Living in a Radically Transparent world is, it seems, not without risk. Apparently a Seattle man was recently sued for $10,000 because he left a “Neutral” rating for an eBay seller from North Carolina.

Sued! For $10k for using a system that eBay implemented to encourage feedback!!!

Shellhorn bought some Morgan silver dollars from a man in North Carolina. The price was fair, but Shellhorn says the coins were packed poorly. “The coins were hanging out of the envelope, loose, with no packing whatsoever around them,” he said.

The seller wanted feedback. Shellhorn couldn’t honestly say the deal was good or bad so he took the middle ground. “This is neutral feedback, not even negative feedback, but neutral. He sued me for $10,000,” he said.

The judge in Buncome County, NC did dismiss the law suit, but it still raises a serious question about the future of consumer feedback, if the consumer is fearful of leaving any feedback at all.

It’s amazing that someone would sue an individual for one “neutral” rating, but that goes to show just how important ratings are on eBay. It’s also scary that an attorney was willing to take on the case. What if the judge hadn’t shown any common sense? What if the court had ruled in favor of the plaintiff?

It may not have happened this time, but you can bet that this case will inspire someone to think they can remove legitimate negative (neutral?) customer feedback by taking them to court. And it will be a scary time for all, should a naive judge rule in favor of the company.

By Brian Kamsoke Contributing Writer for the Daily Star

The first U.S. coin was struck in 1792 when President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others met in Philadelphia. The coin was a silver half-disme (a disme is the original spelling of dime, so a half-disme was equal to 5 cents). President Washington melted his own silverware to supply this first batch of U.S. coins.

Coin collecting first became popular around 1825, though it was considered a hobby of kings.

By 1875, coin collecting began to enter the mainstream, and today there are an estimated more than 5 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds who collect coins.

Indeed, coin collecting today has enjoyed renewed interest, especially with rising commodity and precious metal markets. Gold recently topped out at nearly $1,000 per troy ounce and silver touched $16 per ounce.

As well, commemorative coins and various promotional coin programs (such as the state quarter program, which ends this year) have maintained and inspired coin collecting through generations.

Nine-year-old Bryce McCarthy of Norwich was introduced to coin collecting by his grandfather.

Full Daily Star Article

By Gerald McKinstry for The Journal News 

For Jeff Haber and son Danny framing pennies makes sense.

For decades, the elder Haber stashed the often-overlooked or unwanted copper coins. More recently, he decided to put them to good use. “I had a ton of pennies,” Jeff Haber said. “I have 30 years of collected pennies.”

Inspiration came in the form of a portrait of Abraham Lincoln made entirely of pennies that he saw at the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum in Florida about eight years ago. He and his son decided they were up for the challenge.

“What we saw in Florida was absolutely incredible,” Danny Haber said.

The first portrait they completed is hanging in their home. A second was purchased by the Ripley’s museum for $500. Now, the two have completed a third portrait, which they are donating to New Rochelle High School.

This one used 2,400 coins, or $24. The Habers said they spent nearly two months positioning and gluing the coins.

Read the full Journal Article 

By David McEwen for NZCity

Conditions still favour gold. Gold prices rose over recent weeks as record oil prices and continued weakness in the dollar encouraged investors to buy into bullion. With crude prices touching an all time record, gold’s role as a hedge against rising inflation has seen the precious metal move higher.

Prices are also taking support from the US dollar’s ongoing slump, with investors using gold as an alternative to the most common form of currency reserves.

US commentator, Adrian Ash says you can link the historic surge in gold prices starting mid-August 2007 to many apparently disparate things. Pick the right link, and you might be able to tell whether it’s worth you buying or holding gold today.

One such link, he says, is the price of money, as decided by the US Federal Reserve. “Gold’s stellar 58% gain in the seven months starting 18th August began with the Fed’s first change to US interest rates in 18 months. Last August’s 0.25% cut to the Fed’s “discount rate” – the interest rate it charges commercial banks to borrow short-term funds – was the Fed’s first interest-rate cut since July 2003. By the end of March 2008, it became a 3% cut to the bank’s key Fed Funds target.”

And gold’s initial jump turned into a pole vault. The real cost of borrowing US dollars – or rather, the real returns paid to anyone saving money today – clearly impacts the demand for investment gold. You can measure this real rate of interest quite simply, says Ash. “Just subtract the rate of Consumer Price inflation (CPI) from the Fed Funds interest rate, then compare this changing value to the price of gold, and you’ll see that when the real returns paid to cash sink below zero, investors and savers tend to pay more – or demand more – for gold.”

That’s what investors and savers did in the 1970s. It’s what they then did not do again until real US interest rates sank towards and below zero during the first six years of this decade. Why choose gold when real interest rates sink? Because if central bankers, driven by a fear of “deflation” in asset prices and consumer spending, try to stop the public hoarding cash, then people will seek out reliable stores of value instead, led by hard assets. (more…)