Jeremy Jefferson's Personal Site » eBay

Very Upset – Bye Bye eBay

Jeremy — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:38:46 +0000

I am very saddened today. Yesterday eBay announced a whole boat load of changes that are just stupid. If these take effect, I will be done selling on eBay forever. These changes include a 67% Final Value Fee increase for items under $25, which is the majority of what I sell, possible hold for up to 21 days on payment for what eBay thinks is a “risky” transaction, and only positive feedback for buyers or none at all.

The fees are bad but that is not what gets me. The possible 21 day hold and the feedback thing is making me quit. I will never ship an item until I have the funds available to me, so if I did sell and eBay/PayPal holds my money … simply put, I will not ship until its released. Then there’s the feedback rule, basically you can’t do anything to the buyer anymore. They can, and will, extort you anyway they wish. Sad thing is, we have no way anymore to tell other sellers of these cases.

I hope I can find a good alternative to selling my stuff, maybe Amazon.com?

My Password Changes Every 30 Seconds (PayPal Security Key)

Jeremy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:41:43 +0000

As you probably know if you have taken the time to read through my blog, I do a lot with eBay and PayPal. The other week I found out about the PayPal Security Key from Security Now (A TWIT Podcast). Once you get one of these and activate it on PayPal or eBay (or both), it will append a 6-digit number to the end of your password. Cool thing is, this 6-digit code changes every thirty seconds!

Click here to see a picture

The Security Key (no bigger than an average flash drive) will show you what your current code is. This protects you from all kinds of attacks. For example, lets say you enter your ebay or paypal login information and someone sees you enter all of it (by watching over your shoulder or using spyware/keyloggers), including your security code. No problem for you, because the code is only valid for 1 login. Once you login with it, the code changes, even if the thirty seconds is not up.

How about phishing sites. Lets say you accidentally fall for one of these. If you do, no problem. Hurry over to PayPal or eBay and login and the code will change (theirs will no longer be valid). I would change my password if this happens though also. Even if you don’t do that though, the phisher has 30 seconds to get to paypal and login. This is a slight security risk though, as anyone could automate this process with a bot. I’m sure PayPal and eBay though monitor people who try to login many times with different login information.

Those are just two great advantages to it.

So how does it work? Well, I can tell you how I think it works…

The device has an internal clock and runs a special algorithm (unique to your key) based on the current time. When you activate it, buy giving paypal/ebay your SN for the device, they associate the correct algorithm to your account so they know what the current 6-digit code should be whenever you to try to login.

To fix the problem of the device losing/gaining time (as all computers do) their system learns your offset (how much time your device is off) when you login. They can take your code and say, hmm…he normally takes 5 seconds to give us his code, took 7 seconds this time, lets log that…hmm took seven seconds this time also…I think his device has gained two seconds, log it.

That’s my take at it, I’m sure someone could give us a much better explanation. Either way, I do know this. 6 digits = 1 in a million chances of someone who knows your password to get your key right at any given point. Well, almost. Really they have a 1 in 999970 chance (as if you think about it, 30 codes are valid at any given point in time.

So do you want one? Just tell PayPal. It only costs $5 (which covers the shipping costs). They are basically giving them away, you just pay shipping. Visit this link to get yours: http://paypal.com/securitykey/

They ship them USPS First Class from CA. Took 8 days from the day I ordered mine to get it. They say 6-10 days I believe. My suggestion, get it. Even if you do get it, you do not have to use it.

Oh, and as for the battery. Although the battery can not be changed, PayPal says it will last 3-5 years. When you need a new one, they will replace it at no cost to you.

Upcoming Week

Jeremy — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 07:18:53 +0000

Wow, it seems like the last time I had a day off was a year ago. After working six days in a row I now have two days off in a row. In fact, this is the first time since I started working at Taco Bell, over three months ago, that I have got more than one day off in a row. This upcoming week is going to be filled with stuff.

Tomorrow (or later today) I am expecting three things in the mail.

1) A check for over $600
2) A movie I bought from eBay
3) Headlights I bought from eBay

The check is the remainder of my financial aid money for school that was not spent on book, tuition, and other stuff for college. The movie is actually my dads, but I bought it for him. Aint I nice?

Now to the headlights. The other week I got a new car. The new car is a 1995 Dodge/Plymoth Neon. I had to buy headlights, which are actually the headlamps not lights, because the ones on the car are so fogged over what appears to be burn marks that they distort all the light.

I have $20 bulbs on each side and can not even see the road 100 feet ahead of me. Hopefully these new headlamps, that I paid almost $73 for, will fix that.

Two other exciting things happen later this week.

On October 6th my site will turn 1 year old. That’s right, this site has now been online for a year (as of the 6th). On October 6th, 2005 this site first went on line under the new domain www.jeremyjefferson.com. My personal site before this was at www.jeremy.jwjkp.com. On October 6th I will be posting some very interesting stats about how this site has grown over the last year.

On October 8th it will be my birthday. I turn 20 on the 8th and will no longer be a teenager.

That’s all for this post. God bless you all.

-Jeremy Jefferson.

Bought Two Things from eBay

Jeremy — Sun, 14 May 2006 02:10:06 +0000

I bought my mom a Bible Case today off of ebay for Mother’s Day and I also bought me a game that I bought my playstation a long time ago for but could never find the game. Hey, looks like I might play video games again for a while.

Click here to view the Bible Case listing

Click here to view the video game

***Both open in new window****

I have money again!

Jeremy — Tue, 09 May 2006 06:29:13 +0000

Well, the money from the book I sold on eBay is now in. I have already put $20 of gas, which isn’t much, in my car and I now -could- start my job hunt outside of internet applications. Walgreens has failed to call me yet, which is the only place I have applied so far.

I have a few good places in mind and will be applying sometime later this week.

Well, anyways… We’ll see how that goes.

Also, I may be moving my sites over to a new server sometime within the next month. So if you try to access my site and it appears to be down, that’s probably why. I will, however, probably give some notice to this. This all depends on if I get a job though. I plan on getting a dedicated server instead of shared hosting which I currently have.

This will allow me to do a lot more stuff and run application on the server. I will also be able to add more features to JJPOP (the email service I’m working on), which may be delayed by this move.

-Jeremy Jefferson

Book Sold

Jeremy — Thu, 04 May 2006 17:38:04 +0000

Well, just about an hour ago I wrote to tell you I listed my book on eBay. Well, it has sold for $70+$12 shipping.

Attempting to Sell Book on eBay

Jeremy — Thu, 04 May 2006 16:42:13 +0000

Well, I’m attempting to sell another school book on eBay. I could really use the money from this.

Click here to view the ad.

Bought Pen/Stylus/Laser Pointer from eBay

Jeremy — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:34:24 +0000

Yep, I bought another item from eBay. This time its a Pen, Stylus, and Laser Pointer all in one. Picture is shown below. I just thought this is kind of cool, so I bought it. It was $3.25 and $5.91 shipping.

I’m actually starting to wonder why I always pay more for shipping than I do for the item. This has been the case with 4 out of the last 5 things I have bought. Well, anyways, just though I would post about this.

btw, the pen is suppose to be metal…So its not a cheap pen either. Or at least not that cheap, I hope. It does come with batteries, along with an extra set of batteries, which is nice. I found this while looking for a laser pointer. If you are interested in looking at the page on eBay this is on, click here.

Got Another Flash Drive

Jeremy — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 02:26:13 +0000

I just bought my 4th flash drive. Won a 512 MB PNY Atache flash drive from ebay for $28. Brand new, unopened in its package. Normal price for this, last I saw, was $60 at Bestbuy.

I now have:

1 GB SanDisk Micro
1 GB PNY
512 MB PNY Atache
256 MB PNY Atache

Books have arrived

Jeremy — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:29:13 +0000

I now have both of my books that I bought from eBay. I actually got one of them monday, but didn’t get the second one till today.

I’m actually really happy with the prices I got. I paid only $4.88 for the two combined and they retail at $90 combined.

Now I just have to find time to sit down and read them. One is on PHP, mainly focusing on PHP and using it on Linux, and the other one is about MySQL which I have been dealing with a lot lately. I’ll probably use them as references when I have a question.

As for my site, I am still working on it.

Bought Two Books

Jeremy — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:42:31 +0000

I bought two books off of ebay today. PHP Essentials and a MySQL book. The MySQL book is 756 pages, so I’m insterested in seeing how they can manage to talk that long about it.

Well, anyways….sorry about not writing any posts lately.

Great News

Jeremy — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:46:44 +0000

The payment on the item I sold on eBay cleared around 10 am this morning and I got the item shipped out. Everything worked out after all.

Now I just have to wait for the money to transfer to my savings account….Yep, another 3-4 days.

In other news, we hit the 30 days till the kick off of Spring Training 2006 for the Cubs yesturday. We are now only 29 days away!!!

If you are interested in the upcoming events for the Cubs have a look at http://www.cubs.jwjkp.com

-Jeremy Jefferson

Payment Received

Jeremy — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 07:42:28 +0000

I got my eBay payment today!!! 9 days after it closed. I got it after I opened a dispute which the buyer handled very nicely. I am actually pretty happy with the turn out. It could’ve been quicker maybe, but I got my money….

Well, sort of….He paid by echeck so I have to wait till that clears, which it says will be Feb. 1st.

Past Week

Jeremy — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 23:31:16 +0000

Well, I’ve still not received my payment for my book I sold on eBay. I hope the person holds true to their bid but it doesn’t look good. I am looking into two possible job opportunities, but nothing serious yet. School is going good.
Not really much more to say.

eBay Item Sold

Jeremy — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 06:58:46 +0000

My college book that the school wouldn’t buy back sold for $62 on eBay. I was only expecting $30-$40 for this and was very excited when I saw people start to fight for it.

This was my first time selling anything on eBay and it seems every thing worked out great and, to this point, seems I got a good buyer.

Next semester I just might sell all my books this way, we’ll see.

My First Attempt to Sell on EBay

Jeremy — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 21:34:38 +0000

As I said in my last entry I couldn’t sell one of my college books back to the book store. I bought this book for $130 and really want some of that back. So I’m selling it on ebay. This is my first attempt ever to sell anything on ebay so wish me luck. I REALLY HOPE IT SELLS.

Click here to view listing