Ray,
I PM'd your personal email about a week ago and see that it was opened, but haven't heard from you as yet......?
This post may seem a little bit personal, but in truth, this entire thread was started by you and was of a personal nature to begin with (helping you out so you could pay the vet bill), so it started at this level and I'm only trying to make sense of what is going on. I'm only posting this message because you won't, for whatever reason, respond to my email or posts here.
Your 8/29 post in this thread clearly states that you really would like to get your knife back that Bill made especially for you and I made what I thought was a very honest and fair offer to sell it back to you at exactly the same price that I bought it from you...............and did so ONLY to help you out a as a fellow BF member and one that Bill personally told me was a standup guy and that I could trust. No problem I thought......Bill's word, your word and I'm doing something good to feel good about while helping someone in immediate need. I'm not rich, but had a few extra $'s at the time......which I could very much use as Xmas arrives (as I said in my email that you've not responded to). No response at all, even though I said that minimal payments would be fine with me.
Soooo.........you can imagine that I was more than a bit stunned when I read your post on 10/30/11 under the "5 Knives Available" thread started by Gossman Knives that stated that you felt sorry for Scott (Gossman Knives) 'cuz some guy left him holding the bag with 5 pre-ordered knives. I think that it was a bad deal for Scott as well, as would anybody. But what really floored me was when you posted that you would try to find some $ to try to help him out by buying a knife from him and you'd get back to him on that (1 knife @ $175, 2 knives @ $215 and 1 knife @ $265.......buying the knife you said you'd buy back from me first....$210). What....? Sure, I don't blame you for wanting to help a fellow BF member out....believe me, I know how that goes. But after I extended myself to you in your time of need and then emailing you also in hopes that you could now take responsibility for making me whole again.....and you are offering to buy another knife from another maker which by the above amounts would likely be more than your knife to buy back .....? What's that about? And since you never posted again in that thread, it's quite likely that you very well may have closed a deal on one of those knives through a pm to Scott.......right? Nope, I don't know for sure that you did, but given what you've said you'd do and what you've actually done.........you don't leave anyone any room to believe what you say 100% of the time.....that's on you.
You plainly stated in your own thread that you would dearly love to have "your" knife back that Bill made special order for you. You said it meant alot to you and even though you "look" at other knives for sale, you want your knife back before you purchase any others. Your reasoning made complete sense to me......I'd want to do the same with a knife made especially for me. There was no reason to doubt your word. Bill spoke for your "word" and other members obviously would have helped you out if they could have at that time. I was able to help you out then and am not in such a position now.....just the way things go, for all of us.....as you well know. But for me to nicely ask you in an earlier personal message to consider a payment plan to get your knife back (when I was thinking that it would have been nice for you to approach me with such a plan well before I had to approach you) and then to read in your 10/30 post that you considered and then perhaps actually purchased another knife while still not making even one attempt to buy your knife back or even to politely contact me about doing so...........I'm not sure that I wasn't somehow totally fooled by you into helping you out for your own reasons and not only to help pay for Bell's vet bills. Really.....what would anybody think that isn't hearing back from you after trying to make contact initially through a pm to keep this matter as low key as possible, then reads a post where you're clearly considering buying ANOTHER knife with 3 of the 4 knives available being worth more than your $210 knife (and perhaps did make the purchase) when you have clearly said that you want the custom knife that Bill built for you back ASAP and then you can't/won't even post updates to Bell's condition after many of us have sent our best regards and asked that you please update us now and then......? I know that I and more than a few other BF members were and remain quite concerned about Bell...and still are. Pets matter alot to me. They are always there for us and I've always felt bad about leaving my shepard mix in 'Nam...so there's a bit of guilt here as well......my thing, no one else's. Truth be told......my purchasing your knife for the short term was more to make sure Bell had the proper care she obviously needed since they are dependent on us, rather than what we as humans can do for ourselves. Animals count on us and just want to be cared for and they have no reasons to deceive nor distrust us.....unless treated badly. Humans, obviously.......not so much. So as to Bell and her recovery.....I am still very much interested in her well being and hopeful progress.
I've tried all the ways I know of to make contact with you.....this being my last option.....the only choice left. By you continuing to try to put off a response by making yourself unavailable....it tells me alot. I've never heard directly from you (without a request from me on how Bell's doing) since the day you received the $ you asked for. There's no rules in life that govern such things, but I know that if someone helped me out, especially financially and from someone that I'd never even met based on Bill's word that you're a solid person, I would have been in contact with that person many times on my own just to let them know I appreciated what they'd done for me. Instead......what I get in return is to read a post where you're offering to buy another knife likely MORE expensive if you can "scrape up the funds" and then no response to my very reasonable offer to start making minimal payments towards once again taking ownership of the "special" knife that Bill made only for you.
It is interesting that your last post was on 11/8......around the same time as my pm to you and my last post on your "vet bill" thread. I doubt, however, that you haven't been logged on in a way other than where it would show that you are logged on. That doesn't take much imagination to do so, nor would it surprise me anymore given how you've decided to treat another BF member that was only trying to help you out after feeling comfortable enough to do so after Bill spoke up for you.
Let's be clear, this entire situation is of your own doing based on your own words and actions and only in very small part to Bill's intervention or suggestions, and in part, to my being much to trustful or just plain stupid............either one, unfortunately, having the same effect. My short time on BF didn't and doesn't allow me the same knowledge or history in regards to the pro's and con's of certain members, especially those that spend most of their viewing time on Bill and Chris' forum. So, my first impulse was to trust you and to help you out with Bell's vet bills and I didn't hesitate to do so. From this point on...........not so much on the trust and help thing. Many things come to light and are sorted out when $ comes into play.............this situation is obviously no different.
At this point Ray, you have very much crushed and soured my willingness to extend myself to anyone but famiy and close friends. For that, I'm not appreciative.
