>I think I've explained the nature of my other comments regarding
>commercialism on public mailing lists. Its OK to a point but gets annoying
>when many questions by newcomers are met with "Yes da da da and I just
>happen to have one right here for $X... and I'll throw in a set of steak
>knives."
Point taken, but Tom answers newbie questions when they have been asked so
many times that no one else bothers.
Also, I suspect that your ratio of FS to general contributions is higher
than Tom's over the course of each of your membership with the List.
I don't know what your plans are for the 87 MD caps that you just got, but
if you start selling them for profit then I think you should reconsider any
aggressive messages toward Tom.
Also, I have to admit that I haven't read the entire thread, but whoever
said:
>I think that selling things as a part of a hobby is OK but I believe that
>the volume that one trades determines whether that activity is a hobby or
>a business. I didn't think Tom *really* hides the fact that he is a
>businessman and that he is interested in making a profit from his sales.
...is wrong.
First, in the US, a hobby becomes a business when it profits "in any three
of five consecutive tax years," except for when profits result from the
"breeding, training, showing, or racing of horses" in two out of seven
consecutive years. If I'm correct, Tom has not been collecting/using
Olympus camera equipment in his present fashion for three years, therefore
his "hobby" cannot be a business yet, unless he qualifies under seperate
conditions. I'm guessing Tom doesn't have an EIN for Zuikoholic.com!
Secondly, Tom consistently answers newbie questions when no one else will.
A person running a business through the list wouldn't do this.
Third, Tom is a businessman, but someone who pays cash for a Corvette does
need to sell Olympus camera equipment for the profit.
Fourth, I think if you look at the ratio of FS to general list
contributions, you will see a surprisingly large discrepancy, i.e very few
FS posts.
Fifth, it is no secret that Tom has a lot of equipment right now, so much
that he could never begin to use it all. It is therefore not surprising
that he wants to dispose of some, but he offered some free extended
warranties before he ever offered some of his new acquisitions to the list.
Sixth, I can't think of a sixth right now, but I'm sure there is a sixth,
seventh, eighth and ninth.
Lastly, if Tom were trying to make a profit he would never sell to the List.
Here is a quick list of what I offered to the list, asking price, eBay
price:
Flash Extender -- List = $30.00 -- eBay = $47.00
50-250mm/f5 -- List = $500.00 -- eBay = $650.00
24mm/f2.8 -- List = $100.00 -- eBay = $134.00
Winder 2 -- List = $85.00 -- eBay = $117.00
I think others have had a similar experience.
...just my $0.02
--p.j. :-)
...and don't get me started on drilling in the Artic National Wildlife
Refuge!!!! :-)
FWIW, here are some interesting findings that I made:
This is in response to reports about
drilling in the Gulf of Mexico with Lease Sale 181 from earlier in July.
Gail Norton claimed that "the lease area along the Outer Continental Shelf
at least 100 miles from the shorelines of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi
has enough oil to run a million families' cars for six years."
# of persons per family: 3.16
(http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?ds_name=D&geo_id=D&mt_name=DEC
_1990_STF1_P017A&_lang=en)
# of person in US: 248,709,873
(http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?ds_name=D&geo_id=D&qr_name=DEC
_1990_STF1_DP1&_lang=en)
# of families in US: 64,517,917
(http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?ds_name=D&geo_id=D&qr_name=DEC
_1990_STF1_DP1&_lang=en)
Lease Sale 181 will provide auto fuel for all (1990) families for 34 days.
Of course, this does not included the 27,429,463 'Nonfamily Households' in
the US.
Therefore, if each family has 3.16 persons, Lease Sale 181 will provide auto
fuel for 3,160,000 people in the US for 6 years or 18,960,000 people in the
US for only 1 year. If there are 248,709,873 people in the US, then the
auto fuel produced by Lease Sale 181 will last only 27.83 days.
Of course, it is probably improper to extrapolate the fuel needs of the
United States based on the number of families, average family size and total
population. Likewise, it is probably impoper to even to measure fuel
consumption as a measure of family size.
There are other problems, too. These figures do not take into account the
fuel needs of the country outside of the family, like manufacturing,
trucking, etc. The information contained on the following page provides
some data of consumption outside families, although it is difficult to
compare it to families' needs because I could not locate that information:
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IBQTable?ds_name=E9721I7&_lang=en.
Another problem is that population and family information is based on 1990
results, and fuel consumption in America has only increased since then.
I am not neglecting the jobs that would result in this exploration, the
billions of dollars that would pour into the economy or the other products
manufactured and collected in the process of making auto fuel. However, it
seems clear that 27.38 days of fuel is not very much. It also seems that it
would be best to focus efforts on renewable resources and conservation.
Even more surprising is that the US uses 6 billion barrels of oil in eleven
months (http://www.cnn.com/2001/fyi/news/03/23/alaska.oil/). Therefore, the
185 million barrels in Lease Sale 181 will supply the needs of the US for
only 10.32 days.
The 1998 USGS survey of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge estimates that
there are between 3-16 billion barrels of oil in the refuge. At current
prices, only 6 billion barrels is worth recovering
(http://www.cnn.com/2001/fyi/news/03/23/alaska.oil/). Therfore, the US
would gain less than one years' supply of oil at the expense of destroying
something that is thousands of years old and irreplaceble.
Human nature is inherently short-sighted due to lack of necessity in our
evolutionary past. The hope, however, is that those elected to office in
the federal government will trascend short-sightedness to act on the
long-term sustainability of the environment and all its species, including
humans.
FWIW, I am a finance manager for a small business. The
calculations are my own. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it
out, just some common sense.
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