geegee
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2002
- Messages
- 1,453
I was over at USN this week, and one of the guys over there was looking for a knife magazine, that by chance I had:
http://www.usualsuspect.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17763
The guy who wanted the magazine sent me an email saying he would send me some money (too much, really) for the magazine. Truth is, I would have sent it to him for free, but then I thought "Wait a minute-if he wants to send me some dough, who am I to say no to some easy money to go towards my knife "slush fund"? As I further considered this generous (to the point of ridiculous) offer, something else occurred to me, and it was Gadi Blilious.
A few months ago, I did a trade with Gadi, and sent him a Wilson Tactical fixed blade knife. I packaged it up, and because I was going out of town on business, had my wife take it to the post office for mailing. Since this was my third international trade, I knew that the Customs Department at the other end (in this case, Israeli Customs), could levy enough of an import duty to make the trade unattractive. I wrote on my paperwork "Used knife-value $40.00." As luck would have it, the guy at the post office asked for an additional piece of paperwork, so my wife re-wrote all the forms. Unfortunately, she didn't see my notation for the price, and just
wrote in "Knife-$150.00."
When I spoke with her later that evening, she told me about re-doing the paperwork. I asked her about declaring the value, and she told me what she wrote in. I wasn't too happy about it, but felt worse knowing Gadi would have to "pay up" to get the knife, thus ruining what was a fair trade. I sent him an email to explain what happened, and as you can imagine, he just blew it off "No big deal-let's see what happens."
What happened was he ended up paying about $30.00 to receive the knife. I found out because I asked him. Being Gadi, he didn't email me to tell me. When I found out, I tried to think of a way to make it up to him. I didn't want him to have to pay for what was really my error.
He'd have none of it, and told me to forget it. After a couple of days, I emailed him with a suggestion: I'd like to pay for a year's subscription to any knife magazine of his choice. He responded by saying that a foreign subscription would be too expensive, but was in fact looking for some back issues of knife magazines. I had plenty, and enough in fact that I had posted many for sale. I provided a list of what I had, and he picked a few. Some were knife mags, and there were also a few issues of SWAT. I think I sent him about 10-12 in total.
I sent them off "snail mail", as the shipping weight made the cost pretty expensive. Those magazine may have just now arrived at his office, or in fact may still be headed over there. I contacted a friend of Gadi's to let him know, and to explain why a box of knife magazines would be showing up at Gadi's office.
After I was offered money for a single issue of a magazine I had already read, I realized there was no way I could accept any money for it, if for no other reason than to honor Gadi's memory, i.e. to treat another knife lover as Gadi treated me.I had to literally twist his arm to allow me to make good on a trade that he graciously
completed at his own cost. That fact considered would make me uncomfortable accepting any payment from the member at USN.
So here's my idea. Would there be any interest in opening a forum in Gadi's memory, where bladeforums members could list any knife magazines and/or books they have, and make them available to other forum members? I'm sure many of the folks who are members have (like myself) own a heck of a lot of back issues of magazines that just collect dust. These could be made available to any and all forum members for free, with the person who ships the magazine responsible for paying the shipping costs. This wouldn't be for a guy trying to request a complete year's collection of say, Tactical Knives, but rather a guy who is looking for one or two issues of a magazine. It would strictly be done (as Gadi Blilious would do it)on the Honor System. The recipient would then have the option of making that magazine available again for someone else's use, or keep it-
his choice. His responsibility at some point (as a recipient) would be to pass along his own magazines for someone else, in the spirit of sharing. This could be done as an ongoing passaround-Gadi's Library, if you will.
And finally, this. For those bladeforum members who avail themselves of Gadi's Library, I would make this suggestion. At some point, they approach the folks at their local library to see if they could pay for a knife magazine subscription for that library.The subscription would be done "In Memory of Gadi Blilious". With all the members we have in the U.S., and around the world, in a couple of years there could be libraries in cities and towns all over, providing knife magazines to their local readers, all done in Gadi's name.
Comments and/or suggestions are welcome. geegee
http://www.usualsuspect.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17763
The guy who wanted the magazine sent me an email saying he would send me some money (too much, really) for the magazine. Truth is, I would have sent it to him for free, but then I thought "Wait a minute-if he wants to send me some dough, who am I to say no to some easy money to go towards my knife "slush fund"? As I further considered this generous (to the point of ridiculous) offer, something else occurred to me, and it was Gadi Blilious.
A few months ago, I did a trade with Gadi, and sent him a Wilson Tactical fixed blade knife. I packaged it up, and because I was going out of town on business, had my wife take it to the post office for mailing. Since this was my third international trade, I knew that the Customs Department at the other end (in this case, Israeli Customs), could levy enough of an import duty to make the trade unattractive. I wrote on my paperwork "Used knife-value $40.00." As luck would have it, the guy at the post office asked for an additional piece of paperwork, so my wife re-wrote all the forms. Unfortunately, she didn't see my notation for the price, and just
wrote in "Knife-$150.00."
When I spoke with her later that evening, she told me about re-doing the paperwork. I asked her about declaring the value, and she told me what she wrote in. I wasn't too happy about it, but felt worse knowing Gadi would have to "pay up" to get the knife, thus ruining what was a fair trade. I sent him an email to explain what happened, and as you can imagine, he just blew it off "No big deal-let's see what happens."
What happened was he ended up paying about $30.00 to receive the knife. I found out because I asked him. Being Gadi, he didn't email me to tell me. When I found out, I tried to think of a way to make it up to him. I didn't want him to have to pay for what was really my error.
He'd have none of it, and told me to forget it. After a couple of days, I emailed him with a suggestion: I'd like to pay for a year's subscription to any knife magazine of his choice. He responded by saying that a foreign subscription would be too expensive, but was in fact looking for some back issues of knife magazines. I had plenty, and enough in fact that I had posted many for sale. I provided a list of what I had, and he picked a few. Some were knife mags, and there were also a few issues of SWAT. I think I sent him about 10-12 in total.
I sent them off "snail mail", as the shipping weight made the cost pretty expensive. Those magazine may have just now arrived at his office, or in fact may still be headed over there. I contacted a friend of Gadi's to let him know, and to explain why a box of knife magazines would be showing up at Gadi's office.
After I was offered money for a single issue of a magazine I had already read, I realized there was no way I could accept any money for it, if for no other reason than to honor Gadi's memory, i.e. to treat another knife lover as Gadi treated me.I had to literally twist his arm to allow me to make good on a trade that he graciously
completed at his own cost. That fact considered would make me uncomfortable accepting any payment from the member at USN.
So here's my idea. Would there be any interest in opening a forum in Gadi's memory, where bladeforums members could list any knife magazines and/or books they have, and make them available to other forum members? I'm sure many of the folks who are members have (like myself) own a heck of a lot of back issues of magazines that just collect dust. These could be made available to any and all forum members for free, with the person who ships the magazine responsible for paying the shipping costs. This wouldn't be for a guy trying to request a complete year's collection of say, Tactical Knives, but rather a guy who is looking for one or two issues of a magazine. It would strictly be done (as Gadi Blilious would do it)on the Honor System. The recipient would then have the option of making that magazine available again for someone else's use, or keep it-
his choice. His responsibility at some point (as a recipient) would be to pass along his own magazines for someone else, in the spirit of sharing. This could be done as an ongoing passaround-Gadi's Library, if you will.
And finally, this. For those bladeforum members who avail themselves of Gadi's Library, I would make this suggestion. At some point, they approach the folks at their local library to see if they could pay for a knife magazine subscription for that library.The subscription would be done "In Memory of Gadi Blilious". With all the members we have in the U.S., and around the world, in a couple of years there could be libraries in cities and towns all over, providing knife magazines to their local readers, all done in Gadi's name.
Comments and/or suggestions are welcome. geegee
) and as such there is a high chance it may not work.