Facebook 2014-May-28 - [ BEGGING INTENSIFIES ]

[4Macie]

Uhh... do you think it's not water damaged?

I'm thinking it's not. A good sturdy violin case is quiet resilient. I've gotten my violin in some tough situations and the case always pulled through. Smoke damage? maybe if it had been in the house. The sad part though is that this violin was probably really really damaged over time. Violins need upkeep to make sure the bridge, board, strings, and bow stay nice and in shape. Obviously the bow is in a lot of disrepair... Without being able to actually SEE the violin I can't be sure, but just from the one picture... the bridge does seem to be slightly warped. This doesn't mean you can't play on it, but yeah, it sucks. So, water damage from the fire? Probably not, there was probably moisture (or lack of moisture) damage long before the fire happened. This is probably why the violin is only worth $200.

 

[Venusaur]

So, the auction has ended and it doesn't seem there was a buyer. Somebody asked Chris was the make of the violin was, and he replied that it was a "Framus". Maybe he should be advertising the Framus in the title more than the "Stradiuarius" if he attempts to sell it again? Framus seems to have an interesting history, and company went bankrupt at the end of 1970:
http://www.framus-vintage.de/module...8&typeID=140-147,151-155,159&katID=4679&cl=EN
Today the name is back, but they seem to make guitars and bases, not violins. There might be somebody interested in collecting a Framus violin, maybe (There doesn't seem to be a crazy demand for them):
http://www.fiddlehangout.com/archive/27742

Couldn't find any other Framus violins on sale, but for a comparison on Chris' asking price, here's some brand new Stradivari copies:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Size-4...485?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43c9b1b135
and
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Size-4...uce-Violin-Fiddle-Case-Bow/291082175791?rt=nc

Edit: And he's put the auction back on, no price change: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antonio-Str...061?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c844deb5d

 

[Kimmoat]

Chris really needs money, huh? Well...I just so happen to know that official Legos can sell for quite a fucking bit on ebay. Maybe he should try selling something that will actually sell?

He did, it's his own work

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=663415607086255&id=100002534669114

 

[Chairman Meow]

Edit: And he's put the auction back on, no price change: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antonio-Str...061?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c844deb5d

It's been a while since I listed anything on Ebay, but isn't Chris racking up insertion fees with these listings that are clearly never going to sell? As I recall, the fee was also higher if you listed it with an opening bid of $200 instead of, say, $9.99 - so he's probably shooting himself in the foot even harder with his NO HAGGLE starting price.

 

[CalmMyTits]

They phased out the Insertion Fee a couple of years ago, and instead increased the Final Value Fee percentage so you get to list items for free, but you have to pay more at the end if your item sells. It's kind of nice because you don't have to pay one single penny if your item doesn't sell.

 

[Pikonic]

Violin got bids!
The auction was extended (5d23h left)
2 bids
Currently at 202.50

 

[Marvin]

Violin got bids!
The auction was extended (5d23h left)
2 bids
Currently at 202.50

Pretty generous.

 

[A-№1]

They phased out the Insertion Fee a couple of years ago, and instead increased the Final Value Fee percentage so you get to list items for free, but you have to pay more at the end if your item sells. It's kind of nice because you don't have to pay one single penny if your item doesn't sell.

So what happens when the item "sells", but none of the winning bids turn out to be legitimate, and the winning bidders refuse to pay and disappear? Does ebay still charge the final value fee? I would think that's a significant concern given what's been happening on ebay with Chris lately.

Edit: I've checked ebay's help and Chris could be in for a bit of a hassle. He'll have to pay a 10% sold item fee as soon as the item "sells". If the "buyer" turns out to be a fake (what are the odds?), Chris will have a limited time to file an application with ebay to get a sellers credit for the sold item fee (or just part of it) applied to his account. Then he'll have to make another application to have that sellers credit refunded to him. Even if Chris resists the urge to shit himself and do nothing and successfully makes his applications to get his money back, at the very least Chris could find himself significantly out of pocket for a while.

Pretty generous.

Assuming it's legitimate it's very generous. But that's probably a pretty big assumption, all things considered.

 

[___]

Fucking Christ.* It's possible that Chris and Barb are having financial problems, but I have no clue what would be causing that. There definitely might be some new cost that has popped up, I'm just really curious as to what that is.

*Edit: I'm pretty sure I meant to say "Fucking Chris"... but whichever, that works too.

With the possible financial problems it would be interesting to see if there has been any recent progress on 14BLC or not.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Assuming it's legitimate it's very generous. But that's probably a pretty big assumption, all things considered.

It'd be awesome if the bid was legitimate, and Chris actually got a couple hundred bucks for the thing. That would be a couple hundred he could put toward alleviating his and Barb's financial problems would blow on legos in addition to whatever other credit he is spending on legos, shortly before bitching about having money problems as if the whole sale never happened.

 

[A-№1]

It'd be awesome if the bid was legitimate, and Chris actually got a couple hundred bucks for the thing. That would be a couple hundred he could put toward alleviating his and Barb's financial problems would blow on legos in addition to whatever other credit he is spending on legos, shortly before bitching about having money problems as if the whole sale never happened.

Absolutely.

If the bid is fake and Chris gets frustrated by his greed, we get to laugh at him. We win. If the bid is legitimate, and a bunch of weens rage at Chris getting money to buy legos, we get to laugh at the weens. So we still win. And Chris will get to prove himself a greedy spendthrift schlub by wasting the windfall on legos, giving us another chance to laugh at him, and he will also be encouraged to make more auctions. So we just keep on winning.

I've said it before: there is absolutely no downside for us to these ebay shenanigans. It's all good.

 

[Job]

So what happens when the item "sells", but none of the winning bids turn out to be legitimate, and the winning bidders refuse to pay and disappear? Does ebay still charge the final value fee? I would think that's a significant concern given what's been happening on ebay with Chris lately.

Edit: I've checked ebay's help and Chris could be in for a bit of a hassle. He'll have to pay a 10% sold item fee as soon as the item "sells". If the "buyer" turns out to be a fake (what are the odds?), Chris will have a limited time to file an application with ebay to get a sellers credit for the sold item fee (or just part of it) applied to his account. Then he'll have to make another application to have that sellers credit refunded to him. Even if Chris resists the urge to shit himself and do nothing and successfully makes his applications to get his money back, at the very least Chris could find himself significantly out of pocket for a while.

Assuming it's legitimate it's very generous. But that's probably a pretty big assumption, all things considered.

I doubt the CWC has enough drive to successfully fill out the required forms in time... The most likely scenario is that he will get a charge on his account and when he finally checks said account there will be a fuck ton of sighs and moans and then he will write a sob email to the customer service department of Ebay detailing his numerous run ins with the "trolls" and demand his money in return. Bonus points if he implicates Michael Snyder in bidding...

 

[Marvin]

Absolutely.

If the bid is fake and Chris gets frustrated by his greed, we get to laugh at him. We win. If the bid is legitimate, and a bunch of weens rage at Chris getting money to buy legos, we get to laugh at the weens. So we still win. And Chris will get to prove himself a greedy spendthrift schlub by wasting the windfall on legos, giving us another chance to laugh at him, and he will also be encouraged to make more auctions. So we just keep on winning.

I've said it before: there is absolutely no downside for us to these ebay shenanigans. It's all good.

Eh, I laugh at weens everyday. Heh, hell, I might encounter ween-like people on the street, and I laugh at them. But they don't feel any suffering or stress from being laughed at. If there's no impact, then the humor is diminished. It's like "yeah, this is funny, but I'll be laughing at this same thing for the next 20 weeks..."

Now, fatty finding his ebay plots collapse around him? That's a very satisfying laugh, I gotta say.

 

[A-№1]

I doubt the CWC has enough drive to successfully fill out the required forms in time...

Maybe. Maybe not. As others have pointed out, ebay does it's level best to make the whole thing as easy as possible for the below average user. Whether or not that's easy enough for Chris…? Well there's really only one way to find out. But either way, whether he goes through the process properly or not, it will cause him all manner of "stress". There is no downside. We either laugh or we laugh a lot.

But they don't feel any suffering or stress from being laughed at. If there's no impact, then the humor is diminished.

It doesn't really matter to me, though, whether or not the weens are bothered by our laughing at them. If through some miracle Chris somehow does manage to get paid for his art, that will already cause more than enough butthurt among the weens for us to laugh at them.

The weens are a lot like Chris in that respect. Whether or not our amusement causes them any anguish is largely irrelevant. They both do stupid things for us to laugh at no matter that we do, so we might as well point and laugh at them. Why worry about causing them suffering or stress when they bring enough of that on themselves?

Now, fatty finding his ebay plots collapse around him? That's a very satisfying laugh, I gotta say.

Absolutely. But if fatty somehow manages to get paid, and a bunch of weens freak out about it, well that will be a pretty damn satisfying laugh as well.