(UPDATED: Shipping )Gallery Offers

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 3:46 pm

The Long of It

So I guess this is the price of helping others. A friend of mine, who is a young single father, came to me a couple of months ago in desperation. The bank was foreclosing on his house, his 2 year-old had been in and out of the hospital with high fevers and the cost of medicines and treatments and ER visits were starting to add up. This was my friend and fellow co-worker of almost 5 years, so I emptied my savings account to help him out. It still wasn't enough, so I took out a $5000 loan at a high APR and gave the money to him ( he originally just asked me to co-sign, but it makes me nervous to co-sign with others- if they shirk their responsibility, I don't want my credit to be affected ).

Last month, he was supposed to start paying me back- every two weeks when we get paid. He made the first payment of $1000, and is supposed to be giving me $1000 every two weeks. Since he had made the first payment, I was hoping he was good for his word- but since then he has missed 2 payements completely ( not even giving me $100 or anything to put towards the total amount owed ), and I'm not holding my breath I am going to get anything next Friday. He is full of excuses.

It was then I found out from other co-workers that he took all that money I gave him and bought himself a vacation to Vegas, where he blew it all. Then, he has been blowing all his paychecks on gambling at local casinos and card rooms and betting on Football and thats why he is "short" every time he has to pay me what he owes me.

I confronted him with what I had been told and he tearfully told me it was true and that he was sorry. I know he has a problem, but it doesn't change the fact that he totally screwed me. He left me with his $5000 loan at 72% APR, and all my savings I gave him. What's more is that I just returned from a vacation that cost me a few grand- a luxury I never would have afforded myself if I had known ahead of time he was a gambling addict and I would more than likely never see my money again.
This has been a very harsh lesson to learn.

I feel very hurt and betrayed- especially since we both work in the casino business and know better than to throw money away. The money was intended to help him through rough times, not to be thrown away on a Baccarat table. Now I am left with nothing, and the fact that I have to replenish some of my own money by selling off some of my cels just makes me feel all the more betrayed and angry and upset.

The Short of It

So in regards to offers, offers on my gallery are acceptable immediately. All 100% No-No items have been hidden except for my Mermaid Saga and IY 139 sequence, which were just too innumerable to hide at the moment.

The offer period OFFICIALLY ends Sunday, 10/7 at Midnight, Pacific Time. However, I have certain goal in mind, so if I manage to get to that number in funds, I will probably terminate the offer period early, so that I do not have to part with any more of my collection. So if you want to make an offer, get them in early and don't wait until the last day.

Given the situation and that this isn't a typical sale but more of trying to get some money back so that I can pay my own bills and pay off that stupid loan, all money MUST be paid via paypal, and must be received no later than Wednesday, 10/10. Depending on the amount of money involved, I may accept a payment plan, but that will be on a case-to-case basis and circumstancial, so don't count on it 100% when making your offer.

Multiple items can be shipped together, and s/h + insurance is a flat cost of $8.

If you have any questions about the items, be sure to ask, as some of them may be shown in my gallery with a background that may not come with it.

I hate offers just as much as the next person, but seeing as I have a goal in mind to help get this situation in control, seeing how much I can raise through offers alone may help cut down on the actual amount of items I have to sell- as I am simply crushed and cannot stand parting with my collection- but things have to be taken care of.

It is difficult to field PMs, and I can receive and respond to my email via my Blackberry while I am away at work, so I would prefer email contact at:

yourlittlebutterflyREMOVESPAM@REMOVESPAMamongbutterflies.com

You can still PM, but just realize I may not get to it as quickly.

If there are any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Thanks.

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:03 pm

Very sad to hear all the troubles he put you through... wow... 78% apr has to be like one of those check advance places. Hope your sale goes well!

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:29 pm

I am very very sorry to hear this

This is really horrible! I hope everything works out for you

Yeah really gambling is not favor to bidders, especially if you look at some probability, you will find out how bad it is (actually there is a way to win a game for sure but in order to do you need a lot of $$$ and whenever someone is doing a casino knows and they immedietely stop you to play a game).

SqueakyGate · Post by **SqueakyGate** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:17 pm

I’m so sorry to hear about your troubles, best of luck on the sales.

I am thankful though, that there are still people like you out there willing to help folks in their time of need. You tried to do the right thing and that counts in my book (for whatever that’s worth). I hope the experience doesn’t make you cynical. More careful, yes. But jaded would be a shame.

So even if he never says it, I’ll say it for him… Thank you for being such a good person. The next time my faith in humanity gets shaken--- I’ll think of you.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:52 pm

SqueakyGate wrote:I’m so sorry to hear about your troubles, best of luck on the sales.

I am thankful though, that there are still people like you out there willing to help folks in their time of need. You tried to do the right thing and that counts in my book (for whatever that’s worth). I hope the experience doesn’t make you cynical. More careful, yes. But jaded would be a shame.

So even if he never says it, I’ll say it for him… Thank you for being such a good person. The next time my faith in humanity gets shaken--- I’ll think of you.

THANK YOU. I think the part that hurt the most about all this is that he seemed completely ungrateful, and unsympathetic that now I am struggling to pay my own bills which was the sacrifice I made to help him out. I have lost so much sleep over this situation. I understand that gambling is an addiction, and a clear sign of an addiction is denial and placing the blame on others: when he said, "Well, you didn't have to help me," I was hurt beyond words. His way of displacing the guilt he feels is to make me feel like I asked for it.

So thank you. Your words alone have helped me feel better.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 7:05 pm

Also, to everyone who has emailed/pmed offers so far:

I am going through all the offers and trying to respond as quickly as I can.

If you haven't heard from me yet, it's because you have made an offer on an item that has received several offers around the same ballpark price, and I am trying to contact each person and allow them a chance to counter-offer. I am trying to make it as fair as possible for everyone. I also don't want good offers to just hang around waiting, either. So if those don't either counter-offer or say they submit to the higher offer within ample time, the cel will go to the current highest offer. I don't want to not give everyone a chance if they really want the cel badly, but I don't want to keep the others hanging, either ^_^x

Also, I am nearing my goal rapidly, so please understand that my willingness to part with cels for less than what I paid for them is rapidly decreasing. Remember, this is a sale/offer period that I never wanted to do in the first place- so please do not take it personally if you are turned down, or if I quote you a price you feel is not fair or that you cannot meet. This isn't a total desperation sale- I am just trying to recoup my losses so I can sleep again at night. I don't want to end up not sleeping at night now because of cels I had to let go of for a price I didn't want to ^_^x

Thank you again everyone for your patience and understanding. Even if/when the the offer period ends, all offers and emails already sent will still be resolved or concluded in some way.

Thank you.

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:54 pm

Just adding my own small thanks for keeping the light of kindness and purity alive.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:55 am

The Offer period is officially CLOSED.

It's still taking a lot of time to reply to everyone, and sometimes it gets difficult when more than one person are making offers on the same item. If you haven't heard back from me yet, please hang in there, and I'll get to you as quickly as possible. Hopefully I'll have all initial responses out by then, as well as confirmation of accepted/winning offers and information for payment and shipping.

Even tho the offer period is now closed, as long as you got your offer in before the cut-off time, your offer will still be addressed.

I appreciate everyone's patience and courtesy ^_^x If you have sent an offer and if you have not heard from me by Tuesday at the latest, please try to either re-contact me, or post here in this topic. My email server has some very strong spam filters on it, and will sometimes not even download emails from the server to my mail program if it thinks it is spam.

Maiko · Post by **Maiko** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:02 am

Update:

Just an update to those whose offers have been accepted and paid for; packages are being shipped out tomorrow. As if things aren't hectic enough, my Jeep got a safety recall, and I've been without it for awhile now. I received a call today from the Dealership that it can be picked back up today, so now packages can go out asap.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!