You might remember that a couple weeks ago I auctioned off some original artwork on eBay with the intention of giving all the money to the Red Cross. eBay had a system in place to make it easy for sellers like myself to do exactly that and so I took advantage of it. This required me to create and account using their missionfish program. According to what I read this was a system that guaranteed the money went to the charity listed. I assumed that meant that when the winner paid for the auction he paid through missionfish and I never even saw the money.
That is not how missionfish works.
The winner pays the seller and then the seller pays mission fish. Now if the auction ends and the seller does not pay missionfish by the second Monday after the auction ends, they just take the money out of the seller's credit card. This is a pretty stupid system but it is further complicated when the winning bidder refuses to pay.
The person who won the original art mailed me and informed me that he can’t buy it. He gave me a reasonable story about why but at this point it doesn’t really matter. I’ve contacted the next person in line but there is no guarantee they will still want it or still have the money to buy it. Meanwhile I’ve got a limited amount of time before missionfish comes after me for the money and attempts to draw it directly out of my ass.
If you work at eBay or missionfish and you can help me sort this crap out I’d really appreciate a mail from you. gabriel@penny-arcade.com
-Gabe out
