I have returned from SummerMash Seattle, and in the words of Karen Hartline of Mashable… “We rocked it out.”

For those not sure what a SummerMash is, it is a tour of seven cities Mashable is holding networking events in, where our sponsors can set up to meet people, and Mashable employees can talk with fans and startups.  So, thanks to Sun Startup Essentials program, Yoono (who is nice enough to be taking pictures of all the attendees who want them done), MySites (hi Rameen!) and SocialMediaCamp.

It was nice for me because I got out of my own town for a weekend, and finally met some other Mashable folks.  I have worked with the company for a year now, and this my first chance to meet Pete Cashmore, the CEO of the company, and the man who hired me.  (For those who are interested, you can click the image for a super-sized version of the image… it’s very exciting)  It was nice to actually get to talk to him in person and go over some of the stuff going on in the background at Mashable, and getting instant feedback on it.  I am hoping to make it to some unknown future event, but we shall see how things work out.

And no slight to Karen Hartline!  She is a fairly new hire at Mashable, and it was nice to meet her also, but Pete won first mention as for the past year he has been the guy with the funny accent (he’s Scottish) that I have talked to a grand total of 3 times on the phone.  Karen is fun, and our event planner, so much credit to her for putting the event together.

Anyway, much fun was had, and it was a delight to finally meet some of the people I work with and write about.  Do make sure to check out Mashable for info on the next six stops in the tour!

I’ve made it to Seattle for Summer Mash Seattle, and no, I can’t see the Space Needle from my room.  (I can see an office building, but everyone seems to assume I can see the Needle)

I was up at 6:15 AM, which for me is unheard of.  The only time I ever see 6:15 is when I’m heading to bed, but see it I did.  The flight wasn’t as awful as I feared as they took pity on me and put me in an exit row, but that’s where it got a bit odd.

As you know, to sit in an exit row, you have to be willing to open the door in case of an emergency.  Well, the person closest to the door was a tiny Asian woman who couldn’t have weighed more than 90 lbs.  The door weighs 49 lbs… you do the math.  The stewaress talked to her about if she was comfortable with this:

Stewardess: The door weights 49 lbs, are you sure you can lift it?

Woman: … yes.

Stewardess:  It’s pretty heavy.

Woman: … yes.

Stewardess: You’re sure you understand your responsabilities?

Woman: … yes.

Stewardess: You’re sure you can lift that door, we can move you, but if you’re sure you can lift it, we’ll leave you.

Woman: … yes.

Stewardess said “Okay”, and walked on.  Um… she didn’t answer the last question correctly!  The guy behind me and I both asked if she was sure the woman understood her.  “Well, she answered ‘yes’.”  Guy behind me and I informed the stewardess that, yes, she answered “yes”, but that proved nothing.  She went on her merry way.  So the guy asks me, “Are you sure you can lift a 49 lbs door while shoving aside a 60 lbs woman?”  Iinform him he should be ready to catch her as I fling her over the seat.

I have nothing against the woman, but it was pretty clear her English wasn’t that good, and the Stewardess should have made sure the woman could actually speak English before deciding a bunch of “yes” answers qualified her for the exit row.  Luckily nothing happened, but I wasn’t really looking forward to flinging a little woman over the seats.

In short, I’m in Seattle, I like it here, though I’m still forming my final opinions.  It seems to be full of contradictions between the old andthe new, the mainstream vs. the non-mainstream.  Very interesting place.

Ages ago I talked about the possibility of me working on some video blogs (vlogs), but it ended up never happening until this week.

The original project ended up never happening, but I ended up doing one episode for Mashable’s new video series, Mashable Conversations, a few weeks ago.  After a few false starts, this has now morphed into a daily video cast co-hosted by Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins and myself.

Our first episode went up on July 2nd, and features Mark and I discussing the current blogosphere thoughts on Digg, followed by an interview with guitarist Ryan Newell from the band Sister Hazel about his involvement with iVideoSongs.  Most episodes will follow the format of Mark and I discussing a topic of the day, followed up with an interview with someone from the web 2.0 space.

The second episode is out now where Mark and I discuss domain name changes (well… only Mark was on the video for that part as I messed up my recording) with Rob Johnson of EventVue, and then followed up with a discussion of what his company is about.  (I liked the concept a lot… as I said numerous times on and off cam)

There is a definite learning curve to being on cam when the only person you see is yourself, and you have to ask yourself questions such as, “Have I nodded enough?”,  “Why am I smirking?”, “I shouldn’t have had those beans for lunch…”.  I think I’m getting more comfortable with each recording session, and since I have several more weeks of episodes to do under the current promotion, hopefully it will get better with each one.

I’ve embedded the first episode below for you all to check out, feel free to give me comments and feedback on it!  Just try not to rip me apart…

On Saturdays and Sundays I put in 8 hours each day with Mashable, working on my lists for the coming week.  Since my lists are rarely time sensitive, this works out great, except for one small problem.  Have you ever tried working from home?

I admit I break the golden rule of home working in that I don’t set up a designated work area free of distractions.  I could if I really wanted to, but I used to do that here, and I don’t miss it.  It is also in a part of the house the dogs aren’t allowed in to, and I don’t want to lock them up while I go work.

However, it’s not the distractions that get me, it is the mad urge to take a nap.  It probably doesn’t help matters that I typically sit in “the comfy chair” with a warm laptop in my lap all day, because warmth is something that will put me to sleep in a nanosecond.    The thing is, I love my chair, and it really is the only chair in the house I’m comfortable in.  I’ve tried sitting in hard wooden chair when writing, and all that did was make my butt numb for an entire day.

So, how do I fight the napping urge to get my work done?  Coffee… copious amounts of coffee.  I try to get up and walk around every hour or two just to get the blood flowing.  Even with that, there are times when I’ve woken up to a depressed key and a seemingly endless row of a letter as I pressed a key in my sleep.

While I prefer working home just for comfort and ease, it’s not always the easiest thing in the world when it comes to self discipline.  What do all you readers out there do to make sure you are productive when working from home?

Well, it’s just been settled and I will be attending my first, and possibly only,  Mashable party.  For those of you in the tech world, make sure to mark your calendars for July 12th for Summer Mash Seattle.

Besides myself, boss man Pete Cashmore and Karen Hartline will be in attendance, so no need to worry about just talking to “the list guy” all night with nothing else going on.  “This one time, I wrote a list, and it had over 120 items on it!  Why are you falling asleep?”

When: July 12th, Saturday, 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Where: Showbox SoDo, 1700 1st Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98134
What else?:DJ El Toro, Light Appetizers, Drink Tickets, Door Prizes and more…
RSVP?: Tickets will be released through Eventbrite, 21+ Only
Socialize: Facebook, MySpace, Meetup and Upcoming

I’ve never been horribly comfortable with self-promotion, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do it. With that being said, I would like to introduce you to my newest time consuming project, StarterTech.com.

This is a new blog which, as the tag line implies, tries to simplify technology so that anyone can understand it. The new project was born out of my own mother’s problems with trying to educate my 60-year-old father about technology, and her constant exasperations with him. She finally asked me one day if there was a blog that did nothing but explain various aspects of technology as simply as possible, I said I didn’t think so, and thus StarterTech was born.

Technology is something I have always been passionate about, but I don’t think it is nearly as all inclusive as it could be, and those of us who live with it everyday sometimes forget that people don’t just “know” all of the ins-and-outs of it. I learned several years ago to try to take a much more patient approach to teaching people about technology when I taught an adult education night course in computer basics. I had agreed to do it because a friend asked me, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that -gasp- not every one is computer savvy or a tech geek! After a few false steps, it really gave me a sense of satisfaction to convey my love of tech, and what it can do for us, to people that were just learning, no matter what their age.

I am hoping to do the same with StarterTech, just with a broader audience. And, no, it is not lost on me that people have to know how to use a search engine to find me, but there is not much I can do to teach them before they even find me. This is part of the reason I am trying to write the simplest headlines and phrases I can in the hopes it will aid them in locating the site.

While it is done in a blog format, I am trying to make it so people who go to a search engine and look for an answer to their problem won’t have any trouble finding it. Yes, it is being written in a normal chronological fashion, but it is much more about being a reference site and trying to explain how to do things on the web, as well as explaining basic concepts.

The first article went up on April 12th, so I am still trying to get the body of work up to speed, and right now I am trying to cover very basic ideas that will be referred back to numerous times, such as What Is Social Networking?, How To Pick A Password and even things like Web 101 Guide To Acronyms.

I am actually fairly excited about this project, and I plan on getting guest bloggers in to do articles about fields I don’t understand myself, such as capturing video from your TV. This is very much not just online tech, but all technology.

So, please stop by the site, or sign up for the RSS feed, and join me as I lose my mind as I add yet another project to the 5,000 things I already do! And to all my tech-guru type friends out there who will probably laugh at me, why not drop me an email or comment about guest blogging on a subject near and dear to your heart?

I can finally talk about this since it has been published, but I am now one of the hosts of the “Mashable Conversations” podcast. My first audio episode is an interview with the lead singer of Dredg, Gavin Hayes, about the new microblogging service, Blip.

Blip allows you to share what you’re listening to in music with other members in an interface similar to Twitter. You can find the actual song, insert it into your message and other users can listen to it, so it turns into a huge music finding/online radio experience. Quite fun. You can find my Blip profile and follow along, though I haven’t had much time to use it yet.

You can check out my article and podcast by heading over to the article on Mashable.

I just spent the past four days blogging my little heart out over at Mashable due to it being the holidays. Since I live with my family, and had nowhere to travel to, I went ahead and took all the open shifts, including Christmas day. I figured if I’m going to have my laptop on anyway, I might as well be earning money.

The news was fairly sparse, so I didn’t do all that much writing, but I did get to work on my first all opinion piece for them which was nice. You can swing by there to see my part of our predictions series, Mashable’s 2008 Predictions: Sean’s List. Some of it won’t make any sense to my normal readers, but it was fun to put together.

So what does this have to do with my normal blogging around here?   It’s amazing what I’ve learned about blogging as a career since I started doing this in July.  A few of the highlights:

1. It doesn’t matter how little you think is going on in the world, you better be finding something to blog about.
2. Holidays?  What holidays?
3. There is always someone out there who will take great glee in pointing out your mistakes… including a simple typo.

Overall it’s been a great experience.  And come New Years… I’m working it again!

Okay, I think I’ve had my fill of blogging.

Since I got up today, it’s all I’ve done. BLORGE, Mashable, a new blog that hasn’t opened up yet, and now over here, and after here, I have more to do. It’s not that I mind the blogging as an act, but the fact it’s a seven day process, every week of the year. There is always blooging that needs to be done: Weekends, holidays, when you’re sick, when you’re healthy, the blogging is always there.

But, alas, it’s helping pay my bills, and it’s nice to be writing, but, darnit… I have a vague memory of this thing called “sleep”… I could be mistaken though… maybe I wrote an article about it?

As for the unopened blog… I can’t say anything about it until it launches next month. I left another job to give myself more time, but when this dropped in my lap, I couldn’t resist. I’m very excited about it, and I am anxious to share what it is, but everyone will just have to wait a couple of weeks to find out. I know at least one my regular readers here will be banging their head on their keyboard when they hear what it is…. this makes me smile, and for that alone, I can’t wait for that.

So, with all this blogging, getting inspired for posts over here has been a bit rough at times, what do you all do to get inspired? What part of your daily life makes you go “There it is… there’s my blog post!”?  Is there something you want to see me cover more?  Something I haven’t covered at all?  Help a brother out here!

Well, this is an odd feeling.   It seems I work for the #1 blog in the UK (the link keeps going up and down) and I didn’t even know it.  True, it was only announced today, but still, kinda cool.

When I joined Mashable, we were 12th on the Technorati world list, and since then I’ve seen us go to #9, and our current position at #8.  We have quite a way to go to become #7, and I fear we may get caught by those damned LOL cats at some point.

And I have to say it felt a bit odd being pointed out by name in Pete’s (the owner) post as I don’t feel I’ve contributed that much, but it was nice to be acknowledged all the same.  (for those who would like to take a gander, you can find a full archive of my posts here)

Someday I should really learn how to say “no”.

This seemed like such a simple idea when I started: Find some blogging work, earn a couple hundred bucks a month.  Well, it seemed like a good idea, but, apparently I’m good at it.

I got approached by a company to ghost write a corporate blog (hence why I can’t link it) from them following my work on the other blogs I was working on.  I had actually approached this company early on, but we hadn’t been able to find a fit for me.  They had a project come up I seemed suited to, so now I’m blogging there once a day now.  I have also been asked to be a guest blogger on another site about blogging and social media, and since they offered a link to this site (what a concept, actually getting to promote my own site!), I agreed to it.  They have no requirements as to frequency, so I can  just write for that one when it strikes my fancy.

I’ve finally gotten in to a groove with balancing my day job and my “night job”, as I call it, but finding time to do any side projects is at zero.  My plan to start a novel this year?  Totally shelved.  My nearly 3-year long fan fiction project is at a crawl.  I finally popped Halo 3 in my Xbox for the first time today, even though I’ve had it since release day.

So, yes, if I could ever learn the ability to say “no” to a project, it would be nice.  The drawback is, if you do say no, and you need them down the road, they’ll remember you said it.

Oh well… back to blogging.

Ever just had one of those days?

I actually woke up in a good mood… I know… try not to be shocked.  It lasted about a 1/2 hour.

When I got to work, as my system started up, there was a notice of an email on my Gmail account which pretty much assures it relates to my writing.  It was, and while I won’t go in to all the details, I was being falsely accused of ripping off content from a site for one my paying jobs.

I was floored, angry and just generally pissed off.  I acknowledge similarities in the work, but due to the style of work, that is inevitable that it would seem similar to SOMEONE, but that’s just life.

I jumped on the phone with a friend of mine who is in the law field, she looked at the accusation and laughed.  She assured me there was nothing to worry about, and it appears she is correct.  It is, however, still frustrating to see your name dragged around in such a way when you are 100% innocent.  It’s one of those things that is almost impossible to prove sadly.

Oh well, my boss is satisfied I’m innocent, and that is really all that matters at the end of the day to me.

There is no denying it, I’m still a big kid at heart.  I am sure some of you had figured this out by now.

With that confession out of the way, I have to say I love Boomerang.

This is an off-shoot of Cartoon Network that showed up a couple of years ago and plays classic cartoons, non-stop, 7 days a week.  What commercials there are only for themselves, and pretty limited.  Most of the time while I’m working/writing/blogging, I like some background noise, and I love it when Boomerang does what they call “Boomer Action”.  It’s the perfect background noise for me.

There is nothing like an all day marathon of shows like The Herculoids, Thundarr The Barbarian, Super Friends, Space Ghost, and so on.  Sure it’s all silly, thread-bare plotting, stories, but it’s the perfect thing when you don’t really want to pay attention to what’s going on.

Sure they don’t have the art or depth of story of Anime, but they do transport me back to my childhood in a snap.  And if it wasn’t for shows like these, I probably wouldn’t be the “toy expert” some people claim I am.  I guess I could be an ass and label this as “freshening up my research”.

I’m beginning to suspect I wasn’t aware of exactly what I was getting myself in to when I decided to start writing professionally again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving it; it’s exhilarating to work on a deadline again, hunting down the story, trying to figure out a new angle.  At the same time, I hardly sleep, it’s leaking in to my day job, and sometimes I feel like I’m speeding towards a cement wall in a poorly safety-rated car.

When I started looking around for work in late June, I set a very modest goal of what I would like to earn per month.  Just some walking around money, maybe enough for a new gadget or some DVDs.  That goal is long and forgotten as I have decimated it time and time again.  Then today rolled around and I did as much in one day as I used to hope I would do in a month.  (and no, that doesn’t mean I am now rich, it just means I can buy more gadgets)

The big problem is that it is starting to effect my day job.  When you’re a freelancer, it’s death to say “no” to a story request because the editor will start to remember those no’s and not ask as often, if at all, if you can take an assignment.  If you want to keep working, you have to say yes as often as possible to the work, and sometimes that means odd hours and interference with something else you’re working on, but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done.

So, why do I bring this up?  Every Thursday I meet a good friend of mine for lunch, and he voiced a question I’ve been asking myself: Would I be better off moving just to writing?

I don’t think I’ll ever do it, though there is a part of me that wouldn’t mind it.  I’ve spent 21 years building my business, deserting it because I’ve had a few good months of writing would be idiotic.  True, I’ve dreamed of being a writer since I was 4, but I also know while I have “a unique voice” (as some friends have labeled it), I lack a lot of basic skills.  My grammar is off, my punctuation is atrocious, and if it wasn’t for Firefox having a built in spell checker, I’d be sunk.

My writing does seem to be getting stronger, and my speed is definitely picking up, but I still have miles to go before I can even begin  to resemble a polished writer.  The odd thing is, though I have written seven blog entries today, and an eighth is in progress, I actually feel re-energized about writing for my own site.  Odd, I know.  My fiction writing is in the dumpster, but it doesn’t pay, so it gets done last.

Was there a point to this post?  Not really, just some random thoughts I wanted to get out about writing and how it’s changing my life.  And no matter how much it may sound like I’m whining, I’m really not, I’m enjoying the hell out of this.  Don’t be surprised if there are more posts about this… matter of fact, they may be a series about interesting tricks I’ve learned.

This is the current Detailed Sellers Ratings graph for my eBay account.  Please note that I have a 4.5 out of 5 stars for “Shipping and handling charges”.

You have no clue how much that pisses me off.

Let me give you an example of just how bad shipping has gotten.

I shipped a 2 pound box to Blandon, PA 19510 this morning via UPS Ground service.  Now, mind you, I am a daily pickup customer, so I get a discounted rate, but even at that, it came to $6.95.  If I had gone Priority Mail (which I hate as their “tracking” is a joke), it would have been $6.20.  Mind you this customer has not left feedback yet, but this is just one example of an average package.

So what was my “high” shipping charge as one customer put it recently?

I charged $6.50.

Yes, by going UPS, I lost $.45, and if I had gone Post Office, I would have made $.30, not exactly a princely sum.

There are times where the differences are a bit more extreme, but not knowing where a winner will be, and them all wanting a clear statement of shipping up front, we make our best guess, as you can see, we’re usually close.  The problem is the general consumer has no clue how much shipping rates are climbing too, and it’s only getting worse.

I have attempted negotiating with UPS for quite some time, but I do “too much residential” business to qualify.  Oh noes!  I ship enough, just not the right type of enough.

As much as I despise the postal service, it looks like I will end up having to use it more, and even at that, it’s not like I will be pocketing huge sums when you add in expenses like tape!

*sigh*

One thing I’ve learned in my short time with the blogs is that it’s all about hitting the news streams. Well, my coverage of today’s Apple event may not even be currently visible in the American Google news stream, but I’m #1 in Australia! (click the image for a larger view)

Still cool, but oddly funny at the same time.

I can’t seem to ever count on any plan staying stationary for more than two seconds.

October trip - Up in the air. It seemed sure there for awhile, now, who knows.

August trip to Japan - This wasn’t even being pondered a few weeks ago, not it seems to be shifting back and forth daily.

Kansas City trip next weekend - Who knows. It’s getting closer, and I still have no idea.

It’s just the nature of running your own business though, you never know how things are going to pop up and change, but it would be nice once in awhile to be able to plan ahead!

You all have to see this one. This is a PERFECT example of the crap I go through with eBay morons (quotes are him, non-quotes are me)

Item Not Received: ITEM INFO REMOVED
Payment Method: US Postal Service Money Order
Payment Date: Apr-09-2007

We have not received your money order.

yes, you have!! about 3 weeks ago!!! better check your records again. this is the 3rd time this has
happened to me in 2 months. i don’t understand how people on ebay are getting away with stealing
people’s money!!

No, we haven’t. We use a third party checkout system, due to an ebay “glitch” (as they call it) the
day the auction ends, it is marked as payment received, the very same day. By our third party system
, we have not received your payment. Please, also check our feedback, 6052, we are not risking our
reputation over $2.00.

the check has been cashed. better check your records again! you might have another glitch, as you
call it. i call it stealing.i will not be re-sending payment. and i will file fraud charges and leave
neg. feedback

You said you sent a money order, have you actually traced this? If so, you need to send us the
verification of the deposit. We have not asked you to send payment again, we are trying to work with
you, but we do NOT have your payment. We also have attempted contacting you at the phone number you
provided, NUMBER REMOVED, they have not heard of you at that office.

first of all- that’s my old phone number, and if i wanted to talk to you i would have called you.
second, the money is not the issue, i can live without 8.00. and yes the money order has been cashed
. this is the 3rd time people have accidentally misplaced my money, and then e-mail me 3 months later
and apologize.if you don’t want to be honest and send me the item i won and paid for, then go ahead
and screw me over. i hope that you enjoy it.

All I am asking for is proof of the deposit which can be obtained through the place where you purchased
the money order. I am not asking you for more money, and again, why would I risk my reputation over
$8.00? I wouldn’t. We have not “misplaced” your money, we have never received it, and we are not
“screwing” you over.

look, if you are going to make me go through all this bullcrap for a 8.00 toy, considering you lost
my money order- then you are not worth my time. if you have a good reputation on ebay, you must have
gotten it for being understanding. i sent the damn money order, yes i have proof, but i am not wasting
my time trying to e-mail it to you. are you going to send me the toy i won or not??

Again, we did not lose your money order, we never got it. Just because you sent the money order does
not guarantee we received it. You can take your receipt to wherever you purchased it from, they can
see it was never cashed and they can give you a refund for the money order. We do not ship items
that have not been paid for. I am trying to work with you, but you won’t do anything on your side,
there’s not much I can do. And again, I am NOT asking for you to send more money, just proof.

once again, you did lose my money and you are asking me to do alot.let me guess, the money order
magically disappeared through the mail. i never got a returned letter.if you want negative feedback
and fraUD CHARGES FILED ON AN 8.00 toy,that’s fine.what proof do you want? you want a copy of the
receipt so you can say that it is a fake or something and give me hassle about that too.you are not
trying to work with me, this is a joke and a waste of my time. hope you enjoy the free money!!

I really have no clue how I can make this any plainer to you. Go to where you purchased the MO, they
will trace the MO, they will see it was not cashed by us, they will refund your money for it being a
lost MO. If it HAS been cashed, they will provide you with proof of the endorsement. Do this and
you will not be out money, and I won’t be out money having shipped you a toy that was never paid for.

CAN I MAKE THIS ANY CLEARER FOR YOU IDIOT? IT COSTS ME 25.00 TO TRACK A MONEY ORDER AND THEY WON’T
RETURN YOUR MONEY UNTIL YOU TRACK IT. I KNOW WHAT THE HELL I AM DOING ASS. DON’T TRY TO EXPLAIN TO
ME WHAT TO DO. I DON’T WANT YOU TO BE OUT A WHOLE 8.00 FOR SENDING ME MY TOY. LIKE I SAID, I HOPE YOU
ENJOY THE FREE MONEY.

This conversation is at an end. I will not take your abuse and false accusations of theft any longer.

——-

Someone just put me out of my misery. I am not shipping out an item we have never been paid for!

It was only April 13th when I last complained about eBay customers, but today, it’s all about eBay itself. They made a major change today to the feedback of sellers… a five-star rating system for four different aspects of each transaction.

Besides positive/neutral/negative, they now rate you on a 5 star system for:

“Item As Described”
“Communication”
“Shipping Time”
“Shipping and handling charges”

#3 and #4 are the one’s that bother me. I ship all packages within 24 hours of payment, some people still claim I’m slow. I charge very, very low shipping charges compared to other sellers in my categories and people STILL insist my shipping is too high.

This is a VERY arbitrary system and it going to lead to unwarranted low ratings for sure.

eBay’s mad desire to cater to the buyers drives me insane. The sellers are one’s paying the fee’s, but they never listen to us… ever. It’s always the buyers they always give in too and it’s frankly annoying. And this new system is going to lead to some very screwed up rankings on totally innocent situations.

I am not happy in the least with this new system.

This is my Feedback score on eBay:

I have been on eBay since January 19,1998. I have gotten a grand total of 7 negatives, 6 were from idiots who couldn’t follow directions, 1 was justly deserved as I forgot to pay someone. Why is it there seems to be a sudden stream of people sure I am out to rip them off?

Since the first of the year I have had multiple disputes filed against me on both eBay and Pay Pal, something that had never happened before. Almost all of them could be settled quickly if not for the following problems:

Spam filters - I understand we all hate spam, but if you have your filters set so high I can’t get an answer to you about your shipping costs to the UK, how am I at fault? I responded to a guy four times with his shipping costs, he claims to have not gotten one of them and became very belligerent with me. We finally got it worked out, but yeesh.

Tracking - I’ve been getting a lot of “You didn’t ship this!” Funny… I have a tracking number and it shows as delivered.

Phone calls - Every email we send out has our phone number. As does every invoice… it’s in every auction… and it’s listed in our “About Me” page. Not getting an email reply? Pick up the freakin’ phone! Or, lower your spam filters!

The mail service - In this day and age, why do people still insist on sending money orders? There are numerous ways to pay me without ever exposing your credit card/debit card number to me, use them. Do not blame me when the postal service takes forever to deliver your money order, if ever.

Feedback - Everyone whines about leaving them feedback, fine, we do. And, obviously, people leave it for us, so, how about you actually look at it before you yell at us? I am getting really tired of people who think I’ve turned to a life of crime over their item that ended for $2.50. Yes, that’s right, I took your $8.25 (including shipping) and absconded on a tropical holiday. I am such a bastard.

Damaged package - If an item arrives damaged, how about contacting us and seeing if we’ll work with you to remedy the situation before leaving me a neutral? As stated in our auctions, every item ships from here with insurance automatically.

I really wonder why I roll out of bed some days.