VICTORIAN STICKPIN BROOCH ON EBAY

I have this amazing brooch listed on ebay right now. To see a set of photos of the piece; click on link at right.

Missionfish and Ebay

I sell on Ebay and wanted to donate part of my proceed to Habitat for Humanity; so I put the widget on my listings. After this week though; no more. Read this excerpt from blogger 'ProvisionEastonlow':
ProvisionalEastonlow
Saturday, May 30, 2009
eBay "Giving Works" and MissionFish are a Scam
eBay now allows sellers to auction an item for charity. Sellers can agree, in advance, to donate anywhere from 10% to 100% of the proceeds to the charity of the seller's choice, so long as that charity is on eBay's approved list. The listing shows a cute little ribbon, telling the bidder that the auction is for the benefit of charity, as well as a short paragraph extolling the benefits of the particular charity that will benefit. What's more, eBay discounts its fees in connection with charity auctions. The discount is proportional to the percentage donated to charity; eBay gives up almost all its fees if the auction is 100% for charity. Sounds great, but sadly it is a scam.
In the fine print, it turns out that all donations must be made through "MissionFish." What's more, MissionFish takes a fee for its service. There is a small notice on each charity listing stating that a "small deduction may apply." Those words are in faint print and small type. There is no "may" about it, and the deduction certainly is not "small." In fact, MissionFish charges far more than eBay. That's right, you would be better off ignoring eBay's offer to waive part of its fees. Simply sell the item, pay the fees and donate the balance to charity. Far more will go to charity that way than if you take eBay up on its supposedly charitable offer.
MissionFish charges:

20% of the first $50
15% of the next $150
10% of the next $800 and
5% of the amount above $1,000

So, for an item that sells for $500, MissionFish will charge $72.50. That's right, MissionFish takes $72.50 from the charity for the "service" of delivering your $500. By way of comparison, on the same $500 item, eBay would charge a $4 insertion fee (at most), plus a $19.69 final value fee, for a total of $23.69. So, eBay does not waive its fee. Quite to the contrary, the fee nearly triples! And, what is worse, you do not even see it unless you look very carefully.

Here is how MissionFish and eBay hide the fact that they are stealing from charities. Again, say you auction an item for $500 to benefit charity. The buyer sends the money to you. You then take the $500 and give it MissionFish, which tells you that you made a donation of $500. You never find out that about 15% of your money went to MissionFish.

Finally, eBay (which owns paypal) gets a fee when the money is sent to you by the buyer. So, you end up with less than $500 because paypal/Ebay takes a bite up front, but then you have to give MissionFish the full $500 so that MissionFish/paypal can take their next bite. And, if you forget to feed MissionFish the full $500, they will bill your credit card. Want to take your credit card off their account? No problem, just enter a new card and click that you authorize them to charge that. The website does not allow you to simply remove your credit card.
Do not be fooled! If you want sell something for charity, by all means do it, but do not tell eBay. Just sell the item and donate the proceeds yourself.

WEEDS

Dag Hammarskjöld said, “He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn’t reserve a patch for weeds.”
Following along with this metaphor for how we live; I believe I am in need of some mental/emotional/dare I say spiritual 'Roundup'. So much of my internal life has consisted of me nurturing weeds of fear, guilt, doubt etc. It takes a lot to root out the negative. I find that walking helps. Just being outdoors and feeling the air (now that it has turned finally into fall); swinging my arms and breathing; looking around at the trees and sky. Sometimes the body is the key to healing the mind.

Moving on from here

Not as in moving physically; at least not yet. Just moving on from the dark place I've been in mentally and spiritually. Almost to the moment I received my refund money from the IRS debacle (see previous post) to now; I've been physically ill. I have had no energy and had a sinus infection from Hades that totally knocked me down. Just today am I starting to revive from it. It makes me feel like all the tension I carried for the preceding months just erupted into a physical illness the moment I knew the issue was resolved with them and that I could afford to finally 'let down'. The thing is that's not the last obstacle I'll ever face in life and what I want to move on from is the unhealthy way I've learned to cope with stress or rather not cope. I can scarcely believe I used to be a 120 lb. vegan with a thriving massage practice and a seven mile a day walk routine. I used to pray and meditate daily. I still screwed up and made bad choices but because I was fit I could rebound and regroup so much faster and effectively than now. No I'll never be as young as I once was but surely step by step and day by day I can build myself back up to a healthier and most definitely happier me. Then I won't go to pieces when those inevitable tsunamis of life roll over me.

THE WORM TURNS, THANK GOD

"To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood."
~Shakespeare; Henry VI

At last; sweet relief. No, I haven't found a job yet but a long awaited and hard fought for compensation has been won. I have resolved a 'misunderstanding' with the IRS over a prior years' income tax return and have received the $8,408.00 (!!!!) which they held back for two years' eitc and refunds. I cannot describe how I feel. Yes it's only money but by God it's appreciated right now. And I can't say enough good things about my 'taxpayer advocate'. He was a literal godsend who actually acted aggresively on my part. It's so rare to find a person who even does the minimum in their job and this guy was aces.

I don't have a spending spree planned. There is honestly no 'thing' that I want. I'm just genuinely grateful to be able to pay my monthly bills and buy more than the minimum amount of groceries. I plan on being as frugal as humanly possible and continuing to apply for every conceivable job in this rotten town until I can move out west. The biggest difference for me is just feeling like I can breath again. I have never been so tense in my life as I have been these past several months. Dealing with this was worse than joblessness. It epitomised every bad feeling I have about the government.

I think I feel a combination of elation and exhaustion. I simply want to go to bed for a few days and just blank out all thought. I may do just that.

Not in the writing mood

I think my earliest career aspiration was to be a writer. Either that or be Nancy Drew. Now at 52 I am beginning to wonder if I'll ever have another career. It seems to take all my resources simply to survive each day and that is definitely not how I envisioned my life unfolding. When you are young everything seems possible. In some small way it still seems like almost anything is possible but not without some wise decisions/choices on my part. I know a lot of brilliant beautiful people survived childhoods of poverty and I know Annie will flourish somehow despite these hard times. I just feel such guilt that I cannot or have not provided a better, sunnier and more successful role model. Frankly I think I've become a collosal whiner. Fearful and somewhat defensive. I need to shake it off. There are possiblities that are good still waiting for me. But they won't come to me; I have to make my way to them. Just wish the path was more apparent. Maybe this is just a good time for me to 'be still and know'. I just need wisdom so badly right now. All that I can depend on is right here inside of me but somehow tapping into it is not so easy.

Pierre Loti

One thing about unemployment and not having cable/television: you read a lot. Last night I stayed up reading a biography of Pierre Loti. I was unaware of him before this book. It was interesting but a bit tragic. Very Victorian. I feel like being unemployed or underemployed is making me brain dead. Reading at least engages my mind and distracts me from my predisposition to panic. Nothing else to write today. I'm completely broke now; I have $3.00 and a 1/4 tank of gas. Interesting.