Honda Holiday

A Honda is a car that is great on gas mileage and you can beat the hell out of them with almost no adverse affects. One would think this would make one with fairly low mileage and very little to be done an easy sell. Nope.

I bought a Monte Carlo SS a few months back with money I got from $140 worth of dishes I sold. I love love love the car, but it needs some minor things done (new wires, 2 tires, and rear trailing arm) that total about $200.

Since it is the time of the summer sales slump, I have yet to get ahead $200. It doesn't help when the part time gig keeps taking hiatuses - we take an $80-$90 hit (depending on my tips) each time this happens. I had to sell one of my rare pony things to pay the water bill.

I think "Well, I've got the Honda" The bastard books for $1500, just needs an exhaust patch and a minor bushing thing in the transmission. It's kinda ugly, but it's fairly reliable and gets 35 miles to the gallon. I ask $1100 on craigslist. No dice. One bitch offers me $500. I don't even reply.

I get repeated offers of a bank check and pickup (well known scam). And one with actual interest lowballing me a bit. Looking back, I should have taken the $900 - lol. I get sick of this, and list it on Cars. Repeated inquiries but no response once I answer them.

Get pissed about that.

List it on ebay. Bitch who won lives 4 hours away and says she has no way to pick it up and how would she pay for it?  Uh, weren't you supposed to figure that out BEFORE YOU FUCKING BID? So now I am stuck with an inflated ebay bill ($60! for a car that is STILL HERE) and am going to have to fucking call them and get it taken off since I cancelled the sale and they've been painfully slow about crediting me for it.

I have been trying to get rid of this fucking car for almost a month now! I had two texts today, but I ain't holding my breath.

Update 3/7/2018: One of the two texts turned out to be a guy from 2 towns away who wanted a reliable beater and I got $800. The Monte Carlo is still kicking :)

Man Down

Last night I was at work when someone posted a curb alert about a bunch of beautiful things that were 15 minutes from me - FML.

I just recently learned about the ubiquitous "curb alert" source. This is when people put junk out on their lawn or driveway and post about it so people will just come get it.

This is a new thing for me, but something I will now look into at the beginning of each day, since a ton of lighting and clocks seem to come down the pike on those postings. Been doing this 18 years now and things still surprise me about different aspects of the job. lol

Raelly?

I sent a  handbag to Israel on April 10th.

On April 23rd, they attempted delivery. On May 12, they attempted delivery. On May 15 she opened a case on me saying she wanted a refund because there was "a problem with the shipping" (now how this is my fault, I don't know).

I responded to the case with the tracking number showing the attempts of delivery and proof that I indeed mailed it. On May 15, they attempted delivery again.  Finally, on May 17th, they delivered it.

Bitch left the case open, and I called Paypal with a WTF? I called them because they hire Americans to answer their phones. They passed the buck to ebay - now anyone who tells you those are two separate companies - they are full of shit. One hand washes the other with those two and the seller gets left (excuse my pun) holding the bag.

The lady said "I cannot help you, but I can transfer you to ebay" and I waited on hold for 10 minutes listening to all this ebay rah rah shit, leading me to believe I was on hold with someone from ebay and when I got on the line I got a guy with a heavy accent and got  "I cannot help you, I am with Paypal. here's a number for ebay" I was like WTF? I just spent 10 minutes on hold listening to ebay ads and talking to the script reading outsource and this was Paypal?

I escalated the case and my money remains on hold. The bitch has had my bag in her hands for 2 days and yet I am not allowed to use my money from the sale of said bag.

This is the main thing that remains fundamentally wrong with ebay today. You cannot just take someone's money without a good reason and expect that they will want to remain on your website to sell. Sellers are the ones that pay fees to you, you numbskulls. You anger enough of us and eventually you will have nothing when we all leave.

Junior High

Last week at work I took a picture of the backs of the heads of three people that were blocking my view at work. I had hung over the gate waving my number, 5 or 6 people had had to go around them to come get a drink or a snack, and there were at least 10 seats available. There was no good reason for them to be there, and they sure as hell knew they were in the way.

My boss messages me all up in arms because somebody showed them the picture and they were all like "We would have moved" Seeing as they had several heavy handed hints from me and several others, I seriously doubt that. She was like "I understand your frustration"

Now here is where I am pissed off. You.Have.No.FUCKING.Idea. about my frustration. I have to sit back there slinging $2 hot dogs for a $40 pittance with 20 years of experience in antiques and collectibles under my belt, so you are using me all wrong to begin with. I am supporting 4 people on my one income, and when some asshole blocks my view, that might mean National Grid/Spectrum/Geico/IRS/mpiua doesn't get paid that week because I missed something I should have bid on, then I get a termination notice, then I stress out all week and right now, with no health insurance and my mortgage company closing in on me, it's not a good time to stress me out.

She's all like "I work with the customers too."

Yes. But when you leave, you get to leave in a new Jeep that runs right, that you can afford gas for, you get to go out to eat, you go home to a house that doesn't leak, you go home to a house with heat. You can spend your days shopping, eating out and kayaking for your troubles. I am sure your mortgage company isn't about to foreclose on you and people keep driving by your house like sharks smelling blood in the water, because they saw your address on Zillow in "pre-foreclosures" hoping for a cheap foreclosure home to buy and flip.

I go home in my 16 or 18 year old car that always seems to have something wrong with it, I go downstairs and dump the buckets from my leaky furnace valves, and then eat a $3 frozen pizza and do research in a sweater in May. Maybe I might have to go to the bathroom and use the toilet paper I jacked from somewhere that week because another house/car expense wiped my bank account out again. I go somewhere "fun" maybe 3 times a year, and stress out about the cost the month previous to and afterward. I have the aforementioned lookie-loos driving by constantly slowing down, looking my property over and hoping to be the first ones to jump on the little green house with the big backyard when it gets foreclosed on.

I am happy for you that you will never have to feel like this, but don't tell me ever that you know how I feel.

I immediately went on a blocking spree on Facebook after that. I blocked every single person that I knew from the auction house, and I blocked her and her daughter from seeing anything on my page.

I am 43 years old. I am not going to be told what I can and cannot post on my own fucking page. In order for those view blocking asshole people to see that pic, someone I was "friends" with had to show it to them, because my settings don't allow the general public to see shit.

So thanks for bringing the mentality at work back to Junior High, asshole. I have my suspicions as to who ratted me out, but since they are all blocked now, they can all go fuck themselves anyway. This is precisely why I do not become friends with people or socialize with them. It always becomes this stupid little clique-y hierarchy with someone sucking up the clique leaders by shitting all over the "peons".   I am so done.

The Sadness Will Last Forever

I am up to $1400 in sales this week. So, of course, several people come out of the woodwork to piss me right the fuck off.

First is a woman who claims the vase I sent her is "too thick" and she wants to return it, but she of course does not want to pay for the return shipping. Not two minutes after I get done with my exchange with her, then someone has opened a case without contacting me first.

A box I sent him has been marked as "delivered" However, said box was not on his porch when he arrived home in Colorado. Somehow this is my New England dwelling ass's fault. Apparently, each time I send out a package, I should accompany said package to its destination and wait until the buyer is home, and opens the package before I can say I am done with the transaction.

This, on top of opening a jar I am selling and find a rather large glaze skip at the bottom of it last night should be the three anger causing agents of this week. Because it always seems to be three, sometimes it's more, but hopefully not. And I was in such a good mood this morning because things were finally looking up...silly me.

Skooed

This batch of crap I am selling this week is golden pricewise, but it brings out the crazy in a few. First I have a wackadoo who doesn't read descriptions.

Are all these marked?

3rd line of description. "Bottoms are marked _____"

Can I see pix (yes - pix) of fleabites. I tell her to use the magnify feature. She does this, and immediately questions me about yet another piece in the picture - does it have a chip? LADY. WTF? Does it SAY it has a chip? No? Well then there is not one. Fucking A.

I also had several newer pieces of the said pottery in question. I just lumped them in the "vintage" category because in the middle of uploading 65+ auctions I am not going to stop and go, "Oh no. Even though these are 30 years old, they don't fit someone's textbook version of what "vintage" should be, so let me waste this time moving them to a new category to appease the 2 people who will be butthurt about this"

First asshole: 

Hi, your vases are not vintage Fiesta, they are contemporary post1986 Fiesta, that is why they are not 10 inches. The original vintage vases are a full 10 inches. Here is a site that can help you with vintage Fiesta.

I reply that I am aware that of the fucking things age and that I simply just left it in that category and included measurements and a photo of the bottom so that someone could make their own deductions on the matter. I then thanked her for the message and edited the descriptions to say: Vase is not brand new, but is post 1986 Fiesta.

A few hours later I get this: 

Hi, that vase is post 1986, also has the H on the bottom, they marked some of the new peices after 1997

Dude. Did I not say POST 1986 already? What more do you flipping nuts want me to do? I have measurements, pictures and a description saying post 1986. Do you want me to go tell it on the mountain with my megaphone? Spray paint it on the side of the Freedom Tower? Fly a banner over the White House and the Statue of Liberty? Get CNN to run a ticker tape? What do you flipping want from me??! 

Different Kind Of Pain - Lamenting the Loss Of 3 Day Auctions

So there's a new kind o' deadbeat in ol' ebay town these days.

These deadbeats take a page from Etsy buyers in that they bid early, win, and when they win (5-fucking-days-later), they cancel the order. I left Etsy because I was tired of being jerked around by people all the time. I would look shit up, tweak a write-up, change shipping costs only to have the inquisitor disappear on me. Then there was the raging bitch who could not get over my losing a $8 Patty O Green doll even though she was refunded in full.

I blame this new disappearing act shit on ebay's 5 days or you'll pay policy. A person bids, decides after several days that:

A. They don't really want it.
B. They really wanted it, but now, and found it elsewhere sooner.

This being forced into 5 day auctions thing continues to hit me right in the purse. If my stuff sold for consistent amounts I would just use buy it now, but as it can go all over the map, I don't want to leave money on the table. I miss 3 day auctions. I wish they would just do away with the 50 freebies and just charge .30 for the 3 day duration again. I would rather pay up for 50 auctions at .30 that are over with in a reasonable amount of time than have freebies that constantly go south on me.