Wacky World

[skyaki]

The fresh water hand pump in my 1974 Boler loses suction when the tank reaches about the half way mark. A search on this site for problem solving suggested inserting a check valve in the line. A sensible solution.
I visited the site this forum suggested in the US (I live in Canada) and found exactly what I was looking for. Price was about 1.50US each. Very reasonable but they wanted $40.00 for shipping!!!
I wrote to the company and asked about the shipping costs - they said they could drop them in an envelope and only charge $20.00 for the shipping.
Still ridiculous.
I visited an AMazing site with a Canadian branch. Found the same little valve - $6.65 each plus $10.10 for shipping. Still too much.
So I tried another Equally Believable site - same valves, $1.50 CDN each with - get this - free shipping - from Hong Kong!!!
What gives with this. I suppose its just a wacky world...
The valves arrived today in perfect condition.

[Raspy]

I recently saw the same thing with nice looking brass pressure regulators. Ridiculously cheap. Shipped direct from China.

Can't really be sure of how it all works, but my first impression was they just wanted to break into the market. Just a guess.

I wanted to buy some, but the risk of being scammed stopped me.

[rbryan]

I've pulled the trigger on some of those Chinese sources before, and for the most part the merchandise does arrive - albeit after a very long wait.

[thrifty bill]

I buy small stuff from China and Hong Kong on eBay all the time. You are going to get the same made in China stuff you buy locally, but at a ridiculously low price.

The penalty is shipping time, it can take six weeks or more to get the item.

[Franswa]

I bought a ton of stuff from an international outfit that ships everything from Singapore (EachBuyer)...never any fees or any other costs....I even had occasion to complain about a defective item to them via email and they just sent me another one (their very first reply to my email!)

waiting a couple of weeks for something is nothing given that the products are VERY difficult to source locally....and are a small FRACTION of the price

gotta be careful ordering...it's international, a lot of electical stuff will be 220 or with plugs that don't exist here...

[Raspy]

What about paying? How do you guys handle that? Any problems?

[thrifty bill]

PayPal. Both ebay and PayPal protect buyers.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Raspy

What about paying? How do you guys handle that? Any problems?

I use PayPal, even with US purchases as most every company accepts it. I don't like to use my credit card on line.

[Raspy]

I recently got hacked through my Paypal account and $27,000. flew out the window. Not sure I want to use them again.

[k corbin]

Originally Posted by Raspy

What about paying? How do you guys handle that? Any problems?

I use paypal for many of the online purchases I make. I would never have any financial or email account that did not have a very strong password on it.

There are ways to create that type of password using "phases" you can remember. It should always be a nonsense phrase that is not related to any personal things about your life.

As most such sights require you to combine, numbers, symbols and also lower and upper case letters it can be tricky to create memorable ones.
But think about things such as this,,, some letters look a little bit like numbers, the shapes of symbols can create words in a phrase such as the asterix * is good for the word star. The ^ symbol looks like a tent and could represent that word in a phase or perhaps it is the word above or the word up. This symbol < can represent the word backwards (or past) and this one > the word foreward, go to, etc.

Be creative and have fun making unique and secure passwords using some symbology opportunities to help create easy to remember strings of sayings.
This technique was taught to me by my computer network and computer building teach at my local community college. It has certainly been a very useful lesson Now you know how to do it for yourself. Make it a family activity game while camping to see who can make some really fun ones.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Raspy

I recently got hacked through my Paypal account and $27,000. flew out the window. Not sure I want to use them again.

Bummer, did PP do anything for you? The bank I use for PP is different than my main one. I only keep enough in it to eliminate any fees and only make cash deposits so there is no connection to any other accounts.

[Raspy]

My bank fully reimbursed me, but there were a few incidental problems and penalties, etc. As I understand it they will now hand the bill to Paypal and make them either prove it was legit or reimburse them.

This kind of theft is rampant and there seems to be no consequences for doing it.

A good password is pretty hard to remember or record away from the computer, so it doesn't have to be anything I dream up. A random generated one for each site seems better. Then stored in a file that has its own password.

[Glenn Baglo]

Could it be "newtes1ment3:16" ?
I think trying to outsmart computers with passwords is a losing proposition. The computers are in cahoots.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by Raspy

My bank fully reimbursed me.
This kind of theft is rampant and there seems to be no consequences for doing it.
A random generated one for each site seems better. Then stored in a file that has its own password.

Good to hear you were reimbursed. Not sure if it makes any difference but I never store or hit the remember my password button on any site.