eBay's PayPal Payment Policy Crash & Burn

For today we’ll venture away from guitars and toys as I share some hard-earned online auction smarts with you. You’ll notice I frequently mention eBay as it is a large part of my leisure time. I’ve saved good cash on purchases and have made a lot of money selling all sorts of items. eBay is a huge established site with a lot of how-to’s, rules and procedures that are not always easy to find or understand. Recently eBay tried to enforce a PayPal-only payment for purchases rule which meant a Buyer had to use an eBay-owned pseudo-financial institution to forward payment to Sellers. PayPal’s well-known ‘screw you’ attitude towards their customers have cost them thousands of customers but they don’t care. PayPal deals with over a million transactions a day. Those little fees add up to nice money by the time the five o’clock whistle blows. PayPal is free for Buyers to use; they make their blood money by picking the pockets of the Sellers as they nickel and dime them to death just like eBay does. Yesterday I did some sleuthing on eBay regarding Payments and I found the legality of their brown shirt tactics must have been pointed out to them by many site users as they have changed the Payment Policy once again. Actually, we mostly have Australia to thank, as their governing body and financial institution safeguards would not allow eBay/Pay-Pal to bully their good citizens like mindless sheeple. Sad to note that this policy change was not publicized like the ‘use PayPal or fark off’ rule was, but I digress. Just so you know, eBay at this time allows Buyers to pay via PayPal, Moneybookers, Paymate and ProPay; Payment upon Pickup is allowed, and if you are buying from the Adult listings or some things from the Motors (motor vehicles etcetera) or Business/Industrial listings you may pay by Check, Money Order, Allpay.net, CertaPay, Checkfree.com, hyper wallet.com, Nochex.com, Ozpay.biz or XOOM. Look under Help / Buying / Payment for the full skinny on what’s what.

Cockeyed.com - good fun

Cockeyed.com is a web site that is easy to fall in love with. Chief Cook & Bottle Washer Rob runs the show at Cockeyed and he really puts forth a lot of effort. There is so much diversified material to consume on Cockeyed, the bulk of it amusing or better. As Rob has grown his web site content and audience so too has he grown in life, marrying and having a baby. Kudos to Rob for not abandoning the popular site even though he is a busy man. Beside being busy, Rob is also very creative and industrious. Check out some of the experiments the Cockeyed crew has performed and reported on over the years there under Main Categories: How Much Is Inside? Thrill and marvel at the hard-hitting journalism that exposes the facts hidden behind some of America’s favorite products. Over 50 different items were obtained and tested to find out the truth behind How Much Is Inside? A popular sandwich spread was tested to learn How much celery can one jar of peanut butter fill? A best-selling cola was tested to find out how much fizz is inside. On it goes, every test revealed in gritty detail, with stunning full-color photo-images accompanying the text. Rob and his posse are very talented indeed. Another personal favorite under Main Categories is Pranks. I recall peeing myself a little from lol’ing so hard while reading about a few of Rob’s clever shenanigans. Erecting a official-looking Plaque as homage to historical events that never happened or goofing on McDonald’s customers by placing fake placards on the drive-through menu sign, Rob follows through on some of his gags by inviting his web site audience to participate and send in their own little story and photos. Nothing mean-spirited or destructive is found on Cockeyed.com, just good creative fun.
I like that Rob is not cheap, unafraid to buy some supplies to build a standing Elvis mannequin or a totally wild Halloween costume. Pound for pound Cockeyed.com is one of the best web sites I know and I recommend you take a look for yourself. I learned from Rob’s site to bring my camera with me when I venture out of the house; the world has taken on a different perspective for me as I find a heightened state of awareness to so many things that are so easy to miss as one drives down the road of life. Here in beautiful New Jersey the four seasons provide many picturesque scenes worthy of recording. You never know what you are going to stumble upon and now I rarely mutter ‘I should have brought my camera!’ under my breath. I am in no way affiliated with Cockeyed.com. Permission was obtained from Rob to write about and linky to Cockeyed. Thanks, Rob!

Mrs. Beasley, Chili, Think-A-Dot

I like toys, have since I was a child. Thanks to the InterTube Highway I'm able to time travel and scoff select games and toys that previously came into and disappeared from my life. A few recent acquisitions include an original Mattel Talking Mrs.Beasley Doll that was a present from our Chow-Chow to her Mommy on Mother's Day. Mrs.Beasley was the pride and joy of many young American girls back in the 70's. The Beasley doll came to fame on a prime time TV show, A Family Affair. AFA depicted the lives of a widowed dad played by Bryan Keith. The dad was left with three children. The widowers eldest was a mature young woman well into her teen years who helped to care for her little brother and sister. The family lived in a nicely appointed apartment and the glue that held the family together was a manservant type played by Sebastian Cabott. The little girl on the show had a constant companion in Mrs.Beasley, who always said the right thing at the pull of a string. My wife had a Mrs.Beasley doll when she was a little girl, and she was heartbroken when the doll vanished one day. When I found out my dearly beloved still missed her little doll I set out to find her a replacement. I quickly learned that working (talking) Mrs.Beasley dolls fetch a dear price on eBay and are even more expensive at doll shops when one was available. As the nature of auction sales goes, there is always someone else offering the same item you just got out-bid on, just wait a week or month. I finally won a Mrs.Beasley Doll auction but she was in need of restoration repair. So I bid on and won doll restoration service by eBay Seller SUSIEBZ, paid the fee and mailed out the doll to Texas. Long story made a tad shorter, this Seller (who's real-life name was Susie Beasley LOL!) jumped the shark, taking my wife's doll and my resto service money with her. Nice, huh? Oh well. A pox on Susie Beasley and Haltom City TX. Soooooo- now my wife had a Mrs.Beasley doll ripped from her clutches twice. In an attempt to heal that wound I dropped a bundle of cash on a new, boxed reproduction issue Talking Mrs. Beasley doll. I didn't read the description (hello, I'm a guy) and found out when it arrived that the manufacturer chose to use Cheryl Ladd's voice for the talk. It just wasn't the same thing. so 2005-2006 were unproductive yet expensive Beasley doll years for you-know-who. Well, I recently found an original Talking Mrs.Beasley Doll on eBay for under $60.00, Buy it Now. Darn right I hit the Buy it Now button. Thus, Chili Chow-Chow was able to give her #1 favorite human a nice Mother's Day gift, and it didn't put a dent in her Milk Bone budget. I also lucked out and got a primo example of a manual computer toy called Think-A-Dot. T-A-D is a little plastic device with a few holes across the top where one may drop in a marble. As the marble travels through the little plastic game it hits and trips levers which change what color appears in one or more of the little windows on the front. Yellow or blue, yellow or blue. Much more fun to play with than to describe. That toy fascinated me as a little shaver and I'm glad to have it in my house once more. The Think-A-Dot arrived in nice used condition (it's some 40 +/- years old) and in the original box. I lucked out, scoring this popular collectible for 13 dead presidents. Life is good.

I See What You Did There

My little rant on eBay led to a fellow in FLA contacting me about what I wrote. Seems my new friend Mike felt the same way about people over-paying for poorly made guitars on eBay. Mike is attempting his first built-from-scratch electric guitar, which can be a nerve wracking, trying experience. Mike's enthusiasm got me back to work on a few projects I've had twisting in the wind and I'm glad for it. The first project is customization of a handsome blue Hyde NH Strat that has gold hardware. The guts were already replaced from stock with a S/S/H pickup configuration. The stock scratchguard was a boring white so that had to go. I kept an eye on the eBay auctions and checked sale prices at the major brick & mortar guitar stores like Sam Ash and The Guitar Center. There is more competition on eBay, and a wider variety of brand names are being offered there. That's the great thing about auction sites - if someone else wins this time there is going to be a near-identical auction within a day, week or month. One never really has to pay more than their set price if one is willing to wait. Slowly but surely I compiled new components for the Hyde NH Strat. Replacing the stock pickguard is a nice blue pearloid model which also has the S/S/H arrangement. Keeping the Strat look but losing the sound, I'm going with a GFS Gold Boutique Lipstick pup at Neck position; a Fender Lace Sensor Gold single coil at Mid pos and a Wilkinson Gold Humbucker at Bridge. I got a roll of copper adhesive-backed tape foil and outlined the flip side of the scratchguard where the electronics will touch. Solder was applied where sections of copper overlap to give a unbroken trace pattern. I put the pickups in place and now we're waiting for pots and switches to come in from a electronics supply store.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Seeing the ridiculous prices suckers are willing to pay for POS Teisco electric guitars from the 60's & 70's inspired me to write a review on eBay. Low quality mass produced slabs of painted and varnished wood was shipped to the USA market by the Japan manufacturer. These beginner six strings were sold under many names at many outlets. They were lower quality shiny birthday, graduation and Christmas gifts. The bulk of these cheap knock-offs found their way into the back of closets, spaces under beds and tucked away in basements before their first anniversary came around. More young people were probably turned off from learning to play than were ever inspired by the high, hard to work action of thick, club-like necks. So when I keep seeing guitars that cost 19.95 to 34.95 when new -and that's about all most of them are really worth even now- repeatedly going for $100.00 and up on auction, it made me sad. People are buying these things and tucking them away to sell for double what they paid a year or two from now. Good luck. Guitars are made to be played, and there are plenty of reasonably priced Fender Squier Stratocaster and Telecaster models to be had. The introductory line Squier models are made with manufacturing techniques not available when Fender started electric guitar production in the 1950's. Better quality of components are used as well, the price offset by mass production. I've bought Fender Squier Strats used and new from $60.00 to $225.00 and every one of them was worth every penny. Like a good car, I either got my money back or made a little on every Strat I've sold. As for the Teisco's and the many names they were sold under, good luck with them. They don't get better with age and price.

Auction Sales & Playing Guitar: Things Change

I had taken reprieve from two of my favorite things - playing guitar and making easy money on eBay - around the same time. Having made the mistake of taking the guitar too seriously, I put it away for a few years after a some guests played at our house one Thanksgiving. My brother, a keyboard player by trade, ripped apart a few classical numbers like they were child's play before handing the axe to our nephew Tommy. Tommy can do things to a fretboard that make a guitar glad someone bought it. Simply amazing.

As I watched I died a little inside. I could form a few basic chords but barre chords were a current frustration to not only my fingers but my memory as well. Disgusted, I tucked the cream colored Fender Squier StageMaster away on it's guitar stand. It re-sold for what I paid and I later regretted selling it. Locking Floyd Rose set-up, reverse headstock w/ locking nut, the cream color, made to Fender specification goodness - it was a really nice axe for the money.

Around the same time eBay ceased to be a source of pocket money when a Buyer right here in the town we live in lied to eBay & PayPal about the multiple auctions they won. It did not matter to the Wise Ones at PayPup that I had a computer generated receipt document for the shipment. Without a official USPS tracking number device they don't want to know you. So this 'buyer' wound up with a stack of free comic books -and- I had to refund their money or face inevitably having to do so, plus more charges on top of that, if I waited until the Wise Ones at PayPups Credit Card Council to tell me to go pound salt.

Opening Old Wounds

Inspired by a rash of recent activity others refer to as life, I found myself chasing Links galore as I delve into another electric guitar modification. Taking photo images during the steps of the guitar project to share with a online pen-pal with similar interests, it occurred to me to get the old bloggeroni going again.

Yours truly was hoping to rename the old site, as I made the make of using the word 'Thoughts' in the old blog title, later discovered to be a InterTube faux pas of the most severe kind. How pretentious of me to have thoughts, much less want to share same with others in a public forum.

Trying to log in to the old Blog Homestead I found our Host & Hostess unwilling to allow me to use my old HotMaildotcom addy. Had to sign in being Googleicious. Wound up with a fresh new Blog.

My favorite things are electric guitars, toys, cartoons, jokes and living the life of leisure. I would like to make a Web Site that Links to the best live sources of whatever you are seeking to learn about electric guitars, but in the meantime I'll see if I can lure the old Jokes from the old blogola over to here.

Thanks for your time.