why i hate e-bay

if only i has asked the right questions before i took the leap of faith! thanks for all the 'feedback' and i will swear to check in future if i decide to throw my money away again.Yes, moon, it was around that time but prior to and i had won the bid way before Charley but WAS hoping to have it in time to keep things cool here! in the meantime, anybody know where i can get a indoor-outdoor generator( actually battery pack with converter) that can put out over 400 watts and run silently, charge and run 110 or 12 volt for less than 200$ see item # 4314487936 for clarification. ;>) m

Reply to
Michele Blank
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Is "this the specific auction" which is in contention? He's sold several of these battery packs and apparently delivered them OK. I probably would have bid on the item, too, given that he had a 87 feedback and the two negs he had were from buyers with 1 and 2 feedbacks, respectively. I usually discount the negative feedbacks from Newbies. If a buyer with 25 to whatever feedback begins to howl, usually there's something amiss.

Heh...did you look at Harbor Freight? :>)

Reply to
Moonraker

GO DOWN!

Just like the sound of that!

You have a situation, but if go thru ebay and file things thru them, they will tell you the name and phone number of the other person, without you having to do a search, which may have given you false results. They still have other things listed for sale as of today. Hmmm , how they going to do that if they don't respond? from Detroit area too? Maybe the mail didn't come to you as fast as yours went to them, the guy has been selling for a year, there is no incentive for them to do that for such a small sum.

But he did leave you positive feedback, and you can post a reply and feedback of your own, if you are sure you aren't jumping the gun. But that was almost 30 days ago.

Hmmmm. you could post his name and address on a Newsgroup. maybe somebody near Detroit could mail them a video tape.... a knarly one...a hint.

Reply to
Javahut

If this is the actual auction item you won.....

I have some connections in the Motown area. Maybe a couple of scary looking characters standing on the seller's front porch would convince him to produce either a generator or your money? These guys probably wouldn't want much more than a couple of autographed photos of a certain thong-clad glass artist. :>)

Reply to
Moonraker

Good grief, the thing weighs 47 pounds and will run a 200 watt appliance (power drill) for about 30 minutes.

Reply to
Mike Firth

Well This listing on Amazon is for $189.99 new

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And this site says the 600 is out of date
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Reply to
Mike Firth

Greetings and Salutations...

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 00:38:22 GMT, "Michele Blank" wrote:

Yea, well, you are getting the benefit of a lot of hard won experience in this thread, that is for sure! But then...if you had known to ask all these questions and such, you would not have posted...and would not have gotten such a wealth of information! All things work for good....

Hum...It looks like what you are needing is not a generator (which implies a gasoline powered engine hooked up to an alternator and some electronics), but, rather what we in the computer field call an Uninterruptable Power Supply, or an Inverter. There are a couple of ways to go about this. First off, you can do an Ebay search for "APC UPS" (With the quotes), and pick one that has big numbers. Most of them do have an alarm, but, it is easy enough to disable it so it will not chirp annoyingly. By finding an APC 2000 UPS (With bad batteries) on Ebay, and taking advantage of the replacement batteries sold on Ebay for it, I was able to put together a UPS that will run a 100 watt lamp for close to five hours. Total cost: around $190. Now..for about another $80 I could put together a second battery box that would up the run time to 9+ hours. It would also be possible to put together the same sort of thing for not too much money. For example... Here is the inverter to pump out the 110V.

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decent car battery to run it will cost about $50 or so,and, a charger to build it back up can range from a solarcell unit for $50 to a box that plugs into the wall for $65 orso. That brings you in under $200, and, would not really requireany "technical" ability to put together. Just remember that redgoes to the "+" terminal and black to the "-" terminal..and NEVERreverse them. With a bit of fabrication, though, it would bepossible to cobble together a box on wheels with plugs thatwould ensure this would not be a problem. On the other hand, even at retail that might notbe a bad deal. Also, I note that they carefully do NOTmention how LONG the unit will pump out 600 watts. Justas a guess, it would probably run that kind of load forabout five minutes. Of course, 100 watts would go forhalf an hour or so... Hope this does not muddy the waters TOO much.... Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

up.

If you have enough money in your account to cover the check the bank will not hold it, or investigate it. They simply put it on you and take no responsibility for it. If it's a bad check, it comes out of your account.

They definitely should have waited for the check to clear before shipping.

Randy Hansen SC Glass Tech. Scam Diego, Comi-fornia

Reply to
Randy H.

Greetings and Salutations....

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 21:14:35 -0700, "Randy H." wrote:

Ok...I have to post a small correction. I have a friend who used to be an auditor for a bank, and, ran my view of reality by him. In general, it is accurate, but, actually, the banks send ALL checks to central clearing houses, where they get sorted out and sent along to the appropriate destinations (based on the routing numbers printed at the bottom edge of the check). So...it can take 3-5 days to get to the clearing house, and, 3-5 days to get to the SOURCE bank, and about 30 seconds after that for either a non-sufficient funds message to come back, or an electronic funds transfer to be set up between the banks. So...the further the check has to go from you... the LONGER you should wait before assuming the money is yours. Of course, you can also make it a point to call your bank after a few days and see if the check has, indeed, cleared, and, the funds been deposited in your account "for real". They will know this, of course, and, may well have a good estimate for how long it will take for the cash to actually GET there. Alternatively, if it is a large check, you can always contact the originating bank and see if the check is good. For out of country checks, it might end up costing $40 or so, but, if this is for a couple thousand dollars profit, it might be worth it. In any case, alas, there are few ways to keep from getting burned, as folks find out every day. One can only do the best one can...trust but Verify. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

thanks Dave, i had an electripac previously which was a fancified inverter/battery rig and while helpful, didn't have the staying power i need. This little item has 4 to 6 times the wattage. I tried to buy another item that was so cheap on Amazon and had much the same reaction, oh, sorry we don't actually have that item now. This thing has been discontinued but it was 289 regular price. The new one is much too heavy. I'm not sure how they up the out-put wattage without getting any heavier but i really don't want to do a home made one any way.

Reply to
Michele Blank

yup, that was the item. Between those pictures and the tape from Java maybe there IS hope! I figure they have had enough time and the thing was, mine was an earlier auction. They had about 3 more on same item that ended AFTER mine did so how come it was mine that was no longer available? either they scammed me or they got a higher bid later and dumped my opening/winning bid? either way they don't sound too honest. i have reported to E-Bay but other than their response that i won't get to know the results of their inquiry as it goes against their privacy statement, i have heard zero. I await the check much like others might await video tapes. m

Reply to
Michele Blank

Greetings and Salutations....

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 14:41:00 GMT, "Michele Blank" wrote:

Well, that is pretty easy to do actually. Wattage is the amount of power that a unit can provide at any instant...If you think of electricity as water, then, it is like using a 1" diameter garden hose to spray your plants, instead of a 1/2" hose. Obviously, the bigger hose will deliver more water at once than the smaller hose. The sticking point is not so much the power available but how LONG it can provide that power. To continue the water analogy...it is the difference between the water hose for your plants being hooked up to a five gallon bucket, or a 1000 gallon tank. Obviously, while the hose will deliver the same stream of water in either case, it will deliver that stream for a LOT longer hooked up to the bigger tank of water. The batteries in your inverter are just like that tank of water. They store electricity like the tank stores water, and, let it dribble out through the wires to your appliances. Now... to muddy the waters further *smile*...lets look at the load issue. Different equipment uses differing amounts of power to run. A 600 watt heater, for example, takes 6x the power as a 100 watt laptop computer, and, that is for every minute it runs. To get back to our water analogy... it is like putting a sprinkler head with one small hole on the end of the hose hooked up to our tank, or one with six holes. Obviously, the more holes there are, the faster the tank will drain out. It is the same with a battery. The more load you put on it, the shorter a period of time you can work before the battery is drained and needs to be recharged. So...I suppose that my point is that what you want to look at is NOT the amount of power the inverter unit can provide, but, how LONG it can provide that power. Basically, the bigger the numbers on that battery in it, the better. As for increased power...that is a function of the technology going into that battery. It is pretty amazing how the chemists and engineers have managed to tweak the things to put more power into a smaller package.

I can certainly understand that...and I did not expect you to jump on that option. Since I am kind of a techno-geek, I tend to think of alternative methods of doing it myself. Also, for what it is worth...the "home made" version I detailed is EXACTLY what you are getting inside the commercial package. It is just packaged slightly differently in the commercial one. Now...another reason I like "home made" is that if I decide I want to hang four batteries off the inverter, so as to really pump up the capacity, I can do that with no hassles. Usually, with commercial units, unless you start talking about real money, that is impossible. I still feel that your best option will be a "real" UPS. (APC 2000, 2200, or larger). That will give you what you need, will probably produce "cleaner" power, and can be found on Ebay and elsewhere for fairly reasonable prices. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

well, i did a lookup on APC UPS and i am totally lost. looks like those things are more of an installed item?? i need a portable power source to run fans and lights at shows that will last through a show ( 2, sometimes 3 days). i usually would run a fan all day, the 150 w halogen jewelry type light would be on about 5 hours a day and clamp flood lights (2 or 3) only about 3 hours a day. it would be nice to not have to drag it to the hotel each night to re-charge but i have to be able to get it in and out of my vehicle. It can't really weigh more than about 70 pounds and needs to be on wheels. i have seen other artists with those make-shift units and prefer the look of the completely housed, pre-bundled and assembled units.These also seem the way to go when you take into consideration that i often get wet! i also don't want to spend too much. thanks for your suggestions, especially the use of lay-man terminology, unfortunately the sites i tried were not so geared for non-tech folks like me. m

Reply to
Michele Blank

Well, not really "installed", but, they tend to be fairly solid boxes.

Haw! It can be a difficult field, and full of really confusing terminology. Now...let's take a look at your specifications. We can ignore the fan, for all practical purposes, because it is only going to pull

10 watts or less (unless it is one of those huge, 4' in diameter, industrial fans with the 2 HP motors *smile*...and I suspect it is not). Just as a rough idea of the power you will need to get through the day....The halogen lamp will pull 150 watts. That is about 1.4 amps. If the floodlamps are 100 watts each, then, they are going to pull about .9 amps each...which would total out to about 2.7 amps (for three of them). That adds up to 4.1 amps/hour. Given losses, etc, that would mean that you would probably need at least a 60 A/H batttery to give you enough power for the full period, plus a little head room. While it looks like the unit you pointed us to on Ebay would be "adequate", it is a tad small for the entire day I fear. You might have to turn things off now and again. Regards Dave Mundt
Reply to
Dave Mundt

I use credit card with Paypal because I don't want to authorize unlimited withdrawals from my checking account, and Paypal refused my request to set a limit, even a "high" one like $1000.

Your idea of opening a second bank account for just Paypal is intriguing. Banks charge you for bounced checks, but at least a scammer would get only what is in that account or cost you check bouncing fees.

Right now Paypal is sitting on $50 of mine, they don't seem to have a mechanism for returning it to my credit card, and I rarely use Ebay - too many items received don't match their description, in my experience. Now I don't buy unless I ask every possible question of the seller first. The reason Paypal has some of my money is because I didn't think to ask "do you have the item in hand?" After I paid the seller he said he will ship it after he receives another batch of the item from the manufacturer, which would be a month or more. At least he did return the money to Paypal when I protested.

Quasi

Reply to
Quasin

No, no, no ................ You can't take the watts of the lights, divide by the 110 volt power and get the amps that must be sucked out of the batteries. This will only work if everything is running off of 12 volts directly, then you divide by 12, not 110. The simple answer is you can't do a show it without running a set of batteries weighing more than 1000 pounds. Having ignored this thread for a while - from this note only, the halogen flood (1 only at 150 watts) for 5 hours a day is 750 watt hours, while the 3 floods, if they have 100 watt bulbs, for 3 hours a day, 900 watt hours. No matter how this is delivered, it has to be supplied by 12 volt batteries,

1650 watt hours a day, which is 137.5 amp-hours before conversion losses. So it might be 200 amp hours a day with 66%+ efficiency. And this is minimum lighting. If it is to be run off of batteries, it would be better to use 12volt, 50watt, MR16 floods and spots to avoid the conversion losses.
Reply to
Mike Firth

Exactly...I *do* know that watts is volts * amps...and at least tried a bit to keep the units straight...

That is a very clear explaination...and a lot better than the kind of convoluted path I was getting into. I am not going to argue at all with your analysis, as it seems quite correct. Actually, since this kind of sounds like she is doing outside shows, I think that a small, Honda generator would be the best of all possible worlds. It is going to cost more than $200 though...not much more. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

well, i also have to take into account that most shows outlaw generators. silence is golden.m

Reply to
Michele Blank

Hum...That could be a problem. However, I have to say that the newer generators are amazingly quiet (40-60 db). Of course, there might be the concern over fuel spills, etc, too. In a way, I am kind of surprised that shows do not provide electrical hookups for minimal cost...especially if they are inside. I could see where outside, flea market type affairs might be a bit more of a challenge. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

well, i only do outside shows but i can assure you, they are not flea markets. Some shows offer electricity for fees from 35$ to much higher, though usually it's only available in particular spots, but most do not. lights aren't always a necessity but the fan, sometimes heater and of course my whirlpool foot bath are an absolute must! ;>) m

Reply to
Michele Blank

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