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.

Coke Studios ThereBucks Glut?

Last week I had someone selling ThereBucks to me that I'd never heard of before. Not that unusual. What WAS somewhat unusual was a There employee telling me not to pay this person because they were selling converted Coke Studios currency or something, and There hadn't determined whether this was okay or not.

My immediate thoughts were...this is completely stupid. I'd never even visited Coke Studios, which I guess was a Coca Cola version of There.com, but apparently they decided to close down the separate world and merge the users in with There Classic. In order to be fair about this, they converted any furniture or other assets that people owned in Coke Studios into an equivalent amount of ThereBucks (although how they figured out an equivalent, I don't know.) Now they were telling me that people who are not identified as former Coke Studios members, who have ThereBucks that look and spend just like regular ThereBucks, which were in reimbursement for items that apparently had that same value in Coke Studios and that SOMEONE had paid for, whether it was Coke themselves or the users or whatever...that these mysteriously different and yet not different ThereBucks might be something I shouldn't buy even though I can't tell where users get their ThereBucks from? The long arm of There might come down and snatch these ThereBucks back out of my account? Outrageous!

Happily, since then it seems they came to the same conclusion I did...if it looks like a ThereBuck and quacks like a ThereBuck, it MUST BE a ThereBuck, and former Coke Studio members should be allowed to do whatever they like with them, even if a small amount of that ends up looking like gaming the system. You can hardly call it that, though, unless Coke Studios members had some kind of crystal ball letting them know that one day this would happen and they'd have a bunch of ThereBucks they could then sell to little ol' me.

The main result of this, other than me breathing a big sigh of relief that I don't have to be paranoid about buying from There members that are unknown to me seems to be that there is now a bit of a glut of ThereBucks in the market. I have more people selling to me than buying from me. I don't think it will last too long, but it has some impact on any Christmas shopping I might otherwise do. I've got my funds tied up in ThereBucks. Bah humbug!

The XO is here!

Woohoo...look what came in the mail today! I've received a number of packages this week, from King Arthur Flour to top up baking supplies, from Park Seed and Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. to bring me way more stuff than we can possibly plant in our garden, but the package I was awaiting most anxiously was my XO laptop!

You can see in the picture that I'm using it to browse the IMVU website. It's kind of nice because it doesn't display shoutouts (heheh) but I accidentally pressed the orientation button a few times trying to stick my hand in the picture for a size reference (the XO is pretty darn small). That's one way to find out what that button does. Anyone else notice that the title bar of IMVU now lists it as "3D Avatar Chat Instant Messenger & Dress Up Game"? Dress Up Game? Ugh...that makes it sounds like it's aimed at 11 yr olds, or maybe younger. Aren't you supposed to be 13 to use IMVU?

Anyway, now I have to decide whether to go do laundry and shower...activities I eschewed in favor of waiting for my XO delivery...or play with my new toy/computer. Oh so much better than a dress up game!

XO laptop Frappr map

Well, I am still anxiously awaiting my XO laptop delivery. Meantime, here is a Frappr map of XO laptop owners. Always fun to put faces and map pins to kindred spirits.

Northern California Gardening

I have often thought that every vegetable garden should have a small table and two chairs where the gardener could sit with a friend at dusk. Between them they would share a bottle of wine, a loaf of crusty bread, a crumbly cheese such as feta or goat cheese, and whatever they could reach out and pluck. Imagine the soft, crimson red tomatoes still warmed by the sun. Juicy. Sweet. Conversation would seem superfluous...

A quote from "Northern California Gardening" by Katherine Grace Endicott.

When I first moved to California, I didn't even know I was in "Northern" California. Well hey, it's pretty much the exact middle of the state! I guess it's more about climate and outlook than geography, though. I've gotten a selection of different gardening books for our new gardening adventure, and this one is particularly helpful since it is so location specific. I'm very excited about gardening! You know, here in this area you can even grow "winter vegetables" all winter long? Theoretically anyway.