BIGPEEPA
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posted on March 5, 2004 07:21:46 PM new
Hello All, I travel on average from 75 to 150 miles a day 5 days a week looking for the junk I sell on ebay. This week alone I put almost 600 miles on my truck. The high gas prices are eating up a lot of profit. I really never used many reserves on my auctions but it looks like I will have to start protecting my better items more often. If you look at items numbers 3706554677 and 3707050938 you will see what I am saying. One had a reserve and one didn't and look at what happened. High gas = high reserves = less on line sales = more old fashion off line sales. This country is up side down right now it seems the wealthy are doing better than ever while guys like me are getting hit with more ways to spend less money.
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trai
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posted on March 5, 2004 07:30:08 PM new
Start charging a fuel surcharge fee. Its getting crazy as far as gas costs go. I just see no real reason for this.
Opec, what a crooked outfit. Free market forces....sure.
Might have to saddle up the pony again.
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mcjane
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posted on March 5, 2004 08:06:10 PM new
I thought you started your auctions at a price where if you only got one bid you would make money. I know a lot of sellers do that & it's a good idea.
I was going to snipe your crystal & silver monogramed toothpick holder. Loved it & my last name starts with an M. It went too high for me, I was happy for you though.
You certainly do have beautiful things.
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ebayvet
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posted on March 5, 2004 08:43:17 PM new
I will assume 20 miles to the gallon, so that is 30 gallons a week for you. I don't know where you live, but even if gas goes up 50 cents a gallon, that is $15 a week more in expenses. If your profit margin is that low that $2 a day can not be absorbed, then you need to consider doing something else. It's annoying to pay more, and I drive a lot too. However, gas would have to hit $5 a gallon before it was time to reconsider for me, and even then it would still be worth it!
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Reamond
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posted on March 5, 2004 09:36:05 PM new
Gas is projected to hit $3 a gallon by May.
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Fenix03
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posted on March 5, 2004 09:39:12 PM new
:: Opec, what a crooked outfit. Free market forces.... sure. ::
What a glowing example of someone railing against something which they know nothing about. Opec has not raised base crude prices and the much ballyhooed 10% drop in production rates is an annual event that coincides with.. wait, let me see if I can remember this.. Oh yeah... SPRING. You know, that time when temperatures increase and demand decreases.
I you want to blame someone, blame domestic oil companies and local station owners that prey on the ignorance and short attention span of the public to believe them everytime they put on the chicken little outfit. If people bothered to read more than just the headlines and understood the concept of false shortages (you would think that they would have learned from the California Power Shortage fiasco just two short years ago) they might be able to work together to bring the oil companies back in line but as long as you buy the company line and blame the problem on the Boogeyman - aka OPEC they can continue to screw you again and again with a sympathic grin on their face.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming......
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by Fenix03 on Mar 5, 2004 09:40 PM ]
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Libra63
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posted on March 5, 2004 09:40:36 PM new
Reported today gas in Milwaukee $1.75 a gallon and on the west coast $2.25. Seems like activities this summer will be close to home unless something drastic happens like falling gas prices. To bad walmart doesn't have gas as they seem to have falling prices all the time....
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auctionACE
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posted on March 5, 2004 09:47:30 PM new
I say the hell with it and let's invade Saudia Arabia. If Donald Rumsfeld would only whisper that in Georgie Boy's ear. 
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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jackswebb
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posted on March 5, 2004 11:01:30 PM new
That's?this is why two months ago my latest edition to my truck fleet was a Diesel, Not a Gasser truck. AND I just did a 100 mi RT to the Pomona Car show sign up today, the round trip milage was 12.5,,,,,gassers get 7 mpg. That's without, a tune up. Once I do that,,,,,,walla! More MPG. I, hope!
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ebayauctionguy
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posted on March 5, 2004 11:07:22 PM new
The problem is we don't have enough oil refineries. You can thank environmentalists for that. And if your state has a special blend of gas (thank the environmentalists again), you'd better pray that there are no problems at any of your refineries. Any type of malfunction at the refinery here in Northern CA causes a 50 cent spike in gas prices.
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Libra63
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posted on March 6, 2004 12:09:31 AM new
In the area I live we have reformulated gas for the summer. (I guess we have to many tourists.) It changes over around the end of May and goes until the end of September. They say (whoever they are) that we live in a well traveled area with lots of pollution and this gas helps keep it down. But of course higher in price with poor gas mileage.
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reamond
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posted on March 6, 2004 12:16:41 AM new
Shippers and Airlines should be announcing fuel surcharges soon.
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pmelcher
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posted on March 6, 2004 03:48:47 AM new
Our gas here in northern Indiana goes up in price every weekend. If I forget to gas up by Thursday, I pay anywhere from 10-20 cents more a gallon. I know that gas in their underground tanks did not get more expensive overnight! I blame the greedy gas stations who know we drive more on the weekends to search for eBay goods to sell. (that makes the comment eBay related)
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Damariscotta
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posted on March 6, 2004 04:18:25 AM new
Or people could by more on-line to avoid driving around to shop.
But don't bet on that. If they only had enough gas to either visit Mom in the nursing home or go to the mall, you know which one they'd pick...
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vvalhalla
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posted on March 6, 2004 06:18:08 AM new
Tree huggers like FUV drivin' Algore love the high price gas. $3 a gallon is nothing to wealthy enviro activists, they'd rather have it higher! That way all there'd be fewer pp-ons clogging up the road.
I've been told California is going to put a magnetic strip on gas tank filler tubes. The gas station nozzle will read the ID # and adjust the price. The more gas you pump the more per gallon you pay. First 10 gallons at posted price, the next 10 gallons plus 33%, the next 10 gallons plus 100%.
dd
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stopwhining
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posted on March 6, 2004 06:33:46 AM new
rest of the world have been paying high prices for eons.
just be more organised and drive LESS.
or instead of going on a joyride,stay home and BEAT UP YOUR SPOUSE!
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
[ edited by stopwhining on Mar 6, 2004 06:35 AM ]
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tomwiii
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posted on March 6, 2004 06:35:47 AM new
Yeah! Yeah!
"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead." ~ George aWol Bush
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fluffythewondercat
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posted on March 6, 2004 06:45:33 AM new
I'm no treehugger. But I'm bitter about this whole topic. Why? I can't get the electric car I would dearly love to have and which would be perfect for this eBay business.
Someday there will be a book: the sordid tale of how Detroit took hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to develop production EVs and then did *nothing* to educate the public about the advantages of EVs. Hybrids are crap. They don't get the much-ballyhooed mileage numbers, and there are even stretches of highway (the Grapevine, for example) where you can't take a hybrid because it doesn't have enough power.
EVs are quiet, accelerate like race cars, and never have to visit a gas station. They are 97% cleaner than gasburners, even including the power plant emissions necessary to produce the electricity they run on. EVs are perfect for in-town use, and what annoys me is that everyone I know has at least two vehicles anyway. An EV to use in the city, a diesel vehicle like a VW Jetta for long commutes and road trips, and you're all set.
I was able to rent a couple of GM EV1s last year (before GM recalled them all and sent these incredible pieces of technology to the crusher), but I would guess that 98% of the American public has never even seen one, much less driven one. And now they never will. There were so few EV1s on the road that there was a website devoted to EV1 sightings.
AAaaggghhh, don't get me started.
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trai
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posted on March 6, 2004 07:07:23 AM new
Fenix03
I am more than aware how the system works. A bit of a rant on my part. However to claim its only the oil company's and not opec thats screwing us over I just do not buy.
Spring, fall, summer whatever is no reason for the high cost of crude. [$35.00 B.]
Opec is a cartel, no free market forces. Price fixing at its best. They control the amount of production, therefore they control the price.
I think we all know what a sweetheart the oil company's are. Free enterprise my azz.
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tomwiii
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posted on March 6, 2004 07:19:58 AM new
SUMMER FORECAST: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4315321/
Who pays? http://tinyurl.com/3a6mv
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auctionACE
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posted on March 6, 2004 07:20:00 AM new
At least all of those huge SUV's owners will be paying for the right to own a monster gas hog that takes up all the room in the parking lots.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
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Libra63
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posted on March 6, 2004 08:27:53 AM new
I guess you have to put the blame on high gas prices on someone but this has been happening for many summers here is Wisconsin. Not just this year. We have learned not to take a summer vacation, but there are many vacationers that come to our beautiful state (Wisconsin) and then they pay the price.
Tomii it's easy to blame the one in the white house and you seem to be big on that but it is not only happening this year but it has happened every year they decided that we have to much traffic.
If you check eBay there are mini motorcycles for sale and I will bet they get great mileage but then where would you put your findings. It's six of one and a half dozen of another.
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parklane64
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posted on March 6, 2004 11:13:28 AM new
Close, Fenix. The petroczars have been mixing it up with the prices to mask their research on what the market will bear. They are milking the soccer cows (i.e. us) for as much as they can. Oh, and the grapevine is the stretch of I-5 between Bakersfield and the San Fernando Valley, approximately.
I live in Fresno, where Alan Autry is trying to drag the local politicos into the 21st century, and we have NO mass transit. The local bus line is a joke, even EEOC gave up on it and started their own bus system to cart their 'down-trodden' on.
Personally, I look forward to $5 a gallon. It will take some of the riff-raff off of the road and I can laugh at the SUVers filling up their monstrosities. If you think the gas companies profits are excessive you should be buying their stock........
(added)You may have come up with a way to count the lurkers here. Take two very similar auctions and post ONE here, then calculate the difference in viewers.
[ edited by parklane64 on Mar 6, 2004 11:25 AM ]
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fluffythewondercat
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posted on March 6, 2004 11:27:51 AM new
The local bus line is a joke
Well, yeah, after the-powers-that-be figured out what the acronym for Fresno Area Rapid Transit would be.
I've always thought of the Grapevine as mainly Tejon Pass, between Gorman (or Frazier Park) and those truck stops at the bottom.
[ edited by fluffythewondercat on Mar 6, 2004 11:31 AM ]
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CapYoda
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posted on March 6, 2004 01:02:12 PM new
$2.25 for 87 here in southern california area..
argh.
good thing postal office is about a mile or two away..
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parklane64
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posted on March 8, 2004 04:51:09 PM new
Lol, they call it FAX (Fresno Area eXpress), It's more like Fresno Area Stand Still (in the 100 degree sun for at least an hour waiting for your bus).
Don't forget Magic Mountain near Valencia, where we can all go and see how ill-behaved California teen-agers and young adults are.
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