Tough Way To Make a Buck!

[TBow]

In March of this year, I was browsing another hunting related site, and in their classified section, I noticed an individual who was looking for some archery memorobilia items which I had. I emailed the person to let them know what I had and asked if they were still intertested. They replied immediately indicating their interest and asked my price. Having no clue as to what to ask, I mentioned $30 as a starting figure, all inclusive of S&H. I even took pictures of the items, emailed them to them and described the items to a 'T'. They replied and indicated they'd take the items at my $30 request.

Not being a internet savy retailer/buyer, I sent the items toute suite via snail mail at a cost of approximetely $1.50. Over a month later, I had still received no response or payment from the recipient, so I emailed them, being as polite as possible. They responded indicating they'd received the items, but expressed concern that some of the items were "repros" (reproductions?) and indicated that they were only willing to offer $10 for all the items, even after a price had been agreed upon.

To say I was upset was an understatement, and responded informing them that the counter offer was unacceptable and for them to return the items. At no time had I misrepresented the items, nor were the items as expressed by the buyer. They replied saying they'd make do with the items and would send me my payment as agreed. A month later I had still received no payment, so I emailed them again, being my always poilite self. They once again responded saying they were sorry for the delays, and would send me $25 instead of $20. I replied saying the agreed price had always been $30. Their reply informed me that the payment had already been sent, and would revisit the total payment requirement.

To date I have only received the $25 with a hand written note as to why the delay in payment. It became apparent that the purchaser was a minor as they made reference to their grandfather's inability to send the original payment and the hand written note was quite scribbled leaving me to believe the author had not matured in their schooling. I then concluded that further correspondance on the issue to be in vain and wrote the whole thing off as a learing experience. Plus, I'd be able to gain a little bit on the US to cdn exchange.... I hoped.

Well I've had the payment, which was a US Postal Money Order, since late May. Because it's a "US Postal Money Order", it cannot be cashed in Canada, which is where I live. Fortunately for me. I live right on the Canada/US border with an international bridge 3 miles from my home.

So two weeks ago, a friend of mine was heading stateside to take his family shopping and for dinner. I asked if he would cash the money order for me, to which he responded he would. Unfortunately, the money order was made out to me, with my address on it, and he was unable to provide the proper ID upon request at the US post office, so he returned the money order uncashed.

So today, I made a special trip stateside to cash the $25 US money order. During the round trip over the international bridge and back, I figured I burned about $5 in gas in my gas guzzler Dodge. The to and fro bridge fare also beat up $6, meaning my total trip costs were $11. When I got home, I took the $25 US to my bank to get it exchanged. The exchange rate on the internet was about $1.04 cdn for each US dollar, but after bank fees, I netted an additional $.28....YIPPEEE!

All in all, I figure I cleared just under $13 for a sale that should have netted me $30 plus, after all was said and done. And considering the time to take all the pictures, send all the emails (about 6 or 7), trip to the cdn post office to mail the items, trip stateside to cash the money order, wear and tear and my old truck, not to mention the frustration it caused me, I made about $4 or $5 per hour. Thank goodness I'm already retired 'cause I couldn't live on that amount.

Live and learn I guess. Live and learn!

TBow

[TBow]

When I cashed in my US $s at the bank, they paid me $1.01 cdn for every US dollar. I just got my credit card statement for gas I bought stateside. They charged me $1.06 cdn for each US dollar I spent.

I checked the exchange rate when I got home the other day and saw the cdn dollar was trading at $0.96 US.

Banks = crooks? (of course we all knew that anyway)

TBow