Here's a tip I learned with my rental home that could apply to getting auction payments (smaller scale I know). I had renters who were consistently late making their monthly rent. My contract was written stating rent was due on the 1st but late payment penalties would take affect for payments received after the 15th. The check always arrived on the 15th. The next rent increase & update on the contract I left those dates alone but gave a $50 credit if payment was deposited to my account on or before the 1st. I bumped the base rent up enough so that giving the credit was no impact to my bottom line. Plus, since they didn't use checking accounts and I am in a different state, part of their issue had been finding time to get a money order to send payment to me thru the mail. But I still bank local to them so I made arrangements for my bank to accept their payments deposited directly to my account (w/o disclosing my account info). Now they could stop to make payment on their way home from work or shopping. They were never late again! Lessons learned- 1. make it convenient to pay 2. make it more worth while to be on time. I've seen a few sellers on the auction use bonus' for fast pay, others offering credit card payments. I'm sure there are other creative ways to offer rewards for being fast pay. Of course technology problems always get in there with e:mail and such- maybe listing a good ole fashioned phone number and times you accept calls. For hobbyists who don't want to list their personal phone number on the net there are some tools like inexpensive online call forwarding services (example: accessline.com) that can be used to protect your personal number from view.

I don't know anyone who supplies there real info to web based email accounts. Why would anyone do that?? What ever info you enter should be written down and saved somewhere though. If you should ever forget your password or your account gets hijacked they will ask you for you "information". After all they can't just send out passwords for accounts to just anybody who asks for it claiming to be the owner of said account. I learned this the hard way with my Yahoo account. They needed to know my birthday in order to retrieve my password for me and how the heck would I remember what I had put down when I signed up? Good-bye Yahoo email account. Some email services ask for your referrer email account too so take note of that also.

I was curious when I posed the question. Years ago, I got the newspaper. Sunday ads were a "must look at" thing with me. It prompted me to SHOP - which led me to buy more than I anticipated! Other than that, the papers just piled up and made a mess. I finally discontinued the newspaper - (got tired of the mess). Junk mail is out of control! It comes in the house and gets thrown in a "pile" in the den. The only time I read it is if I'm thinking about going grocery shopping...I want to know if chicken breasts are on sale or? I get the big-lots, and some linens and some other misc ads that I may be interested in. Usually by time I read them, they are expired! lol. (A good thing - saves me money!) What I've found...IF I don't read the ads, I SAVE lots of $$$! And by cancelling the newspaper, I save more there too. I KNOW I can "save" using coupons from the paper, but if I don't SEE the coupon, I won't go to store! There is a way to cancel ALL junk mail delivered to house, but I won't do it - as there are two major and two minor grocers that I WANT ads from - to look for any sales on what I want to buy. (This is done sporadically - like, if I suddenly decide I want to cook a roast, "Are there any on sale?". (If not, I won't buy-lol!) I am currently gearing up for a huge shopping excursion on the sale items for Easter! (I like to buy lots while on sale to last for a few months - the good thing about holidays! lol) Other junk mail - like for auto related, I never know what to do with - as it seems everytime I throw them out, someone needs a coupon for oil change or something. There are two types of junk that REALLY irritate me: 1) CRAPPY PIZZA ads... they come in every week but expire three months from receipt. DH loves pizza, but geez...why pay for all the ads? (I think most people have their desired pizza places, and no ad will sway them.) So, if they just would QUIT, they could offer the same pizza at much lower price, and everyone would make out! 2) That MAJOR company that provides cable TV service! (I've been fighting them for three years now for "services not rendered" - so I especially have a very bad distaste for them). Now they "offer" phone and internet - as well as the "whole package deal". And I get NUMEROUS ads from them every single week, not to mention the ads on TV, and even when I call to complain about NON-service of TV, they STILL try to push off their new services! NO WAY! OK, that #2 was too graphic - need another thread for that one! To sum it up...I've actually SAVED a lot of $$$ by NOT reading the ads - even tho they enter my house. OTOH, when I DO decide I want to shop, I can scan the ads at home to see if what I want is on sale to save money.

Hello Everyone, This is a HEADS UP about how we are now able to PM/private message each other WITHOUT needing to “follow” each other first! A few days ago Misty discovered they had changed their messaging system so we are now able to change our settings to enable ANYONE to PM us anytime they want to. Misty copied a screen shot of the settings which are on the “your houzz” page under “edit profile,” and then under the “advanced settings,” the same place you go to change your settings so you don’t wind up under a Landslide of Mail! Misty explained it very well on the “RMG – How do I do it” page, so I’m gonna just link that here. On the Olde RMG I would have just said to go down to the post on such-and-such a date, but with the new “hours ago” system, that’s kind of hard to do!!! Right now it says “last Friday at 4:21PM,” but when that “changes over” to a date, it should say something like, February 20…at…! But it’s easy to find, ‘cause it’s the post with the settings screenshot in it!!! Here’s a link to that thread—and just in case the URL copied here doesn’t work this time, I’m gonna put the link in the “little box” too! http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2836905/rmg-how-do-i-do-it-where-do-i-find-it HOW DOES THE NEW PM SYSTEM WORK? Misty, in the post under the screenshot post explained this, and I’m gonna explain it here too to try to get the message to as many people as possible. When you PM someone thru houzz you’ll get an email that says “you have a message.” Then you’ll need to click on the link in the email and will be taken to houzz and (I think) directly to your inbox, or if not there, go there! THAT’S where you’ll be able to read the message someone has sent you! THIS IS IMPORTANT! The ADDRESS OF THE PERSON PMing YOU WILL NOT be in the message, so when you PM somebody thru houzz you’ll need to be sure to remember to put your email address in the body of the message, or they won’t be able to reply to you! Then you’ll get all mad or hurt ‘cause they didn’t reply to you—so remember to put your address IN your message! With this feature now enabled, WE SHOULDN’T NEED TO HAVE ZACH COLLECTING EMAIL ADDRESSES ANYMORE! So, unless Zach comes and posts differently, you don’t need to send your address to him anymore—unless you want to for some reason! [If you think you might want to email him about something, sometime, the easiest way to do it would be to save his address now!] Zach, thank you again for being willing to help us try to get Our Own Private Message System going here! Glad we don’t need to do it anymore because it’ll be a whole lot easier to do it this way! If anyone is having a problem figuring the new system out, please come here and post! We’ll all do our best to help! Really glad to see folks are gradually straggling in here at the New RMG, Skybird P.S. I have unchecked that “Allow users to follow my profile” box that’s in the screenshot, so, I believe if anyone should try to “follow me,” it wouldn’t work! Just don’t want somebody to think I’m “rejecting” them if they should try to “follow” me! It’s just that I’m an antisocial—um, I don’t think that’s quite the right word—I’m an Unsocial—guess that’s not quite right either! But I think you get the point! I have chosen, big time, to “not participate” in “social” media! I said it this way to someone recently: “I liked it a lot when we (GW/RMG) were our own Peaceful Little Island in the middle of all the multi-tasking hustle and bustle of the Modern World!” And even with the new “social media format” we have now, I hope we’re able to maintain our “peaceful little island” feel here! RMG- How do I do it thread