Dragonscavern

A limited offer

A message from Xystos;

We have just come across several CC17 - The Magic Lightning Tree in our warehouse and would like to offer them to collectors for £22 with free postage.

If you are a member of the collectors club and are interested, contact Craig at Xystos; craigallen(AT)xystos(DOT)co(DOT)uk

For people wishing to join the collectors club, contact Craig and you can then get CC17 at the offer price too.

Forum Acitvation Requests

We've seen a rise in users registering accounts for the forum (it might have something to do with the article that was featured in the latest issue of the club magazine - The Methtintdour Times), but at the same time we've noticed an increase in failed attempts to login.

The reason for this is simple - when you register for the forum, we send you a message to the email address you listed to check that you have actually asked to join the forum, and that it isn't an attempt from someone to spam us.
If the email address you've given us is not a real address (or is one you don't check often), you can't reply to our message, and that means that we won't activate your account.

So, please check your emails once you've registered with us - and add forum(AT)dragonscavern(DOT)co(DOT)uk to your friendly list to avoid messages falling into your spam folder.

New Images

The website now carries images of the new Standard and Large studies coming in August, as well as this years Extravaganza piece, and a commission study for Express Gifts.

PS. We've also updated the mobile version of the site too with all latest images.

It has arrived...

Issue 43 of the Methtintdour Times has started to drop through the letter boxes of collectors. First thoughts from some of them are;

- Hi i have got mine. whole mag very colourful & interesting to read, love the extrav piece, will definately be getting it- hope to win gold version.

- Mine arrived today too. Like the article on pg 3

- a step in the right direction considering last one was 4 pages

- stories about studies. Great to see

We saw an advanced copy a while back, and are pleased to say that there is a lot more collector focused news within it,

and a great article on the third page about a website for collectors of Myth and Magic. We recommend visiting that site! ;-)

Methtintdour Times #43

News from Xystos is that collectors club members should be receiving the latest issue of their club magazine any day now as it is at the mailing house ready for distribution.
Some good news we can tell you about the "new" Methtintdour Times is that this issue reverts to 12 pages, and future issues will aim to be at least 12 pages too.

Big Brother eBay

Found this within the MyMessages area of eBay when logging in today;

Later this summer, we'll begin checking the computer you use to list an item to see whether it's one of the computers you regularly use. If you list an item using a different computer (e.g. at a friend's house, in a hotel, at the library), we'll ask you to confirm that it's really you listing the item.

Confirming your identity is easy. We'll make an automated call to one of the phone numbers on your account - you can choose which one. If you can't receive a call at one of those numbers, you'll be able to add another number by answering your secret question, or verify your identity with us in Live Chat.

Thank you for your support.

Regards,

The eBay Team

Firefox 3 arrives

It's arrived! Today is Firefox 3 day. Help set a Guiness World record for the most downloads of a piece of software in 24 hours. Download FF3 here.

Remember - Firefox is faster, safer and much more fun than Internet Explorer. DragonsCavern recommends using Firefox for a better browsing experience. :-)

Changes to PayPal

A message from PayPal to its users;

Effective from 9 July 2008, PayPal will change its fee structure to make it more attractive for our UK customers to send personal payments. We are pleased to announce that:

• PayPal will not charge a recipient (regardless of their account type) of a PayPal payment if that payment was funded by the sender's bank account or PayPal balance and it is designated a Personal  Payment

• PayPal will apply a fee for payments received for   Personal Payments or Commercial Payments if such a   payment is funded by a credit or debit card, however for Personal Payments funded by a card, the sender will have the option of paying the fees for that payment

• Also, PayPal will no longer require its customers to upgrade from a Personal Account to a Premier or Business Account once it has received a total of £250

• Receiving Personal Payments and/or Commercial Payments which are also Card Funded Payments will be charged at these standard rates: 3.4%+ fixed fee (Domestic transaction) / 3.9%+ fixed fee (cross border transaction)

• The Fixed Fee will be £0.20 (UK)

• UK registered Users who receive payments in Euros from other European User countries will receive a 0.5% reduction in the variable amount of the applicable cross border fee.

• The sender of a Personal Payment which is also a Card Funded Payment may choose to pay the Fee   applicable to that payment.

Xystos site unavailability

The TM website is not available at the moment. In fact, none of the Xystos branded website is available; so www.xystos.co.uk, www.xystos.co.uk/tudormint and even www.tudormint.info   are not available.

Using the forum, we've asked Xystos directly, and their answer is...

We've been having problems with our Server. The IT guys have been looking into it so hopefully we should be back on line very soon.

We'll keep watching. Update: Site running again 8/6/08

Schill bidding by the back door?

Is it just me, or does the "new" protection for sellers on eBay leave auctions more open to abuse? I've been watching the sales of a recent seller this week, and when you look at the bidders you just get "bidder1", "bidder2", etc now. However, clicking on those bidders I was able to see the last time that the leading bidder made a bid and suprise suprise in 3 of those sales it was identical;

Item number: 1****3011**9, 1****3003**6, 1****3002**5.
Info on the leading bidder...

Item 1 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 2 Seller 1 6d 21h
Item 2 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 1 Seller 1 8d 4h
Item 3 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 1 Seller 1 8d 3h
Item 4 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 1 Seller 1 8d 1h
Item 5 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 1 Seller 1 8d 3h
Item 6 Collectables > Metalware > Pewter 1 Seller 1 8d

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 7
Items bid on: 6
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 100%
Bids to unique sellers: 1
Bids in unique categories: 1
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

Interestingly, all these are the "most popular" sales with the prices rising the most. And notice that bid activity is 100% to this seller - no other seller at all. 

Schill bidding by the back door? but no way to prove it truly thanks to eBays new "safe bidding policy". Don't know about the rest of you, but I am now very doubtful of buying unless it's a trusted seller that I know.