting on me is being used for a good cause...hiring guys to sit around and "use their discretion" to decide if someone is charging too much shipping. :roll:

Sheesh.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:11 am

Thinking about Ebay in the light of some of their other, recent moves......likely this is a preamble to Ebay cracking down on all of the sellers who are avoiding Ebay fees by making their profits on shipping. It's probably a warning shot to all sellers so no one can claim ignorance when they crack down.

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:56 am

WELL....

Like cougarrindard I can now take feline levels of pride in my new Ebay status. I am a certified teal customer. That's right...I have a teal star, and I will have it until I have accumulated 400 more Ebay feedbacks.

What a sense of accomplishment I feel to know that I have purchased items from 100 different sellers over the last 20 months. The reward of a teal star has overwhelmed me.

Everyone knows that teal is so much cooler than that silly red star I used to have, or the yellow one, or the blue one...or that AOL guy sillouetted beside my name to signify that I was a newbie.

Only 400 more to go! What's next, lime green?

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

killjoy32
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:39 am

MShipley88 wrote:Only 400 more to go! What's next, lime green?

Mark

titanium

Are we nearly there yet?

ifearyeti
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:53 am

I miss my red star.

killjoy32
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:57 am

ifearyeti wrote:I miss my red star.

ya know, i dont even know what colour star i am - gave up looking at all that ages ago - like it really matters

Are we nearly there yet?

Marlith
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:02 am

MShipley88 wrote:WELL....

Like cougarrindard I can now take feline levels of pride in my new Ebay status. I am a certified teal customer. That's right...I have a teal star, and I will have it until I have accumulated 400 more Ebay feedbacks.

What a sense of accomplishment I feel to know that I have purchased items from 100 different sellers over the last 20 months. The reward of a teal star has overwhelmed me.

Everyone knows that teal is so much cooler than that silly red star I used to have, or the yellow one, or the blue one...or that AOL guy sillouetted beside my name to signify that I was a newbie.

Only 400 more to go! What's next, lime green?

Mark

Next is purple. That is where I am now but closing in on red. As strictly a buyer...save one or two items way back when...that is crazy. I need to stop buying stuff. Here is the link to the star information....

eBay: Redirect

I feel secure that unless I start selling I will never advance above a red star.

Information Superhighway - A Rough Whimper of Insanity - Scott Hansen

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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:09 pm

Wait...I thought I had already had a red star!

So, I need 400 more feedbacks to get my purple star...then I go for my red start.....

.......................................still purple............................................

........................................red!

Then, I am a red star until I have 5000 different feedbacks and then I get to be...a lime green star?

In order to erase the stigma of lime green, I have to get 5000 more feedbacks? :evil:

Whoever invented lime green and thought, "Oh, cool! I have copied baby poop! Wow, I must color everything that color!"

Ebay ought to increase the incentive to acquire stars by putting them close together and making more of the colors along the way be really gross or ugly so people will want to get rid of them.

At some point, do I reach silver-mauve and become a "Platinum Mind Flayer" rated seller?

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:20 pm

Well, it's kindling to me, but some folks might be interested ...

Gord the Rogue. Reprint. In hardcover.

Kindling ... whoops, I mean "book"

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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:40 pm

I'm happy to see Gygax getting his work back out there. I enjoyed the first two Gord novels: Weren't they Saga of Old City and Knight Arrant?

I remember suffering through at least one other title....a friend managed to read them all.

I wonder why hardback? Is Troll Lords thinking novelty item?

I think Troll Lords is one of the most worthy successors to TSR. Sometimes their marketing decisions puzzle me.

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

red_bus
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:50 pm

I love that link.

High praise indeed by their staff: "...Gord was as much a fixture of the Gaming environment in the hey day as anything else,"

Just a tip marketing guys - why not say that something is, you know, good. Or even above average.

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!

Xaxaxe
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:53 pm

MShipley88 wrote:Sometimes their marketing decisions puzzle me.

Their editing decisions often puzzle me, as discussed elsewhere.

Seriously, Gord fans, you might want to consider sending some e-mails to Troll Lords, emphasizing the need to hire a professional editor. Reprinting a book might sound easy, but there's a lot more to it than just updating the cover ...

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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:00 pm

I think the truth is that some people actually like editing mistakes....makes the product seem homemade...friendly-like.

I have seen some well-edited books that sucked. Top of my list would be professional game publishers who cannot comprehend that he is gender neutral and non-specific, while she is specifically female and almost always refers to a specific person. It makes some rules sets really hard to read because you keep having to remind yourself that she isn't someone specific so much as evidence that the editor is an idiot.

I have never once heard a female gamer say, "Wow, I just cannot comprehend why my gender has been so slighted in gaming publication pronouns." Girls who buy the game are generally masters of standard English useage...even if they can't read a map. :lol:

Mark

"But I have watched the dragons come, fire-eyed, across the world."

red_bus
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:08 pm

I don't normally go in for website recommendations, especially blogs, but for those who have yet to read it http://www.waiterrant.net/ is bloody brilliant!

Let's go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!

ifearyeti
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 9:51 pm

MShipley88 wrote:Wait...I thought I had already had a red star!

Yeah, and you made me think that I had a red star too. Now I'm pining for something that never existed. Moral: don't believe anything you read on the internet until you verify it with wikipedia.

Zenopus
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Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:28 pm

MShipley88 wrote:I'm happy to see Gygax getting his work back out there. I enjoyed the first two Gord novels: Weren't they Saga of Old City and Knight Arrant?

Artifact of Evil was the second one...SoOC and AoE were the two that TSR published under the Greyhawk Adventures Logo with the buff Gord on the covers. I used to have the whole series & kind of regret selling them off now. Though I'm not sold on repurchasing the whole series in HC at $30 a pop.

Saga of Old City had some gaming stats at the end; IIRC, stats for the Cataboligne Demon?

Coincidentally, I just watched the Lon Chaney version of Hunchback of Notredame (1923), and Clopin, king of the beggars & his "Court of Miracles" reminded me of the Beggars Guild in Saga of Old City.

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