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Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2023 8:09:22 GMT -6
Yeah, I lost a lot because of the real estate crash and I had cancer and had to sell anyway. I may have mentioned before, I'm retiring from the store Sept. 14th. So living on a fixed income should be interesting. Did vest at your work? My wife was in retail. She vested, so she gets a little regiment check every month. Are you going to get anything like that? People can say all they want about Union's. But they can be a good thing.
Back in the 80's we got 100% medical. Everything was covered. Thanks to the Union. My wife was being well paid. Thanks to the Union. Like it or not, people would not get the pay they get if it had not been for the Unions. Too bad, like so many things, a lot of unions got corrupt.
Well, any ways... Nothing much going on here. Just looked at the weather report. 99 degrees with 88% humidity. So nothing going to happen in the shop today.
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Post by dnic on Aug 24, 2023 7:34:08 GMT -6
I was a union carpenter in LA for 6 six years before we moved to paradise (Mt Shasta). But that whole union thing is a double edged sword. A lot like minimum wage. Higher wages drives up the cost of goods and products which drives up the cost of living which demands higher wages. Both Johnnie and I have worked very hard throughout the years and we still both have our side hustles going for extra cash. We will make it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2023 9:53:24 GMT -6
I was a union carpenter in LA for 6 six years before we moved to paradise (Mt Shasta). But that whole union thing is a double edged sword. A lot like minimum wage. Higher wages drives up the cost of goods and products which drives up the cost of living which demands higher wages. Both Johnnie and I have worked very hard throughout the years and we still both have our side hustles going for extra cash. We will make it. With or without the unions, prices would have gone up. Wages would be way low. Retirement in most companies would not exist. I can't see why housing in CA is over the top! My little house I bought in CA that is 999 square feet if over $500,000. When I bought it, I paid like $20,000 for it! How in the word did that little house get to be that price? Can't blame that on Unions and how much people are getting paid.
Would you work for $3.50 an hour? My first job in CA was $1.35 an hour. I was cleaning the floors at a newspaper company. Non-Union. I was in school and married. Our first place was $95.00 a month, furnished. Those days are long gone! I thought I was hot stuff when I landed a job for $8.50 an hour.
My wife and I worked hard too! I did a lot of work in the field working on skip loaders and back holes. Plus other equipment. I had to go fix what contractors and their crews would tear up! Want to know why rental equipment got so high? The cost of fixing them due to people tearing up equipment is why. Not because I was getting paid well. That was in CA. I worked in the heat, poring down rain and in the cold. I did not get time off, if it was bad conditions outside. I was none Union. If it had been Union, I would not had to have worked in them conditions.
Again, people can say all they want against Unions. But there is some good in them. Like it or not! If it not for Unions, we would have all worked in sweatshops. Being paid way under in wages while the big companies made lots and a lot of money, which the prices of goods would still have gone up. Why? Because it would have meant more money for companies.
The cost of goods and products would have gone up no mater what. Just like housing. My wife and I are finding harder and harder to live on what we have coming in. We are too old to get jobs to help us out. And working on and making guitars is not going to cut it.
It is written, that the coast of bread will be high in the last days. So high that many will not be able to afford it. We have a bunch of greedy people running this world. And they are the ones that drive up the cost of things. Ever look at how the richest people in the world control everything we buy? It will take your breath away to see how much of the world's economy they control.
Today I shipped out one of my cigar box guitars to AZ. It was going to cost almost $80.00 for two day. As it was, I wound up paying almost
$50.00 for reg shipping. And people want to know why I don't like to offer shipping. That is hard to take in. How can I make any money on items if the cost of shipping them bite into what one sells it for? One says, "add it to your price" But then how many people will pay for an item that now cost a lot more because of shipping? How can you sell something for a $250.00, and it's going to cost you $150.00 to ship it? How many out there are welling to pay for the cost of an item, then get hit with a high cost for shipping?
I have turned away from buying some things because of the cost of shipping. Not going to over pay for an item.
For me, I have to figure in the cost of shipping and the cost of the item. That is, after all, what I am paying for, for the item. The cost of the item and the shipping. So if I pay $250.00 for an item and the cost to ship that item is $150.00 That item is now $400.00. So I ask myself can I, if need be, resale the item for $400.00? More than likely not. I would be lucky to get half what I paid for it.
So glad I am getting out all of this. Time to move on to something else.
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Post by antares on Aug 26, 2023 3:08:56 GMT -6
I was a Union Branch Committee Member for 32 years. Laterly I was both President and Minutes Secretary right up until the Branch Secretary passed away. That was the end of it as far as I was concerned- no way was I going to carry on that post too. I was a union rep and convenor (senior negotiator) for 13 years at my workplace. Seeing folks get victimised at work by unscrupulous managers and having the gut instinct that I could not rely on The Membership to back me up wore me down. When negotiating the annual wage review, I felt like I was "going in with both hands tied behind my back" and The management knew it, they just paid lip service to the relationship so long as it suited them. All I ever tried to do was protect jobs and gradually improve the "agreements". I saw us through four bouts of redundancy in total. I wanted to pack it in when my Pa was on his death bed,but the committee members instructed me that I had to find a replacement first. I kicked back, told them to $%$*@ find one for themselves and promptly resigned the post. I continued to support the principles of unions right up until the place closed down and I am still a card holding member to this day. When a "rescue committee" was put together to find a way to keep The Company going, although only a card member by then, I was co-opted on to it. We presented a plan that included a 15% cut in wages which if accepted by The Management would have seen me working out those two years at the lower rate. I asked the lads why they would want me to represent them when I planned on retiring two years later, and my "pay off" would be pretty much the same as my last two years working at the proposed lower rate? (In other words- working for nothing for two years.) "Because we trust you" came the response. I also managed to negotiate an extra two weeks tax free redundancy for everyone which had always been an ad-hoc payment. I was asked to stay on for a month to QA / expedite work out of the factory gate. During that month, ONE employee thanked me for that extra benefit I got for everyone. Just ONE! Despite all that, I remain committed to the principle of collective representation; just as Eddie said- without it they'd be sending children up chimneys to sweep out the soot. (So to speak.)
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2023 12:14:12 GMT -6
The weather is getting better here. So, I have been out in the shop. Did some cleaning. Made a small table. (my wife and I did) It's on my YT channel.
Today I started back on the Spalted poplar guitar. (P90) Did some reworking of the neck. Now I need to reset the bridge. I have to rout out so that the bridge will be inset into the body some. When I set the neck, I didn't get the angle of the neck back far enough, so the bridge could be set lower for the string action.
I hope to have it up and going soon. But it's been nice to get out to shop again. I should be good to go for a couple of months before it starts to go cold here.
Well, about time to go back out and check on some things in the shop Once the P90 guitar is done I'll be doing a video on it. It won't be too soon. But it will happen!
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Post by dnic on Sept 11, 2023 17:55:16 GMT -6
Good for you Eddie. Make hay while the weather permits.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2023 9:56:14 GMT -6
Good for you Eddie. Make hay while the weather permits. Been doing some stuff in the shop. Starting to go through my stuff in my black cabinet. So much stuff in there! Found some tubes for guitar amps that I pulled. They are the last of what I once had on hand. Every used amp I got, I bought new tubes for. Just the way I am. I kept these as back-ups.
Finding more stuff to get rid of. I put a lot of stuff in trash. I am going to keep at it until there is no more to get rid of. It's good to purge once in a while. Seems once I start, then things go away pretty fast.
It doesn't brother me too much to get rid of things. After one has moved as much as we have, it becomes pretty easy to do.
The guitar is coming along. Hope to have it strung up by the weekend. But I will see if that happens or not.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2023 8:23:44 GMT -6
So I started a new FB account. Why? I was using my wife FB account to list things on the marketplace. The bad thing in that is I have to start off by posing one item. WOW, FB!! So I guess I'll build that up as I go.
Someone started to try to hack into my wife account. We started to get all kinds of people sending links to things that had nothing to do with selling. Wish people would get a life and stop all this hacking and spamming people! It gets frustrating with so much of it going on!
But now I have my own FB page again. Not going to do the friend's thing. Going to try to use it for selling stuff. Once I am done selling, then I will be deleting my account.
So far, my wife has not gotten any more messages from stupid people! LOL!
It's raining here today, so, not much going to happen in the shop today!
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Post by dnic on Sept 14, 2023 18:10:36 GMT -6
My wife Johnnie has sold a lot of stuff on Marketplace. For a while there was a scam going on where every time someone would respond it was like, "I want this for sure what is your phone number? And when they got it they would respond with "I need another back up phone number. We couldn't figure out for the life of us what they were doing with extra phone numbers unless it was just for telemarketing. But right from the start she would respond with this is y only number. Then she would never hear back. This would happen over and over again. Now it seems to working fine again with no extra phone numbers scammers.
All social media comes with it's draw backs and privacy issues.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2023 8:12:49 GMT -6
My wife Johnnie has sold a lot of stuff on Marketplace. For a while there was a scam going on where every time someone would respond it was like, "I want this for sure what is your phone number? And when they got it they would respond with "I need another back up phone number. We couldn't figure out for the life of us what they were doing with extra phone numbers unless it was just for telemarketing. But right from the start she would respond with this is y only number. Then she would never hear back. This would happen over and over again. Now it seems to working fine again with no extra phone numbers scammers. All social media comes with it's draw backs and privacy issues. It does get frustrating. At times, it's hard to fitter them all out. I now look at the profile of the person sending the message. If it looks fishy, I will not respond. If I do respond, then I say something like I don't give out my phone number anymore do to scammers.
I had to change my phone number 3 time in the last 2 years because of scammers. Most of them off of FB and eBay. I will never again use eBay. I figure on the FB thing. I will use it to sell things on for a while. Once I am done with selling what I need too. Then I will delete the account. But at least now, I am not selling on my wife's FB account. Things have settled down a lot on her FB account. I have sold a lot of things on FB over the years. But here of late, the scammers have gotten worse and even more clever in trying to get one to fall for their scams.
I also now in my ads tell people that I will only deal through messenger and that I do and will not give out my phone number. I also put in there that I only deal in cash or trade, and I do not deliver or ship. I know I may be thinning out some people, but I figure if someone wants something of mine, then come and get it. Stop playing games with me.
I am not in business. Only trying to sell some things. I don't mind working with legit people trying to by something I have for sale or trade. But when things start off with give me your cell number, or will you take half of my asking price or a number of other things, then I have to ask how legit are they?
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