[August 4, 2003] Does a bad trader Web page work? Well, put it this way. The person who inspired me to build it in the first place has finally fulfilled his end of our trade agreement after about 3 months of demanding that I remove his name from this page. He first made contact with me in late February about a trade, and to make a very long story short, he led me to believe that he had ordered the CD from Amazon.com which would fulfill his end of the agreement, supposedly ordering it at the same time that I mailed him the CD he wanted in return.
When it became obvious that the CD he owed me was not to be forthcoming, I built this page and included his name, along with the others you see here. I told him that once he made good on the CD he owed me, I would remove his name from this page. Today, he finally came through; that is why his name is no longer here. Hopefully, the other people listed below will be the only names you'll ever see on this page. Read on to find out who else is a bad trader.
Gary Burns - Bee Gees fan from Ireland
I really wished I had saved this guy's personal information now, in light of my decision to make this web page, but unfortunately I didn't. Gary and I actually executed quite a number of successful trades. Successful, that is, until I had to wait five months for him to fulfill his end of our last one. No excuses, just didn't send the CD. During that time though, Gary had the gall the ask me to burn a CD for him to fulfill his end of a trade to someone else!
Was I ever a fool! I assumed that his asking me to do that meant he was about to have time to complete our trade. Remember, I still trusted him, plus I considered him a friend. Yet I had to wait about 2 more months after that before I got my CD.
A few months later, Gary sent me an ICQ message saying he was sorry he had treated me so badly and would I consider trading with him again. After much discussion, I agreed but warned him that if he jerked me around again, it would be the last time. "You can trust me," he declared.
To shorten the story a bit, I agreed to hold an original Drifter CD (a bootleg, in case you don't know) for him on a trade. Honestly, I forget what he offered in return. A few months went by (I wasn't real anxious to trade with him) when he wrote me and told me he had changed his mind about the Drifter CD and wanted something else in return. What?!? I had passed up trading that Drifter CD to someone else! Needless to say, Gary is now in the Hall Of Shame. Another "Trader Beware."
[Update] Gary emailed me out of the blue recently, saying once again he was sorry about treating me so badly. He offered to burn a CD for me, no strings attached supposedly, by way of apology for his past behavior with me. Sorry, Gary, but you had your chance to make things right a long time ago and you blew it. I don't know what makes you think I could ever trust you again.
Michael Munday - Savage Garden fan from Australia
Michael Munday was offering some Savage Garden material for sale, so I contacted him asking about
it. $10 for a particular CD, plus $5 more for another one he mentioned he had. (Memory fades with
time, unfortunately; I can't remember what specifically I paid for.) Not only did I not receive
the CDs, but after attempting to contact him by e-mail several times, the person who finally
replied claimed this was a brand new e-mail address for him, that he'd gotten it about the time
the other Michael Munday disappeared with my money. Both had the same name. Was it the bad trader
I heard from? Who knows?