#also i was looking up prices for it and apparently people sell copies on ebay for HUNDREDS of dollars it’s wild

[magnus-rhymes-with-swagness]

not rich or anything btw the book was a gift and i can get a discount on shipping lmao

[sweetdisabled]

Guide: Shopping on Taobao with Yoybuy

note: the pictures here will be uncaptioned. i’m sorry about this, but it’s going to get pretty visually heavy!

shopping on taobao is a pretty essential life skill for any lolita or lolita-to-be - and quite frankly it’s also just fun. what can i say, my forefathers stalked the savannah, working on bringing down that wildebeest, and in the same spirit, i stalk one yuan sales. they still sing tales around the campfire about how i got all of those fuzzy socks.

taobao is a marketplace of many different stores. think of it kind of like the ebay marketplace. it is located in china, and stores there largely ship only to other chinese addresses, so you need to use a buying service if you’re not in china yourself. for this guide, we’re going with yoybuy, because i’ve had good success with it and find it easiest to DIY.

first step is to open a browser to do your online shopping. i really like chrome for this because you can set it to automatically use google translate on a page. however, you’re going to want two tabs open before you even get to taobao...

in one tab, google for ‘google translate english to chinese’. google will automatically pop up the english to chinese boxes. we want simplified chinese here (which is usually the default).

also google ‘yuan to usd’ (or insert whatever your local currency is for usd). this will mean you can convert prices easily and readily, with that tab already at the ready.

one more tool and we’ll be ready to actually go to taobao!

when you right-click a webpage in chrome, this is the menu that pops up. we want to pay attention to translate to english here.

most of the time chrome will automatically translate. however, it may need a little push here and then.

with all of these tools ready, we’re finally ready to actually open taobao.com in a new tab.

this is... pretty overwhelming, right? google translate can automatically translate text, not anything in a picture, so it still ends up half-translated. phew. get your bearings a moment, though, and soldier on!

tonight i’ve decided that i could really use some cute hankies to go with a strawberry-themed outfit i’m planning. so, tab over to our english to simplified chinese...

now copy those chinese characters into the search bar on taobao...

it will give you some further suggestions - but let’s keep it pretty general for now. hit ‘submit’, and let’s see what we have.

looks like we’ve lucked out - there are tons of choices!

to get you acquainted with this page, the column on the right is where recommended advertised items show up. these can largely be disregarded. the main block of items will be underneath all of these options at the top.

as you can see we have a lot of different choices we could look into, if we wanted to narrow it down. however, this grey bar is where we have the important stuff.

we can hit the price button to sort things. scroll over it, and we’ll get more options.

since all i got is like three fiddy and some pocket lint - plus i’d rather have a cheaper cotton hankie that i won’t feel guilty about perhaps blowing my nose on - i usually sort price from low to high, so cheapest items are first.

that’s more like it! (7 yuan right now is about a dollar.) now we can browse for what catches our eye. you’ll also see, next to the price, how many people have bought it. under that is the translated name of the product, then the name of the storefront.

i like the looks of this one - properly frilly and fancy! right-click and open it in a new tab so we can keep organized. (that way there’s no getting frustrated if it’s a ‘bust’.)

now we’re on the product’s page in the seller’s store. we can look quickly off to the side for some information about the seller.

this guy’s apparently been selling on taobao for 6 years. the shop is rated out of 5 points in three areas - how accurate the description of their products is, how good their service is, and logistics (which probably covers things like how quickly they ship the products and how well they wrap them up, etc). this guy’s got a 4.8 rating that is rising.

that means we can probably buy from him with some confidence. if you see a store that hasn’t been open for very long, that would be a red flag. same if you have a store with low ratings, or absolutely perfect ratings. if it’s 5.0 across the board, it’s a little too good to be true sometimes! one red flag may not be worth it to stop you in your tracks, but be on the lookout for them, just like you would with any online seller.

and don’t worry about see all baby. google translate likes to think all items on taobao are babies... (it’s a mystery to all of us.)

wading past the translation, it looks like this shop sells a lot of linen goods, especially for the european market.

a really cute tea party vibe, right? :D

this is where we could browse this store more - it’s very cute, after all - but i’d like to maybe make the coordinate a little more specific and cohesive. let’s see if we have any better luck with a more specific search!

when you get more specific with your searches, it means there’s often a lot less items - for example, there’s only one page of search results instead of 15+. but i think we’ve found something that’s perfect!

cute, right? looking at it closer, though, it’s not embroidered, and it’s more of a terrycloth or towel texture. those are two things i’m not really sure about - this is why we open our finds in a new tab.

it does give me a chance to talk about this one thing, though -

sometimes the final price of an item will be hidden unless you’re a ‘VIP’. you can login and make a taobao account if you like - it requires a cell phone with texting, but international cell phones are okay. however, i usually just shrug and go “well, we know it’s somewhere under 9 yuan”.

whatever taobao agent you use will usually be able to get the VIP price for you.

another trick is that if you find an item that you go ‘oh, that’s close, but not quite....’ about, hover over its picture in the search results. you will then get two choices - find the same or find similar. the first option finds the exact same thing, but at other retailers. find similar, well, finds things that are variations on that same thing.

this hankie looks perfect! so... let’s actually buy it!

since taobao sellers largely only ship to people in china, and i’m in america, i can’t just hit that buy now button. this means i need to use an agent - and there are a lot of different choices out there.

i’ve used two so far, largely for ordering BJD stuff and home goods (and some accessories) (largely necklaces... what can i say... i read the words one yuan sale and my eyes light up). taobaospree is a professional outfit that you contact via email. they definitely give you the ‘white glove treatment’. their prices are very fair, and their staff very helpful. if you’re making really big important purchases, or purchases you’re worried about, i’d recommend them.

however, yoybuy is also really good for if you want to park the car yourself and walk instead of handing the keys to the valet, so to speak. i’ve also had really good experiences with them.

for taobaospree, they ask that you just email them a list of what you want with some details - they have a template you can use on their website. but since we’re just buying hankies, let’s use yoybuy.

first things first, we’ll need to sign in. yoybuy offers deals every so often like ten dollars of credit if you register with them, so it’s worth looking out for if you’re about to place an order. (every little bit helps, right?)

once you’ve signed in/signed up, take the url from the item you want...

and copy it into the search box at the top of yoybuy’s website, then click buy now.

yoybuy’s website will then load up all of the item’s information, like this.

now we can just shop as normal! it give you the converted rates of how much each item is, plus the domestic shipping, or how much the shipping will be from the seller to yoybuy. (yoybuy will help calculate the shipping from yoybuy to you later.)

so i’d like 6 total, and i can select the options. just to make things clear, i’ve also said as much in the ‘comments’ box. if something is a little unclear, you can add your comments there to make sure they get the right option.

as you can see this is totally meant for a much wider screen than mine, but it gives you an updating total of what is in your shopping cart.

on the black bar you also have some options like being able to ask for a live chat with someone if you get very confused.

when you’re ready, click ‘buy’. you’ll have a chance to do an overview of all your items before clicking the ‘pay’ button.

as you can see, there’s a couple of options here.

you can pay via a regular visa or mastercard, paypal, or use some other services i’m not familiar with. you can also send money via money transfer (like western union) and have it waiting there in your account.

there’s a service charge which is usually around 4% here. yoybuy themselves charge a fee of 10% for acting as your agent. they don’t ask for all of this up front. you pay in two parts - one is the items and domestic shipping that’s been calculated. they then bundle up all your items and figure out the best way to ship them to you, and you pay the 10% fee to them then.

if you’re initially doing a large order, your bank may balk a bit - so be prepared. for me, it took a text message of them going “uh hey, was this you? because random chinese company charging your credit card 200 dollars looks real sketchy.” and me going “lol it’s ok guys”.

however, in this case, handkerchiefs get!

you will now get an overview page of your order. 

each item will have its own line, and you can track how things are going.

the agent will purchase the item for you, then await shipment of it. you can click the chat bubble at any time to chat with the agent to ask them about the state of the item. this is where they’ll also inform you if something is out of stock or if there are any difficulties. you can also ask for them to take a picture to show you, if you want to make sure something is ok before they send it on to you.

as your items come in, you can click the checkbox and get an estimated parcel weight. that will help you figure out how much the shipping from yoybuy to you will be - and they even estimate how much they’ll have to spend on shipping materials.

once your items all arrive at yoybuy and they ship them on over to you, you can look at the options on the left to find a record of all your packages.

redacted information ahoy, folks, but let’s take a look-see at the package i already got from them -

the parcel number is what you click to open up an information page, showing all the items that are in the box they sent. the tracking number will be what you can check to track your package. they offer a variety of different carriers to use, and iirc, all of them come with tracking numbers. (you get yoybuy’s cut rate on shipping through all carriers, though!) if there are any problems, they’ll show up in the status - along with things like if it’s in an immigrations check.

if there are any problems, you can then report it to yoybuy and they’ll help you out - however, i’ve not had any problems with them. all my items came safe and sound!

so there you have it, a short guide - ah, well, at this point, just a guide - on how to, step-by-step, order stuff off taobao via yoybuy.

good luck in your own shopping, and happy hunting! 💖

[oldnintendonerd]

Pickup Post #11 - Slim Pickins

It is officially that time of year. Off season.

Ugh.

Locked in to nothing but thrifting to find anything. Not necessarily a bad thing, the browsing can be done in a nice heated store, you’re out of the weather. But it does come with it’s limitations, you are sure to never come away with any real amazing deals. The chances of finding that giant box of goodies that says “$10 - Whole box” on it is zero, because it’s a retail location. You find a stack of 10 games you want, you are paying $2.99 times 10 plus tax. Granted the odds of finding a stack that big at one time that you like is also pretty close to nil. But, you can still find some stuff at thrift stores if you happen in at the right time.

Let’s get to it.

The first thing I ran across since the end of the last pickup post was, incredibly, a Dreamcast game. Unfortunately it was not complete, I’ll get that out of the way right now. The manual was not inside. Also missing was the second disc, which, fortunately is only a bonus soundtrack disc, it is not part of the game. At least that means the only game disc is there and it can be played in its entirety.

Grandia II - Found 2017.12.28 at Goodwill

It wasn’t even with the video games, or even with the CDs, it was tossed on the shelf over with the misc electronics. Typically where you’d see a console, or controllers or something. Unfortunately no console or controllers, but this is not a bad find. After grabbing this, I went back to the CD section and combed through it more carefully, just in case there were more that actually did make it into the CD section, and I did find two more games. But they were crappy sports titles that weren’t even worth a few bucks. I can’t stand most sports titles, so I left them. I was buying some CDs that day and had this in a stack of music. She counted down the stack, saw this as a double disc CD and charged me $0.99. Not a bad deal since it wasn’t complete. A buck though? I’ll take it. Great start.

Moving on.

Sealed Wii Fit Plus - Found 2017.12.29 at Goodwill

Sealed games are ALMOST always a good bet, especially if you find them at a Goodwill. This one seemed to be no different. Paid $3.21, and Pricecharting has new priced in at $19.97. More than six times the value. I honestly almost didn’t even check it figuring it would have to be nearly worthless. I mean, it’s WII FIT. Wii Fit. I recently sold a complete in box Wii Fit, with the board (very clean) and a mint copy of the game for $2. The person even had to think about it for a second too. So it is insanely hard to get rid of these in this area. I mean look at the shelf of another Goodwill.

Just thrown around like they are old bathroom scales (hah!). Those have been there for weeks. At $3.99 they don’t move. Apparently the Plus version is a little more valuable though. I’ll take it, it’s hunting money fodder there. Nothing special.

I did run across this guy the same day.

You can even see the Wii Fit Plus box where I set it down to snap a pic of the doll. Did a quick search on my phone, didn’t turn up anything spectacular, there was one on eBay that wasn’t selling, priced at $35 that had the sword and shield. This one, no sword, no shield, and had some significant wear on it. I passed. I’m not one to have a lot of figurines in my collection either. I’m about the games.

Moving on once again.

The holidays came and went. On January 9th I went into the Goodwill that is usually the most lucrative.

From afar I saw a nice stack of Wii games that were not there the last time I was in. Like 18 games. I got excited and hurried over to the shelf.

I was immediately let down.

I posted this on Instagram that day too. Terrible titles. All schlock. I couldn’t believe it. Either they had come in early that day or the day before and had been plucked clean of all the AAA titles (AKA anything First party, Mario, Donkey Kong, etc), or AA titles (AKA third party quality from Sega or Square, that kind of thing), so all that was left was what is in that picture, or the parents just had little kids AND a budget. I mean come on, iCarly? Rudolph? Smurfs? On and on.  Cmon, buy ONE good title.

Tucked behind them all though...

Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec - Found 2018.01.09 at Goodwill

In very good shape, the reason I bought it was not just that, but it was also complete. I have a copy of this already but it is just the disc and the case, I did not have the manual. The most ideal situation here would have been if this case happened to be empty, they would have given me the case and manual for free. Honestly, I could have taken the disc out, left it in the store, and gotten a free case, but I’m not like that. If I were I could have a crap load of free games. Take the discs out and either pocket them, or put them into other cases and double up the discs. Pay for half the games you buy, walk out of the store with the other half “free cases” and then pop the games back in once outside. They don’t ever check the cases I am buying. But again, I’m not like that. It’s charity, and $3 for a game, especially when you can get them in very good shape like this, is really a good price. Had I bought this game on eBay, a quick search turns up a recently sold copy for $5.97, complete, tested, and shipped. They don’t show the disc so you don’t even know if it would be as nice as the one I got, you just know it should work. I’d rather the hunt, and ultimately, the better price.

Anyway, back to my copy of the game. My current, incomplete copy disc is maybe a B, and this disc is an A-, much better condition. The other copy can be bundled or traded at a later time. Some people don’t care about the manuals. Me, for some reason, I just love handling a copy of a game, and it having that weight of being complete.

Call me weird. Moving on.  

Went back a couple days later on the 11th. Found the stack of schlock Wii games drastically reduced in size. Someone else must have had some little kids that could be into those types of games. Who knows. Maybe three remained from the 18. There were a couple added Wii games, including this next one.

I’d actually already found this one at another Goodwill in very mint condition, so I didn’t need a copy, but figured since this one was sealed, I might as well snag it. Sealed usually fetches anywhere from double, on up to quintuple or more of the normal CIB price. 

Sealed Wii Play - Found 2018.01.11 at Goodwill

I was right, couldn’t pass up a sealed copy. Pricecharting has it at $5.25 CIB, and $15.99 sealed at time of writing. So about triple price of CIB, and almost exactly quintuple what I paid, of $3.21. Not as good as the payback on Wii Fit Plus, but I’ll take it.

On top of Wii Play, there were several PS2 games that were not there before. Which was exciting at first. But that was quickly dashed when I realized what I was looking at. Probably the tail end of a lot that was brought in the day before, and been picked over already. A lot of the games were even OK (i.e. not Madden games, or other sports schlock), but were left because they were scratched. I mean looks like someone used them for a hockey puck on a sand paper rink scratched. Horrible. There were two Dragonball Z games, and couple others I don’t remember (I will try to start snapping more pics while I’m hunting), but do recall thinking “damn, why do they have to be so scratched!?” Because I probably would have picked them up otherwise.

You really do have to hit these stores daily so as not to miss anything. I just don’t have the time to do that.

I managed to find a copy of Star Wars Battlefront among what was left that was not too scratched, and was fairly confident that my PS2 would be able to play it.

Star Wars Battlefront - Found 2018.01.11 at Goodwill

I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise in general, but these are pretty well known, and well liked games, for $3, and black label, I figured why not add it to the collection. Case and manual were at least in good shape, and the disc... I’d give it a C+. It does play in my fat SCPH 39001. Also installed to the HDD just fine. So... Winning.

I do have SWBF II in the collection as well, but it isn’t complete, so it is hovering in the void between “in the collection” and “available for bundles or trade”. As I mentioned before, I really only like to have complete games in my disc based games collection, hence why I decided to buy a whole other copy for GT3, just to complete it. Cart based is a little bit too tall of an order to want complete games. The budget just doesn’t allow for it. If I happen to stumble across a decent priced copy of Super Metroid, or Link to the Past complete, and its in nice shape, I’d get it to display. But I’m not seeking them out, its just too much.

Anyway, that’s it for this round. Nothing stellar, but not complete crap either. Which is honestly what I thought these months would bring.

Hopefully get some hunting money back in the bank once I list a couple of these items along with a couple others I have that need to be sold.

Official business. We had $96.09 after I sold the PS2 at the end of the last post. The first find was Grandia II, that was $1.06 after tax taking the total to $95.03. Then Wii Fit Plus takes us down another $3.21 totaling $91.82. After that I picked up GT3 for another $3.21, takes us to $88.61. The sealed Wii Play and Star Wars Battlefront purchase came to another $6.42, which puts the total at still a respectable $82.19.

$82.19 game hunting money remaining.

2018.02.06

[ask-jungshook]

Hi! I'm super curious where you bought the BTS signed copy of YNWA promo album? :D Since I'm also trash and must indulge myself in BTS stuff or else I'll die ;; Thanks!

// Heyo! I bought it off of ebay, I believe the user is handdollmaking!

I did a lot of research beforehand when it came to signed kpop memorabilia since there are a lot of fakes out there (so I’m always super paranoid), but I came across this blog that went into pretty nice detail indicating how to determine real vs fake : PT 1 & PT 2

That blog does an excellent job of explaining & analyzing BTS’ signatures from their various albums – they haven’t covered YNWA, but you get the general gist from reading the posts. (Legit I was just like BLESS U KIND SOUL when I found it)

But handdoll’s a legit shop on ebay and they pretty much sell a bunch of signed promo albums for a variety of kpop groups! (Also reading the reviews helped a lot with any worries I had– that and the blog I linked above mentioned them as a reputable seller) From personal experience, I previously bought two signed Sechskies albums from them and couldn’t have been happier. :’) What I really like about them is that they take really detailed pictures of the signatures and album conditions so you know what to expect– like if a corner is dented or a signature is smudged etc. I’m like usually super picky about these things, So I wound up like staring at the albums for like an hour making a list of order preference just in case if albums were already bought by the time I was able to (and they were) lol

The only thing about handdoll is is that they have a priority list? Apparently like if you buy from them frequently, you get first dibs when they post new stuff (also a price cut if you left feedback on specific items), I had to wait around 3 days before they opened the listing to the public at the regular price– they like put a placeholder price of $999 to prevent people from buying lol. (You have no idea how often I was stalking their ebay page LOL)

The price however …  LMFAO RIP MY SOUL AND WALLET – I’m pretty sure it was $199 USD + $13 shipping per album if you really wanna be dumb like me and #TREATYOSELF. For promo albums for a lot of the other groups, the prices usually aren’t THAT bad, I just think it’s bc BTS has grown to be so popular that they’ve inflated the prices a shitton (much like they do with their Big Bang promo albums which were pretty much the same if not worse from what I remember) Not sure how many albums are left (keep in mind there’s no photocard either lol), but my only advice is that if you’re seriously looking to buy it, buy now or forever hold your peace because these things can get bought with the blink of an eye. (I learned the hard way with my Sechskies albums – I spend a good time ogling at them but the one I wanted was sold before I could buy it lol)

Regardless, if shipping goes smoothly, I’ll probably be offering a signed copy in my giveaway for free so keep an eye out! :)

[mymusicalnostalgia]

The Little Ebayer Who Was Stupid Enough To Unintentionally Buy A Fake CD

I am a music collector. I am also a very, very, very big fan of Sia Furler as I may have mentioned more than once on this blog. For yonks, I have been trying to find her ultra rare album “OnlySee”, which only was released in Adelaide, and only around 1000 copies. 

Want is a funny thing, and when it came up on ebay for the first time ever, I was pretty excited. Never have I ever seen it on ebay before, in an op shop or a junk store. So I pounced onto the opportunity, like an idiot of course.

The seller “tommiesunshine_9″ is from the Russian Federation. That should had been my first tip off, how in the hell would a Russian guy have a copy of such a rare Australian CD, only to put it up for sale on Ebay when Sia finally becomes uber famous? The second tip off should had been that all his listings looked dodgy, he only had 1 good feedback and his account had only opened in November, 2016.

He was very nice, answered all my questions and even told me that he received the CD 18 years ago from a friend and put it in the cupboard and just forgot. Referring to this copy of this CD, he assured me not to worry, that the CD works fine.

I recently created an account on Discogs.com and put “OnlySee” into my wishlist. I didn’t know why, but I did, not realising that the website emails peopel to inform them when a CD they “want” is for sale. A listing from “A_CD_sale” who lives in the Russian Federation was up on the website.

This made my tummy turn, but I told myself that maybe it meant the ebay page and didn’t realize the listing had ended.

On Wednesday morning, things hit the proverbial when I received my CD in the mail.

Instantly, I knew it was a fake. There were printer lines on the front cover, on the inside of the insert was photocopied crease marks, the label on the CD looked stuck down as opposed to being part of the CD and, I admit it was weird to do it, but it smelt like it was straight from the press and not as musky CD from the 90s. The audio worked fine and didn’t sound too compressed for a bootleg but most people don’t clock onto that.

In some sort of pang of hope, I turned to a very great facebook community “Vinyl and CD Hoarders United” who were extremely willing to help and support me through the process, even going out of their own way to chase the ebayer around online to find out more.

I emailed him right away. 

Me: 

I received my CD today. I am a bit concerned that the CD maybe a bootleg copy. I have noticed you are selling the same copy on another website, when you told me you had a copy in the cupboard for the past 18 years. The CD also looks a bit photocopied and the disk label looks stuck on. I'm just a little bit confused and just wanted to check with you first to see what is going on.

He replied:

Hello Holly. I sold my CD. I also buy around the world the same CD cheaper and sell more expensive. I buy them at different radio stations, as there are a lot of friends. They all look the same. If you still have questions, I will gladly answer them. Thank you

Oh, as this was contradicting what he told me earlier, I certainly DID have questions and learnt that he actually wasn’t glad to answer them.

Me:

Hi Alexander, I'm just giving you the benefit of the doubt. You didn’t say that you had more copies of the cd. I thought I was buying the only copy that you had- you did say that CD (the one I was led to believe was your only copy) is in good condition. As for finding multiple other copies of the cd- I think this a bit hard to believe. The cd is extremely rare in Australia, how it could have made its way to you more than once and how I could never have found a single copy for the past 6 years I have spent searching for it is is bit interesting to me. I am just a little concerned that my CD is a copy of your original CD,  instead of an original pressing. In the description it says that the CD is in its original form but there are many signs that the CD is not an original. I am just not very convinced I have been sold an original pressing and just want to see if you can help me make sense of this all. I am happy to email you photos of why I believe this. Kind regards, Holly

His response: 

Hello Holly. You will be surprised, but this CD edition of 1,000 copies. I don't know how many of them in Australia, but you can buy them in the US and in Europe. Expensive, but you can buy. I sometimes buy on the site Discogs and other. I bought 3 of the CD. you can ask these users: Sasha_V john_kowacs VincentSound The price is different: from 90 to 120 euros. When I sell, I have only 1 CD on the purchase of the other I'm negotiating. This is my business work. I later write a history of this release. Best regards. Alexander

He kept ignoring why I thought it was a bootleg, or rather why I knew it was a bootleg. He was so insistent that eventually I came to believe that perhaps he was in some sort of belief that these CDs he was buying were real. It went like this for a bit, eventually I emailed back an apology and his response to that was:

"Thanks" for the feedback :( I bought 3 CDs in different countries and they all look the same, but not all were new. I sold you my CD that I bought in US in 1998 and immediately put on the shelf in the closet. I wrote to my friend, who worked in Treehouse Studio. I showed him your pictures. He said part of the printing were exactly the same quality. In 1997, they had little money and half the copies were printed at a cheap printing factory. So your doubts are vain. Thankyou very much, Alexander.

I tried googling Treehouse Studio’s for any trace, but to no avail. Under the advice of my boyfriend, I then emailed the producer of OnlySee Jesse Flavell who was very nice to respond, but couldn’t fully validate the CD. If he had been able to see it in person, he would have known right away it was a fake.

Now I was going to leave it at that, then I remembered that he had sent me those usernames to message on Discogs.com to validate the purchase of my CD. Two of the names weren’t registered, but “Sasha_V” was. As soon as I clicked onto “Sasha’s” profile, I noticed something was a miss.

Sasha had been nice enough to post their email address onto their profile for anyone interested in their music collection. I was interested in why this person who was apparently a whole other person to Alex had the same email address that Alex uses to receive paypal funds. Smuggly, I emailed “Sasha” pretending I thought they were a different person and of course  he replied and signed off as Sasha.

After emailing paypal, ebay and discogs, I sent him a message:

There's nothing vain about the paypal claim I have sent you. Let's cooperate with this one, please. All my evidence is in the message on paypal. I am tired, disappointed and just want my money back. H.

When confronted about this, Alexander deleted the email and then proceeded to try and tell me that it is his personal profile because “Sasha” is a nickname for Alexander. Yet again, ignoring the fact that he told me that was another persons page.

The message I sent him via paypal:

I am requesting a refund as I feel that you have sent me a bootleg copy of  the album OnlySee and have not been truthful about this.

I received a CD that appears to be a fake as the insert has a crease  photocopied, and there are two black boarders- one inside the other which  is noticeable in the shininess of the glossy paper, the label on the disk  seems to be stuck down, as opposed to being part of the CD and there are  printer marks all over the front cover.

Look, you have contradicted yourself many times through this lengthy and  exhausting process. All I wanted was for you to admit that my copy of the  CD was a fake. However, I did then convince myself that maybe you  bought them believing they are the real deal from other sellers.

Luckily you sent me through the names of some users on the website  Discogs who I could ask to validate the CD for me. Now I am more than  CERTAIN that you have been knowingly selling fake copies of CDs. Yet  again conveniently for you, the two other profile names you sent me  weren’t on the website but one was. “Sasha_V”. You have posted the same  email address on the profile of “Sasha_V” that you use for your own Paypal  account, proving to me that you have a fake profile to convince me the CD  was fine.

You also replied to me on discogs and signed off as Sasha, lying to me yet  again, under a different name to yours, Alexander.

Are you going to continue to lie to me when this proves exactly what I  suspected in the first place?

I paid $258.59 AUD ($180.00 USD) for a CD that you mislead me into  believing was an original pressing. I have screen shots of your fake profile  on discogs (including a listing of OnlySee that mysteriously disappeared  when I questioned my purchase), copies of our correspondence, and finally  I have been emailing the producer of the album to check it’s validation and  guess what? He was kind enough to email me back.

To semi quote you, are my doubts still “in vain”?

I would like my money back please.

He eventually gave me a partial refund. It was more the principal than the money for me. He also sent me an additional $6.00 and links to a drop box which holds Sia’s disography. I deleted and blocked his email and sent back the bribe, not wanting to find out if it was riddled with trojan viruses or not.

He never did admit that the CD was not real.

All websites are currently looking into his accounts.

His only follower on ebay also lives in the Russian Federation. 

If you feel that you have been stung by this same ebayer, or would like some advice, hit me up in the inbox. 

You aren’t alone, even the smartest of people get screwed over. 

Remember that you have all the power.

[mizubelle]

Super Late SHINee In LA Stuff (that I need to get out of my system)

thoughtspam and unleashing of feelings that i’ve clearly been bottling up and wrestling with

HOLY FUCKING SHIT I LOVE SHINEE

HOLY FUCKING SHIT I REALLY LOVE JONGHYUN

LIKE THAT BOY TOOK MY BREATH AWAY MULTIPLE TIMES

LIKE I WAS TRYING TO SING AND JAM WITH MY LIGHT STICK BUT THEN THE CAMERA WOULD DO A CLOSE-UP OF HIM AND I WOULD STOP BREATHING FOR A SEC AND THEN HAVE TO DO A BIG INHALE

like i’ve never gotten anywhere remotely close to being in love with someone but he’s the biggest celebrity crush i’ve ever had and that’s probably the closest i’ve ever gotten to love (the very sad life of an anxious potato lmao)

FUCKING CHOI MINHO

LIKE WOW I LOVE HIM

SAVIOR IS LIT AS FUCK

SO IS READY OR NOT

I DON’T EVEN THINK I WAS EXPECTING TO JAM HELLA HARD WITH SHINEE BUT THEY DID THAT! THE WHOLE AUDITORIUM DID THAT!

idk maybe i haven’t listened to savior enough (time to remedy that) but somehow i did not realize that it was such a fuxking bop

aw they were so fricking cute spinning and playing around during ready or not

lmao i didn’t jump even though shinee told me to...i’m too boobilicious and jiggly to be about that jumping life

i can’t believe that i just wrote that asdfghjkl

i let the girl on my left borrow my shinee world iv light stick which i had taped up just before the concert started because it had broken at kcon before i got the chance to even properly use it. i taped it up to stay permanently on.

i think the cap at the tip came off sometime during the show

i had the shinee world v light stick i bought off of ebay

dude i should have tried to buy a bunch of them off ebay and sell them the day of the show (here’s where the stupid theme of regret begins)

anyway back to my assorted thoughts and observations

freaking choi minho dude

like i think he only spoke english to the crowd and holy crap he’s really good and i love that he worked it even in a language that’s not native to him and he’s so freaking cute

i’m sure the other members looked up at the balcony too but the only one that i really caught was minho. i don’t remember when (like during an earlier ment or the last one or even a slow song)

but holy crap his eyes were so soft and he looked like he was really taking in the balcony view instead of just the floor level and he looked so happy and thankful

shit shinee is really really funny

like highlights: 

taemin trying to copy something he’s heard key say before (asking the crowd if they’re having fun tonight) and getting so embarrassed before that he turned around to face away from the audience and after finally asking us and turning back to face us, he was hiding in his red hood

key and minho!: minho talking about the clippers and key dismissing him and asking about food (lmao key and i are one and the same), key trying to sing from La La Land (which i haven’t seen) and minho asking him if he was okay, Minho whipping out the dab and it turning into La La Land poster posing, minho and his freaking $300 clippers jersey (shhh it’s secret lmao) which he supposedly held up to the crowd when they exited after the show LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, talking about the Power Rangers and how there’s five of them but they’re the SHINee Five

Like damn I really appreciate Key. And I know the members were looking to him to help address the audience.

EDIT: THE JONGTAE HUG! THE JONGTAE HUG! LOOK IT UP BRUH! like jonghyun threw something like paper at taemin and like immediately scooped him into a hug after hitting him

FEEL GOOD FUCKING FEEL GOOD

IT’S HONESTLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE FRICKING SHINEE SONGS (EVEN THOUGH THEY LIKE ALL ARE BUT I REALLY LOVE IT)

AND HOLY SHIRT IT WAS SO GOOD

COLORFUL LIGHTS, SHINEE STANDING IN A SMOKEY MIST, GORGEOUS VOICE AND MOVES

LIKE I WAS LEGIT BOUNCING IN MY SEAT AND DOING THE DANCING HAND MOVEMENTS JUST BEFORE THE CHORUS

I NEED TO START COMPILING LIKE ALL THE FANCAMS FOR IT FROM THE TOUR OR SOMETHING

also i have zero fancams for once. i never got an answer from subk after aeg sent an email saying cameras were allowed but subk said they weren’t in their FAQ so maybe it was an SM thing. but anyways i was in the balcony so the screen and shinee got super washed out so it wasn’t worth focus on filming instead of them for extra blah footage. but a lot of people around me where filming on phones and someone might have been livestreaming? lmao if they were hoping you couldn’t hear my screeches (also dang where they getting good footage? what type of phone do they have??? lol lol lol)

Prism butt rolls! especially from key! you know i screamed!

dude singing replay with them was so nice and Onew looked so proud and like happy at the MVP part cuz we were singing along and especially cheered at that iconic line

taemin’s solo!!! Get it boy!!! and then his next outfit was the freaking red hoodie that wasn’t zipped all the way up (like i see you bro. i see you.)

beautiful space background for beautiful jongyu duet. breathtaking vocals. long gazes from them at the end. wow.

before they sang Selene 6.23, I think key was the one to introduce it and told us to sing along if we knew the words and told us that jonghyun wrote it, giving him a little shout out and jonghyun freaking giggled

awwwwwwww jonghyun asking to see the 1of1 fan project again when they stopped performing

onew (or key?) talking about coming to LA more or something like that and (definitely onew) saying it was only a 13 hour flight

not all the fan projects went 100% smooth like the time that we were instructed to show the other side of the 1of1 banner for jonghyun’s birthday project, the curtain was literally going on down and idk if jjong noticed it but key did. and he was ducking to say goodbye to us when he said “oh right. it’s your birthday soon” which means he noticed the banners and also lmao i think that was the last thing we heard them say

jonghyun in his ending ment talking about how people were apparently blowing kisses so he was imitating them and sent loud MWAH kisses to the crowd (this kills the man)

it was so CUTE

like UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

JESUS CHRIST HE’S REALLY BEAUTIFUL

LIKE REALLY BEAUTIFUL

THEY ALL ARE TBH

they say that they’ll come back to LA soon and I freaking hope so!

like pls pls pls pls. 

i know in a couple of years their futures together might shift and change. 

plus also i’ve been really beating myself up because I was like I should have gone closer to the stage instead of in the balcony but tbh i spent the amount I was comfortable with and made sure to buy a ticket from day 1 because i didn’t want to miss this and i could not predict that later on the more expensive tickets would be selling under face value on stubhub (and by people on twitter and stuff but i wouldn’t really trust that method of selling)

idk about the pricing for this tour either, like if it was maybe more expensive (for whatever reason like venue, production costs etc. and also there are more members so maybe that factors into it to???) but back in 2013 the TVXQ tickets i had that were like 30 rows in at the (now) microsoft theater were about $90 with fees and the comparable seating areas were more than double that for this tour

anyway i’ve been letting the whole i-wasn’t-that-close to-the-front-and-center thing bother me a lot these past couple of days and color my experiences in a negative light which is absolutely freaking ridiculous 

I got the chance to see my favorite group live in a full concert close to home and I know that I had so much fun like singing and screaming and waving my light stick and bouncing in my seat and laughing and everything and I’m grateful. Not everyone that wanted to catch SHINee on tour had the opportunity to do so and it was just a great experience being in the room no matter what and I could feel all the love and good energy going around, with SHINee putting on a great show for their fans across the world from where most of the action happens and all of us in the audience there to support SHINee and send all the love we have for them right back at them and not just through our computer and phone screens. I know that they had a good time and appreciated us and I know I had a good time and love and appreciate them so much like every damn day. maybe i wasn’t like right up in the front catching their eye but i was freaking there having a grand ol’ time. and i’ll always remember it. Like I always randomly think back to concerts I’ve been too and I was laughing so much looking back at my TVXQ fan accounts earlier and I have a folder of TVXQ in LA stuff actually lmao so I’ll probably try to make a SHINee one too. Like hell there are fancams and stuff of SHINee I can catch to help take me back even more and I appreciate that the internet and the k-pop community allows us to transport ourselves to different places and performances and times through the snapshots and videos we share.

anyway i feel a lot better writing all of this out. and i got to make sure that i saved some more of my shinee memories. like holy shit i got the chance to see them 3 times in a year??? like from the first time seeing them live to a full concert experience in less than a year. damnnnnnnn.

tl;dr SHINEE WORLD V IN LA WAS FREAKING AWESOME AND YUP, SHINEE FUCKING DID THAT

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Test Strip "Charity" a Bait and Switch?

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/test-strip-charity-a-bait-and-switch/

Test Strip "Charity" a Bait and Switch?

The newest member of our team, Wil Dubois, takes on a sweet-and-sour issue here: organizations that purport to help out diabetics in need, and possibly do so, yet their facade of "charity" masks a thriving business. Read on and let us know what YOU think...

The card and the flyer are misleading.

Diabetic Supply Rescue, known as DSR, is a New Mexico based non-profit that bills itself as a charity. Their slogan is "Recycle. Save a life," and in their promotional materials they sate that they "recycle excess and unused diabetic supplies, especially meters and strips."

Recycle. An interesting choice of words to describe DSR's operational blue print.

DRS brags that it has sent diabetic supplies to uninsured patients in 45 states and 15 overseas counties. They have donation drop boxes and actively solicit donations of meters and strips, much like many in the DOC do. While New Mexico based, DSR has licensed their model to create "branches" in Michigan and Florida, with more branches in the pipeline. A branch could be opening in your state any day.

DSR's promotional materials are slick, with bold swaths of white reversal text on a blood-red background. At a glance you'd mistake them for American Diabetes Association or Red Cross materials.

However, the DSR story is more complex than it appears on the surface. I recently met DSR's President, Jay Koch, at the opening of our state's first diabetes-friendly restaurant. He's a tall, broad shouldered man with short hair, approaching middle age, carrying the visceral fat that is the common hallmark of Type-2 diabetes, but he's not diabetic himself. He was wearing a black shirt with the DRS logo embroidered on the chest. He has the friendly, outgoing manner of a salesman.

I actually liked him right off the bat, which makes this article that much harder to write. Because although Koch seems like a nice guy, and while there is nothing wrong with what he's doing, the way in which he's doing it makes me.... angry.

Koch's test strip recycling model borders on being a black market. He buys strips for pennies on the dollar from people who don't need them, and then turns around and sells them to uninsured patients at significant discount off of retail prices, while taking a middle-man mark up for himself. He views this as a valuable service. It allows people with too many strips to convert them to cash while at the same time it gives access to strips for the uninsured at a cost that can actually be afforded. Koch sells strips for as little as $9 per 50 count.

So who doesn't need their test strips? Well, dead diabetics for one. Koch tells me he'll buy up excess strips from families of deceased PWDs. He also looks for unused strips left over from meter changes, when someone's insurance changes meter brands and the patient starts the new meter without using up the strips from the old meter.

And from my own clinical experience, I know that seniors on Medicare frequently get tangled up in multiple TV offers of free strips billed to their Medicare, and on occasion are literally awash in test strips. Other times, Type-2's on oral medications may stop testing all together but continue to let the strips pile up.

There's a lot of smooth and slippery use of language on DSR's website and in its promotional literature, especially in materials aimed at soliciting the donation of test strips. Materials aimed at donors push DSR's desire to "get" supplies to PWDs without insurance. DSR avoids speaking the truth: getting supplies to PWDs without insurance really means selling them other people's surplus materials for profit.

Of course, Koch's main market for his strips are the uninsured with jobs. When I asked him if he had a charity program for patients who are both uninsured and without resources he told me no, he could not afford to as DSR was his only income.

This sounds more like a business than a non-profit to me.

DSR's web site offers 15 different types of test strips, covering most of the major brands. His discounts range from 50% to 81% off of retail cost. He's selling WaveSense Presto 50 count vials for nine bucks, FreeStyle Lite for $18, and OneTouch Ultra strips for $22. Those prices are for members of his "DSR Test Strip Buying Club."

This "club," after a 1 cent trial membership, is $5 per month. The DSR website states that "many of the people who DSR gets test strips for cannot afford computers. We have to meet them face-to-face. While this method of distribution is important, it is also more expensive and time-consuming than selling via the internet. Since DSR is a non-profit organization, we ask the people who can afford computers to help defray the costs for people who do not have access to the internet."

On the one hand, this organization is making itself out to look like the equivalent of the American Red Cross, while on the other, they're playing "Sam's Club" by offering deep discounts on bulk supplies — in this case, supplies that have already been purchased once by the insurance company and are now essentially going "black market."

The whole behind-the-scenes selling of test strips (apparently done by some other orgs as well) conjures up visions of street-corner drug sales to me. Psssssst! Here's the money. Gimme the stuff!

You call this a charity?

Koch will also throw in 50 free expired strips when you purchase strips from him in what he has framed as "The Great American Test Strip Experiment," or G.A.T.S.E.

According to DSR's website, G.A.T.S.E. is a clinical trial of sorts, to investigate the accuracy of expired strips. The web site asks for help in answering the accuracy question in the following way. If you buy a box of strips from DSR they'll send you an expired box of the same kind and ask you to compare five strips from the expired box to five strips of the "fresh" box. What you do with the other 45 is up to you.

But is all of this even legal? Well... Yes. No? Maybe.

Test strips and meters, while commonly prescribed, are not actually prescription devices or supplies. The prescription doctors write is simply a formality for insurance billing purposes. You can walk into any Walgreens with nothing more than a credit card and buy strips. I say with a credit card, because at $1 or more per strip at retail, most of us don't carry enough cash to buy a vial of strips without plastic.

So it isn't really illegal for DSR to sell the strips. Koch told me that he makes sellers sign a form that states they are not intentionally acquiring strips through their insurance companies just to re-sell to DSR. I got the feeling that there was sort of a wink and a nod here, but realistically, for the seller, there's not that much money to be made given how hard it can be to get any volume of strips out of your insurance company and the low dollar amount DSR is likely paying seller to make Koch's business model work. That said, it's likely insurance fraud to re-sell strips to a third party.

DSR received 501(c)3 non-profit status in January, under the heading of a Public Charity, and is soliciting donations to the "cause" via PayPal. Koch told me that he originally got the idea for DSR from a classified ad in the Thrifty Nickel newspaper. Again, he's not outside of legal boundaries being classified as a non-profit here, but...

Maybe what appalls me is simply the fact that "sneaky" test strip sales is big enough business for some clever guy to be making a living at it. That says a lot about the iniquities of the American health care "system" as it stands today.

So legalities aside, is this ethical? Isn't it like a garage sale? You get a few bucks for something you don't need and someone else gets something they do need for a song. Is there anything wrong with that?

Probably not.

Think about the "middle men" who take a cut of the action for listing stuff on eBay for folks who have things to sell but don't have the time/inclination/knowledge to do it themselves. Anything wrong with that? Again. No. I don't think so.

And if DSR and Koch were not out there buying and selling strips, what would be the effect? Most likely, the "recycled" strips would be in landfills. Uninsured patients would either not be testing, would be testing much less, or would be forced to make deeper finical sacrifices in other parts of their lives while they struggle to keep their diabetes in check.

But what ruffles my feathers is the smoke and mirrors. The façade of a charity non-profit. The tremendous effort to look like donated strips are being given away, rather than being sold. It feels deceptive to me. I also got a bit irked about the tone of the copy, designed to sound like diabetics helping diabetics. But DSR is, pretty much, one man. And he's not a PWD.

He's a PMMOD.

(Person Making Money Off Diabetes)

What are your thoughts, Folks?

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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