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