Help for Hurricane Victims

james9487

New member
Alright, mine is finished and mailed off. You should get it Monday or Tuesday. Here are some pictures:


DSCN2829.jpg



DSCN2828.jpg
 

TAB Studio

New member
I have a huge problem and will shoulder all the blame but it does not change the facts.
I learned today that ebay does not waive the fees at all no matter if it is 100% charity all fees still are to be paid by the seller.

Many of us thought that eBay donated the final value fee and the listing fee to the 100% percent auction for charity status.
Since my invoice from the Paint Aid Army I hosted came in I asked eBay for clarification results ....and they donate fees ...BUT they donate the fee paid by the \"seller\" to the charity chosen... they charged me the seller the fee.
I hate to say it again am but a working peon. An auction sale price for lets say Dave Taylor, Lilliana troy, Eric Oh I can keep going and going, could mean I am financally drowned.
I am not able to afford the fees for many of the artists that have so kindly surfaced here..the $3.00 donation from painters is not going to cover any of it in reality.
I look at what many of us read for Paint Aid and look at the discussion again. I posted links to fees etc We all round the world we all thought their policy was to donate the fee or \"waive\" fees to the seller so then all I would be responsible for would be the pay pal fee that was clear, and many painters chipped in for that. Not till today after contacting eBay about my invoice charge did the grim reality become clear.

I can not place auctions till I find out consensus from all parties. I am frankly asking you for help & ideas
I do not want to let you all down
What I am trying to do to fix ...
#1 I posted a plea for a corporate sponsor on the web site.
#2 I could run auctions at 70% percent donations but it is not the 100% we all wanted thus I will have to be blunt and humble on the here and email all the painters and accept the negative fallout. I have large shoulders I can do that and I can mail minis back if people are in objection.
From running the eBay store for a few years I know all fees involved add up to approximately 30 % of the total sales.
Now I know why I see so many 70% charitable auctions then the seller is not penalized for being charitable.
I have no problem posting the financial invoices etc to keep every one apprised of the money and the ongoing fees etc.
The html I have been coding can make it so that eBay will not be able to charge picture fees unless we have a gallery on the auction ($.25) though I did not realize it would be needed, heck, I did it to get a larger picture then they can so I took the time to code it

Now if you wish me to mail the minis back to each and every one of you I promise I will I will.
I am better off eating more mailing costs and my pride than drowning from the fees. I\'m sorry.
I have 2 kids and I am a lawn man with no gonads (woman) so my time indeed is the best and only asset as well as my determination. All other monatary assets have been tapped with the start up of this project, minis,mailings, time off work to code and lingering eBay fees now from paint aid.
If you have any ideas I am open eared if you have complaints I understand and will take resposibility for all involved.
I am sorry
I do not want to stop this project please understand but
I must cure this situation and need consensus from you all to move forward
Humbly
Tracy
 

angus147258

New member
Ah, that sucks.
I painted the skin (but nothing is never finished so I don\'t know if it\'s done). Now If I could only find my cammera.
 

Pigmented

New member
Tracey,
My opinion is for you to deduct all the fee involved in selling the figures before turning the money over to charity. Besides 100% of the procedes is just the profit and not the costs involving the sale.
 
Tracy.. this really sucks.. go figure eBay would still want their cut..even from a charity.. Id rather see you run them at a 20% or 30% non donation to cover fees than to not run them at all. I even trust you to run the auction and then just make a donation in the end after all the fees are deducted. I also like the idea of a sponsor.. hey CMON shop you out there:) anyhoo lets see what others have to say.

Jeff
 

Braveheart712

New member
I am saddened by you letter but not at all shocked. Ebay and MissionFish are only interested in their cut, not helping others. I rarely donate blindly to charity because of what has just occured. My suggestions for the future auction is simple...

1.Screw MissionFish, I see no point in involving them since all they did is take their slice of the pie. Is there any reason we really need them?

2.Host the auction on your own stating that all proceeds AFTER eBay fees will be donated.

3.Ask the Red Cross to help defer these costs. I know if someone was donating $3500.00 to me I would gladly contibute a few dollars to help them in their efforts.

4. Post your address so people can send you money directly to help with this project!!! ( I do have you address Tracy, but I would rather have you post it! )

Again, I am sorry to hear about these developments, hopefuly one or all of these suggestions can help!
 

THuff

New member
A couple of ideas to solve this.....

Ok, just got off the phone with Tracy. She is really worried because this could turn out to be a large amount for seller fees. I have a couple of ideas for how this could be done.

The good thing that still comes from this is that when it is all done Ebay donates the seller fees, but we still have to come up with those.

The first is the obvious one: Set the auctions to a 70% donation, then after all of the fees have been paid, cut a check to the Red Cross for anything that may still be remaining. She is willing to show any records that anyone needs to prove that the payments are all made.

Doing it this way still mean that 100% of the amount paid by the purchaser will still go to donations. There will just not be the additional donation of the seller fees.


The second is to have a couple of figures from the top painters be handled outside of the rest of the auctions. The proceeds for these can then be used to pay the seller fees.

Any other ideas that people may have, please let us know.

I can help cover a portion of the fees, but Tracy does not want to do it this way if we can avoid it. I would rather figure out a way to do this with the figures we have instead of having to ask people to give money. You are all already donating your valuable time and skills.

-Terry
 

PaintMinion

Member
Tracy, deep breath, focus. No one ever went into this to make you broke, or stress you out so bad you regret the great gift of your time and efforts into this project!

Take the TOTAL FEES out of the payment. It\'s the fairest thing to do, for you and to the project. A sponsor who would pay it all is nice, but it\'s also another headache, and will take time.

When you rewrite the basic template, make sure you focus on the problem involved is eBay\'s fault, and that all fees will be deducted from the payment, all profit goes to the charity. Focus on the time and efforts of those involved bringing about a greater benefit for the charity than any of us could donate from our bank accounts. We, who don\'t have the money to donate, are using our talents and gifts, the work of our hands, to help during this time of crisis.

There will be no repercussions from the change, and I can\'t imagine anyone stomping their foot over it--if they do, there\'s a few burly painter folk ready to defend you and Works of Heart.

When the sale is done, you deduct the fees, use them to pay ebay and paypal and shipping, and the rest goes to the charity.

Only other alternative is to put them up for \"Silent Auction\" on the website and skip ebay. You can invoice through PayPal the winner after a certain length of time.
 

TAB Studio

New member
Between emails and postings here and phone calls. I am with full intent pushing forward. It is easy with so many behind me to help catch the fall.
I am in all belief we will come to consensus on how to dissolve the problem and that we are all here to serve the good not to be hero\'s but to help in a way we can and, know how.
 

Arjay

Member
From the outset I assumed that 100% of the profits meant exactly that - whatever was made after the fees had been taken into consideration (I was far too cynical to believe that eBay would waive the fees). I have no problem at all with you deducting the eBay fees from the final price - it certainly seems to be the most logical way of sorting out the problem to me.
 

War Griffon

New member
I think the idea of one or two of the top painters figures selling outside of the charity auction to cover the Ebay fee is a good idea but of course you will need that painters permission to do so.

Also thinking on this most charities are tax exempt would it therefore be worth contacting the Red Cross and asking them for help in this they might be willing to pay the Ebay fees back to you after all Ebay is going to give them the money back, or they may be able to right off the seller fee as tax.

Worth an e-mail to them maybe???
 
No worries. ;) We can sort it out. Theres no need for you to lose out. Just give the remaining cash to charity.....ebay eh...buggers.

I will be starting two wardancers soon, hopefully this weekend....sorry for the delay :(
 
N

nurgle_boy

Guest
my mini just arrived this minute.
lovely spellsinger.

should be a joy to paint, and ill keep you all posted with rubbish scanned pictures!

and if i can get it done in 9 days, i\'ll enter it into fantasy single fig in UKGD
 
A

Anatora

Guest
Tracy,

Have you considered contacting the Charity to which you intend the money to go and explain what you are doing. Ask if the charity will register with eBay and allow you to auction under their name as a nonprofit, then they can assign you a portion of the money to cover Paypal fees. All other fees from Missionfish and eBay are waived. Ebay\'s policy:
Nonprofit Direct Seller
When a nonprofit lists an item through Giving Works to support their mission:
1. There is no minimum donation
2. There is no MissionFish fee
3. The nonprofit seller is responsible for
all eBay and PayPal fees
4. eBay will donate their insertion and
final value fees to the nonprofit if the
item sells
5. The nonprofit may also pay a portion
of the final sale price to an auction
management company, merchandise
consigner or other third party. This
information may or may not be noted in
the item description.

Sample transaction
Final sale price $100.00
Donation percent 100%
eBay fees- nonprofit seller $4.12
MissionFish fee $0.00
MissionFish credit card fee $0.00
eBay fee donation $4.12
Nonprofit receives: $104.12


The charity can assign $4.98 per $100 that would cover Paypal fees. You would just forward the other $99.14 to the charity and you are out no fees at all.

Ebay willl also waive their fees if 100% is designated as a donation, but you still would owe $1.78 per $100 in Missionfish fees and Paypal fees of $3.20 for a total of $4.98 per $100.

Donations of 10% to 90% will incur eBay, Missionfish and Paypal fees. Keeping 30% for fees would result in about $5.19 in fees on a $70 sale.

You would save $5.90 if you cut out Missionfish altogether and sent the money directly to the charity. Ebay fees of $2.33 per $100 sale would be incurred, but you could deduct both paypal and ebay fees for each sale before sending the money on to the charity. You can then accept checks or money orders made out to the charity and deduct those fees from another transaction.

No one doubts that this is less than a labor of love, but, to provide a measure of protection for yourself, you could post each transaction, along with fees incurred and amount deducted to cover those fees on this forum so everyone can keep up with the amounts generated for the charity.

Been there, done that. :)
 

THuff

New member
Another option that may help....

I\'ll post this here and on the other thread as well.

The only way that ebay will donate their seller fees is if the auction is done at a 100% donation level. Now, if we can\'t get to that point, fine, we should just auction at 70% and make a final donation after the fees have been paid.

However, if we can get a large amount of donations in the Adopt an Elf program, these are donations outside of the auctions that can be used to cover the fees. In the long run, Ebay will be giving them to the charity anyway. Start selling this idea to anyone you know that may be willing to Adopt and we can see how many auctions can be covered this way.

Once this amount gets low, we can always switch over to the 70% auctions and start paying the fees that way.

-Terry
 

TAB Studio

New member
Hello to all
I took Becca today to an school thing and while waiting sat and thought as I see you all have been as well. All your positives mean a lot.
Came home late afternoon and called Americas Second Harvest offices. They are getting me to the people that are better able to help devise a plan or see if from their side can they can help us. One thing they can not do is give us fees after ebay pays them the fee donation. They are to call me Monday. We are doing something that for them was different approach to volunteering. Maybe we will start a trend for more hobby\'s.
Between Last night and today someone....donated money from a beautiful dark maiden(ericj)...some one donated kits to sell to help cover fees (cfwheeler)...I have an offers to mail/pp money to help cover fees(tHuff,dauber,reddawn,asmodai650, airhead, sivousplay,zeboss,)..offer to seek sponsorship(ladyeyes)......The one of a kind treeman auctioned for the fees (sculpting by Jason Wiebe painting ericj)....offers to auction minis and donate profits for fees( Thuff,Sivousplay, raginggaijin)
I have cleared out the personal money that is in the paypal by paying off the listing fees for paint aid now the rest of the money I have will stay to help as well.Balance: $171.16 USD Currently earning 3.50%* that brings the seller account at eBay now a .00 balance.
I have two regular pulls from this paypal coolmini subscription and the website host payment and that is all. When they get pulled I will put the money back in so that is easy.
I am going to open a new ebay Id under TAB Studio I already have the structure in place and my home will move there so I may auction to help as well. We are going to redo the ebay ME page for WOH and get rolling.
We have auctions that are ready for 100%percent and funds given for fees that will cover the start when we need to adapt to the 70% we will, I seems email posts and polls we all agree.. but shall we start the roll with the 100% to kick off the program. Then alter to 70% after we get the feel for how it pans out and what help we can get consistently.
We will be accountable for funds on the site itself we already have a page on WOH for the auctions and the link to it and after the auctions we will put info below pics as to fees etc... I can place a page behind with the pay pal cut and pasted and the ebay cut and pasted and the mission fish cut and pasted. we pay fees as regular weekly or biweekly and we will be able to see how it is going.
I want to keep the adopt and elf so I may get minis I have pre ordered I will pay if need be but I will also start a donation of fees page so we may allow people to decide how they want their money spent. Each will come in with a separate notation on the paypal so we will know what is what.
I will send copies of this post to all involved.
Shall we dance We here suggest start auctions I have prepped tomorrow. From having many auctions I have learned to space them because it is not my full time job and it will kill me but lets start with a bang.
I changed all the errors on the listings that had been proofread. i will do some more tonight and post for proof as well.
 
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