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[Maddie]

Once again, you put up a good front, but make no sense.  A person's ability to declare a taxable deduction has nothing to do with the whether or not they can write off the interest paid on their mortgage.  There is no link between the two -whatsoever.

Kind of sucks for people like me, but then, I do my charitable giving -- at least to the extent that I can afford to do that -- without looking for something like that back in return.

I might be more inclined to believe you if I didn't look at your ebay history but I have http://myworld.ebay.com/rollermantoo/.  You're not just an occasional seller on ebay - you're obviously someone who spends a considerable amount of time selling items there.  Have you managed to sell your free t-mobile hotspot subscriptions yet because you also left those out of the equation.

Worksalot donated 2 computers to OLPC, which is a lot.  What he did with 'his' XOs is irrelevant.  People wanted to know why people sell them, now we know, at least in this case.

Come January 1, ebay will be the only way to get one.  Also, he managed to get the XOs to Europe, which is more than OLPC can say.

[PixelFish]

I have very little issue with people selling their extra XOs on eBay for a little extra money. I know there are people in Europe who would loooove to get their paws on this, but they don't really know a good way to handle the shipping issue. eBay has built-in ways of handling sales that go awry, so it's a better deal for them to go that route, than trusting a stranger over the internet or some sketchy clearing house that would reship.

If Worksalot had really wanted to gouge people, he could have waited until AFTER the sale had ended. He didn't. And if he wanted to cover a little of his costs, that doesn't seem too iffy to me.

BTW, the line about the taxes: Seriously. That's not money he GETS back. It's money he doesn't have to pay taxes on at the end of the year. And it's money he STILL DOESN'T HAVE. Maybe he saved about 100 bucks in taxes, if you figure a 25% tax rate on the cost of two machines.  He'd still be out of pocket about 100 bucks.

Plus, I think that it's a good idea to get the machines to enthusiasts in Europe, so that people there can judge how they work with their language requirements and provide feedback to OLPC. (I know a lot of third world countries use French and Spanish, so developing activities with those languages in mind would be useful.)

[worksalot2]

Thanks to Maddie and PixelFish for coming to my defense here.

In the interest of clarifying an issue that was raised earlier in this regard by "angryfatcat", I would like to reiterate that I will receive no tax savings whatsoever from my "G1G1" program participation. 

Since I get no benefit from itemizing my deductions (because my deductible items altogether total less than the standard allowable deduction and it would, therefore, be against my interests to do so) I cannot claim the charitable deduction for my "G1G1" donations on my tax return.  To do so, I must itemize my deductions, and -- as aforementioned -- that is not an option for me.  So -- contrary to what "angryfatcat" tried to imply earlier --  I will get no tax benefit whatsoever for my contributions.  None, zippo, nada.

PS. It is probably worth mentioning again, here, that I made no money on my eBay sale.  Rather, I only offset some of my costs for my second "G1G1" laptop transaction.  The idea behind this strategy was to get another laptop donated to a needy child, even though I could not personally afford the entire $423+ amount to do so myself.  (For more details, please see my earlier posts.)

Happy Holidays!

 

[PixelFish]

BTW, I'm giving my second XO to my niece. This will put me in  line for the Bestest Aunt EVAR award, so my motives are really not very philanthropic either.

[mstecker]

Well, it's going to be a sad Christmas here.  I ordered on Nov 15 early in the morning, then noticed 30 seconds later that the delivery address that PayPal had defaulted to was incorrect.  I spent 3 hours on the 15th on hold getting someone to fix the address.  I finally spoke to someone, and they confirmed that the address change was made.

I called to get my tracking status today and was told that - due to the address change - that I was now bumped back to the "second shipping file" and that no procedure, process, or intervention can get me my laptop in time for Christmas. 

Does anyone know any numbers at the foundation that might be worth calling to escalate a complaint?  Any avenues worth pursuing? 

You gripe about them because you had the wrong address on your account?  Take some personal responsibility for the situation, if you can't be bothered to give them the proper information...

Yes, but in my defense, I called and waited three hours on the phone on Nov 15 to make sure that the order information was straightened out on that day.  As such, I feel like I should still be treated like someone who had a Nov 15 order date.  Why would I think otherwise?

This thing is clearly not a very well-oiled machine.

[baash05]

Bravo. worksalot2
I find it funny to mention the tax deduction as a reason for donation. I do have a house and I'll be claming my donation. But it's peanuts and even if you could have used it you'd still have donated more than I did.  Again Bravo.

I was even thinking of starting a little ebay store selling the things but then I too workalot and I'm not inclined to do so. 

If I say sold 100 laptops on ebay after getting them from g1g1 at a price of 400$ each I'd be no further ahead then when I started but there'd be 200 more laptops out in the world. That's 100 in the hands of little kids in the third world and 100 in the first world selling the hole OLPC program. (I've been asked by about 10 people how to do the G1G1 while I sat in Timmies and all I can do is point them to Ebay... how ironic) 

If the people who have a problem with you would focus their attention on the short commings in the G1G1.  You are far more ambitious (in a good way) than I and people should aplaud you for extending G1g1 across the ocean.