This is why I avoid ebay...

You attract some real a$*****$ on ebay. I get this in my inbox...

Dear tuesdayniteink,

$17 to ship two ounces of plastic???

- cristofe

So I send this...

Dear cristofe,

If that's what the shipping calculator says. You don't have to buy it...

- tuesdayniteink

But that's not good enough for our correspondent....

Dear tuesdayniteink,

The eBay shipping calc is pure BS. It does not work properly. I ship hundreds of pieces of musical gear all across the US every year. I KNOW what it costs to ship a GK2. But you are so very right. I don't have to buy it. You can keep
your broken pickup. Best of luck, you'll need it
with that piss-poor attitude.

Have a nice life little man!

- cristofe

So I respond...

Dear cristofe,

Really, how did you get such a rating and still think shipping is always what you expect? 8 time out of 10 the ebay shipping calculator estimates low and you end up spending more to ship than it estimated (yes I too have done a lot of shipping on ebay sales - you're not the only expert). And even though it may be 3 ounces of plastic, it's in a box that UPS says is 1 pound, and they'll charge $8.00 to ship. Then there's the fact that I live in the sticks, and I have to pay more money to get the package to UPS in the first place (whether I drive it in or UPS picks it up on my request). Then there's the chunk ebay charges me to use their service, and the tape I have to buy, and the boxes I have to scrounge up, and the time I spend doing all this stuff anyway.

But you know all of this - you just want to slam me because it makes you feel superior. And someone else has already decided that the shipping quote was fair...

- tuesdayniteink

and he comes up with this....

Dear tuesdayniteink,

"Then there's the chunk ebay charges me to use their service"

And that gives you the right to gouge your prospective buyers? Au contraire, eBay has VERY
strict guidlines regarding attempts at circumventing fees through the use of excessive
shipping charges. Since you've insisted on being a smartass about this, I've decided to let eBay
Security deal with you. Don't be suprised if your
auction gets pulled. DO NOT reply to this mssg.
Any further attempt at communication from you
will be construed as harrassment and will be reported as such.

- cristofe

Gee, do you suppose I hit a nerve? I know what was going on, he wanted to buy it (it being a broken Roland GK2 MIDI pickup), but he was hoping to pay a lot less than $17.00 to get it. But here's the real money outlay on it...

UPS shipping will be around $8.00 - I know this because I am constantly shipping small boxes conatining 1 lb cell phones to Motorola and that's what it costs. The UPS office is 15 miles away across town (30 mile round trip) - My car gets @19 MPG, so it's 1.5 gallons of gas at $4.00 so there's another $6.00, so we're up to $14.00. Ebay charges fees, and if the GK2 only sells for $.99 (the current bid) nearly all of that will be eaten up by the ebay fees. Do I have to buy a box? Is the 20 minutes I spend driving across town have a value? I doubt ebay will do anything in response to his threat, otherwise they'd have to dump over half the sellers (I ship enough phones to know $25 is way the hell more than it costs to ship any phone, Nextel only charges $12 to ship next day. I use the calculator because it puts a fair shipping estimate up from and personal so you can decide if you want to bid on the item or not. I don't sneak extra fees in after the fact - and on several item I used the same flat rate other people were charging for similar items (including wonderboy) - I guess we were all price gouging, but since he wasn't interested in those items he doesn't care.

The guy's a whining putz - as I discovered looking through his feedback. Sure he had a lot of positive feed back, he also had several suspicious deletions, and bad bids from people he probably pissed off. Even when people left positive feedback he'd whine about something else they said. He's a real prick.

And that's why I avoid ebay...


P.S. Do you like the little bit at the end - Don't try to tell me I'm wrong again, or I'll go crying to mommie. What a wuss...