Posts Made By: Gary Townsend

Hi Folks,

I've noticed some ads here that are asking for an additonal 4% for anyone paying via credit card on Paypal. I just converted my Paypal account to a Premier account today because I'm going to be selling some stuff and wanted to be able to offer credit cards as a form of payment. When I converted, the fee schedule I was shown was $0.30 plus 2.9%, so I understood when folks asked for 3%. I also saw a mention of a Paypal fee increase in a post somewhere that I can't find now.

So my question is: have I missed something in the Paypal fee structure? Is there some fine print I didn't read somewhere? :-)

Clear skies,

Gary

Hi folks,

I was hoping to get some advice from some of the more "seasoned" A-marters out there. Last week I responded to a wanted ad someone had placed looking for something I had available to sell. We emailed back a forth a few times and on Monday of this week we reached an agreement. I initially had reservations about the user because they had only signed up the week before and had no history, but I was that way once too so I decided to give it a go.

I indicated if paid via PayPal I'd ship as soon as I received the payment. The other party indicated they'd pay me Tueday of this week. Well, as of Wednesday night I hadn't seen anything so I sent them a quick and polite email stating that if they had indeed paid I hadn't received it and to please verify they had sent to the correct email address. I also asked that if they gotten busy to please let me know when I could expect the payment. Lastly I asked that if they had found another deal or no longer wanted the item if they could please let me know so I could pursue other oppportunities.

I got an email a few hours later indicating they had just gotten really busy, but they still wanted the item and would pay later that night or Thursday morning. Well, here it is Friday morning and still no payment.

Here and on eBay I've always paid immediately on reaching a deal. It only takes a few minutes to send a PayPal payment, so I'm feeling a little strung along. I've managed to just close a deal in one day to sell a scope I had available, so this is a little frustrating.

Any suggestions from some more experienced folks on how to proceed? Am I expecting payment too quickly? I didn't think so since the other party was the one who indicated when they would make payment. I don't want to risk a negative rating for this transaction, but I'd like to move this equipment to fund a purchase I'd like to make.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Clear skies,

Gary

Hi everyone,

I've been using a few pairs of old binoculars that my Dad had around, but I've been wanting to buy a decent pair for nights when I don't want to drag the scope out.

One thing I've noticed is that in every pair I've tried (about 4 so far), stars were never a distinct point of light when focused. They always have what I'll call a "flair" of light coming out of one side. It's always very small, but really annoying, especially when looking at Saturn or Jupiter.

Is this likely an alignment problem with the binocs, or could it be something in my eye? I've noticed that as I defocus the binos this flair gets more pronounced and eventually a bright star or planet will look more like a comet.

These are not fully multicoated, but I know the one pair my Dad loaned me were rather expensive when he bought them about 30 years ago...but they were also used quite a bit on a small sailboat and probably took a few knocks (these were 10x50's). Then ones I'm using now are only 7x35's, but they show the least amount of this problem so I've been using them.

Thanks & clear skies,

Gary

I purchased a used C-8 a few years ago here on A-mart, and the fellow that sold it to me sent me this 26mm Celestron plossl eyepiece. I've looked around online and never seen another one that looks like it, and I was wondering if someone could confirm this was the standard plossl eyepiece that they shipped with their scopes.

It doesn't have a rubber eyeguard, and there's really no place I see where you could put one on. Other than that, there's nothing special about it.

Thanks,

Gary

Ok,

Maybe it's me...maybe I'm just too nice or something (my wife would definitely not agree, btw).

A number of months ago I responded to a wanted ad here on AM. A guy was looking for a mount that I was thinking about selling. He immediately responded he absolutely wanted it, and would send funds via PayPal in 2 or 3 days, as soon as he got his money together. After being strung along by this guy for about 10 days, I finally ended up listing and selling it to someone else (very smoothly, too). The initial buyer wrote back with all sorts of sob stories and apologized for not getting his act together.

Fast forward a few months...I'm selling my second mount. I list it a couple times priced a little high and don't get any action to speak of. I drop the price $100 and boom - emails start rolling in. Great I think. The first guy who responds says he defitely wants is, but needs 2 or 3 days to get the funds to pay via PayPal. I start to have deja vu, but he's got a number of 5-star ratings whereas my other foot-dragger was a newbie with no transactions, so I say ok, mark it pending and write back to all the runners up telling them someone beat them to the punch. I immediately calculate the shipping and send him an email with the total amount due...no response...I think to myself, "Hmmmmmm."

Fast forward 4 days later to today. I send off another email first thing this morning mentioning that I hadn't seen any funds at PayPal and asking if everything is ok and if he still wants the mount. I explain to him that my wife and I are expecting twins (no, not eyepieces for a binoviewer), and I'm planning on using this money to pick up some stuff we need on sale on Black Friday. No response so far, but he is on the west coast.

Honestly...am I expecting too much, that when you say two or three days you actually act in two or three days? > Unfortunately, he didn't give a phone number to contact him, but even if he did I don't know if I would bother at this point. I think I've made up my mind to email runner-up number one tomorrow and see if they're still interested. I specifially dropped my price so that I could move this and have the funds in my PayPal account before Thanksgiving.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
Clear skies,

Gary

I had a quick question. I received a response from a user, presumably new, to an ad I have running. He responded to the ad, but didn't type anything in his response...it was blank except for all the A-mart diclaimer and warning stuff.

I logged on to check him out, and when I pulled him up, there was no date in the "Member since" field. Does anyone know why that would be? Usually when I get something like this I try to see if it's a new user that may have mistakenly replied and contact them to see if they actually are interested.

I'm just curious more than anything. It's a low-$$ item, so it would be a good chance for a new user to establish a rating, and we were all new at one time or another.

Clear skies,

Gary

If he has only had this a short time they should be issuing a tag for UPS to pick it up and ship it back. I read a post somewhere recently where a guy had a similar problem and the first support person he talked to wanted him to pay to ship it back to be fixed. He called back and eventually got a supervisor (maybe the "Blue" fellow referred to above). Anyway, the supervisor got him a prepaid shipping tag to return the item to Meade. It still took four weeks, but he didn't have to pay to ship it back for something that was not working right out of the box.

Clear skies,

Gary