To Ebay or not to Ebay, that is the question

I have done a lot of business with Ebay over the years. Some as a seller and some as a buyer. Over the course of the years, the fees charged by Ebay have steadily climbed. Here is their published fee schedule:

Insertion Fee - If you want to sell on item on eBay, you create a listing using the Sell Your Item form. When you list an item, you are charged an Insertion Fee for the listing. The Insertion Fee is based on what you decide is the Starting Price of your item or the Reserve Price if one is included. For example, you want to sell your Sony camera. You list it with a Starting Price of $60.00. The Insertion Fee would be $2.00 (from the table on the fee page which range from 10 cents to $4.00).

Final Value Fee - If the item sells, you are charged a Final Value Fee. The Final Value Fee is based on the final amount the item sells for. The Final Value Fee does not include shipping costs. For example, your item sells for $153.00. Your Final Value Fee would be $6.67. This is calculated as follows: $2.19 (.0875 times $25.00) plus $4.48 (.0325 times $128.00) for a total of $6.67.

Listing upgrades - Additionally, you may want to add a subtitle or an extra picture to your listing, a charge would be added for each listing upgrade. The charges also depend on the category and format you list in.

PayPal Fee - 2.9% + $0.30 USD

In addition to these exorbitant fees, they are restructering their feedback policy so that a seller cannot leave negative feedback and holding PayPal monies for a period of time.

This is really a story of David Vs. Goliath, but unfortunately, I believe Goliath is going to win.

By the time you actually sell something on Ebay, a large portion of your take are going to fees!

I am going to boycott Ebay for now, but sadly, I'll eventually come back!

See the blogger comments about this story here.

Powerful . . .

I borrowed this entire post from Process. A blog written by a current Child Protection Worker that really makes you think. This is an AMAZING read and made me truly think about the plight of others. I think every person who has ever used the term "welfare whore" needs read this. What are you thoughts?

What Would It Be Like?

What would it be like to lose my job because I couldn't work because I was in pain all day? What would it be like to try to keep working, to try to stay on my feet and be nice to customers and keep pace with the lunchtime rush, all while I was in so much pain I was sweating and shaking? How long would I last? Would I push myself through a couple more days than I really could, because I knew that losing my job would be just the beginning?

What would it be like to lose my home because I lost my job and could no longer pay the rent? What would it be like to pack up all my belongings--the things my mother had given me, the crafts my kids made for Mothers' Day, my favorite coffee mug--and ask people to store them for me in their attics and their basements? What would it be like to tell my kids that we were going to a homeless shelter?

What would it be like to be sent to a shelter on the other side of the state, because that's where there was a place for us? What would it be like to be told my family of five could only take six bags? What would that long silent ride be like, in the van they sent for us, sitting in the middle of the back seat, not really knowing where we were going, my children leaning into me on both sides, looking to me for safety and comfort?

What would it be like in that city, a city I didn't know, where my children would have to go to schools I knew nothing about? Would I be afraid for them?--after all, shelters are not in the best parts of town. How long would it take me to figure out the bus routes--if there were buses--so I could get to their new schools, the grocery store, Wal-Mart, so I could do for them as I'd always done?

What would it be like when, after we'd finally been moved to a shelter closer to home, after we'd been there nearly a year without any problems, to be shaken awake by staff one morning after a bad, bad night and told to pack our things, we had to leave? What would it be like to protest that I wasn't the one who had started the fight, that the other resident had attacked me, and had slapped my children when they'd tried to intervene? What would it be like if the police backed up my story, and still I was told we were the ones who had to leave? What would it be like if I knew the other woman was the staff's favorite? How angry would I be? How powerless would I feel?

What would it be like to be sent to a hotel to wait for the next opening, in some shelter, somewhere--anywhere--in the state? What would it be like to have four hungry children and only the food I'd bought while I was in the shelter--meats and beans and rice--and no stove in the hotel room to cook it on, and no more food stamps coming for another two weeks?

What would it be like to finally get to a food pantry--after asking too many people if they knew where one was, and spending too much of what little money I had on a taxi to get there--and to be considered ungrateful for asking for microwavable foods, as though I were too lazy to cook for myself? What would it be like not to be able to cook the familiar foods for my family, not to be able to make my children's favorite meals? What would it be like to be afraid that we would lose part of our ourselves, part of who we were as a family, if we couldn't ooh and aah over the simmering pot on the stove, couldn't sit down at the table together to eat?

What would it be like to get the call from the front desk, the one I'd been dreading, telling me to pack our bags again? What would it be like to have to go back where we'd been before, hours away? What would it be like to be placed in an apartment this time--not one we can stay in, but one that's part of the shelter--with a stove now but no microwave? What would it be like to have to make calls on a Friday afternoon, begging for food and pots and pans and blankets, hoping that someone will respond so that my children wouldn't be hungry and cold all weekend long?

What would it be like to know that I was supposed to get a housing voucher months ago, but someone made a mistake, counted the days we'd been waiting wrong, and gave it to someone else, someone who hadn't been waiting nearly as long as we had? What would it be like to tell my story about all this over and over and over again to anyone I thought had even a little bit of power, and not get anywhere, to be told there's no recourse, that the damage done to me and mine can't be corrected, that all I can do is wait?

Some of Senator Barack Obama's positions

Opposed the Iraq war from the start.Voted to end the war in Iraq.Supports capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden.Favors a $1000 tax cut for every working American family. Will implement tax form simplification to reduce filing time.Provide tax credit for all middle class owners.Provide a tax cut for all families making less than $75,000 a year.Amend NAFTA to protect American workers.Amend NAFTA to strengthen environmental protections.Providing Flex Ed training accounts for workers.Extending Trade Adjustment assistance to service workers.Supported Patriot Employer Act of 2007 that gives tax credits to large companies that keep workers here in America.Double funds for basic federal research.Implement a long term research and development tax credit.Invest in green technologies.Reduce carbon emission gases.Tackle the challenges of global warming.Create an energy focused youth jobs program.Create Federal Renewable Portfolio Standard.Extend the Production Tax Credit.Expand Broadband into every community.Keep the Internet tax free.Expand high speed internet access in rural areas.Fight for passage of Employee Free Choice Act.Ensure freedom to unionize.Would overturn "Kentucky River" classifications of Bush's NLRBProtect rights of striking workers.Increase the mininum wage to index it to inflation.Crack down on predatory lenders.Provide a universal mortgage tax credit for homeowners who don't itemize.Sign the Stop Fraud Act to prevent lending fraud.Mandate accurate loan disclosure.Create a fund to protect people from foreclosures.Close the bankruptcy loophole for mortgage companies.Establish a credit card rating to improve disclosure.Ban utilateral credit card charges.Apply interest rate only to future debt.Prohibit credit card interest on fees.Prohibit Universal defaults.Require prompt and fair crediting of cardholder payments.Protect working people from unfair bankruptcy laws.Ban executive bonuses for bankruptcy companies.REquire disclosure of pension investments.Cap outlandandish interest rates on payday loans.Implement legislation to drive unscrupulous lenders out of businessCreate a bankruptcy exemption for people that went broke because of medical bills.Double funding for after school programs.Extend Family and Medical Leave Act.Encourage states to adopt Paid leave.Expand the Child Care Tax CreditSupports ratification of UN Convention Rights of Persons With Disabilities.Supports independent, community based living for people with disabilities.Expand educational opportunites for people with disabilities.Expand job opportunities for people with disabilities.Strengthen civil rights enforcement.Sign into law the Fair Pay Act.Sign law reversing recent SCOTUS rulings that permitted discrimination against women.Sign law reversing recent SCOTUS rulings that permitted discrimination against racial minorities.Strengthen federal hate crimes legislation.Eliminate the sentence disparities regarding crack cocaines.Establish drug courts for first time, non violent offenders.Create a prison to work incentive for those transitioning back into society.Passed a law to prohibit the practice of racial profiling.Supported reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act.Opposes all discriminatory barriers to voting.Helped reform death penalty system in Illinois to protect innocent people on death row.Voted to ban cluster bombs.Provide high quality affordable child care to families.Will quadrulple Early Head Start funding.Will increase Head Start funding.Creates early learning challenge grants.Abolish overly rigid teach to the test curriculum in schools.Improve accountability in public schools.Invest in intervention strategies to reduce dropout rates in schools.Increase funding for afterschool programs.Supports Step Up program to increase summer learning opportunities.Support English language learner programs.Expand college outreach programs.Create teacher service scholarships.Requires all public schools to be accredited.Create teacher residency programs.Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education.Streamline financial aid application.Introduced legislation to increase Pell Grant to $5,100.Reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.Confront deforestation.Promote carbon sequestration.Accelerate commercialization of plug in hybrids.Promote development of commercial scale renewable energy.Invest in low emission coal plants.Transition to new electric digit grid.Double science funding for clean energy products.Create Green Jobs Corps.Invest in programs to help manufacturers make transition to green products.Create clean technologies venture capital fund.Deploy cellulosic ethanol.Expand locally owned biofuel refineries.Increase renewable fuel standards.Establish national low carbon fuel standard.Increase fuel economy standards.Invest in solar energy.Invest in wind energy.Establish a centralized database to track lobbyist activities.Appoint an independent watchdog group to oversee congressional ethic violations.Favors campaign finance reform.Sunshine on legislation proposal.End abuse of no bid contracts.Release presidential records in a more timely fashion.Prevent political appointees from working as lobbyists within two years after employment has ended.Reform political appointment process.Sign ethics legislation that he proposed as a Senator with Russ Feingold.Obama sponsored a bi-partisan bill allowing regular people to track federal grants.Take leadership in the global fight against AIDS.Provide tax cuts to small businesses.Provide income tax cuts for all senior citizens making $50,000 a year or less.Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit.Protect workers from caregiver discrimination.Increase mentoring programs for beginner teachers.Provide universal health care for all Americans within 4 years.Combat fraudulent subprime loans.Expand Nurse Family Partnership.Provide automatic workplace pensions for workers.Expand savings credit for retirement accounts.Reinstate pay as you go budget rules.Repeal Bush tax cuts for top 1% which led to lower middle class standard of living.Slash earmarks to pre 2001 levels.Abolish obsolete wasteful government programs.Voted against raising the minimum debt in 2006.Supports wiping out Al Qaeda wherever they may be.Opposed Kyl Lieberman.Supports tough attempts at diplomacy with Iran to protect America's interests.Will work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Restrengthen NATO.Passed a bipartisan law with Senator Lugar to prevent smuggling of WMDs.Introduced a bill with Senator Hagel to reduce nuclear arsenals around the globe.Supports securing loose nuke arsenals from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere.Strengthen Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.Expand size of Army by 65,000.Expand size of Marines by 27,000.Provide our troops with new equipment and the tools they need.Provide National Service troops with adequate leave time.Will insulate the Director of National Intelligence from partisan politics.Guarantee that health care can never be denied because of a pre-existing condition.Introduce a health care plan similar to the one members of Congress have and give all Americans access to this plan.Simplify the paperwork in health care costs.Make premiums and co pays affordable.Require mandatory coverage of all children for health care.Expand SCHIP.Expand Medicaid.Reduce costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and employees.Support disease management programs.Require hospitals and providers to have full transparency over costs.Promote patient safety by requiring providers to report medical errors.Establish an independent institute to guide reviews + research on comparative effectiveness in health care.Strengthen anti trust laws to prevent insurance companies from gouging medical providers.Lower medical costs by having electronic health info systems.Increase competition in prescription drug markets.Advance biomedical research field.Improve mental care coverage.Reduce mercury deposits to help prevent miscarriages.Increase funding for autism research.Cosponsored Healthy Kids Act of 2007.Cosponsored reauthorization of SCHIP in 2007.Obama introduced legislation to establish guidelines to monitor fuels from nuclear power plants.Sponsored a bill with Senator Lautenberg to protect chemical plants from possible terrorist attacks.Introduced legislation to upgrade monitoring of water supplies.Introduced legislation to protect localities from radioactive leaks.Create secure borders with additional personnel and infrastructure.Remove incentives for people to enter this country illegally.Crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants.Invest in transitional jobs.Improve transportation access to jobs.Fully fund community block grants.Create an affordable housing trust fund.Establish a program called 20 Promise Neighborhoods.Invest in rural areas, especially small businesses, schools, and doctors.Implement a payment limitation program to help small farmers.Protect family farms from anti-competitive monopolies.Implement tough fines for CAFO violations.Establish country of origin labeling for all products.Support regional food systems.Encourage organic farming.Provide tax credits for young farmers.Increase capital for small farmers.Modify FCC so all rural residents have access to modern communications.Upgrade rural infrastructure.Supported legislation to reverse 2 billion dollars of agriculture cuts under Bush.Cosponsored Emergency Farm Relief Act of 2006.Sponsored a bill to combat the scourge of methamphetamines.Expand Americorps.Double the Peacecorps in 8 years.Expand Service learning in all our schools.Offer an opportunity tax credit for college students in exchange for 100 hours of community service.Promote college work study programs with public service.Expand on the YouthBuild program.Create a Social Investment Fund Network.Create a non profit entrepreneur agency.Protect Social Security.Reform corporate bankruptcy laws.Strengthen laws protecting against age discrimination in the workplace.Ensure heating assistance for senior citizens.Protect the openness of the Internet.Encourage diversity in media ownership.Protect children from Internet predators with strict law enforcement.Support transition of the internet into the digital world.Preserve artistic expression.Keep inappropriate advertising away from programs for children.Enhance safety standards for toys imported into this country.Protect the right of privacy of every law abiding American.Update surveillance laws under the rule of law.Higher salaries for teachers.Work with the FTC to cut down on cyber crimes.Eliminate teach to the test curriculum and restore true learning to the classroom.Open up government to citizens by providing transparency.Provide all our schools with broadband technology.Modernize public safety networks.Make the research and development tax credit permanent.Protect intellectual property at home and abroad.Reform the patent system to encourage innovation.Allow all veterans back into the VA.Strengthen VA care for all veterans.Fight veterans employment discrimination.Fix the benefits bureaucracy to help veterans.Expand vet centers across the country.Obama passed legilsation to slash red tape to help wounded soldiers at Walter Reed.Introduced legislation to direct the VA and Pentagon to fix its veterans record systems.Introduced legislation to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.Rebuild the roads and bridges that need to be rebuilt.Will end the genocide in Darfur.Will restore habeas corpus to America.Reject torture.Close down Gitmo.Pledges to obey the Constitution of the United States.Will fully implement and enforce the Equal Pay Act.End tax breaks for US companies sending jobs overseas.Voted to reinstate 1.15 billion to the COPS program to reduce crime.Wants to keep drinking age at 21.Supports grants to local educational agencies.Voted to protect ANWR.Voted to protect the Great Lakes from polluters.Favors labor and trade standards with trade with China.Opposed CAFTA which hurts American workers.Voting to give the District of Columbia its proper vote in Congress.Voted to expand enrollment period for Medicare Part D.Favors repealing the discriminatory don't ask don't tell policy.Provide first responders with the health care and equipment they need.Voted to implement the 9/11 commission recommendations.Voted to restore money to ports and first responders.Voted to establish a Guest Worker program.Voted to increase the minimum wage.Voted against anti-Constitution radicals Alito and Roberts.Voted against the repeal of the estate tax that only applies to 1% of the wealthiest of estates.Supports the first amendment freedom of religion clauses and establishment clauses.Introduced a bill requiring public companies to give shareholders an annual nonbinding vote on executive compensation.Protects our schools by opposing voucher schemes.Introduced Biofuels Security Act in 2007.Favors closing corporate tax loopholes.Understands that global warming is a real problem that must be addressed.Supports civil unions for LGBT couples.Favors the death penalty in the rarest but appropriate of circumstances.

Navy to shoot down failed satellite Thursday

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Navy will likely attempt to shoot down a faulty spy satellite Thursday, the day after the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land, two officials told CNN Monday.

The officials -- who spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the planning remains classified -- said the idea is to leave as much time as possible so a second attempt could be made if necessary.

Because the 5,000-pound satellite malfunctioned immediately after launch in December 2006, it has a full tank of fuel. It would likely survive re-entry and disperse potentially deadly fumes over an area the size of two football fields, officials have said.

The Navy plans to fire at the satellite as it enters Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 150 miles.

Officials want the missile to hit the edge of the atmosphere to ensure debris re-enters and burns up quickly.

The Missile Defense Agency estimated the cost of a sea-based attempted intercept at $40 million to $60 million.

Without any intervention, Pentagon officials have said they believe the satellite would come down on its own in early March.

The option of striking the satellite with a missile launched from an Aegis cruiser was decided upon by President Bush after consultation with several government and military officials and aerospace experts, said Deputy National Security Adviser James Jeffrey.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said there's nothing the military can do to make the outcome worse.

"If we miss, nothing changes. If we shoot and barely touch it, the satellite is just barely in orbit" and would still burn up somewhat in the atmosphere, Griffin said.

"If we shoot and get a direct hit, that's a clean kill and we're in good shape," he added.

Update: 02/21 - Apparently they did shoot down the satellite with success!

Why I was never late for school . . .

Digital televsion transition questions

On February 17, 2009, TV stations will switch over to digital broadcasting. How will it affect you? Here are some answers.

Will I have to get a new TV? Not if you have a cable box or a set with a digital tuner. But an analog TV not not hooked up to cable will need a converter box.

Where do I get a box? Major retail chains will start selling them on February 17th, 2008.

So I have to pay for it? Yes, but every household is entitled to two $40 government-funded coupons. Call 888-DTV-2009 or log onto www.dtv2009.gov.

The Galloping Gertie

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of mile-long suspension bridges in the U.S. state of Washington, which carry State Route 16 across the Tacoma Narrows between Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula. The first bridge opened to traffic on July 1, 1940 and became famous four months later for a dramatic wind-induced structural collapse that was caught on motion picture film. The original span’s resonance earned it the nickname Galloping Gertie. Here is some incredible footage of that collapse:

SAFETY FIRST

Yes, those are flip flops floating the extention cord!

Can you guess who these kids are???

Do you recognize thise kids?
To find out who they are click here.