Monday, May 12, 2008

Budget Busters


Do you have certain expenses that wreak havoc on your budget?
Here are a few:

1) Gas - even with driving to work only, it takes its toll on the budget.
2) Eating out - Those dinners add up and so do the drinks and appetizers.
3) Utilities - If you are not on a level payment plan with your local utility company, it could keep your budget predictable.
4) Gifts - Do you buy gifts for everyone you know for the weakest celebrations?
5) Compulsive buying - EBay and Amazon buyers beware, just because an item is at a great price, doesn't mean you have to buy it.

What are your budget busters?

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Monday, April 28, 2008

Pathetic


Read about how this lady is trying to eBay her family's debt.

This lady is trying to eBay her family's $103,245.11 in debt. It comes with her house and car (loving family not included). I guess it could be useful if you're trying to decrease your tax liability, or you just want to feel part of the credit crunch crisis. Maybe you could work out a Prince and the Pauper thing.

It really amazes how pathetic people are becoming.

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Bargains Are Just Too Good To Be True At Ebay


Have you ever been scammed on eBay?

You can buy almost anything on eBay. It has also become a magnet for criminals, counterfeiters and fraudsters.

Two weeks ago, the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co announced it is suing eBay after finding that almost 75% of items claiming to be originally from its stores are, in fact, fakes.

Laura Moss, a journalist for the Daily Mail, decided to see how bad the problem was. Of the 34 items she bought, from market labels such as Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Chanel, it emerged that 33 were fake and only one was genuine.

One tactic is to photograph an item with the brand's logo on display in the background. All this paraphernalia created an illusion of authenticity about the products, but crucially there were no close-up photographs of the jewelry and no detail could be acquire from the distant shot on screen.

It is also relatively common to come across an item on eBay that carries a brand's name but is not a copy of a known design. Another indicative sign can be if someone is selling multiple numbers of the same item cheaply.

The way most eBay buyers decide whether a seller is trustworthy or not, is by the feedback system. Every time an item is purchased online, the buyer can leave a message marking the experience as positive, neutral or negative. It is recorded and can be seen by all potential buyers the next time the seller uses the website, in addition to comments about the sale.

Only one other eBayer refunded Moss when she told them the goods were fake; four out of the 22 refused to repay her and one seller did not respond. The rest promised a refund upon return of the goods. The majority of sellers claimed that they had bought the items in question from other eBayers.

The price is normally an indication of whether or not the garments are legitimate. If something appears on a website with a much lower recommended retail price than retailers, which is normally a sign that it is a fake.

After all, in life, if something seems too good to be true, that is because it probably is.

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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Ebay Strike?


EBay Inc. said Tuesday it will cut by up to 50 percent the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other burgeoning e-commerce sites. Read on to see how you could be affected if you post your goods there.

Ever since eBay announced changes to its feedback rules and fee structure last week, sellers have been irate, exploding onto message boards and blogs with discussions about how the new policies will affect their businesses. But when the idea of a strike was floated, some sellers and buyers decided to get more organized about expressing their displeasure.

Apparently, a discussion thread on eBay's own forums to sign the pledge no sales Feb 18-25. The strike is scheduled to overlap eBay's planned Feb. 20 launch date for its new policies, which include fee hikes, a 21-day hold on some funds sent through its PayPal payment service, and disallowing sellers from leaving negative feedback for their buyers.

To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell, a method the company says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell.

The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay's fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price.

The online auctioneer has faced increasing competition from other e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, which does not charge a listing fee.

EBay's various fees have long been a point of contention for its sellers, which range from mom-and-pop vendors to online stores with large inventories.



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