Bukowski & other Black Sparrow Titles

[bospress.net]

Hi,
My apologies for shillin' my wares, but I wanted to let you know that I listed 32 items at auction on ebay tonight. I plan on listing more in the next few days, including some more Bukowski and more copies of signed BSP HB editions at low starting bids with NO reserve!

Here's the link:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZbospressQQfrppZ50QQfsopZ2QQfsooZ2QQrdZ0


Best,
Bill

 

[LickTheStar]

Well I'm eyeballing... a couple of items. Especially that Dan Fante signed bit. We'll see if I win or lose several I've got bids on now and if I lose... I'll probably be all over that.

I've got an unsigned one and it is quite nice... but I'd rather a signed one! Thanks for the heads up, Bill!

 

[PBBUK]

No apologies necessary - just give us all a heads up when the Bukowski BSP hardcovers come out!

 

[bospress.net]

OK. The fuckers at e-bay shut down three of my auctions. Only one had a bid so far. I'll relist those tonight. My violation? I said that I would accept cash as a payment method. shame on me. I get no warning, just shut down the auctions after ten years of business. Here is my notice:

Dear bospress(bill@bospress.net),

You recently listed the following listing:

120280664394 - D.H. Lawrence -Memoirs of Maurice Magnus HB 1st LIMITED
120280664398 - Diane Wakoski - Cap of Darkness HB 1st Edition
120280666097 - Charles Bukowski - Night Work - SIGNED


The listing was removed because it violated the eBay Accepted Payments policy. The violation occurred when you included the following information in your listing:

in description: cash

On another note, when you go the the link provided, they mention that the following payment methods are permitted:

Permitted on eBay.com:

Sellers may offer to accept:

PayPal, merchant credit cards (including MasterCard, Visa, Amex, Discover® Network), debit cards, and bank electronic payments for eBay purchases.

Bank-to-bank transfers, often known as bank wire transfers or bank cash transfers.

Cash on Delivery (COD) or cash for in-person transactions.

Personal checks, money orders, cashier's checks, certified checks, and other negotiable instruments.

Not permitted on eBay.com

Sellers may not solicit:

Buyers to mail cash.

Buyers to send cash or money orders through instant cash transfer services (non-bank, point-to-point cash transfers) such as Western Union or MoneyGram.

Payment through "topping off" of a seller's pre-paid credit or debit card.

Payment through online payment methods not specifically permitted in this policy.

Please see the "Some Examples" section of this policy for permitted and non-permitted online payment services.

You will notice that they only allow payment through Paypal, or merchant cards. They leave out any competitors to Paypal. In addition, anyone that sells on ebay knows that it is very, very expensive to convert money here in the US. Wachovia charges $75 to process any foreign money or checks, even if drawn out in US dollars. So, If I sell a $50 book to someone in the UK and they send me a $50 checque, it is cheaper for me to throw the checque away than to take the money. Ebay knows this and because of this, they know that this restriction will force all non-US ebay members to use their company Paypal, shutting out any other methods, including Western Union (which is also banned).

Folks, expect to see this in Federal court sometime soon. This is a flagrant violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Still, the golden child that is ebay has, so far, broken all the rules and has not ever been held accountable.

Anyone remember when Paypal was touted by Paypal as "Always Free". They made a point of saying that they would NEVER charge for services. Ebay bough them and they changed to a very aggressive pay structure.

I guess always does not mean always.

Bill

 

[LickTheStar]

Anyone remember when Paypal was touted by Paypal as "Always Free". They made a point of saying that they would NEVER charge for services. Ebay bough them and they changed to a very aggressive pay structure.

I do remember those days. I was away from ebay for several years (i.e. most of college) and when I came back a year or so ago as a seller... I was shocked. It hardly seemed worth it to list anything that wasn't a guaranteed sell...

And PayPal... Yeah, I'm not gonna start on THAT rant...

 

[mjp]

I don't know, eBay is one thing - I've become less of a seller and more of a buyer there - but I don't have the beef with PayPal that a lot of people do. Remember when they were x.com? I still have my x.com ATM/credit card somewhere, and a check from my checking account with them (yes, they offered checking accounts). Once PayPal took over they quit trying to mimic a real world bank and focused on what they do now.

It was revolutionary to be able to send someone a payment online, and it still is, to me, so I just consider the fees...well, fees. You pay for services you like, and I like PayPal.

That said, their slice becomes more painful the larger the amount of money you're talking about.

But yeah, I've had eBay listings canceled for the same reason - but get this - the text mentioning cash was commented out. It didn't show up in the auction. It was just part of an old template I made. You would have had to "view source" to see it. So I'm pretty sure those are just bots crawling for the word "cash" and canceling anything they find, without actually looking at the auction.

I wonder how you sell anything related to Johnny Cash?

;)

 

[bospress.net]

I wonder how you sell anything related to Johnny Cash?

I was wondering the same thing.

My point is that ebay is really pushing it by not allowing sellers to accept cash or Western Union. I know that the Nigerian scams always use these methods (Western Union), but still, it amounts to a monopoly when ebay only allows you, as someone living outside the US, to use their service to get paid. As someone not in the US, if you use Ebay, you HAVE to use PAYPAL and PAYPAL only. Any other method is either banned or will cost the seller so much that anyone that figures it out will not take anything but paypal. According to their FAQ, you cannot use any of the online payment competitors. That is illegal. Of course, ebay is the darling that will never have to worry about little things like breaking laws enacted by congress.

Bill

p.s. I have a bunch of UK Pounds (about 20 Pounds), Canadian Dollars (about 30 Dollars) and Australian Dollars ($10), that I cannot turn in. My bank (walk-ova-ya) wants $75 to cash them in (as a processing fee). They are MAYBE worth $75, so to get my money involves me paying avery bit of this money in the way of a donation to a bank that is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. With checks, it is even worse. $75 per check if it is drawn on a foreign bank (even if made out in US Dollars).

 

[roni]

... pretty sure those are just bots crawling for the word "cash" ...

sure. there wouldn't be real life persons to search through all these auctions.

still it can't be simply the word 'cash', since they seem to be fine with "Cash on Delivery (COD) or cash for in-person transactions".

 

[Bukfan]

p.s. I have a bunch of UK Pounds (about 20 Pounds), Canadian Dollars (about 30 Dollars) and Australian Dollars ($10), that I cannot turn in. My bank (walk-ova-ya) wants $75 to cash them in (as a processing fee). They are MAYBE worth $75, so to get my money involves me paying avery bit of this money in the way of a donation to a bank that is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. With checks, it is even worse. $75 per check if it is drawn on a foreign bank (even if made out in US Dollars).

$75 for exchanging foreign currency? Geez! Over here we pay about $6!
That said, the banks here wants $40 for a money order to the US. The $20 is a processing fee and the other $20 is to ensure that the recipient in the US won't have to pay for cashing the money order. The last $20 is voluntary to pay, but who wants to risk that the recipient can't cash his money without having to pay for it. Perhaps even more than $20.
I was going to subscribe to a US mag for $25 a year, but I'm not gonna pay the bank $40 for a money order. I'll rather take my chances and send the money in a letter. That way the bank will only get $6 for selling me the $25.
Damn the banks and their exorbitant fees!

 

[ROC]

Don't you guys read the news?

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23984661-15306,00.html

;)

 

[bospress.net]

$75 for exchanging foreign currency? Geez! Over here we pay about $6!
That said, the banks here wants $40 for a money order to the US. The $20 is a processing fee and the other $20 is to ensure that the recipient in the US won't have to pay for cashing the money order. The last $20 is voluntary to pay, but who wants to risk that the recipient can't cash his money without having to pay for it. Perhaps even more than $20.
I was going to subscribe to a US mag for $25 a year, but I'm not gonna pay the bank $40 for a money order. I'll rather take my chances and send the money in a letter. That way the bank will only get $6 for selling me the $25.
Damn the banks and their exorbitant fees!

So your bank charges you $20 as a voluntary fee to keep us in the US from having to pay? Sorry, that is a scam. It looks like they are charging you for nothing as we still have to pay. The big predatory banks will not be fooled! Unless the money order is drawn on a US bank, in US dollars, with a US address, then we still have to pay the $75.00. I'm not sure how the $20 fee would change that, unless they buy US money orders for that. I would be interested to know, though. Again, I have received money orders paid in US funds. The only thing that the bank looks for is if the bank issuing it is outside the US. If it is, then the $75.

It would not surprise me if banks in other countries have figured out that people are willing to pay an extra $20 to save the person on the other end, even if the bank knows that it does nothing and that they are just stealing your money.

Bill

 

[Rekrab]

Bill, that is so strange, that you can't accept cash as a seller. Cash should be the one reliable, trustworthy method of payment. Of course, then they don't get a cut of the money-changing-hands part of the transaction. But still, I'm amazed they shut down your auctions just for accepting cash. Must make you feel like you're being micromanaged by eBay.

 

[Bukfan]

So your bank charges you $20 as a voluntary fee to keep us in the US from having to pay? Sorry, that is a scam. It looks like they are charging you for nothing as we still have to pay. The big predatory banks will not be fooled! Unless the money order is drawn on a US bank, in US dollars, with a US address, then we still have to pay the $75.00. I'm not sure how the $20 fee would change that, unless they buy US money orders for that. I would be interested to know, though. Again, I have received money orders paid in US funds. The only thing that the bank looks for is if the bank issuing it is outside the US. If it is, then the $75.

It would not surprise me if banks in other countries have figured out that people are willing to pay an extra $20 to save the person on the other end, even if the bank knows that it does nothing and that they are just stealing your money.

Bill

You're right, Bill! It's probably a scam with the $20 voluntary fee, especially since the US recipient still has to pay $75 as you say. The $20 is supposed to cover the US recipients fee for collecting the money I send to him. It simply does'nt add up if he still has to pay $75.
If I want to send money on a money order to another European country, the bank "only" charge me $6 for the voluntary fee plus $20 for the money order. $26 in all.
I've send money to Spain and Germany that way, only to find out that the recipients in those two instances did't have to pay a fee when they collected the money! I told the bank about it. They just said that some banks wants a fee for collecting the money and some banks don't, but to be on the safe side the bank recommends that you always pay the extra voluntary fee!
What a crazy explanation! To me it sounds like a roundabout way of saying the voluntary fees are a scam!