So I sent them another email stating the flat rate box $11 and this is their reply:

Hi,

Unfortunately we do not have the equipment to offer flat rate shipping. I am very sorry for any inconvenience that this matter may have caused to you.

They are full of shit.  What equipment.  Boxes are free from the post office.

Martin

mbassoc2003 wrote:

Are these the same people that f'cked up GenCon this year?

I do not know if they "f'cked" up Gencon but they did bid on every rpg item that came up.  Which I find dubious at best.

Martin

Prufrock wrote:
I do not know if they "f'cked" up Gencon but they did bid on every rpg item that came up.  Which I find dubious at best.

Martin

And here was me think they were being paid to run the auction as well?

mbassoc2003 wrote:And here was me think they were being paid to run the auction as well, paid to register items regardless of whether it belonged in a Games auction or not, paid for every single thing, the full whack. That sounds like corruption and racketeering by the GenCon Committee to me. Someone's got a decent payout on that deal.

Sounds like you want somebody to hate, regardless of the facts.

As regards T&T bidding on everything, I see no problem with that. If there is a 20% profit in something over a 6 month period, and your business is tailored to shifting such things, it's good business sence.

Yes, put up a stall and sell products and make money from the buying public. Yes, bid on everything that you can make money out of. I'm damn sure I'd have been around everyone elses stalls looking for a bargain, and I'm sure everyone was.

But running a charity auction for a personal profit, even if that persoanl profit is just the insentive scheme to list all the crap that wouldn't normally have been sold, is still making a profit from something that is supposed to be for charity. Maybe it's not dishonest. Maybe no-one else could be arsed. Buy maybe, just maybe, T&T could have done the charitable thing and offered their time and profits to the charity for free.

In regard to T&T's record of dishonest in their descriptions and postage costs, everyone is well aware of the scaming and exageration they perform, and of their attitute and beligerance to people when they are asket to explain it. I haven't ever posted my experiences with them here, but mine are simialr to the many who have reported issues on these pages.

Many people lambast Cougie for similar forms of dishonest. They say he lies about condition and about over infalted postal costs, and is generally offensive to people who complain or ask too many questions. But believe me, I have had persoan experience or, and witnessed, far more lies and distortions from big name US resellers like T&T, Titan Gmaes and Tonya's Swap Shop that I have ever seen come out of Cougie. I have bought from Cougie on more than one occasion and one each occasion, got something at a very reasonable price in very good or excellent condition. The one time, many years ago, that I did buy something that turned out to be incomplete (a DMs Design Kit that was missing one of the three booklets), he just refunded my money and told me to keep it.

It's not really a case of finding a company to hate. It's a case of pointing out that they are in the business of screwing buyers. Everyone knows it and a lot of message boards complain about it. But getting stiffed by T&T is like complaining about catching something from a hooker. You know the risk before you enter the agreement, so deal with it.

mbassoc2003 wrote:
I have bought from Cougie on more than one occasion and one each occasion, got something at a very reasonable price in very good or excellent condition. The one time, many years ago, that I did buy something that turned out to be incomplete (a DMs Design Kit that was missing one of the three booklets), he just refunded my money and told me to keep it.

I think this has been discussed before..Cougie doesn't shit where he lives. The bulk (if not all) of his ripoffs occur overseas, it doesn't suprise me you and Al have had good experiences with him....with a better than average chance you'd appear on his doorstep should he rip you off.  If you look at his feedback it appears you are the exception and not the rule.

Mike B.

(Boring disclaimer preface): Speaking strictly of T&Ts eBay practices alone...

FUCK THESE GUYS... can't we finally collectively ignore them? They are a bilious pile of deceitful pricks... a ripe white pimple on the face of the good hobby.

Yours,
David

I certainly can't speak to the auction's economics, but according to the Live Game Auction website:

If pre-registered on website - $0.35 per item/lot if for store, $0.85 per item/lot if for live auction If registered at show - $0.50 per item/lot if for store, $1.00 per item/lot if for live auction

15% of the final sale price is deducted to cover auction expenses.

They also charge $1 for each bidder card.

However, I don't think they take any premium or listing fee for the charity auction items.  And I don't know how much they have to pay GenCon as "rent".  Another chunk presumably goes to pay for some of the hotel and per diem reimbursements given to auction volunteers.  So how much profit is there ultimately?  No idea.

TBH, no problem at all with having some of your staff running the auction, and other bidding on it. It's an open room and everyone can see what's going on, and as far as I'm aware, they realistically can only inflate prices a little if what they are doing is considered shill bidding (which I do not). That side of things seems honest enough, even if their % take increases a little.

<EDIT> Abreviated on advice to keep subject on topic.

But then maybe Frank is right. Maybe none of the reports are right and they weren't in it for the money and they didn't make a profit off of this suposed charity gig.