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Eric: Amazing eBay Auction Information Below! Also, a tale of *woe!* Seriously, go buy some of my crap.
(From Something Positive! Click on the excerpt for complete Special Friends! And click on this here link to go to my eBay auction page, which is what all this is about. I'm afraid I don't talk about Something Positive at all. It's a transparent lie in hopes you'll actually read this thing and be hooked by my pathos school of salesmanship.)
Things had been going pretty well.
Seriously, they had. Oh, the month had started out kind of... rocky, shall we say. An insurance bill turned out to be... well, double what was anticipated, which led to... well, let's just say in twelve or thirteen years I'll laugh and laugh.... It would be fine. things would be okay. I could scrimp and save, make it to midmonth, get things back on track -- no problem.
Hah hah hah.
So here's the thing. I go to a convenience store (and having shortfalls begin to look not so short). And I buy some things. About eight dollars worth, all told. And I used my Paypal debit card, because I'd moved some of my Project Wonderful money down onto it. Fine and dandy. eight dollars of Project Wonderful cash going to my driving need for basic staples, pretzels and Propel brand fitness water.
And then came the weekend, and the notice from Paypal that my latest debit card purchase had gone through, and it had deducted the balance from my funding source -- IE, my bank account.
And I blinked, thinking "that shouldn't be...." And looked into just how much got charged....
Well, let's just say it was three figures. Yeah, as in 'hundred.' But in the convenience store's defense, it was really good Propel.
I freaked out. I mean, full on freaked out. Because my bank account had claims on it. And I had been good, God Damn it! Living frugal! The closest thing to an unnecessary expense all month had been going to a convenience store for milk and grabbing a drink and snack food while I was at it, instead of a full on store. I'm not on trial here!
Needless to say, I had words with the convenience store. And they were very, very apologetic. You see, there was a computer glitch, and essentially everyone who used a credit card or debit card that day, for gas or 'other,' ended up being charged in the hundreds. It was an accident, and the company was going through, one by one, and crediting peoples' cards back. Which of course would take time, because they had hundreds of customers that day (and that's assuming it was only one day's worth that went through before it got caught) and all the edits and returns had to be done by hand.
Which was all fine and good, only it takes three business days for returned money to clear, and there was no promise on how quickly or not quickly the process will take in the first place. Leaving your gentle author "screwed."
And, you know. You deal with it. As best you can, you deal with it. But it comes down to this. Even after I get the actual money back, I need to up my cashflow for the month. Project Wonderful has helped but only so much.
And I looked around myself, and I knew it was time to start putting Role Playing Games and the like up on eBay.
This is a hard thing to do, mind. A gaming geek lives by the depth of his collection. It's his bookshelf-based codpiece, used to shield himself from the slings and arrows of fellow geeks. But the simple fact is, a good number of those games are going unused -- and always will go unused. They might as well be set free into the world, where all can see and partake and enjoy and give me money.
So. eBay Extravaganza 2007 can be found here. These are the first of the things I've put up. Over the next few days, lots more will be going up. The stuff I'm selling is mostly in pristine condition, which tells you a few things.
You'll notice there isn't In Nomine stuff in here. Nor is there GURPS stuff just yet. It's always possible I'll get hired to write more (and almost certain I will play more) in such things, so they stay on the shelf. There's a lot here that I'll miss, though. In part, because of their connection to friends or to my own history. For example, I've got Mage (revised edition) up on the block -- an edition edited and developed by Jess Heinig -- a great guy and my former editor on the Star Trek Roleplaying Game. But then, I've also got my Narrator's Guide and Player's Guide for the Star Trek Roleplaying Game itself going up, Great, beautiful books, but they have to go, so I'm kicking them to the curb. Time they bring money home to Papa Bear.
Or there's Trinity, Aberrant, the astoundingly cool and vastly underrated Adventure: Tales of the Aeon Society, and the highly regarded but rare Trinity: Aurora Australis. I have a pack of friends who worked on those, most notably Bruce Baugh -- maybe my closest RPG developer friend outside of the tight knit In Nomine community. I want to hold onto this stuff for Bruce, for Doc Blue, for Kali, and for many, many others... but in the end, I don't play them. And they're really cool. And they should go to people who're interested and maybe psyched, and who want to give me a whole lot of money for them.
You want to know how serious I am? I've got Emily Dresner-Thornber's Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters on here! Not only is Em an old friend, but Jesus people -- this is Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters. A supplement so on target in its satire of Pokémon and all its slave trade ilk that Guardians of Order, makers of Big Eyes, Small Mouth and publishers of the supplement had to produce a vanilla, family friendly version just to get a bunch of the brick and mortar retailers to stock the thing!
Honest to Christ. Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters! You should be clicking on that link right now!
More's going up over the next day or two -- I've got both the d20 version and the original West End Games versions of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game eyeing me, plus a bunch of cool games and supplements that only eighteen people have heard of in North America. And assuming anyone actually bids on this stuff, I'll be just fine. And sooner or later, the stupid bastards at the convenience store corporate headquarters will give me my money back and all will be well in Frogtown.
But for now? Buy things.
Please.
And click on the people who are advertising with me. They're good people. And they bought me ramen noodles and canned tomatoes earlier this week.
Posted by Eric Burns at March 21, 2007 6:02 PM
Comments
Comment from: 32_footsteps ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.websnark.com/nav-commenters.gif)
posted at March 21, 2007 6:23 PM
I feel for you, but this is a really bad time for me. I've got three weddings. In the next month. All of them out of state. I'm a bit tapped.
The most I could do is scramble together and put together a bid for one of your Project Wonderful ads - which would require actually making some ads myself.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at March 21, 2007 6:32 PM
Dude -- no worries. My troubles don't trump your troubles. And I will get through this either way. That's why I'm selling things instead of doing a pledge drive or the like.
We're all good.
Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at March 21, 2007 6:51 PM
Ouch. I know what it's like to be strapped for cash.
Am I the only one not seeing Cute & Fuzzy on your auction page? Not that it's a big deal, I guess, but still.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at March 21, 2007 7:11 PM
Odd, Phantom. I see similar troubles on my end. I'll poke at eBay with the stick of poking.
Comment from: Daven posted at March 21, 2007 7:17 PM
If you have GURPS Third edition core rules hardback book, I'll send you the contents of my paypal account for it. I had it and it vanished.
Might be in trouble with my wife as she was trying to hang on to that, but what the hell....
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 21, 2007 7:40 PM
Well, where can I get the image sizes for PW ads... I can certainly afford those, and we all know I love me the hard pimpin'.
Comment from: Alexandra Erin posted at March 21, 2007 8:49 PM
Oh, that sucks... I had something remarkably similar happen to me last month. It ended up putting my bank balance negative right when a month's worth of recurring transactions were about to go through, and my bank tried to hit me with a 33 dollar overdraft charge for each and every one. I'm still fighting them over that... hence why there haven't been nearly as many Star Harbor ads on the ol' PW network lately.
Comment from: Amadan posted at March 21, 2007 9:10 PM
PayPal is evil, and it will be a cold day in hell before I ever give them my bank account number (as they keep wheedling and begging and bribing and trying to trick me into doing every time I log in). Your story is just one more reason why.
Comment from: Alun Clewe posted at March 21, 2007 10:07 PM
Dagnabbit. I'd definitely buy some of the stuff you put up on e-bay...if it weren't for the fact that I'm currently broke and figuring out where to come up with next month's rent myself...
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at March 21, 2007 10:14 PM
As said -- no worries if you can't bid. People have been fantastic, and things will be fine. Okay? Okay. :)
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 21, 2007 10:33 PM
Amadan, while I share your disdain of PayPal, this one has nothing to do with their screw-ups and everything to do with a stupid convenience store computer. Let's keep the blame straight.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at March 21, 2007 10:45 PM
32 -- that it cheerfully passed an unauthorized significant multiple of my original authorized purchase without challenge, hit a point where I didn't have funds in Paypal available, and immediately sucked cash from my bank without a by your leave is, I think, the point Amadan's making.
I actually like the feature in certain circumstances, but this time it would have been nice if it had just declined, instead.
Comment from: Robotech_Master posted at March 21, 2007 11:52 PM
I have a PayPal account, but no PayPal card. (The one time I applied for the credit card, they turned me down. And I can't get a debit card without upgrading out of the free account, which I never plan to do anyway.) So the only way PayPal can suck money out of my account is if I authorize a payment.
But in other evil PayPal news, I'm rather ticked that eBay has suddenly decided you can't take PayPal payments for auctions unless you've upgraded to a non-free account. I expect I won't be selling much stuff on eBay in future myself. And this is why I'm having as little to do with PayPal as possible, though still keeping an account because it is a convenient way to donate to webcomics, purchase things on eBay, and otherwise send money quickly.
Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at March 22, 2007 12:04 AM
I suppose that's a possibility... though I know in the case with my debit card, the bank would have gleefully taken said exponentially-larger amount from my account and smacked me with an overdraft or two for my trouble - which feels much the same to me.
Comment from: Reinder Dijkhuis posted at March 22, 2007 8:04 AM
Are ramen noodles really the best option for a pauper's diet?
(and yeeeeeessss, click on my aaaad... you know you waaaant tooooo)
Comment from: John Fiala posted at March 22, 2007 10:47 AM
"Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters!" - yeah, I remember that. That was back when I was doing a lot of playtesting/light proofreading for GoO, and I'm pretty sure I've got playtesting credit in that one.
However, I have put down bids on the Amber stuff. Money problems suck - I hope this helps.
Comment from: Kudilu posted at March 22, 2007 3:39 PM
Robotech_Master said - But in other evil PayPal news, I'm rather ticked that eBay has suddenly decided you can't take PayPal payments for auctions unless you've upgraded to a non-free account.
really? that's strange . . . the information on the 'start selling' page says you can still use a Premier account (which is what i have, and i don't pay for it) . . .
Comment from: Robotech_Master posted at March 22, 2007 4:42 PM
"The fee you are charged for receiving money [with a PayPal Premier account] is actually a percentage of the amount you receive (which varies from 1.9% to 2.9% depending on your sales volume) plus a small fixed fee of $0.30 (USD)."
That ain't free in my book.
Comment from: Alun Clewe posted at March 22, 2007 8:08 PM
As said -- no worries if you can't bid. People have been fantastic, and things will be fine. Okay? Okay. :)
While I appreciate your attributing to me a more selfless motive, I have to admit that the truth is that my "Dagnabbit" was more due to the fact that I would want to buy some of the things you put up for sale, if I had any money to spare to do so, than because I felt bad about not being able to help you out.
Though now I feel really bad about not having felt bad about that...
Comment from: hess42 posted at March 22, 2007 11:38 PM
I'm in the process of packing for a move, and so the Adding of Stuff runs counter to wisdom for me. I'm happy to hit the tip jar for what I can spare, though.
I've been there before, from time to time, and suspect that I'll be there again. It's good to be able to chip in a little bit. And it's also good to be able to resist the urge to bid on More Stuff that I surely covet, but cannot justify putting into a box and moving.
It's not FUN to resist the urge, but it is good.
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