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Rik1138

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Posts posted by Rik1138

  1. Posted · Edited by Rik1138

    On 5/12/2021 at 9:48 PM, Tanooki said:

    I'm in a process of before ebay cuts me off now.  I was able to get an online bank account setup.  The website is being whorish, but I reversed it through PP trying to link it to them instead, so now I'm waiting for those 2 deposits.  Once that's solidified, then I intend to cut off the normal bank I had to set it up with.  From there I'll flush like a few hundred bucks from PP into the online bank for ebay stuff, and take it from there.  Hopefully it all works out, have a week left about to deal with it.  The one I brought up, they're a work at home force it appears and they're US based, no call center, no overseas english as a second language.  Guy walked me through a good bit and explained it all nearly for an hour and he's from nashville so only a few hours away.

     

    I have stuff on ebay now, so once that cuts off, not sure what happens if I don't make the period though I should.  They claim any existing will drop PP from the listing while live and cut over to the other.

    Maybe I missed it, but who did you go with for the online account?  That actually sounds like one of the ones I was reading about.  Super friendly and helpful when trying to get you set up, but if there's actually a problem with your account the quality of service goes down quickly...

    Check Yelp reviews, BBB, etc...  A lot of these you don't realize are problematic until you actually have a problem, which might be months or years after you sign up...

     

    I had listings started that were going to end after my cut off date.  Everything went smoothly except for one auction that the buyer claimed eBay wouldn't process the payment for.  Turns out he was trying to use a credit card to pay, and since I didn't have the new eBay system setup, it was denying the payment.  Fortunately he just opted to pay with PayPal.

    But I guess that's the issue, people might try to pay with a non-PayPal payment, and if you don't have eBay's new system setup they won't be able to pay you.  I've also heard that eBay will accept the money, tell you to ship, then tell you they can't release the money to you until you set up Managed Payments.

     

    It's definitely risky to let the time period pass with auctions still live, especially if you have no intention of signing up for Managed Payments.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    On 5/8/2021 at 9:45 PM, Tanooki said:

    They pulled that shit on me finally too, have until the 21st.

     

    I need to figure out what to do kind of.  I mean, I flatly outright refuse to give those thieves my actual bank account information.  I'm going to have to setup one of those accounts with an online bank, put a few hundred in there from PP and just let that be I guess.  That way if they decide to try and screw me, they won't have much to pull from as I'll keep that account nice and low, keep the funds where they exist now as an added shield against scammers.

     

    I've never actually have had to give ebay any real good personal info like SSN, bank access, etc.  They had a credit card I let expire in 2015 I never refreshed, PP really was it.  It sucks, losing some good protection from scumbags because you can get PP to overturn ebays bullshit.

     

    Is it that hard to setup a bank routing etc thing with ebay or just follow the idiot prompts type situation?

    Yeah, I went through the same.  Once I had an account setup, it was just pretty much 'follow the idiot prompts'.  I refused to use the login to my bank provided by eBay (although that probably is the easiest and fasted way), so opted to enter data manually.  They claimed they couldn't verify the account, so I had to wait a few days as they deposited two tiny amounts in the account and I had to tell them the exact amount.  Now all is good...

     

    I opted for Discover's free online checking/debit account.  I was going to try one of those 'online only' banks that you've never heard of unless you are looking for an online only bank...  :) But even though there were several that had good options, they almost all got horrible reviews when it came to costumer service.  I guess they just pay a call center to handle it, so you get people that don't really know anything about banking or have any real access to the account.  So I opted for the free online account, but offered by a more established banking institution...  First National of Omaha was another one I saw that had a free checking account...  Maybe they all do now.

     

    Haven't actually re-started selling yet, so have to wait and see how it all works and how long it takes to get paid...  That part really sucks...

    • Like 2

  3. Posted · Edited by Rik1138

    The seller put the Ozzy book in 'Vintage & antique', and eBay defaults the search to the most commonly used category for the item you are searching for., at least when it chooses a category for you.  (In this case, Sheet music and song books/contemporary.)

     

    On the left side of the screen, where you see the categories, you'll see that 'Contemporary' is bold/black.  If you click the 'Vintage & Antique' category, or better yet, the 'All' category at the top of the list, you will find the auction for the tab book that you linked.

     

    Always check the category list on the left.  Sometimes eBay will stuff your search into a category, sometimes it'll just search 'all'...  That's why it's good to switch to all to find that item someone put in a bad category that might sell cheap...  :)

     

    Not sure about the Mega Man, maybe something to do with how eBay searches completed BIN auctions that accepted offers...  When I search Saturn Mega Man completed listings, I don't see any 'best off accepted' listings...  And there are bound to be some...

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    6 hours ago, Tanooki said:

    I'm aware, just went the direction I did since it's an ebay topic.

    Weighing my options now.  I've got a year to figure it out at least.  Worst case scenario I blow out anything I'm over with I have and sell like crazy this year, hoard the cash for when something I need comes along, because I'm not paying tax on goods I already paid tax on in the first place, garage sale level goods are off limits in my book.  I can't afford to have my refund destroyed over their petty stunt.

    Yeah, definitely the intent of this thread.  I just know there are people that are just going to go ballistic because they have to pay tax on their 'eBay sales' and blame it all on eBay...  Then they are in for a second rude-awakening when they discover that all their Facebook sales are also taxed (or wherever else they go).

     

    I'm in the same situation as you...  I've been lazily selling things for years, and this might just be the motivation to get a lot of my 'spare stuff' sold by the end of the year...

    And making sure I have detailed records of everything for future years.  You can deduct what you paid for anything you sell (and some other expenses), but if you are selling everything at a profit, that's not a total solution...

     

    But, technically, any profit you make on sales is money you HAVEN'T paid a tax on yet, thus the whole reason for the change in the first place... :)

     

    Still sucks though, makes it tediously annoying for any casual seller that might have a few hundred dollars of stuff to sell throughout the year...

    • Like 3

  5. Posted

    13 hours ago, Tanooki said:

    Maybe when all those americans start losing nearly 14% of their sales to self employment tax, not understanding this at all once 2022 starts, and gets a big fat tax BILL (which also ate any refund) in 2023 will leave a sharp burden, furious vindictive memory, and utter hatred for the place more than potentially already was there under the surface.  Ebay timed their greedy slide pretty well cutting out PP with the tax scam that went in this year last month as it'll make matters even worse.

    Keep in mind, that 2022 tax bill has nothing to do with eBay specifically, it's ANY digital payment processor.  Ebay payments, PayPal, Square, etc...  If you are selling online and taking digital payments of any kind (except maybe crypto), you will get hit with that tax.  Doesn't matter if you are selling on Amazon, Etsy, FB, through an Email list, etc...  Going back to having people send you checks/money orders through the mail is the only way I can see to avoid it...

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    16 hours ago, Atariuser85 said:

    Wanted to thank the community for all the helpful information.  I got the repaired unit to work ~90 percent.  The first top row of LCDs are glitchy and the paddle is a bit glitchy but works well enough for game play.  I ended up using rubbing alcohol to clean up the potentiometer (knob).  I did not end up wanting to re-open to try to re-orient the LCD because its working.  Figured if I keep moving it around may loose game play again.  Also found an interesting article on cost of the Microvision and other handhelds through time. Looks like the original Microvision cost equates to in today's dollars approximately about the cost of a Nintendo Switch ($385) adjusting for inflation.  

    Their information is wrong...  The Microvision system was $40 in 1979-1980, and the cartridges were about $16

    So adjusting for inflation, it's about $127, and the carts would be $51.

     

    Original Sears catalog page from 1979 here:

    https://www.handheldmuseum.com/BooksMagazines/Cat-Sears_79/Sears79_7.htm

    Not even hard to find the original price, not sure where they got that $100 from...

    • Thanks 1

  8. Posted

    On 2/10/2021 at 10:55 PM, _The Doctor__ said:

    remember this fixture only plays the game for a limited time then resets till you select it again.. it is not a full time game changer but rather a sales kiosk that you load with real cartridges to choose from then the timer starts so you can try it out... when the time is up so is your game

    I wonder how easy it would be to bypass the timer and make it act like a game changer...  Probably wouldn't be too hard to do it in a way that doesn't permanently alter the piece...

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    On 2/17/2021 at 7:16 AM, -^CrossBow^- said:

    Oh and one more important thing that I didn't do because I literally didn't think they were there. Remember to remove the protective sheets that are on both sides of the LCD screen. I hadn't done this and I'm sure it played a large part in why I had issues with getting mine to work initially as well.

     

     

    There's a protective sheet on the backlight itself too.  I almost forgot that one..

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    On 1/8/2021 at 3:24 AM, DZ-Jay said:

    Oh, wow, someone remade ISEPIC back in 2017! 😎

    https://www.c64copyprotection.com/isepic-2017/

     

    I may get one of those and fulfill a boyhood dream. LOL!

    There were a LOT of clones of it back in the day.  I used to have a few of them, including two that were obviously handmade (wire-wrapped boards and such).

    Apparently it's wasn't a complicated piece of circuitry...

     

    I love that the remake actually has permission from the original designer...  I didn't even know about that one, but now I kind of want to get one too.  It'd be cool to have the 1985 and the 2017 versions.  :)

     

    • Like 1

  19. Posted · Edited by Rik1138

    8 hours ago, [email protected] said:

    Finally a 131 in blockbuster on the last ball.  That worked with 'walking' the ball one block at a time until the last block is picked off.  Then boom.  The blocks reset and it must have knocked out 1/2 of the blocks!!  Nice!

    Yeah, it'll get almost 1/2 of them leaving a nice grid pattern.  Then if you can get the ball bouncing off the left or right again, hitting nothing just going back and forth, just leave it and wait.  It'll shift at the top of the screen again, and it'll take out about 1/2 of the remaining blocks...  It's very satisfying when you pull it off.  :)

    • Thanks 1

  23. Posted

    On 12/20/2020 at 11:22 AM, 5-11under said:

    Some things to think about there... . My initial thoughts are:

    1. It's going to be painful, in a couple of ways, to take apart a bunch of existing carts.

     

    Another option maybe- sell it as a kit- everything minus the cartridge (and maybe the styrofoam pieces, unless those are new) for people willing to hack up their own cartridges...

    Many systems go through this once homebrew happens- Channel F, Atari 2600, 5200, Vectrex...  At one point, all homebrew games were harvesting existing games for the shells...  Some of them now have professionally made shells as the demand was worth it, but I don't think the Microvision will hit that level.

    Molding or 3D printing might be able to do something good enough...

     

    Either way, I want one!  :)

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    Jay was the one that gave all of those to the museum, so I'm sure he shared some stories with them...  Might have been some paperwork too, I'll have to ask them to see what they got from him.

     

    I haven't spoken to Jay since these pieces were uncovered, but I'll see if I can get ahold of him again.  I'm sure he'd love to see the back light mod on a Microvision too.  :)

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    Here's some pics... :)

    Sounds like the Missile Command one was being worked on after Microvision, and clearly has a higher resolution display, so that one apparently got further than just paper designs...

    The second one in the background is mounted to a large box that had batteries and electronics inside it, so I think that is either a functional mockup, or it might just play a pre-programmed sequence to show what the game can do.  (They also have a Toy Fair display of a GCE Space-N-Counter like that- it looks functional, but it just plays a sequence on the LCD so you can see what the game would look like).

    The gold Microvision was awarded to Jay for his work on the system.

    uV1_Gold.thumb.jpg.0bff28b5e11aa5741941cd05a55818f4.jpg

    uV2_Design.thumb.jpg.fba52cc73c262462d250b9e05181e24a.jpguV3_Handee.thumb.jpg.de8d9c2d32cffa3887c437589e165587.jpguV4_Phaser.thumb.jpg.cbd1e84f178b8158ec0f8f0875cdb5bf.jpg

    uV5_Missile.thumb.jpg.72db69df5968274188e3619cc92a7ee9.jpguV6_Card.thumb.jpg.b56fe5cff311b1789ce8ff142c2ae3e9.jpg

     

    • Like 2
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