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Messages - hellapostalia
31
« on: October 15, 2013, 01:35:53 AM »
It's not the end of the world to me to pay the sellers fees, I just feel that sellers should be upfront that they expect it as opposed to once an agreement has been made and then they spring it on you. Does $0.23 make or break the deal for me? Probably not. Does the fact that the seller waited till the last minute to inform me that fees were also expected or required make or break the deal? Yes that could very well be the deciding factor, not because it's a slight bit extra, but because their sales thread doesn't state it and they waited until an agreement was reached to mention it.
THIS. Outside of my pony obsession, I own and operate my own business. Every seller on the arena owns their own business too, in some way, shape or form. Whether it's one sale a year or 20 sales a month, the same principles still apply. Even if someone is just selling off their collection with no intention of being involved in pony sales after the fact, for those few months they are operating a business (small business, side business, hobby business, call it what you like). They're selling and trading goods, dealing with paypal and ebay fees, researching the value of their products, staging their wares (i.e. pictures), creating a list of inventory, shipping/packing costs, overhead (especially for our lovely custom creators), communicating promptly, negotiating a sale... heck, even simply creating a sales thread with a catchy title to get as many views as possible to potentially boost sales. My point in making this comparison is that NOT mentioning up front that the buyer will be responsible for certain fees is just bad business. Sales are lost, customers are not happy, customers do not return, and in many cases, a bad experience with a seller will be shared with other potential buyers, thus losing more sales in the longrun. Bad business. Will my pony budget break because at the end of a transaction the seller wants to charge me an extra $0.23 for paypal fees? No. But now I feel I've been lied to, my time has been wasted, I don't know what ELSE the seller hasn't told me, I have a bad taste in my mouth and a red flag has gone up. But, like I said before, that's just me. Someone else can buy the ponies. I just don't understand why some sellers continue to adhere to a bad business model in which customers are kept in the dark regarding paypal fees. Aaaaaaaaaaaand i'm done. Sorry for the rant. 
32
« on: October 11, 2013, 05:13:07 AM »
What is NaNoWriMo? I have never heard of this??
I think it has something to do with national novel writing month in November? I'm sure melodys_angel has more info  Although I don't write text, I went to school for music and write music for a living. I find that when I have writer's block, the best thing is to go for quantity, not quality. Just start writing, about absolutely anything, and don't judge or critique as you go. You want as many pages as possible. Even if you feel like nothing is happening on the page, your subconscious is working. After a few days re-read what you've done. It may take more time (or less), but eventually you'll find a nugget or seed that will grow into something fantastic. Hope this helps, and good luck!!
33
« on: October 02, 2013, 12:30:04 AM »
Like many have said before, when you turn a spare room into the pony room, but you love your spouse, so you let him have a little corner for his toys and from time to time you might even refer to it as the 'toy room' instead of the 'pony room' ~ but everyone knows it's the pony room.
I did that with my dolls, my husband has a small shelf amongst all the dolls for some of his collectables.
You know your addicted to ponies when your husband has a few ponies of his very own and displays them.
This. THIS! When me and my friends play Risk...and I go for certain places because they have good ponies there...lol....example: Argentina..... and then when I lose it I am like its OK I still have Brazil...lol 
I absolutely love it! I will never play Risk the same way again. EVER!
34
« on: October 02, 2013, 12:26:14 AM »
I hope this isn't straying too far off topic, but I have another question/thought about the "who pays the fees" issue:
Would it be justified to include that information in the feedback we leave? For example "good communication, fast shipping, nice pony, but the seller required I pay the fees/send as gift & did not mention this at the beginning of the sale"
I've often wanted to leave that sort of feedback, but thus far I have not because I know even the slightest negative comment in an otherwise positive feedback can send people into full retaliation mode.
So often I see people saying they agreed to pay the fees because a buyer has a lot of good feedback. A lot of times I think that a high number of feedback just means that person has had a lot of transactions. How many times do we leave good feedback when we aren't 100% happy? If I saw comments in feedback that the seller repeatedly tried to sneak fees in on buyers, I would be a lot less likely to buy from them no matter what their total feedback score was.
I'd say yes you would be totally justified in leaving that kind of feedback as it's honest. If the seller gets defensive because they didn't want you to say that then...they shouldn't conduct their sales that way
I really hate it when sellers suddenly tack on fees after you've seen the item + shipping price and agreed to purchase =/ I agreed to purchase it at that price, not the new higher one >(
I agree with all of this. I wonder if it would be possible to require an additional step when leaving feedback for a transaction. A mandatory poll for the buyer with four options. 1. Seller paid paypal fees. 2. Buyer paid paypal fees. 3. Buyer send paypal as a gift. 4. Paypal was not used in this transaction. Just boxes to check off, choose one. No emotion, just a statement of fact, so buyers know what they're getting into. A similar poll could be required of sellers, rating their experience with a buyer when it comes to payment. 1. Buyer paid within 24 hours. 2. Buyer paid within 72 hours. 3. A payment plan was used. 4. Payment took longer than a week. I would think twice about dealing with someone (even if they had 100% positive feedback) if every transaction as a buyer had them taking more than a week to pay, OR every transaction as a seller they were making the buyer pay the paypal fees. I don't know if this is even possible, or if the servers could handle it, but it would be nice as this information is usually never included in feedback descriptions. I need more coffee.
35
« on: October 01, 2013, 11:06:12 AM »
GREAT thread.
When your husband has to take a 2 hour nap before dinner at the MLP Fair because he was running pony purchases back to the room for 8 hours straight. Sorry honey, and thank you.
also...
Like many have said before, when you turn a spare room into the pony room, but you love your spouse, so you let him have a little corner for his toys and from time to time you might even refer to it as the 'toy room' instead of the 'pony room' ~ but everyone knows it's the pony room.
36
« on: October 01, 2013, 10:56:03 AM »
I don't know, I didn't mean to start a fuss---I really did try to do a search and came up with very little as far as what was considered correct selling etiquette with gift options/paypal fees. At least it's sort of clarified for me 
Oh I don't think you started a fuss. Actually, I think this is a great thread, and an important topic. (Obviously, as there are so many different opinions on the subject). As mentioned earlier, threads like this have been hashed and rehashed over the years. BUT, there are always new arena members who want to buy or sell, and this thread may be the first time this information is presented to them. Personally, I've been buying and selling ponies online for over 15 years but I've only been on the arena since last summer and I've found this thread helpful. My opinion on the subject: Buyers and sellers can do what they want. Follow paypal rules, don't follow paypal rules, build fees into your prices or not, charge a handling fee, whatever you like. BUT, there may (or may not) be consequences to your buying/selling practices... (i.e. loss of buyer protection if you pay as a gift, etc.) I recently decided not to complete a transaction on the arena because AFTER pming back and forth for details on the items and AFTER requesting my total with shipping I was asked to send payment as a gift, but if I did not, I was required to pay the paypal fees to complete the transaction. In the initial sales thread it was stated that the seller 'preferred' payments to be sent as a gift. It was NEVER stated that I would have to pay the fees if I opted to retain my buyer protection. That is NOT ok with me. I didn't appreciate the seller not being upfront from the start. If they want to charge paypal fees, fine. But say it outright from the beginning, BEFORE we're three pm's into a transaction. That is just NOT ok with me. But, it may be ok with someone else. That's fine. Someone else can buy the ponies. On a happier note, I was thankfully able to trade for the ponies I wanted with another local collector 
37
« on: September 05, 2013, 11:23:46 AM »
okay, whew. Thanks guys!
38
« on: September 05, 2013, 07:35:21 AM »
...magic erasers? I've used them for years to take off stubborn stray marks (avoiding eyes, blush and cutie/taf marks etc...), and have never noticed any damage to the plastic over time. But i like to worry  Has anyone noticed any bad long-term effects of using magic erasers to clean ponies? Yellowed plastic? Uneven body color? Something random and nasty?
39
« on: July 26, 2013, 07:35:40 AM »
Thanks everyone! The next few days will be a pony packing frenzy 
40
« on: July 25, 2013, 09:12:23 AM »
I will be smiling for the rest of the day because of this post.
41
« on: July 24, 2013, 08:13:49 PM »
Great, thanks so much Primbrose!
42
« on: July 24, 2013, 05:53:49 PM »
So we'll be doing quite a bit of renovation on our home for the next month, and all the ponies need to be packed up for their own protection. All of my NRFB/MOC's are easy enough to store, though the number of giant plastic bins is kind of insane. My question is... how would you pack away your loose G1's? Most are from my permanent collection and have all been cleaned and sent to the salon. Some are from the fair/swaps/finds... and I haven't had the chance to give them a proper once-over yet. Would you put them in individual plastic baggies? Tissue paper? Bubble wrap? Toss 'em all in a bin and hope for the best? I think I'll separate the cleaned ones from the thrift finds... I would hate for something to spread mold or something nasty. Any advice would be great!! (oh, and once stored they'll all be in a climate controlled environment)
43
« on: July 23, 2013, 09:06:05 AM »
Curious...did they add all the exclusives last year at once or gradually?
Yes, all at once. But it ended up being gradual because some people tried to buy more than the 'one per order' or tried to do a second order with the same shipping address... So Hasbro had to cancel all of the 'second' orders and then put the extras up for sale. I think there were at least 2 additional 'waves' of the 2012 exclusive for sale on HTS during this week last year. Anyone remember for sure?
44
« on: July 23, 2013, 07:35:07 AM »
Thank you Wildshadow!!!! This is EXACTLY what I had as a child. So super happy to see it again!!
45
« on: July 16, 2013, 05:18:27 PM »
Arena people are awesome, just sayin'
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