Circle of (virtual) life

Last week I emailed my club members. My intention was to remind them I'm here and selling ThereBucks in ten minutes or less mostly, but it was also rather chatty and encouraged them to email me about anything at all.

I received some very nice responses. I kept waiting for something nasty (wow, am I cynical or what?) but it was all positive. One person mentioned that they used to buy ThereBucks from me, then they started developing and bought ThereBucks from me less but purchased some of my model licensing rights. Then, they started selling ThereBucks to me sometimes as they became a successful developer. Now, they sell ThereBucks to me all the time!

The truth is, they aren't the only virtual life I've seen go that way. I had just been thinking the other day about the very same thing. I could name a half dozen avies/people like that off the top of my head and I'm sure there are more that did it so gradually I just didn't notice. And it's just...it makes me sooo warm and gooey inside. There are people who bought LARGE quantities of ThereBucks from me for SEVERAL YEARS who eventually started painting and even learned 3D modeling and maybe lost a bunch of money doing it at first, and now they sell me 500k of ThereBucks at a time or are just SO PROUD every time they have enough ThereBucks to get $100 from me.

Hey, if somebody never, ever takes an interest in developing, if the only time they ever sell ThereBucks is when they're unloading a neighborhood or decided to sell their rare one seater buggy to make a real world mortgage payment, or if shopping is their favorite activity and they wouldn't touch Photoshop with a ten foot pole, that's totally cool and I will sell them ThereBucks until the day There shuts its doors (oooooh....knock on wood!) But the ones that have made that journey from first time buyer to profitable seller/developer...those are my babies, my children, my darlings, my fledgling birds that left the nest but still migrate back to the same spot. I just want to give them a biiiiig hug.

Ooops, wait...There doesn't have hugs. '''sad

Hey hey...only 12 hours behind!

Hey, it's either talk about this or try to get a video card working in one of my computers while I wait for my bf to show up. My bf who is off having dinner with his business partners at OUR RESTAURANT. Well, I mean, we don't own the restaurant but it's the one we always go to when my cat has her chemo treatment and now he's going there without me. :(

Why is it that when you don't use a computer for a few months it can't just y'know...start right back up again? It's like a car you left sitting outside in a cold Minnesota winter. How am I supposed to fix a problem with nothing displaying on the monitor when no monitor will work with it and I think the problem is with the video card and the video card is built into the motherboard? Hmmmm?

Anyway...what was I talking about?

Oh yeah. I am not two days behind paying ThereBucks sellers, not one day behind. I am only 12 hours behind! And...I'm abnormally happy about it! Who cares if I've had $1000 worth of ThereBucks transactions come in from sellers in the last 12 hours so that being 12 hours behind actually means being $1000 behind? Heck, that's not so bad!

To all you Therians out there looking to sell off your extra ThereBucks I just have this to say: BRING IT!

Tbux musings

I've had ThereBucks in stock for over five weeks straight now, and no end in sight. Last night I went to bed feeling pretty great that I was only one day behind paying sellers. (Not to be confused with buyers, who get paid in ten minutes or less!) This morning I woke up to $750 more in sales requests. *sigh* Naturally, I've been a bit more focused on There lately because of this, and also on other ThereBucks resellers.

Ye olde tbux site particularly interests me because, besides the fact that I used to be a seller there (and am the only seller ever kicked off the site...a dubious honor bestowed upon me for refusing to stop claiming sales transactions as quickly as possible) and have long used "who is listed as selling and how many sellers and how quickly are they paying" as a barometer for how quickly ThereBucks are moving through the system and how long one might expect to spend trying to sell the ThereBucks one might have in stock.

The difference now is, well, now I can actually share my observations with others (you!) Please don't think I'm bitter towards kittenkat/tbux, it's more like I'm hurt (although at the same time grateful, as I probably wouldn't otherwise have gone off on my own and made all the buying/selling streamlining and automating improvements I have) and of course I can't help but be interested in what's going on there...even if I was tempted to pretend that the site didn't exist, that would be a rather foolish business move. Besides, there are a few tbux members who actually sell ThereBucks TO ME, which naturally makes me curious.

So here are my recent observations...

People who have been selling recently

Mercuria: Of course, you are more likely to see Mercuria selling than anyone else on the site. Who do you think took over most of the ThereBucks sale request claims after I was gone? Plus, although I hear she's not really developing for There any more and has turned her attention almost solely on IMVU, she has a HUGE amount of stuff in auctions. You know, it's really a shame that she stopped designing for There soon after trans mapping arrived...she has soooo much fantastic stuff in the catalog, but most of it is caramel skin specific. Anyway, I have noticed that she is usually listed as selling in 8 hours or 12 hours, so I'm thinking she must have a full time job again, and perhaps a boyfriend. It also seems like she is not actually claiming sales requests any more (as far as I can tell) which would be pretty weird/ironic after all the trouble she went to in order to be able to claim as many as possible in the first place. She also seems to have stopped accepting credit card or unverified PayPal account payments.

Xedos: One of tbux's newer members. It's weird the way kittenkat had asked us what we thought of adding new members the first time she did it, but didn't say anything at all the second time. Well anyway, Xedos always used to sell loads of ThereBucks to the tbux site and now he can sell directly so that's great. But anyway, it LOOKS LIKE he is listing himself as selling for a day or something, then giving up for a bit, then listing again. I mean, I get the impression he isn't selling out, is just tired of waiting for sales. Hmmm...he could always sell them to me...I'm two days behind paying people but that's still quicker than what he's doing now.

Majandi: I notice he is also not accepting credit card or whatever payments. There used to be only one tbux member like that, now there are five!

Banshee_Kate: She was listed as selling but isn't any more. While Xedos may have gotten tired of trying to sell, Banshee_Kate is more likely to have actually sold out. She has always been pretty active in-world and usually sold on her own before she was a tbux member, and she is quite likely to have sold a bunch of ThereBucks to her friends, fans or club members.

Randra_Loqqet: Not listed as selling very often. He hasn't been active on There for a while now but still lists auctions and comes back occasionally to sell what I can only imagine is a large chunk of ThereBucks at a time. On the one hand, he may be in for a rude shock wrt how slowly they sell, otoh I doubt he is counting on the money so won't really care.

Phedre: Well, I don't think Phedre has designed anything for There for quite a while. However, she makes quite a lot of ThereBucks because of her fantastic designs like the dragon hoverboards and, well, like...everything she has ever made. About three years ago someone at There, who doesn't even work there any more, had the brilliant idea that instead of paying her like, $100 an hour to make some cowboy hats and braided hair, they would let her submit them as her own items instead. You know, to save There some money. I'm sure in the last three years she has made and far surpassed how much she would have been paid as a lump sum. That's great for her, but she doesn't list herself as selling very often so when she does...watch out! She's probably trying to sell millions at a time and she's not as laid back as Randra, she'll list herself as selling in an hour or less for extended periods of time. When she lists herself, watch the number of sellers grow as she upsets the balance of things.

People who haven't been around as much

Ashy: Another one who has been gone from There but still lists in auctions. I sold off most of my inventory but you know one thing I kept was a limited edition coffin hoverboard s/he made. Such talent...Ashy, come back! Anyway, when s/he sells credits it is another situation where it doesn't happen very often so it can amount to a large chunk of them when it does.

Kittenkat: She doesn't seem to like to list herself unless no-one else is selling. You know, she has a baby, she does some...I don't know...accounting work or something, she designs websites or something with her husband sometimes and oh how could I forget...she has been pretty involved with IMVU stuff. Like Mercuria, she's making more money with IMVU than with There, I'm sure. Actually, I'm pretty darn sure she's making a lot MORE than Mercuria. So, I'm sure she has a huge ThereBucks balance right now, but you probably won't see her selling until someday when for some crazy reason everyone else is finally sold out, and even then she will have to actually notice everyone is sold out. Or maybe for some reason she will want/need a bunch of cash fast and try to sell.

Alexis_Josephine: Apparently she is back after something like 4 years MIA. It's kind of funny to think that she was a tbux seller all that time even though she wasn't even listing in auctions. Well whatever, it's pretty cool that she's back. Maybe someone should tell her about IMVU....

People who are just totally gone

Wildcat: This dude was one of the first 3d modeling members of There. In fact, he helped me out learning GMax. He had graduated from college and was moping around his parents house for a while working at some boring job. Then one day, he got a boyfriend and I think he may have moved to the big city and no-one ever heard from him again. Dudes...this was a LONG time ago. It's so funny that he's still listed on the site.

Viv: People thought I was the one who ALWAYS claimed the sales requests on tbux but originally it was Viv. Because of her, I was practically glued to my computer 24/7. I set up a laptop on the nightstand by my bed because of her. And...she still got more of the requests than I did! How did she do it? My theory was that she was based (she was in the military) somewhere close to the servers tbux was hosted on, and therefore received alerts slightly sooner than I did. And/or she had some buddies that would claim requests for her if she ever went to sleep or stepped away from the computer. Or maybe she actually WAS a computer. She was the beginning of my quest to find a way to claim sales requests quicker than anyone else could. I didn't complain about her, I just set out to be better than her. Not that it worked...she just disappeared one day. I hope nothing bad happened to her. No-one has heard from her for years now.

Kiana: Not much to say about her except that she hasn't been around for a few years now.

Rejeanne: Also has NO There auctions listed, so we should assume that she's not going to be around selling ThereBucks.

TNT: Okay, where the heck did TNT go? Maybe she just decided that IMVU was more worth her time? I have a hunch that she was one of the people complaining about me claiming all the tbux sales requests (hey, the faster they are claimed, the better for the people selling them, right? Actually, the whole claiming process is so inefficient, but I won't get into that right now/again.) When she was first invited to join the tbux site, we were partnering together on IMVU and talking quite a bit and I asked her, jokingly but keenly interested in the answer, if she was going to be trying to claim sales requests. She said of course she wouldn't, she knew I counted on the income from those. Then one day, she claimed one. Well, her bf who stays up all night did, but she said she was probably going to be claiming sales from then on. If Viv was the one who got me obsessed with claiming transaction quickly, it was TNT who lit a fire under my arse about automating the process. Some people have boyfriends who stay up all night claiming requests, some people use technology for even more reliable results. Hmmm...that sounds a bit naughty. Anyway...I'm a bit surprised she isn't listing in auctions...and I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up again eventually.

Starley: This chick has her finger in a lot of pie. Last I knew, she was pretty involved with Second Life. She's also been involved with IMVU stuff. Not surprising she doesn't have time for There, or even listing her stuff in auctions in There.

I know that's not everyone on tbux, but I don't really have anything to say about the others. They sell, they're active, I haven't seen them on the site selling in the last few weeks. This was really more just my musings about what is going on with ThereBucks and ThereBucks resellers. Not even sure it's of interest to anyone but myself.

Great Reasons to Buy and Sell ThereBucks with me, Jinx_tv!

Several days ago I ThereMailed all my There club members, something I don't normally do, to say "hi" and remind them I buy/sell ThereBucks and where my site is in case they forgot and asking for ideas/testimonials/etc. I did get some nice emails back with ideas and testimonials, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and I do think it resulted in a few extra ThereBucks sales, but most of all it seems to have resulted in more people selling TO ME. Ahhhhh! On one hand, I think it's great...I want those people to stick around and sell to me long term, but on the other hand...I've gone from being only ONE DAY behind paying people their PayPal payments back to (once again) three days behind. I'm hoping to be two days behind by the end of today, but we shall see!

Meanwhile...

Seven great reasons to buy ThereBucks from me:

SPEEDY PAYMENT: My payment system is automated. As long as you are already a member of jinx_tv_tbux club you will receive payment in ten minutes or less.

TRANSPARENCY: You can see on my site just how many ThereBucks are available for sale.

EXPERIENCE: I have been selling ThereBucks since 2003, I've sold more ThereBucks than anyone else and I know what I'm doing!

VOLUME: Easily buy even large amounts of ThereBucks.

SAVINGS: Save over 10% vs buying from There.

COMMUNITY: Support all the nice developers who sell their ThereBucks to me. It allows them to make more great content and spurs them on to do so!

SHOPPING: Quickly get the money you need to go shopping (or pay rent on a neighborhood or submit your designs, etc.) and get more ThereBucks to spend, too!


Seven great reasons to sell ThereBucks to me:

CONVENIENCE: I have a website set up that pays buyers within ten minutes of their purchase. I do all the work for you and already have a large customer base!

LOWER FEES: You can sell all ThereBucks in one single lump, lowering your PayPal fees.

MORE MONEY: You get $1 for every 2200 ThereBucks. Anyone selling their ThereBucks for a higher rate is losing money.

EXPERIENCE: I have been doing this for 4 1/2 years, I am well known and trusted.

NO RISK: No worries about PayPal chargebacks, those are now my problem. :/

STABILITY: Help keep the There economy stable, which means more $$$ for you in the long run.

SIMPLE: Less steps to selling your ThereBucks and faster response than other resellers.

12 Things to do while STILL broke and trying to pay ThereBucks sales requests

1. Wake up and check PayPal account. Pay ThereBucks sellers before even reading email or having morning caffeine.

2. Be glad you are now only two days behind paying sellers, but also notice three new sales requests came in while you were sleeping and ThereBucks balance is creeping up again.

3. Make last ditch effort to fatten up cancer kitty before Monday's chemo appointment, so oncologist won't want to give her expensive blood tests or more antibiotics to go with all her other drugs.

4. Commiserate with Fat Rodney "pee-tail" Kitty on how life is SO NOT FAIR because China gets to eat all she wants of tasty, tasty food, with people worrying that she is too thin and should be encouraged to eat more while WE have to watch our girlish figures. (Okay, Fat Rodney "pee-tail" Kitty isn't a girl, but he doesn't know that.)

5. Agree to write article for the There Voice on the current state of the There economy and ThereBucks resellers. Realize that this is going to require more research than you thought and so meanwhile make a list (another list!) of reasons why buyers should buy from you and sellers should sell to you.

6. Make last ditch effort to air out office from Urine-Off application of the day before and make space in office, in preparation for gargoyle bookcase set.

7. Email all There clubs you are leader of, even though you hate it when people send out loads of club emails and almost never send Wheremail or club email ever to anyone about anything, to let them know that "OMG...guess what??? I actually have ThereBucks in stock, can you believe it????" like it is some big news flash.

8. Stare at GMail, wondering where all the ThereBucks and IMVU Credits sales are. Remind self that the only time sales are deader than a Tuesday afternoon is a Saturday afternoon.

9. To stop self from compulsively checking GMail, take a shower. Spend time in shower fantasizing about checking GMail and seeing you have thousands of dollars in ThereBucks sales. After drying hair, check email to find you have had NO sales at all, which is actually totally normal for a Saturday afternoon but depressing nonetheless.

10. Compulsively reboot iPhone over and over to see if EDGE network is working yet. (It isn't.) Feel sorry for yourself because you can't use some of the coolest new features of the new iPhone 1.1.3 update, such as global positioning to get driving directions.

11. Start up secondary computer to auto-pay ThereBucks buyers and shut down primary computer/tablet pc to take with to bf's house.

12. At bf's house, turn on primary computer and take over from secondary computer, checking requests and email making sure everyone is still getting paid IMVU credits, ThereBucks or cash via PayPal as quickly as possible, meanwhile ignoring bf because you know...the Internet never sleeps or takes a day off. I'm a global business, baby!

11 Things to do when your bf is out at a poker night/birthday party

Fridays are one of the days my bf and I always plan to go to the gym, but things don't always work out as planned. Tonight instead of working out, he is off losing all his money in a poker game. At least I think he went to the gym this morning, to make up for it. Myself, nah...I just didn't go. So, this is what I did instead...

1. Make cheese quesadillas using tortillas bf made and brought you last night. Wonder if bf wants you to get fat. Remember that it wasn't his idea to cover them with cheese and saute them in butter.

2. Look wistfully at gmail, willing sales to come in. When they do start coming in, realize that they are all for IMVUCREDITS.COM and that you are paying ThereBucks sellers with money earned from IMVU credits and find that rather depressing.

3. On a whim, check kittenkat's tbux site and see there are six sellers all trying to sell ThereBucks at the same time. Remember fondly the times of being one of six sellers trying to compete with each other for sales and never leaving the computer/apartment or going to sleep for fear of missing a sale or having to list self for a period of time longer than one hour. Cheer up considerably thinking about this and about how you pay ThereBucks out in ten minutes or less without being chained to the computer, as well as at the thought that that site must be much farther behind paying sellers than you are, since some of their regulars are now coming to you.

4. Realize that for the last nine months since you left Kittenkat's tbux site (okay, were kicked off for automating most of your buying process) your main site, http://jinx.tv, has been pointing potential or lost customers to that other site. Ooops! Download and install a new version of Dreamweaver onto your tablet pc and spend hours downloading your entire jinx.tv site, which has a huge amount of content you kind of forgot about, just to get to the few pages you want to edit. Six hours later, finally fix the link and tidy up some redirect pages.

5. Take the five bucks you won from your bf on that bet about whether you were wearing any underwear, the five bucks from the bet about whether Carmen Electra was ever married to Dennis Rodman and the five bucks from the bet about where a certain bottle of wine you both liked came from and combine them all to finally go to the store and buy a few essentials, like toilet paper. Idly wonder if bf lets you win these bets on purpose.

6. Once home, use the bathroom about five times even though you don't have to, just to revel in Charmin Ultra Soft decadent goodness.

7. Get text on iPhone telling you that your monthly payment didn't go through. This is weird because text messages haven't worked, in fact the entire EDGE network hasn't worked on your phone for the last three days. Try and fail to make payment online. Call customer service and try and fail to make payment with automated voice service. Talk to three customer service agents, none of whom knows when the EDGE network will be working but the last of whom is able to make your payment go through, thus charging you even more money for the text messages and Internet services that aren't working on your phone. Rollover amount now on iPhone: $233

8. Swear if you have one more piece of soy protein or one more bit of wheat gluten "meat" or one more starchy food, you are going to hurl. Break self-imposed rule about not buying anything with PayPal debit card to go to discount grocery and buy a bag full of fruits and vegetables. Eat a heaping plate of crudite and...oh yes...a Häagen-Daz chocolate mint ice cream bar and forget, at least during the time you are devouring "baby" carrots and english cucumbers, that your bf is off smoking cigars and eating giant slabs of meat.

9. Text bf through the Verizon website, asking if he wants to make bowtie pasta with tomato rosemary cream sauce for dinner tomorrow night. Get no response. Not like you expected one.

10. Realize you should be preparing a spot to put the gargoyle wall unit bookcases and desk you'll be getting on Sunday. Take out portable blacklight you got recently and use it, along with a couple bottles of "urine-off" to check for cat urine that ended up in computer/office room from an ill-fated attempt at getting cats to use a litter box outside on the balcony instead of the kitchen. Find urine in the most disgusting places, like way up on the wall next to where the cat tree used to be and on a few vertical blinds. Hey, they don't call him Rodney "pee-tail" Kitty for nothing! Decide it would be a good idea to recommend a blacklight and some urine-off to any and every cat owner you know, but that maybe people should wear a gas mask and that it might be most appropriate to use around Halloween, when it seems festive and seasonal to truly horrify and freak yourself out. Or, perhaps after a particularly inspiring episode of CSI.

11. Get phonecall from slightly tipsy bf, who is finally done with poker night, says that "yes it was strip poker and I lost all my clothes" just to please you, and who very much wants to make bowtie pasta with tomato rosemary cream sauce tomorrow night.

10 Things to do when you are broke and waiting to pay sales transactions

Since the last week in December, I've been falling behind in ThereBucks sales. The sales requests keep coming in faster than the buy requests. After a while, it has gotten a bit old, especially when I thought I was making headway paying people and then received a large number of large-ish chargebacks from PayPal that put me even further behind and basically wiped out any actual profit I might be making on ThereBucks...it's like I'm putting in the time and assuming the risks and all I get is annoyed ThereBucks sellers worried about getting paid. Still, I do find some perverse pleasure in the challenges of being broke for weeks on end.

So, here is a list of ten things to do when you are broke and waiting to pay sales transactions...

1. Realize you shouldn't delay washing dishes any longer just because you are out of dishwasher detergent, so fill the dishwasher detergent cups with expensive geranium scented regular dish soap.

Have a very Brady moment when soap suds and water start pouring out of the cracks in the dishwasher.

Decide that although your whole apartment smells like geraniums, although you didn't even know geraniums had a smell, and the dishes did get clean, it is probably better to wash the rest of the dishes by hand.

2. Wake up sleeping kitty to put him outside so you can use your Flip video camera to film him using his cat door and post it on YouTube.


3. Realize there are much cuter videos of cats using pet doors on YouTube.


4. Run out of toilet paper and debate using the quarters you were saving to do your laundry to buy toilet paper. Clean clothes or clean....


5. Scrounge around your apartment for some travel tissues and remember that your BF is bringing you the five dollars he owes you to the gym tonight, for winning that bet about whether Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman were ever married. Realize maybe you don't have to make the above choice.



6. Avoid showering/washing hair for as long as possible, because you are out of your deep moisturizing conditioner and would rather have hair that is dirty but supple than hair that is clean but a rat's nest.

7. Dig around under the bathroom sink until you find some old haircolor boxes containing some decent conditioner. At least a weeks worth of conditioning...score!


8. Daydream about eating some fresh fruits and vegetables. Anything that isn't beige! Or frozen! Or some kind of soy protein or wheat gluten product!

9. Read the book "The Box; How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger" while obsessively glancing at your Gmail inbox each time you turn the page. Each time a sale actually does come in, obsessively check PayPal balance, even if the transaction was only for $1.63.

10. Answer customer emails that say things like "It's not fair that IMVU closed my account because of you when I saw my mom use her debit card and PayPal to send you money" with emails that say things like...

Look, Kiddo...first of all, life aint fair. Second of all, don't try to pin this one on me! Those transactions were reversed and PayPal snatched the money back from me. Now, I don't know if your mom was using someone else's PayPal account or bank account (I've had people using their estranged husband's account, their cousin's account, etc), if she didn't actually have enough money in the bank, if she had buyers remorse, if she forgot what the charges were for or if you're just lying to me, but what isn't fair is that YOU got to spend those credits and I didn't get paid from them! All you need to do to get your IMVU account reinstated is send me about $15 bucks, the amount you owe me for those credits. THEN we can be all fair and square.*

*That isn't actually what I said in response to the email, but it's what I was thinking.

Life is a rollercoaster

I was reading this post on Freakonomics where this guy plotted the ups and downs of the real estate market and turned it into a roller coaster ride. I thought it was kind of cool and funny, but what really strikes me as funny is "why the real estate market?" Isn't all of life just one big rollercoaster ride? Or maybe sometimes it's one of those great big "Superman" rollercoasters and sometimes it's the tame little kiddie one, but it's always going up and down. And MAYBE...life would be really boring otherwise.

After posting on this blog complaining about ThereBucks sales and the one of a kind bookcase/desk set I felt were meant to be mine but couldn't buy right now yesterday afternoon, I was talking to my bf on the phone. Normally we would probably have been texting, BUT the EDGE network seems to have stopped working on my iPhone. It tells me I'm not subscribed to that service. (Funny, I have a bill from them proving I've pre-paid for that service...but it looks like there are a lot of people in the Bay Area having this same problem.)

While on the phone lamenting about the bookcase to my bf, I saw that a few ThereBucks transactions came in of a size that wasn't quite enough to pay my next-in-line ThereBucks seller, but WAS enough to buy the bookcase set. I started weighing my options...seize this one-time opportunity to get this unique bookcase set while meanwhile further annoying people who are anxiously awaiting payment, or pass on the bookcase and keep accruing money towards paying for ThereBucks. (What would you do?) Before I had a chance to make a decision, my lovely bf offered to buy me the bookcase set. He'd already offered to buy the pieces needed to finish off my IKEA wall unit/bookcase (for my living room) so he said he'd just get me this instead and I could finish off my IKEA set later on my own, since it's hardly one of a kind and so it's not a problem to wait.

I was so excited I called the Craigslist bookcase set guy and left a message for him. Then I called and left another message for him. Then, since my phone wasn't sending/receiving texts I got a little paranoid and I emailed him, too, just for good measure. Craigslist is really a first come, first served place and hard cash talks and sellers are really bad about removing their listings after something sells. I was biting my nails, waiting for him to call back, watching my PayPal balance grow so I could pay that ThereBucks transaction. Finally the guy called back and said he would hold the bookcase for me but maybe my delivery area was a bit far for him and might cost more and/or have to wait an extra week. I was cautiously over-the-moon about tentatively being the proud owner of a multicolor bookcase set decorated with gargoyles.

Later last night, I received NINE chargebacks. WTF???? My PayPal balance went from "I can almost pay that large transaction" to negative a couple hundred dollars. I'm trying to be all philosophical about it, like there are bound to be a certain number or percentage of chargebacks overall, but at the same time the timing is just terrible and I find myself wondering why I sell IMVU credits or ThereBucks from/for anyone ever anyway. At least if I were only selling my own currency, I would only lose what I was making 95% profit on, not stuff I was making 6% profit on. It really sucks. Not like I think I'm all special or anything...merchants all over the place experience credit card and bank chargebacks, but it just seems like chargebacks for virtual goods are taken a bit less seriously.

So today I have watched my balance climb back up into the positive, but sales are still slow and I am still stuck on paying this one person and their large transaction, while meanwhile nine other people email me saying "do you think you could give me an estimate of when I'll get paid?" Erm yeah, I COULD give an estimate of course, but I'd probably be even less accurate than the weather forecasters here in the land of coastal microclimates. How do I know WHEN people will choose to buy? When I will have more chargebacks?

At the same time, I haven't heard back from the bookcase guy. I called him today to tell him my bf has access to a truck and I could pick everything up on Sunday so he doesn't have to worry about the delivery area...I just hope he hasn't found another buyer that is more conveniently located...that can give him money right away...that is a friend of his cousin...that he owes a favor to...and has had a crush on for years. I can't tell if it's the kind of week where OF COURSE I will end up not getting the bookcases, or at least I WILL end up with the bookcases.

In other words, I don't know yet whether I'm on the Superman roller coaster, or the kiddie ride.

Soooo over ThereBucks glut...I want a desk set!

I just found the most perfect desk and bookcase set for myself when looking around for a desk that would suit my bf. He got a home computer about oh...eight months ago or something but never set it up because he has no desk at home to put it on. You can see from the pic of just one of the bookcase pieces that this custom set is just made for me. All four pieces are only $295, too! The problem is...my ThereBucks glut.

Not only do I have all my cash sunk into ThereBucks, but I owe sellers money. I'm a couple days behind on paying people. I'm just hoping to sell them all down by the end of this month! It's kind of a fun challenge in a way, but it's also getting really old. I've had sellers anxious to get paid because they have bills to pay or other things they were counting on the money for, and I try very hard to make sure they get paid as quickly as possible so they can meet their obligations. I once had a seller desperate to get paid asap because he was hungry and needed to buy food. Well you know, not only would I like to get this bookcase set, I'd like to buy food, too!

Seriously, I do earn ThereBucks on my own and when I'm selling those it's basically all profit, but when I'm buying ThereBucks from others and reselling them I make maybe 6% after PayPal fees. That's fine when sales are moving along as fast as the ThereBucks come in, but right now this is seeming like an awful lot of work just to have my money tied up so that not only can I not go grocery shopping...I can't get my dream desk set at a dreamy price or buy gardening supplies or ANYTHING. Soooo frustrating!

Okay, I'm done complaining for now.