Corpse Head #2 Slideshow

Corpse Head #1 Slide Show

Chinese dissonant sold as Halloween Prop

In the past Chinese authorities have harvested the organs of political malcontents now they've taken things one step further.

In an effort to compete with American seasonal manufacturers the Chinese have now begin to harvest entire body parts to be sold as Halloween props. 

Washington is mull on this development more than likely because they owe the Chinese so much money. 

Patrons of Halloween are voicing some concerns as some of these props tend to ooze a bit and can certainly emit an unpleasant odor that falls some where between 3 week old fish guts and fresh puke. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Corpseheads

100 Years From Now: Mick Jagger, Gram Parsons and Keith Richards Circa 1371

                     100 Years From Now:  Mick Jagger, Gram Parsons and Keith Richards Circa 1371

Hurricane Sandy caused more harm than people think

Take the timing of the event. Yes I say event. It was right before Halloween. Halloween will seem trivial to anyone who sees this post unless you consider some people make their living off of the holiday. 

There are people who operate haunted attractions who rely on making in some cases the majority of their income in 1 month. Some of these places are not for profit charities. Still others sell Halloween merchandise such as myself and this is the second straight year a storm has hit right before Halloween. Last year a snow storm hit my area. Hurricane Sandy was a little slower to develop and certainly was advertised more. 

Think about that for a second. Weeks before Hurricane Sandy had hit us the weatherman was preaching his doom and gloom report. Now consider a few other things such as the area affected or speculated?  The entire eastern seaboard. I ship Halloween merchandise from the east coast. With an approaching storm people described as an almost apocalyptic event the last thing on people's minds was Halloween. Subsequently my sales were hampered in the days leading up to Hurricane Sandy's impact.

The hurricane moved out in time for my own home haunt but the damage in lack of sales did damage to my finances. I'm not saying my home is under water or was but damage is damage. Not all damage is structural. 

We did get a lot of rain and wind. Lot of my props were destroyed. My corn husks all fell down or got soggy. Still I picked up the pieces and got things set again and celebrated my 25th home haunt. Not exactly the turnout I wanted but quite a few people came. People enjoyed my haunt and they told me often. I didn't have any money so I had to be inventive. I was and this Halloween was perhaps a little more spiritual than the past ones. It wasn't because of the hurricane but rather I reflected more on the harvest as modest as it was all the pumpkins I grew myself as well as the corn. It was a lot of hard work. To me that is what Halloween is about, it's about living off the land. 

Still though I don't live on a farm so hurricane sandy hit me hard in the end and hurt already diminished sales do to a year which featured a lot of backdoor cold fronts as people in my industry stabbed me in the back. People who lost their homes to sandy are going to be helped out. People will raise gazillions for them but they aren't the only ones who have suffered. A lot of Americans have suffered and no one will ever care enough about them because it's not the kind of fashionable suffering that appeals to them. These days the only people who get sympathy are those who have their suffering broadcast by the mass media to push agendas. The idea is to push dependency. Those freak storms are anything but coincidental. If you can't be pigeon holed then you might as well have been the tree that fell in the middle of no where. 

More on Mitt Romney and the Smuggling of Things in France

A better researcher than me should follow my lead on Mitt Romney. I've speculated this for years that when Mitt Romney got a draft deferment to hang out in France instead of Vietnam there was more to the story. After reading Dave McGowan's fantastic piece Inside Laurel Canyon a few years ago I began to really believe people such as musicians and others operated as cia assets. Dave is real funny th

e way he talks about Gene Clark from the Byrds and how the army would never want a scrawny football star whose family loved to play with guns for recreation. The same can be said of Romney. Now what was going on in the 2 and a half years he spent in France? Well for one thing the year he went there 1966 France stopped supplying israel with arms. France's president was especially critical of israel during the 6 day war in 1967. So I am quite sure that smuggling operations were set up. Was Romney a participant?

There's a reason why people like Ted Nugent came out to support Romney. Trust me Ted is another who didn't chicken his way out of 'nam he just got another assignment. When he supposedly threatened to grease Obama he was poking fun at another cia agent. Ted didn't shit his pants to avoid the draft. Chances are he functioned in another way.

Wars, especially special operations are funded by drug trafficking. Now in 1966 the French Connection was in play. Opium(heroin)came from Turkey-France-America and elsewhere. Turkey if I remember right was getting out of the trade in 1966 and after this the opiate trade shifted to SE Asia(Thus Vietnam war). When 'Nam winds down opiate trade shifts to Afghanistan in the early to mid 70's. So you have 2 potentials in France, opiate smuggling and weapons smuggling.

If you research mormonism before Joseph Smith takes peyote and sees naked chicks in the desert wondering if he knew where Haite Ashbury was the jews and mormons had a tight relationship back east. The summer of Popsicle love(year without a summer), 1916 is when Joe packs up the wagon full of whores I mean his people and travels west. During the French Connection the heroin coming into America went to jewish mobs who ran the more celebrated Italian ones. No doubt money made was making its way back to israel.

So weapons and heroin, what's new? Someone with the money should really investigate my speculation and blow the lid off of this. The longer we stay in denial of such connections the more likelihood we are bound to repeat the same mistakes, elect the same people to office and suffer the same consequences. Americans wonder why they are suffering. They refuse to open their eyes and minds to the reality that often takes place in the cover of the night...sometimes wrapped in a flag other times in cloth as in under the guise of religion. I can't nail it completely on the head but come on what kind of a nick name is "Mitt"? I know what wikipedia says...I say hogwash. And for the record sometimes names given or chosen are things to live by. Be careful what you name your kids. Names have untold of consequences.

Mitt Romney and the Romney Marsh

I wonder if the two are connected in any way?  

I was watching a very peculiar Hammer Horror film called the Night Creatures starring Peter Cushing. The movie was basically about smuggling wine and a pirate named Clegg who had disguised himself as a priest. It's very much like the Wickerman but not as good of a movie. 

Governments create laws to prevent goods from travelling freely and thus smuggling operation form. This is true of drug smuggling and even liquor if you can find a dry county these days. Another the of smuggling is sheep and wool. The government has to tax everything. Who is the government?  Generally speaking aristocrats who think their shit doesn't stink. So for a couple of centuries wool was smuggled over the baron marshes. In the fill these marshes were depicted as being ghostly and even had an almost Ku Klux Klan feel to their look. As you can read here smuggling started out as an almost mischievous prank and then turned deadly.

http://kent.villagenet.co.uk/oldromney.php

The film I do believe depicts this as the fugitive pirate turned priest is the leader of the community. He can poke fun at the squire because he is the glue that holds the whole thing together. He introduces them to two spirituality and rewards them with spirits. It works remarkably well that is until the revenue people come from the government to confiscate the bootleg liquor. 

Now during Vietnam Mitt Romney received several draft deferments when he supposedly went to France to knock on doors, "Hi my name is Mitt, well not really but you wanna become a mormon"?  At the time in France the infamous "French Connection was still in play. The French Connection smuggled opiates(heroin)from Turkey to France to the streets of America. The main organized crime members in America were jewish. If you research Joseph Smith when he and his cult followers lived back east prior to the Year Without a Summer(1816) you will find the mormons and jews were closely linked. Now there is another smuggling operation that would have been going on in France at the time and that was the smuggling of weapons. All countries smuggle weapons or people within their country smuggle weapons. During the time Romney was in France the 6 day war and other conflicts were taking place. 

So the question is does anyone really think Mitt Romney spent his time in France as a missionary or was there smuggling going on?  He wreaks of CIA like his kissing cousin Obama. Obama's mother was in the CIA in SE Asia during Vietnam war. That's when his name was Barry. Mitt isn't Romney's first name either. I wonder where he got the name Mitt from?  I picture him on a small row boat catching sacks of heroin. It's a theory but I've got nothing better to do. 

King Bee Guitars Gram Parsons Nudie Suit Telecaster

http://www.kingbeeguitars.com/

I think in this as in most a picture is worth a thousand words and I really don't have to write much!  All I got to say is WOW!  How cool is this?   A Gram Parsons' Nudie Suit Telecaster!!!

Above you'll find the very likable idea man behind this beautiful creation Gearmandude. Gearmandude demos lots of cool pedals and he does so in a very cool way. Check out his channel it's a good starting point when you are in the market for a new pedal. He only demos cool pedals though so bring your fat wallet. Anyway he came up with the idea if I follow the story correctly. And having listened to him for some time now it makes perfect sense. 

About the only thing I would have done differently is went with a tinted nitrocellulose neck and fingerboard. Other than that this is seriously cool. Look at those Gretsch style pickups too. This is not only cool it is visually stunning as was Gram Parson's Nudie Suit with the flowers, the pills, marijuana leaves etc. Thank goodness for eccentrics! 

In Search of Gram Parson's Ghost

As much as I detest those "Ghost Shows" I wonder if anyone ever looked into Room #8 at the Joshua Tree Inn? Came across one person today who wrote that Gram knocked his guitar off the bed. Then again he said he was drinking. When it comes to super natural I am lo-fi. If I went to #8 I'd bring a dog. Dogs have the best sense of awareness outside of children before indoctrination.

Gram Parsons comments by moi

Gram was too much of an eclectic mixture to be construed as something as simple as one particular pigeonholed genre. That is his undoing when it comes to accolades. The music industry wants those they can easily define and market. Gram wasn't playing by their rules so he didn't get the push needed to be rounded and polished for whatever proposed stereotypical category they decided he should be a part of. In many ways it's a compliment to him he is largely ignored. Just take a look at who they let in the RRHOF. I do think if you are going to let people in any hall that relied upon Gram so much you have to give him his just do or send in the demolition team.

Opening up a a hardcore lemonaid stand

Next year I'm gonna grow some Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Chile Pepper plants and offer them at my lemon-aid stand as a drink garnish.

This pepper is a curious one. It looks like a little devil head. Who will take the challenge and hold it in their month for 1 minute while doing the highland fling?

Seed catalog states:

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is officially the hottest pepper in the world! Its title is based on tests recently completed by scientists at the New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute.

The researchers found these golf ball-sized red chile peppers to have an average heat of more than 1.2 million units on the Scoville heat scale, with some individual fruits reaching 2 million heat units. Unprecedented heat levels!

Now the prank call to the queen makes sense

The nurse was indian and indians have no sense of humor!  Just watch them when they laugh. It's this disturbing I just killed my wife and I hope no one finds out kind of nervous laugh. They take things very seriously and because they're so matter of fact they are rude. 

I had more than one bad experience with an indian this year and in the past. Certainly had a few shouting matches with the filthy ebay customer service reps from india. I was reminded in the ridiculous presidential debates that shit romney outsourced American jobs to india. 

Oh and one of my neighbors is indian and they are the rudest assholes you will ever meet. They walk around the block and point at people and use their "I just placed a baby in the microwave I hope the neighbors don't suspect the smell is anything more than rough chicken" smile. Remember the saying or sayings about people who point at others. Well the guy looks prego. The last thing he should be doing is acting rude to me. I would enjoy having to defend myself against such an attacker, immensely. One time his dog a fat beagle who just barks and barks came off the leash and went at my then puppy. I was my usual self and said I would wait so you could catch your dog. Did I get a thanks?  Absolutely not they 2 of them looked at me like I had too heads. Again rude sons of bitches.

Oh then there was the convenience store clerk who accused me of being a potential shoplifter because I had sunglasses on. Safe to say I told that tedeschi's employee where to go and pointed out I would never enter their store again. I kept my word. Rude ugly people. 

So a couple of Australian DJ's prank the queen's daughter in law?  Now who are Australians?  What kind of people are they?  Well aside from Crocodile Dundee I have met a few and they seemed alright. They can actually smile, tell jokes, laugh and not look like they just bit into a handful of rusty razorblades. In other words there is a great difference in culture between an Aussie and a paki wog!

We're all suppose to shed a tear for the sambo who didn't get it?  It wasn't even a good prank call. I've personally done much better ones and you can certainly find better ones online like "Lil Becky"  and the Jerky boys. 

You see humor is part of western culture and it is not a scheduled event it just happens. With an indian the only time I ever see them laughing is when they are talking shit about an American. Little do they realize how much of an ass kicking would be in order had they tried to  say such things to an American's face. 

This welfare refugee nurse who killed herself obviously had issue. She had a predetermined condition...she was an indian. Why don't indians all hop in their cabs after they close down the convenience store and go back to where they came from. The west doesn't need your kind. 

You've got something to look forward to when...

You can add about 10-12 inches of compost to a 15'x20' garden bed. I watched the new bed struggle last year and although wireworms certainly inhibited growth the main factor I think was a lack of organic matter. I think with an over abundance of organic matter the wire worms would have been more spread out and the potatoes more prolific. Just the same no praties will find their way into that bed next year. 

The key to gardening is rotation. Last year it was my other big bed that got the compost treatment. The year before that a smaller bed. I'm trying to develop several beds at once and I'm over emphasizing compost. Whilst doing that I am also getting in the habit of rotating crops. 

After the praties were gone I started the healing by introducing legumes in the form of peas and beans. They didn't quite do what I wanted them to do but I'm quite sure as I let them hang out to die they introduced nitrogen to the soil. 

Now the bed has 10-12 inches of compost a top it to insulate and fertilize and be ready early in the spring. At least 2 months of rotting will take place. I'll cover the area with weedguard to inhibit the early weeds and to further insulate the soil. Not sure what I will introduce to this bed first. I may build a green house over it to extend the growing season. 

Most people do not realize how much more production they'd get out of their garden by adding a simple high tunnel. Combined with some weedguard or other breathable mulch the soil will rapidly develop into rich garden loam. It will be easy to work and full of organic matter as the rate of use increases. Minus storms like Sandy a cold high tunnel will easily add 2 months to the growing season. So instead of waiting till mid March or even April 1st some years to plant peas you are starting them in mid February or even earlier some years and picking peas in early June or before. That allows you to get another crop such as late corn in there. 

My new garden bed will probably not have peas since I broadcast peas and they would not make a very good bumper crop in my estimation. Possibly some greens will be introduced. With a green house greens could definitely thrive in the cool weather while it is still cold and then corn could be started in early April. Last year I watched corn go from 16 inches or so to 6-8 feet in one month in a greenhouse. Some stalks went as high as 12 feet in the end and I could simply not control them. 

With a deeper bed now it will allow me to dig a trench and hill the corn up. I'm even thinking of a rotating green house or just one where I remove the cover in mid May. Although I do have an urge to buy some Dill Atlantic Giant Pumpkin seeds and see if I can grow a huge one!  So having a cover in place may prove handy. Also I want rapid growth. 

Key to pumpkins in the NE is a green house. Trust me cheat mother nature and get some decent ones. If you wait until the gardening books or seed packets tell you to start them you will have pumpkins trying to start in August as the rain comes in. In other words you will have rot. So start them in a green house and let them grow out of it or they will reach the end by the time the weather warms. Remember light is a factor. You can only cheat so much. Unless you add artificial light to increase the day light hours the pumpkin can only grow so much in early April. 

Bottom line is I expect the best corn I've ever planted if I can remain conservative and space them appropriately. 8 inches apart and 4-5 feet between rows. Oh to have the space to really garden...

Beatles Sgt. Pepper and the whole 60's were contrived

In 1967 The Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper's Loony Heart Burn Band LP. In between the sessions the almost mythical track Carnival of Light was also recorded and since that time there has been an unfair assessment that the Beatles started everything and were the greatest and the only group that ever mattered. Well there was quite a lot going on out West that rivaled anything they did. After a return trip from the west coast Paul bled his fingers trying in vain to get the motown bass sound after the other Beatles had left the studio. Emerick and McCartney settled for a flubby taperwound sound. Little did they know the likes of Jamerson used a P-Bass with bad action direct in. Beatles get a lot of credit but they never got as far out as Califor'nye'aye

The Beatles should release Sgt. Pepper without the tracks they didn't play on like when they could afford to bring in an entire orchestra or high brow soloist. To me that's the great difference between the Pepper album and say a garage band who had to invent sounds by abusing their amps or finding new sounds with new pedals on the market such as the wah. A Captain Beefheart album would bring in a Thereminist. It was just as effective and creative compared with the Beatles bringing in a fancy trumpet player.

Dylan was probably the main influence that sent the Beatles in a new direction but I think cashing in and commercialism was the main reason for Pepper. Sure all those other groups wanted great success too but there wasn't a great force or great enough one to enable that. Freaks and faeries are not exactly heartland America.

 In the end I think you'll find while both coasts were different both were part of the same preorchestrated sequence. It's like someone was flipping the switch the whole time. It's straight out of oz. I think every single major event had an army of sponsorship to shape society after an event. The shooting of Kennedy, followed by the upbeat optimism of the Beatles whose manager dragged them from the gutter and dressed them up in Chinese communist party suits, Then they meet Dylan and I wanna Hold Your Hand turns into How would you like to play with my monkey finger bitch. Dylan plays electric at the Newport Cigarette festival and there is wide spread shock and disbelief and hatred...their fuzzy headed pie eyed piper with the voice that seemed to utter ewwwwww every other line was tossed from pedestal.

 It's cold and the Mama and the Papas come along with a pop glee club sound but they're Californian Dreaming and everyone is starting to fly because the Byrds are singing electric folk taken from commie extraordinaire Pete Seger who sings verses from the bible. Oh the sacrilege! There's a new fanlged civil war too. Then things really take off in 1966....introducing Satan...yes that's right kiddies you no longer have to be a catholic and receive holy communion...you can wear a robe and drink blood and put spellls on the hot chick next door who thinks you are a dork. Your spell doesn't work but you're getting used to being naked and seeing naked chicks in the movies getting killed. All the movies are in color now and many have a devil theme. Then fast forward to the Manson murders and the 60's ends...then inflation....and by the time the decade ends very contrived music...then back to cold reagan...his face looks like he just left a tomb...hostages released...music really begins to suck...the exorcism is complete.....the us military now starts to wear nazi helmets.

Everything was choreographed. Sgt. Pepper was choreographed. The difference between the people behind that and say some very creative Califor'nye'aye psychedelic rock band is they were caught up in the swirl...the Beatles were closer to the ones stirring the pot...well replacement Paul at least....

Skeleton Store Claimed They Never Charged Up On S&H

You can go to skeleton store's website and I know from emails they sent me they claim they did not charge a handling fee or charge up on shipping and handling. It's pretty easy to determine that was not the case. Many of the items they distributed were small and lightweight. I found myself experimenting last year with shipping from my own home and was easily shipping most items for $5 or so Priority mail. This does not even take into account how much I'd save if I shipped everything myself and the discount I would have received. I had discounts available for all major shipping companies. You know something so did they. Remember they claim they did not charge up on shipping. I'm not the one who tags their webpage with slogans like no dropshipping fees. Well what are they then if they are not handling fees?

I'm looking at a bag of 6 skulls. I shipped a bunch of these last year Priority for around $5 without any sort of discount. They fit in a small Priority box. SS charged me $8 to ship the same thing via a ground service. Priority is an expedited premium service and I could ship for less without discount?  No they stole $3 from me. It didn't happen just once and those $3 charges add up. 

Here's an example of the same skulls which weigh under a pound but this time 2 bags of them and they charged me $10.76. Keep in mind I'm east coast they are in chicago area and the package went to CA. Priority would have been around $6-$7. There's another $3 they ripped from me. 

Here's a lightweight reaper prop that only had to go to Indiana from Chicago and they charged me $14.42. That's the next state over. I've shipped heavier full size skeletons in larger boxes to the next state for $8. So what's going on here?  Are they inept as a warehouse can be or are they making money off of shipping?  I have to believe since I told them of ways to save on shipping they at best knew and worse were hating every time i had to remind them shipping was too much if they were claiming they didn't charge a handling fee. 

Here's one where they charged $14.63 to ship a smaller lightweight item to Kansas!  That item if you squished him in would fit in a Priority mailing box and ship for maybe $7. 

Again no discounts are being factored in. I know how much volume I did and they certainly miss how much volume I did. Ebay alone was granting me like 30-36% discounts and greater on volume for various shipping companies. It's funny take any of the prices I was charged and take a third off the price. It's more than $3 if you believe ss when they claim they never charged up on shipping or offered a handling fee.

We're talking about thousands of orders where I was potentially cheated over the years. I do believe I am owed compensation. It's really the only way. Compensation should take into account damages since this was a callous and cowardly act upon their part. They know how loyal I was until it became painfully apparent they were cheating me of my right due. Then they saw the vent up frustration explode the thing is they haven't seen anything yet. The longer I am left uncompensated for the immeasurable efforts that were so carelessly unappreciated I will continue to hound them to their last days upon this earth and no mortal or divine force will inhibit my passage way to justice.

Skeleton Store Lies Video

See how I catch skeleton store in lie after lie. The nerve of them telling me their 2nd in the chain of command thomas stelter was just another reseller. It was pretty easy to determine that wasn't the case but for skeleton store to lie to me is outrageous. I generated so many sales for them and they were constantly stabbing me in the back. They claimed in July/Aug of this year skeleton-factory was just another reseller but when you go back to Sept. you see them saying THEY changed prices on the website. If skeleton-factory was just another reseller how the hell did they allow skeleton store to change prices on their website?  Ridiculous lies. The whois data clearly shows who registered the domain, skeleton store's managing director. I don't think this bmw driving geek would qualify as another reseller with such an association as he had with skeleton store(easily verified with the chicago better business bureau).

Strange entity or spirit appears in Carnival of Light video

This is one of the trippiest videos I've ever seen! Watch the entire video and see if you can see the strange face that appears!  At one point it appears to point!  Did the Beatles create this? No.  So who did?  I did not add a face to the video!  This is psychedelic on another scale!

Skeleton Store lies

I redacted my email address to limit the amount of fan mail I would receive. Ha!

Here was the final straw of lies told to me by skeleton store. She starts off by stating thomas stelter is just another reseller like I was. It didn't take rocket science to determine that was a bold face lie. 

I had been told by others he was high in their company chain but all one had to do was visit either the better business bureau website, whois etc to easily come to the conclusion he was anything but another reseller. Trust me there are no resellers driving bmw's. 

 

 I think that makes it perfectly clear skeleton-factory was operating out of the same facility as skeleton store aka anatomical worldwide. What's most insulting is they knew I knew this to be the case but still went on with their pathetic lies. Why did this thing blow up?  Because it wasn't the 1st time. The year before on September 11th they finally changed the prices on skeleton-factory. Trust me it is impossible to compete selling on ebay with all the fees if your distributor is undercutting you and advertising with the money they make off of the shipping prices they over charge you. You can punch their name into a search engine or use a common search phrase or term and there they are spending the same amount of money as the larger companies and often times more. On google he who pays the most gets top billing. 

Another thing Linda Jacobs claimed back in March which is eluded to in this email is the poor miserable helpless website hauntcast was not wholesaling their merchandise. Well I took a screen shot and there it is as plain as day. I know a 5 can look like a 3 and only the 4 on the keyboard separates the two but that was no typo. 

I think this makes it pretty clear once again. Here is a clear indication the so called reseller market with skeleton store did not matter. This website was spamming the likes of every website out there including paid advertisements on google that I noticed. 

Meanwhile I had just borrowed several of skeleton store's props to take pictures for promotions I was running. I had to return the items to skeleton store for their trade show(which I did). In other words I was taking things seriously and it was all for not because skeleton store would turn to me and lie like little kids that the website hauntcast was not undermining my efforts. 

You see there was a great deal of presumption upon the part of skeleton store and everyone else that all my sales were just by chance. Lost in that assessment was my relentless promotions and creative marketing on a low budget(no budget). It was all for not because I was being undermined every step of the way. Their retail site skeleton-factory was undercutting me and other so called resellers were using their 50% discount as promotions for other things. 

Oh I kept prices low but there were legitimate reasons for that. For one thing I didn't think the merchandise was worth skeleton store's so called "retail price"  so I sold aggressively between so called "wholesale" and "retail". 

The thing that was really hampering my efforts is skeleton store was charging too much to ship lightweight objects. I only came to realize they charged much less on skeleton-factory to ship the same item out of the same warehouse and were also selling that way on amazon until I complained. 

I went into nauseating details and if I remember right they relented and removed the listings but they would go straight back to doing the same thing on skeleton-factory. That was June they would not raise prices on skeleton-factory until September 11th. 

Are you kidding me?  I can't make this stuff up. And people wonder why so many people struggle to earn a living. It's because companies could care less about the hand that feeds them and buys then bmw's. My sales were pretty much atrocious all year long until mid September, go figure. 

Better Business Bureau is a Joke

The chicago one in particular takes the cake. The entity often referred to as the bbb has absolutely no desire to hold companies accountable for ethics. You get the run around with them. They act as the only responsibility of a company is to the customers who walk off the street but the world is much more complex now. We no longer use typewriters, rolladexes, stage coaches to our next business trip. 

These days everything is digital and connected  through instant communication(cellphones, digital phones, skype, email)the bottom line is things are done differently these days. The old brick and mortar days are over.

 As the internet has grown and business has evolved into a virtual reality the human element has pretty much been eliminated. Companies are free to stab customers(provided they don't sell on ebay or amazon)in the back as well as business partners who are nothing more than glorified customers/shoppers. 

The latter are rarely engaged physically. There is rarely a connection between yours and mine. It's a cold blooded relationship running a parallel course with customers who hit a button and wait instead of reaching out there hand to take their bag and exchanging some pleasantries. 

Take one company called skeletonstore aka anatomical worldwide aka skeleton-factory and other aliases. They've only been in the Halloween trade since 2008 yet almost instantly they began competing against their so called resellers who they supposedly sell wholesale to. They told me in an email and on the phone they used to sell on ebay but stopped because too many "resellers" complained. It's funny when I started to sell for them in 2009 I had the impression they never stopped. This past season after a falling out I noticed they were clearly selling on ebay in direct competition with their resellers. 

I take it sales were down. Well that's what happens when you stab your best sellers in the back such as myself. Basically you take the best hitter out of the line up and run production goes down. 

The thing is before  you even engaged in such a filthy practice of hiding behind various aliases you were developing a system to eliminate competition on ebay by manipulating their feedback system. Ebay was changing rapidly and most of the benefits were going to the big companies. Almost ever reseller you had relied on you as a drop shipper so to tame their market place all you had to do was delay shipping their customer's orders. 

That very thing happened to my this past July. I watched as new orders went out the door yet old orders were forgotten about. Now you can make what you want out of that the bottom line is the actions of skeleton store who had a history of competing against their dealers hurt my ebay standings. Had they not a history one would never suspect they did things intentionally but when they openly admitted to me and I pieced together some of their aliases it became painfully apparent, anything and everything was possible with them. 

Right before I stopped selling for them they promised to give me a discount. I was selling close to the bone on purpose with discount in mind. The Chicago BBB said they would get me my money. I don't see it. 

I also don't see the rest of the money they owe me in damages. During the previous year skeletonstore's managing director thomas stelter had a website out of the same facility as skeletonstore called skeleton-factory. Btw he is their managing director and or 2nd in command. However one of their employees a liz huff told me he was just another reseller like me and they had no idea his prices were so low(especially when you consider and factor in shipping cost). Skeletonstore also told me and put it in writing they did not charge a handling fee or charge up on s&h. This was put in writing. On average skeletonstore would charge me twice as much or more than skeleton-factory would. Sometimes it was really egregious such as a small item that could be shipped 1st class for a few bucks would result in me being charged $12-$15. Good luck trying to sell a $3 item with those prices. 

The fact is skeletonstore's business model has always been to cheat, lie and defraud. I'm not the 1st one they did this to. There have been others. Despite a mountain of evidence the chicago bbb grants then an "A" rating. Despite the fact that for 4 years they misrepresented their accreditation at the bbb with a seal on their websites they get an "A" rating. Despite the fact that up until I complained to the clueless chicago bbb that they were operating under many guises to defraud the public and businesses alike the chicago bbb doesn't seem to care much about that. Basically the better business bureau is a sham and an oxy moron. 

The bbb will argue I was a third party business partner or the alike but they never take into account that not only was I hurt by skeletonstore's outrageous lies and business structure especially in regard to shipping but the customers I accumulated were also hurt by it because they had to pay those shipping costs. Now go on ebay and look at skeletonstore's ebay store anatomical worldwide and you will see they charge basically nothing for shipping and undercut all their resellers. I'm even inclined to think their resellers have absolutely no idea who anatomical world wide is. 

The chicago better business bureau could step up to the plate and boot skeleton store. Had they any shred of decency they would but they don't. They live in the era previously spoken of. They could care less about the new fangled games being played. They're just as unethical as skeletonstore/anatomical worldwide/skeleton-factory.    

Vintage Aria HF5102T Electric Guitar Made In Japan 1970's

Ebay Guitar Auction!!!

You're bidding on an Aria HF5102T Electric Guitar. Modeled after an ES-335 this guitar features a double cut away, laminated maple body, bolt on maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 2 p-90 style pickups, 3 way switch(short needs to be repaired. No access from the back will be a little tricky without the proper Luthier tools), Bigsby style Tremolo roller bridge. 

This guitar will need a little work. Aside from a new set up I believe the best thing for someone to do is upgrade the tuners and swap out the bridge with a hard tail piece. This will eliminate a lot of tuning issues I found. New strings help in that area as well but I'm not the 1st to offer this solution or to perform it. I'd rate the tuners with Kluson types which is not very complimentary. If someone gave me a 1959 Les Paul Standard I'd replace the tuners. Even if I paid $50,000 for the guitar I would replace the tuners. Vintage is great for vibe but in function it's best to introduce some practicality. 

Guitar is currently without it's original case but a padded gig bag will be included for shipping. That is part of the shipping cost. Guitar will ship UPS ground unless a request for a faster service is made and will be fully insured. 

1996 Yamaha FG 441S Acoustic Guitar

Ebay Guitar Auction

Yamaha FG441S  60312608   2006 March 12th

For their large beautifully crafted bodies and superbly balanced tone. From sparkling highs to fat lows these guitars have excellent projection that delivers power even without amplification.

• Top:  Solid Spruce
• Back & Sides: Ovangkol
• Neck: Nato
• Fingerboard: Indian Rosewood
• Tuning Machine: Diecast Chrome
• Finish: Natural
• Bridge: Indian Rosewood

This Yamaha guitar is in excellent condition. Aside from the belt marks on the back it has very little wear but amazingly plays rather well. Initially I thought the back and sides to be Rosewood. This was based upon looks and sound. The guitar just sound good, period. The back and sides are made out of Ovangkol. Here is how one site describes the tone wood:

"Ovangkol (also called Shedua and Amazaqoue) has been in use by several of the larger high-end factories for several years now, most notably Taylor, Lowden and Avalon, but its combination of affordability, beauty and tonality has made it a favorite with a growing number of hand makers as well.

From West Africa, the figure is similar to Indian Rosewood, with dark grey straight lines over a golden-brown or olive-brown background. It comes from the same family as Bubinga and has a similar interlocking grain pattern. It is reasonably easy to bend and plane and it finishes well.

Montreal luthier Michael Greenfield says:“Ovangkol...who knew?! What a great alternative tonewood. As there is a lot of it around, the logs are large and the sets are very on quarter and STRAIGHT. What a pleasure to build with. Bends and glues well....not too hard on edge tools. It is not quite as dense as most Rosewoods, which can be a good thing, especially on larger bodied guitars as you don’t have to combat the problem of clashing overtones -there is better separation between notes.” He went on to say that his latest Ovangkol guitar is a ”monster” and mentioned that tonally it falls nicely ”between Koa and Rosewood”."

This guitar has low action and feels very comfortable to play. This particular model has been discontinued but it's not because the guitar didn't play well. This would make a wonderful Christmas gift for young and old alike. Like I said with a little work the scratch marks can be removed from the back via buffing. Many forums online and websites can help you accomplish that or take the guitar to your local music store. The scratches are in the finish which is probably polyurethane. They can be filled and buffed. More importantly whomever gets this guitar is really going to dig it.  I do say in the video the back and side is East Indian Rosewood but that was an error on my part. I can tell you this much the average person will not know the difference by appearance. Ovangkol is a good tone wood. 

Skeleton Store Owes Me Money

This video is a short comparison between 4 websites to point out to those who are not familiar that skeleton store is the same as aww or anatomical worldwide, the same as skeleton-factory and other aliases. This video is also to point out how they ship the same item out of the same facility but charge 3 different prices including selling directly against their resellers on ebay. I should know I was once one of their resellers and they promised me a discount, promised they wouldn't compete directly against me but lied about everything.

Lies would include they don't sell on ebay. Pretty obvious aww is them. I got that through inside sources and then applying very simple search methods connected the dots. They insisted they did not charge up on shipping but I can see what they were charging and what they charge now and know how much I was charged. I was pretty much charged double. If you're thinking oh well they charge a drop shipping fee. Not according to their own words and sales pitch on their website. They even went so far as to say their second in command was just another reseller. When I complained last year that his prices were way too agressive they took their sweet time to raise them(9/11 was the date they raised them). The result was I had pretty much no sales because they were backstabbing me. Then this year I caught them doing it again. They were like which items were you most concerned about?  They're not only liars but they are arrogant apathetic ones at that.  They made all sorts of backroom deals and left me who helped them tremendously over the years to take the fall.

I certainly think they owe me money for their tactics. Trust me if they don't pony up the greenbacks I am going to be a pain in their side for as long as they intend to exist. They hurt my business and I should be compensated for the way I was treated. I'm quite sure right before they decided to sell on ebay again they started to miss me. Their sales were down. They were down because the best reseller they ever had stopped selling for them when it became painfully apparent they didn't care about my welfare. They took a lot of my ideas and rolled with it. They never once thanked me for all the suggestions. Instead they stabbed me in the back and I think I am owed compensation.

Fender Telecaster- Van Amps Sole Mate Jr.-1965 Vox Pathfinder with Temolo

I got to thinking while i was playing this sounds like icicles forming and they were forming on the ends of my fingers! It feels about 45-50 degrees in this room. So playing wasn't exactly easy but I like the sound even if I don't like the process. I think Tremolo out of an old tube amp can sound groovy on a summer's day too! Help! Some billionaire buy me some warm front property!The amp is a fairly rare Vox Pathfinder made by the Thomas Organ Company in 1965. Soon after they went from tube to solid state. Such a shame this is a cool 7 watt amp. Disclaimer: I am no guitar hero. If you seek that there are plenty of videos on youtube. I just like to have fun and freeze my balls off playing guitar in unheated rooms.

Eyeball Going Down the Drain!

On Ebay