Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with collection

Collection ended up on credit report--help please!

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:24:39 -0800

Through no fault of my own (in brief: I was unconscious, but may have been unwarrantedly credulous later), a collection agency's action has become visible on my credit reports. How can I remove these? Here's the story: About a year ago, I was transported to a local hospital by ambulance. Fortunately, I pulled through well, and was discharged within hours with no sequelae.

The ambulance company ("Company A") took my particulars en route. I was in no condition to give my address, so they copied it off my driver's license. However, they failed to notice that I had updated the address on that document, and did not read the back of the card, where the update was. (I live in California, where this incident occurred, and there's a space on the back of my driver's license for just this purpose.)

It has been some time since my first California driver's license was issued, and so the forwarding service from my initial address had long since expired. Therefore, I never received any bill that they sent. Furthermore, as I was unconscious until I reached the hospital, I did not note the ambulance company's name and address (or, for that matter, anything else about the journey).

Fast forward to autumn 2009. I receive a letter from a collection service, stating that I have an unpaid bill to Company A, for emergency medical transportation! I had never received a bill for this, and having been incapacitated, wouldn't have known who to pay. I called the collection agency and told them about this, and they said I should send payment to the ambulance company, and gave me a "trip number" to mention. They also said that if I did so, there would be no complaint on my credit report. I sent payment and heard nothing more of it.

Fast forward once again to the present day. I have recently requested my credit reports, and have seen that all three have collection activity posted owing to this episode.

I am nuclear-pissed about this. While I am considering getting ACAB tattooed on my knuckles and telling people it means All Collectors Are Bastards, I'd readily settle for getting all mention of this out of all of my credit files.

I know I've done some stupid things here (admitting the debt, dealing with the collection agency via non-written means, not following up, maybe even more things), but can I fix this going forward, and if so, how?

How do I collect a divorce judgment?

littlegreenboat — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:46:30 -0800

I would love any input you might have, even though you are not my lawyer. Four years ago my husband moved out and left me with his unpaid medical bills. Since the debt was incurred while we were married and living together, we were legally considered co-debtors. He told me had worked out a payment plan and I didn't find out otherwise until we were separated and subsequently sued. I was able to settle this debt, but my savings was wiped out (while we were married we had a his, hers, and ours system of money management). As part of the divorce settlement I was granted a judgment totaling $5000 + 10% annual simple interest. He signed off on this and didn't contest the amount. Fast forward to today and he hasn't made any attempts to pay off the judgment. But then again, I haven't made any attempts to collect. I've decided to give it a shot, not just for the money itself, but also because I believe that there is a larger issue of fairness at stake. The problem is, I have no idea how to go about collecting this debt.

For the most part my ex tends to go all ostrichy when unpleasant things arise - he's an amiable and likeable fellow, but avoidant as hell (see above). Maybe he's changed, maybe not. Because the ex that I knew is most likely to ignore a demand letter from me, I would rather not send one without credible and actionable recourse if he does not respond. In short, I won't bluff.

A few facts: I live in Oregon (where the divorce occurred) and ex now lives in Maryland. I am fairly certain he has no real property. I don't know if ex is remarried or not. I am about 85% certain that I have his present address. I have the name of one of his employers, but I doubt that it's current. I think it's safe to assume that he has a job. I have the all the vital stats a (former) spouse would have - previous addresses, SSN, DOB etc.

I've looked into enforcing this judgment myself but the different-sides-of-the-country issue makes it complicated. As one can imagine, trying to do things like proper service/notice, wage garnishments, or transfer of foreign (out of state) judgment from 3000 miles away without representation is damn tricky. I've talked to a few attorneys and their rates tend to be higher than what I can afford to lose if I come up empty handed. I haven't found an lawyer that will take this case on contingency and the few collection agencies I've looked at only buy debts from business, but my search for either certainly hasn't been exhaustive.

And advice would be greatly appreciated!

Differences in libraries

bad grammar — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:09:13 -0800

Librarians on Metafilter: Do you still find significant regional differences in U.S. school and public library collections? I'm not speaking of obvious differences (e.g., local history and area guides, collections in languages other than English), but demographic, social, and political influences on collection building between, say, urban and rural regions, or the Northeast U.S. vs. the South or West.

I'd expect that the Internet would have a homogenizing effect on library collections. The education of librarians might also have a homogenizing effect.

However, it is traditional that public library collections, dependent on state and local funding, reflect community standards. There are many areas of the U.S. that are less connected, more conservative and more religious.

This also impacts the job search -- can blue-state librarians seek jobs in red states / localities, and vice versa?

At the risk of chatfilter, I'm interested in your actual experiences, not just academic studies. I haven't visited enough public libraries in different states. I live in a blue area of a blue state; the public libraries buy a range of political viewpoints, but political books by people like Hannity, Beck, and Coulter tend to remain on the shelves. I'm aware that it might be different elsewhere.

Where can I find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009?

vogel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:37:12 -0800

Can you help me find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009, please? Preferably 1024x768 size but anything very gratefully accepted. The very splendid UK official mapmakers, the Ordnance Survey, give away desktop wallpaper each month. There's a nice photo of somewhere in the UK with a calendar for the month. I have an almost-comprehensive collection, but like a fool I missed May and, whereas they used to be archived on the site, they've now pulled the archive so if you miss a month you've had it. Copyright problems, I guess.

I found somewhere on the web where people were discussing this and claimed to have archives so I mailed them very politely asking for help. Silence. I'm stuck.

Yes, it is rather OCD-ish of me, but what the h*ll. I like having them, is all. Any bright ideas please? I am pretty sure OS themselves will not be able to help, but I am dropping them a line just in case. But really I think my best hope is someone else who's been as obsessive as me - but more efficient! :)

Selling a large CD collection the right way

kuperman — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:25:26 -0800

I want to sell my large CD collection. But what's the best way to do it without getting horribly screwed? So I've got ... around 1000 CD's I want to sell. They've been sitting in boxes for a few years, and they're just taking up space. Time for them to go. Years ago, I started buying the things I wanted to keep around on vinyl, and I'll keep the few rare/sentimental things, and that will be that.

But the problem I'm running up on is the best way to do it. I know full well going in that there is no chance in hell of getting near what I put in back. Unfortunately, the days of going to a used CD store and lugging in box after box so some college kid could pay you between 2 and 4 bucks per disc are over (that college kid used to be me, 10 years ago, when I worked in a used record store). Those places around here are all closed, or they only pay in store credit. Pawn shops are right out. Keeping them, in binder form or anywhere else, is right out.

I'd like to maximize return with medium effort put in. So what's the best way to do this? Catalog them all, put them on eBay as a lot or individually? Craigslist? Alternatively, would you know of a place in Houston/Dallas/Austin that purchases lots and won't insult you with a price (25 cents per CD is right out - I would have to pay for the drive over).

Hints? Experiences? Ideas? Suggestions?

Photographer's agent cornered in bankruptcy filing!

tangyraspberry — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:17:39 -0800

I am an agent representing a group of professional photographers and, among other things, am responsible for billing on their behalf as well as collecting and dispersing the moneys upon receipt. I just received a notice regarding a job that took place 3+ years ago informing me that, because the client filed for bankruptcy shortly after I was paid, I have been judged as having been given preferred treatment and therefore I owe the trustee handling the bankruptcy the full amount paid, nearly $10,000.00! To make matters worse the invoice in question was nothing but the photographer's expenses. In other words, the minute I received the payment I simply turned it around and paid it all to the photographer who has long since gone his own way and isn't responding to my calls or e-mails. What, if any, are my options at this point?

Font Book collection importing.

starman — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:12:09 -0800

Need help importing collections into Font Book. I set up half a dozen "collections" in Font Book 2 on Mac #1 for handy organization. My goal is to recreate these collections I've organized on Mac #1 to Mac #2.

Font Book lets you export collections, which I did to an external HD, but when I drag the collections into Font Book on Mac #2, it will only copy over fonts I don't have (and add them to the collection -- anything I already have is ignored and not added).

Any ideas?

Wherein Whelk Wants Wonderful Words

The Whelk — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:06:07 -0800

Name My Blog! After years of creating things and then casually tossing them aside, I've decided to create a blog to put them all in. Cartoons, short fiction, audio clips, short video, etc. A bit like Lore's Bad Gods. The only problem is, I've got no idea what to call it. I'm torn between something direct like "John Did That" or something that just sounds cool, "Automatic Inspiration" was a leading contender for a while. Want to avoid anything suggesting random, junk, or trash (Even though that's what it is, the whole theme is overused). Shower me with your minds, Mefites!

MeFi recycles it beautifully!

HopStopDon'tShop — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:32:39 -0800

Tell me about the best and worst elements of recycling in your town so you can help me set up my recycling (collection) business. In a few months I'm going to be launching a service to collect people's recycling, both from residences and offices. We will be collecting paper, glass, plastics, metals, e-waste and other household waste, except for hazardous materials and compost (for now).

You recycle, someone collects stuff from your house or your business, what do you like the most about the service, and what do you like the least or hate? What seems like a waste of time? What could they do that would make the whole experience better for you?

I'd love to hear anything you have to say but mostly I'm looking for any small details that you find really add value or detract from it from your point of view. (I have the broad strokes of the various systems in place but I'm looking for gems here, stuff that falls between the cracks and usually doesn't get noticed.)

(Please assume for the purposes of this question that I don't need advice on getting permits or how to set up the business or whether recycling is better or worse for the environment etc.)

Let's get philatelical

miss lynnster — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:22:31 -0800

About ten years ago I picked up an amazing collection of 114 (mint condition, plastic-sleeved) vintage first day issue stamps/envelopes at a thrift store. Been simplifying my belongings and I'm thinking it's time to sell them. Hey you stamp collectors... what are your recommendations? The person who put this collection together was METICULOUS. I mean, just absolutely anal retentive about their collection. This is why I bought it... even though I'm not a stamp collector I was impressed to my core by their effort and how much passion they clearly had for their hobby.

All of the envelopes are neatly typed to the same person in Colorado, all placed with love into slotted cardboard and sleeved in plastic. Each envelope is the customized first day of issue envelope, with the official stamp and first day of issue postmark. Most of the envelopes are United Nations, American history, government, or arts themed, dated from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s. Here are a few examples of the envelopes and stamps, although my envelopes have a typed address. Many of the them seem to be pretty obscure, I couldn't find their topics online.

Any tips? How should I go about making sure these go to a good home and get a decent price? I know a dealer would offer me less and I should probably get them appraised by a professional, yes? Or should I just hold onto them until the economy gets better? Thoughts please!

What's the best software for cataloging an art collection?

titans13 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:47:05 -0800

What is a good software program for cataloging an art collection? I am helping somebody pick a piece of software to manage their extensive art collection at their home. I have heard of Past Perfect 4, but I know this may be overkill since this is something mainly used by museums. I am looking for something that will be simple to back up (either an automatic backup feature built in or a simple database file that I can manually set up a scheduled backup for). Thanks!

To what collection agency did Blockbuster send my account?

mikeo2 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:58:54 -0800

Apparently, I owe a blockbuster debt of $38 to a collection agency. I feel I've been screwed but that is irrelevant. I just want to pay the debt and never do business there again. The problem: The agency called last month when I was traveling, I didn't want to deal with it then, and now I've lost their number. How can I find out what collection agency they sent me account to and pay this debt off? Note: I have asked at the store and the employee told me, "the collection agency will call you back"...

Do debt collectors take payment through eBay?

ambulatorybird — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:20:04 -0800

I got an automated call from a debt collection agency which told me to pay through eBay. Is this a scam? I've recently gotten a couple of automated calls from a debt collection agency (IC System). They gave me a reference number and told me to either call them back, or pay them through eBay. This last bit seems fishy to me; why would they use eBay to collect on a debt? AFAIK, I owe no money to/through eBay.

Incidentally, I do owe some money in unpaid parking tickets, so I think this might be legit. But the eBay thing has thrown me off. Plus, I tried to look up my reference number on IC System's own website, and it didn't turn up anything.

So what gives? And is it too late for me to settle my parking tickets directly with city hall?

1099 for outstanding debt?

Anonymous — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:28:04 -0800

1099 for outstanding debt ?? My company owes a vendor a few thousand dollars - since they have very little money and because they dispute the exact amount of the debt, they are stretching the issue out as long as possible and avoiding the debt collector's calls etc. Now the debt-collection company has left a message demanding a IRS form 1099 be submitted (to the IRS) to record the 'unearned income'. My understanding is that a 1099 is created/required to record payments to sub-contractors (so it's from the *payer* to the IRS about the *payee*). In this situation I can't quite work out what this request might be about ... by not paying a debt, I kinda see that the debtor has 'gained' that money. But what it is the use of that form in this instance ? I'm thinking it's some kinda of trick/device by the collection agent to sound scary or to get the company to formally record the amount of the debt (remember the exact amount is disputed). I can't really see how it helps them collect the money?

Any help please?

How to get started with Pokemon TCG?

felix — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:56:21 -0800

If someone wanted to start out playing the Pokemon trading card game with their 7 year old kid, what is the minimal optimal current per-person set of purchases required to be able to have an interesting and enjoyable time?

UK packaging and delivery service

hardcode — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 07:31:41 -0800

Does anyone know of a service in the UK that will collect a single item, package it and send it on to me? So, I've bought an item on Ebay that needs collecting, 200+ miles from here. Unfortunately they want it collected 9-5 Monday to Friday, and I work those hours/days.

It's also unpackaged. Does anyone know of a service that will collect, pack and ship a bulky, fragile, possibly quite heavy item within the UK? If it was packaged it'd be simple, call Fedex/DHL and get it picked up, but it's the packaging that's got me stumped.

If it makes a difference the item is a print washer for my darkroom, it's in Northampton and I'm in York. Speed isn't a factor, if it takes a week or more I don't care.

How can I deal with my overly large collection of unplayed video games?

fearthehat — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:30:03 -0800

How can I deal with my overly large collection of unplayed video games? I have somehow found myself in a situation where I own over 60 games, for a variety of platforms, that I have played either not at all or for only a couple of hours.

The thing is, I don't consider myself a collector at all; I don't get any real enjoyment out of just owning the games. Most of them were originally bought because I read that they had good stories (a lot of these games are lengthy console RPGs, which makes the situation even worse), and because they were either at a cheaper than usual price. There are also quite a few games I have bought because they only rarely show up for sale these days.

I had full intentions of playing most of the games at the time I bought them, but because I tend to complete games very slowly they have gradually piled up. This has eventually resulted in my current situation, which I am quite unhappy about.

I'm now trying to rein back my spending, but I still have the backlog to deal with.

I was thinking of selling off a lot of them. There are a few problems with this however: it would be a lot of time and effort, and I tend to have fears (irrational, I know, but still there) that any game I sell will suddenly increase in value in the future. I also have a constant niggling worry that any game I sell would have turned out to be a great experience that I would have really enjoyed.

I suppose I could also make a massive push to play through them all, but when I think how long this would take (as mentioned, there are a lot of long RPGs amongst the games) I just feel defeated. Individually I would like to play all of these games, but as a mass it is just too daunting. I think I would probably end up using a lot of game guides and rushing through a lot of them, which I fear would make something I do for enjoyment feel too much like work.

I'm curious if anyone has ever been in a situation like this (although I admit it is somewhat unusual), or just has any advice on how I should proceed. I really would like to get on top of this...

I know I recorded it somewhere

b33j — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:23:46 -0800

How do I maintain a successful personal diverse information tracking system? How do you find what you know you kept? I want my information in one place, where I can search it. (This is not about GTD or keeping track of my responsibilities and tasks). I have a bunch of RSS feeds where I clip occasional articles. I have a bazillion internet favourites/bookmarks. I make notes out of library books. I have lecture notes from the last three years.

The topics might include gardening in my region, career information, design tutorials, philosophy, books I want to read, people's birthday gift ideas, music lists with the right beat for exercise, ideas for clothing when I'm working full-time again, including style and colours, budgeting and frugality, project ideas that are not ready for a to do list. And more.

I reckon, at the moment, with the different systems I have now, I can find about 10% of anything I've captured, and I can't easily search it. How do I know, for example, if that great tutorial I remember seeing was in a metafilter thread, or on an RSS feed, or in a library book?

It's like this but more varied. The way I ended up solving this was having a directory folder for Design Ideas, and sub-directories including typography, illustration, etc. This means that every image I capture has to be electronic, which I can mostly do with a scan or a camera, if I didn't find it on the net, but it's not going to work for books etc, and it's not particularly searchable.

If you've tried and failed, please tell me. Maybe I can let this idea go.

Classics of literature of the month club, cancel and Moby Dick is yours to keep? Where to find?

bartleby — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:42:11 -0800

Some publisher used to do a set of volumes of great works, supposedly quality bindings, via a "We'll send you another volume each month, and if you cancel, the edition of Moby Dick is yours to keep" model. Who was that? It was some kind of vague collection or literary works, but not the "five foot shelf of books" or the Brittanica Great Books collection.

I remember advertisements in the back of magazines, and perhaps a TV ad where there was fawning over gilt edges and marbled endpapers.

Does this still exist? Or if not, who was the publisher/company/service can hunt down some of the books, used?

Flash for the win?

SirStan — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:17:08 -0800

Meeting question, take II. Full screen sentance display in a presentation room. I posted a question a few days ago regarding a meeting that our non-profit is running, but I ran off before I could interact with responses.

The basic premise here is I will have (n+1) laptops, where the +1 is dedicated to displaying data, and the n laptops will interface somehow to the +1.

What I am trying to achieve is this: A laptop somehow will display things on the screen in say a 20pt font. It will keep three things on the screen, the newest replacing the oldest.

The n laptops (which will be 1-3) will wirelessly network to the projector laptop, and feed it data.

In my mind I am thinking something like the Apple OSX RSS screensaver, but even stupider (no flying effects). A flash based RSS reader that runs full screen would be perfect. I would write a small webbased front end for the field PC's with XAMPP or something, and make a custom RSS feed.

Basically, I can totally manage the data collection -- but I dont have a working knowledge of anything to make the front end work. Even a simple AJAXY webpage setup might work; but I dont know what to search for to find such a system that would achieve what I am looking for.

Thoughts? I can make everything except the "show three sentances on the screen from a database/xml/rss/etc file"...

Table to projector data gathering system?

SirStan — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:26:21 -0800

Large group conference, need to display transcribed thoughts on a wall for everyone to see. Are there any solutions (inside or outside the box) that would essentially allow me to make a scrolling list of "ideas" collected from people walking around groups in a meeting room of 100 people?

Ideally it would be a laptop/projector reading from a central database of some sort, and people would enter things into the database and the application would display the updated items.

We would really like ~3 laptops roaming out... but a brief search turns me up without much except perhaps instant messaging, or VNC and MIcrosoft word.

No internet access will be available.

Whither online media organizing?

droplet — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:05:28 -0800

Are there any sites out there like the late, sort-of-great Guzzlefish? I adored Guzzlefish. Every time I got a new DVD, mp3 or CD, I popped the info in and along with a comprehensive list of my media collection, I'd get all these great statistics about what I had (apparently, I love anything ever on film, vinyl or electrons by Michael Palin). And then one day - ZOOP!- Guzzlefish was gone. I'd like to find something similar if it's out there, and googling has been of no help. DVD Aficionado is meh. Could the hive mind direct me to something better? Thanks.

Who would want a veterinary symptom video

amtho — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:15:34 -0800

Donating a veterinary disease symptom video - would any library / video collection want this? Is any university veterinary school collecting things like this? I do not want to spend a lot of time on this; I couldn't bear it right now. But I want to resolve this as soon as I can.

I've got a couple of video clips of a cat in either respiratory or vomiting distress; probably respiratory. I think it might be useful to vets or vet students or animal owners in diagnosing a pretty dangerous and awful condition. I didn't realize exactly how serious the condition was when I saw it, although I did realize it was pretty bad and made the video to send to my vet.

Now the thought that I might have seen this behavior earlier and not reacted bothers me a lot.

Anyway, I'd like to contribute this video in some way to the public body of knowledge. I have found some vet schools by Googling, but does anyone know for certain of some repository or library that would collect this kind of thing?

Please don't ask for more information about the cat.

A Series of Tubes

Tube — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:01:47 -0800

What is this mysterious structure? Tonight I was walking through Seward Park here in Seattle with my video camera, looking for the recently reported coyote. I didn't see any coyotes, but I did find this strange structure (Flickr video). I found three of these, just off the walking trail, all positioned under very large trees. A large funnel on top connects to a series of PVC tubes underneath. This is supported by metal stakes driven into the ground. I assume they are used to collect rainwater, perhaps for some sort of environmental quality testing. But is there some significance to their location under large trees? There were no containers found under these structures.

How do I price tag on my booty?

lou — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:45:08 -0800

Who sets how much old and collectible video games are worth? How do they know? (examples with Monkey Island inside) I wonder if the answer is somewhere along the lines of "they charge whatever people are willing to pay for it" but sellers don't act in a vacuum. There's got to be some feedback for whether a game is worth $50, or $100, or they wouldn't know what to put on the price tag.

I'm wondering, because I noticed that my Monkey Island games are worth a whole lot more than what I paid for them-- on Amazon, anyway. f you look at the listings for Monkey Island Madness even the *CD itself* is "worth" just over $50. But is this just a case of sellers trying to gouge unsuspecting buyers, or a case of three clueless sellers following the lead of one unscrupulous one, or are people actually paying that much?? If I look on eBay, there's only one completed listing for this game and it didn't sell (granted they tried to sell it for $60)-- but the lack of postings don't look like there's really a huge market for them.

Similarly: why is the original Curse of Monkey Island just under $30 while the re-release is nearly $100? I thought originals were worth more than re-release copies? (I have the original one.) Again, are people actually paying $100 for this?

...and Monkey Island 2 for $85? I also have this! And the price, like all the rest, looks too good to be true!

Which all brings me to the generic question, for future reference: Is there a kind of "blue book" or price guide somewhere for old computer games/video games? Realistically, what is the best way to put a price tag on what my old games are really worth?