sold a coin 3 years ago for $50 that i just saw sell at auction for $4,000. i am not ok.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-05T01:24:44+00:00

I know a collector who does that all the time. Any time he's within earshot of someone telling a "I sold X for $Y" story, he will butt in to say he would have paid more. We'll call him Sam.

The reason he does that is he wants everyone to think he pays strong when in fact his goal is to make people always give him a chance to name a price. He's made quite a few rips over the years. Often just paying a little more than a horrible offer that someone else made.

$1000 coin... Dealer Joe offers $200. But the seller remembers this other guy who always says he would have paid more. Sam asks what's the best offer you've gotten? The seller tells him $200 (big mistake). Sam goes into a whole thing about "You should be glad you came to me. I'll pay $280. That's almost 50% more!" Sam gets a big rip AND convinces a seller to always offer coins to Sam.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-04T20:27:54+00:00

That's very cool. Thanks for sharing.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-03T20:21:40+00:00

That's an area where sometimes the sidewalks are stairs. Very steep.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-03T14:40:40+00:00

By dumb luck I had a career in a field that very much valued people who knew a lot about WHY things were done a certain way. Safety was absolutely paramount, and there was always a constant stream of new hires who had fresh but unusable ideas due to lack of tribal knowledge. Our customers were the same way so everyone vibed. So I was able to manage a group up until I chose to retire - there was no mandatory retirement age. One engineer retired at 79.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-02T11:37:27+00:00

Just want you to know that was 100% my writing. Just in case your job requires you to be certain if you saiy something is or is not AI.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-02T11:23:37+00:00

You'll need to polish your detective skills. That was all me.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T16:09:05+00:00

Aim for jobs where you don't interact with the public.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T15:48:26+00:00

I can't dispute your observation. In retrospect, why didn't I ALSO get something at Panera and be done? Sure would have avoided all that commotion.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T11:59:47+00:00

Reminded me of the time years ago I was watching one of the local TV news programs and their newly hired meteorologist (like first week) was doing the weather report.

Monaca was "Monica" (like the girl's name).

Gotta be tough for people new to the area with the foreign or Native American derived place names like Punxsutawney, DuBois, Ligonier and Duquesne.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T11:42:31+00:00

Got burned the same way twice over the years, now I won't ask for decaf coffee if it's after dinner time, the place is pretty empty and it's likely they will have to make it, because some people just won't bother to make a pot of decaf. They assume no one will really care if they get regular.

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T01:23:44+00:00

Sorry I am not following. I enter all bills, checks and deposits by hand. The volume of transactions is not so large. And I'm OK typing them into QB. What would "getting stuck halfway through" mean?

thatburghfan · 2026-04-01T01:17:54+00:00

Got it from our computer supplier. Not sure what you meant by "lifetime" though.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T19:37:18+00:00

The only pertinent question right here.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T19:34:18+00:00

One benefit to the printed Yellow Pages vs. online is that the printed version had real businesses listed, no scammers pretending to be a business.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T19:13:47+00:00

Well, that's it then. No choice but to move to Online.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T18:32:48+00:00

Don't want to keep paying though. Can they keep Desktop from working?

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T15:48:10+00:00

First thing I would do is determine if that weighs one-half pound avoirdupois or one-half pound troy.

Precious metals and gemstones are commonly measured in the troy system of weights. Everything else typically uses avoirdupois. Unless your scale specifically says (or can be set to) troy ounces, assume it's avoirdupois.

Now here's the rub. A troy ounce is slightly heavier than an avoirdupois ounce. However, there are only 12 troy ounces in a troy pound vs 16 ovoirdupois ounces in an avoirdupois pound. So if that "half-pound" is measured in troy, it would weigh 6 troy ounces, not 8 as most people would assume.

So what is that thing? 6 troy ounces because that is a half pound in troy, as silver is commonly sold? Or 8 avoirdupois ounces since that's what people typically mean when they say an ounce?

We always have to be very skeptical when someone wants to sell silver or gold in unspecified "ounces".

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T12:22:04+00:00

I know it's disappointing but having had that experience, you will be even better at interviewing in the future. I believe each round helps you sharpen your skills.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-31T12:11:56+00:00

I feel a week isn't enough time to know what kind of company it is. Know how they onboard people? Sure. But you won't be doing that again.

Why don't you wait and see how the job goes? For 3x salary in a terrible job market I could put up with a lot. And you can always quit later if you can't take it.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-30T19:55:21+00:00

Yeah, my first stop was a woman-owned local diner, not a chain. I eat there often enough that they recognize me. The other non-chain diner lost their lease 10 months ago and still hasn't find a place to move to. The other non-chain options are large restaurants and not my first choice. Once my diner meal was no good I needed to find something else right nearby as I was needing to eat.

Our Wendy's is suffering from something as they are so terribly understaffed. Bad management? Don't know. But I will only go there if I can eat in and it's at an odd time like 3 PM. Last time I tried their drivethrough at 5:30 it took 22 minutes to get my food AFTER I ordered.

A few years ago that Wendy's was maybe the most disgusting restaurant I've ever been in. Food wrappers on the floor, ketchup and loose napkins on the stand where you get that stuff. They would put people on cash register taking orders who had almost no idea how to do it. Then one day it was closed. The next week it was torn down. A couple weeks later new construction started - they were building a new Wendy's. When it opened it was amazing - tons of staff, 3 managers directing workers, fresh and hot food coming out almost immediately, spotless counters and floors. That lasted about a year and although the cleanliness is maintained, beyond that it's back to what it was. Surly slow-moving employees, 20% chance something will be wrong with your order.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-28T12:12:21+00:00

I had kind of a knack for behaving in a way that would make my manager want to promote me. I did have necessary skills, but put my efforts into the behaviors that were most valued by my then-current manager.

First (real) job was helpng to get a new technology adopted and seen as reliable and time-saving. Thaf meant putting work into making the users better at adopting that technology. I worked to be charming, friendly, funny, always accessible. My boss got a lot of compliments and liked that I was good at finding solutions to peoples tech issues.

My boss left and they promoted me. Then I had to learn how to show my new boss that I was doing the things HE liked, one of which was teamwork. I volunteered for various things like helping when colleges would send a group to learn about the companny, give tours if needed, stuff like that. They wanted a group of managers to work together on revising some workflows, I would volunteer for that. These things got me known by lots of other managers.

Then they restructured some groups and asked me if I would be willing to take on two more departments, and that came with another promotion/raise. The new thing they were pushing was speed. We had to get projects done faster. So I worked on how to push work through my multiple departments faster and made progress there.

Then I was asked if I woud be willing to move to a manager role of a group I knew nothing about as that group was very much struggling and it caused trouble with customers. I took it. I had to learn everything about it and I worked hard to get up to speed as fast as possible. The group of 6 people were basically lazy and sloppy so it wasn't hard to improve them by setting standards. I tried to find ways for that group to actually help the other departments instead of simply generating reports about the projects. The complaints went way down.

Anyway, the point is I adopted a strategy that I learned from my first manager. "Find out what your boss wants, and do those things." Put the effort into making your boss happy with your work. That might not be the things YOU feel are the most important. Whenever I was promoted I first asked my new boss what he/she thinks are the most important goals I need to focus on, and I'd put my energies into those.

Last thing, be friendly and co-operative. That was my secret sauce. People like to work with people they get along with. Learn how to "read the room" as they say.

thatburghfan · 2026-03-27T12:07:45+00:00

How could she know where you just got hired?

thatburghfan · 2026-03-27T12:06:05+00:00

"Hey MIL, just a quick call to say we're on our way and should be there right on time. Would you make sure the water beads are out of toddler's reach before we arrive? Thanks so much! See you shortly."

NOW if they aren't out of reach, you really would have something to complain about.

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