Yeah, things have changed.  

Back when Clinton was pres, my wife's (then girlfriend) visa expired while we were in the Bahamas.  When you fly back to Atlanta from Nassau, you pass through US Customs prior to departure.  The US agent noticed that her visa had expired while we were on the island, and just stamped a new one into her passport good for 6 months.  

By the way, when I was a lad living in Wisconsin, we would regularly drive north into Canada through Minnesota, crossing the border northward with "ID" such as video store membership cards and such.  The control coming back south was even more lax.

Deadlord39 wrote:Fuck lowering mortgages. I refuse to pay for someone who was too stupid or greedy to get a proper mortgage. And I am not paying a dime more in taxes, neither town, state, nor federal.

It's not as simple as saying, "I don't want to pay for my neighbors mortgage".  You are going to pay for them sooner or later whether you want to or not.

If not now, then a few months or years down the road when they go completely bankrupt and have additional interest tacked on to their already huge debt. That doesn't even take into consideration how much it might cost you in property value decreases from foreclosed homes in your area.

It should also be pointed out that this help plan being put forth isn't going to be for people who were idiots when they bought their homes for far more then they knew that they could pay nor will it be for real estate speculators.

bclarkie wrote:
That doesn't even take into consideration how much it might cost you in property value decreases from foreclosed homes in your area.

I couldn't agree more, Brian.  This is the real thief in the night.  It's already happening in my county, and affecting the lending rates here even though I've never personally missed a mortgage or credit card payment, or even been late for that matter.

mbassoc2003 wrote:A little eBay advice needed here from all you guys with more experience...

A guy sets up a brand new eBay account, and immediately buys an expensive item from me...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110300404250&ssPageName=STRK:MESO:IT&ih=001

The PayPal account is also listed as being unverified. Now eBay have already hit me for their Final Valuation fee, and if I pull out of the transaction I lose money to eBay. And if I ship the item I stand to lose a lot more.

The only solution I can see is to refund the buyer his money less the final valuation fees and complete the refund if and when eBay provide a refund to my account.

There is no way of stopping zero rated buyers or unverified buyers at all, is there?

And I don't suppose anyone here lived is Redondo Beach, CA, do they?

I don't sell, so I don't know if there's a special eBay rule about it, but I don't think so.




I run into this weird "Unverified" fear once in a while (my 8 yr old account with hundreds of purchases and no issues/disputes is).  All it means is the person refused to give PayPal their bank routing number.  (Why? Because I'm not giving them my frigging number.  They have no need or right to it.  The only thing they could do with it is steal money from my account if I were to do a credit card chargeback.)  I think they may offer other options now, but I haven't investigated.




Once in a while I get a seller who thinks it's something sinister and won't sell.  I laugh and buy somewhere else.

mordrin wrote:

mbassoc2003 wrote:There is no way of stopping zero rated buyers or unverified buyers at all, is there?

I don't sell, so I don't know if there's a special eBay rule about it, but I don't think so.

I don't know how old mba's posting is, but eBay sellers can set certain thresholds for buyers:



. . . http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/buyer-requirements.html

Badmike wrote:You can only block buyer's with negative ratings, which is pretty darn close to useless since Sellers can no longer leave negs.  Plus, the buyer would have to actually have a negative rating (like , -1) to fall under the guidelines.  Ebay's business is to make sure there are no blocked buyers, since that only strangles their cash flow.

*blink*



Well, that's useless.  



And the minimum thresholds are rather high for two of the other options ("Buyers with Unpaid Item strikes", "Buyers with policy violation reports")



. . . http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... references

"From 12th March 2009, private sellers pay no Insertion Fee per item that they list, providing they list the item using the auction format in an eligible category and set a starting price of 99p or less. Please note that we've also revised Final Value Fees. We've simplified the previous tiered structure and Final Value Fees for private sellers are now 10% of the final selling price, up to a maximum of £40."

10% FVF PLUS Paypal fees? And you get a 10p (hmmm, wasn't it 5p?) saving in return. Good, I suppose, if you have a ton of junk that you can keep re-listing until it shifts. But another fee increase if you usually start off items at 99p targetted in the FV £10-20 range, such as typical RPG material. And straightforward robbery if you don't get the free insert because you start items at higher than 99p.

Serious question - when was the last time eBay gave something back to its customers? I don't mean 'free' gallery images in return for fee hikes higher than the 15p it used to cost for an image, I mean a real benefit to offset their voracious demand for ever higher fees? And they've even buggered the interface and the search tools to add insult to injury. Monopolies are never healthy.

Ebay just came out with their July Seller's update that details all the changes they will make in the next year or so...



Holy Crap!  In a good way (if you are a seller)...



Reading through the entire missive, it is a massive rejection of everything that has been done the last two years.  The rollbacks on policies are incredible; I kept thinking to myself as I read them "Ebay is in some deep, deep doo-doo.".  The huge slice Amazon has taken out of the market and out of Ebay's profits is very, very obvious in the types of concessions Ebay is now giving sellers.  



Let's just say if you have a measly 100 sales a year, and $3000 in sales, you are eligible for Powerseller status, which has been lowered.  Reading through the info, by their standards, I will be eligible for the highest discounts and status once these changes roll around in April (and I've done little or nothing the last few months, and don't expect to change anything in the next few months, to make my listings more "buyer friendly". Fuck them)



Ebay is discontinuing several worthless selling features.



Ebay is giving non-paying buyers a kick in the nuts by allowing the seller to give the buyer a certain amount of time to pay...after this time, a non-paying buyer status is automatically entered and the buyer is NOT allowed to give feedback to the seller....

Buyers are given only 4 days to pay...

Resolutions take only 30 days now, not 60 days, and the process does NOT require back and forth...



Reading through the changes, it becomes painfully obvious that Ebay has failed in their infamous 2008 directives and is futilely attempting to return to the "golden age" by rolling back customer-friendly policies.



Sadly, it is too little to late and I predict little changes in the fortunes of ebay....



[url]

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/July2009Upda ... #whatisupi[/url]



Mike B.

Badmike wrote:Ebay just came out with their July Seller's update that details all the changes they will make in the next year or so...

Holy Crap!  In a good way (if you are a seller)...

Reading through the entire missive, it is a massive rejection of everything that has been done the last two years.  The rollbacks on policies are incredible; I kept thinking to myself as I read them "Ebay is in some deep, deep doo-doo.".  The huge slice Amazon has taken out of the market and out of Ebay's profits is very, very obvious in the types of concessions Ebay is now giving sellers.  

Let's just say if you have a measly 100 sales a year, and $3000 in sales, you are eligible for Powerseller status, which has been lowered.  Reading through the info, by their standards, I will be eligible for the highest discounts and status once these changes roll around in April (and I've done little or nothing the last few months, and don't expect to change anything in the next few months, to make my listings more "buyer friendly". Fuck them)

Ebay is discontinuing several worthless selling features.

Ebay is giving non-paying buyers a kick in the nuts by allowing the seller to give the buyer a certain amount of time to pay...after this time, a non-paying buyer status is automatically entered and the buyer is NOT allowed to give feedback to the seller....
Buyers are given only 4 days to pay...
Resolutions take only 30 days now, not 60 days, and the process does NOT require back and forth...

Reading through the changes, it becomes painfully obvious that Ebay has failed in their infamous 2008 directives and is futilely attempting to return to the "golden age" by rolling back customer-friendly policies.

Sadly, it is too little to late and I predict little changes in the fortunes of ebay....

[url]
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/July2009Upda ... #whatisupi[/url]

Mike B.

This is good news, and it may actually resurrect eBay back into contention.  Of course, it won't happen quickly.  The main reason I believe this will happen is because eBay sellers are eBay buyers.  And with more sellers, you'll have more buyers.  Yeah, they've burned a lot of people, but frankly, there will be hundreds of thousands of people who've never tried eBay before and they'll begin with a better chance than ever.  We'll see.