Whores.
They are everywhere.
And I'm not talking about bad mouthing prostitutes here. (I have no problems with prostitutes if that's what they want to do.)
I'm talking about the deceptive whoring that infiltrates most capitalist and day-to-day monetary transactions.
Politicians, by necessity of campaigning, are whores.
And even people selling on Ebay can be whores.
Case in point: this auction for Robot Masters Starscream.
Now he's not entirely rare but there isn't a whole lot of stock out there left in the eastern Pacific and there's barely anything left in the US at all.
At retail he's a $24.99 figure but has been going for up to $34.00 or so since supplies have dwindled to nothing.
Now this auction looks unassuming and a good deal at first glance. The starting bid is only a $1.00 and you'd think you'd have a chance at a deal by the way this seller has it set up.
But using the post office "calculate" I end up with $27.80 for shipping to Ohio. $27.80!!!
This figure is probably about a pound and the packaging is standard and can fit into a standard post office box that is easily sold and typically has shipping around $4.35-$7.00.
Why do I know this? Because I own them all and have gotten them from various places and never have been ripped off like $27.80.
This is what I call whoring.
It is deceptive and there's no way possible to justify $27.80 for this to come to Ohio from California other than to say "I want as much money as possible" from the sale.
Now it wouldn't be whoring if you plainly stated this in auction itself.
What the fuck?
Is this a mistake? I'm tempted to email.
I've just seen this so many times on ebay these days that it just pisses me off.
I wish the "Power Sellers" would all fade away, the sniping software could be permanently broken, and ebay might just become fun again.
I'll let ya know if I hear back on the "Is that really the shipping for this???" email.