Very few people deal with $1000s in cash anymore. Makes you a target as the most likely reason for most people to do cash transactions that large is illegal drug deals. And we have some laws (which I disagree with) which says that it's up to the civilian to prove otherwise in many cases.
As to the 25 years, maybe back in the 70s. But once computers started to tie things together in the early 80s much of the reasons to buy things in cash went away. Now buying a $100,000 combine on a Saturday with a VISA is problematic today as in the US most banks are closed on Saturday. But even if you could run the transaction many would not want to do it as the processing fees to the seller would add 1%, 2% or more to the costs. But most folks who go to such things show up with a letter of credit from their bank to show they have funds then everyone settles on Monday. Deals during the week are no big deal and have not been for over 25 years.
And if we still had the "fractured" banking system maybe the mess from a few years ago would not have been so big. Might have even not happened, at least not the way it went down.
]]>Checks have no implicit security to speak of, and are held together entirely by anti-fraud legislation.
It may have changed since I knew it, but France backed cheques more strongly. Cheques were legal tender, i.e. refusing to accept one meant that you had waived payment, but bouncing a cheque was forgery that would get you a criminal penalty matching that, just like counterfeiting.
]]>Looks like a che(ck|que), smells like a che(ck|que), settles like one. But instead of being drawn on your personal account, it's drawn on the bank's own suspense account. You go into the bank and tell them "I want a draft for $5000 payable to Foo Bar Esq.", and they transfer $5000 (plus a fee) from your account to the bank's own account, then issue a che(ck|que) against that.
It's sufficiently rock-solid (in terms of not bouncing, not in terms of forgery) that if Messrs. Foo and Bar experience problems settling the draft, they'll be reading about the reason in the Wall Street Journal. These days I'd usually use a direct BACS bank transfer instead, but back in the day if you wanted to buy a car or a house or a business this was the way to do it.
]]>Sorry for the extended quote, but it's been a few days since it was posted and it's about a subject I feel strongly about: the path not taken in the 90's (according to Charlie, 1995 at the very latest): micropayments. Yes, there's a lot of kvetching about path dependencies that bake in suboptimal practices and standards for essentially forever and therefore like it or not we're stuck with the advertisement model as a means of generating revenue for the foreseeable future. But maybe the virtual credit card trick is a way to fork back to the other -- and IMHO, much better -- option.
Totally pulling this out of my ass (I know nothing about the details of intertubes transactions), but maybe this virtual credit card generator could be distributed as freeware. My thought is the virtual credit card app could be sold to the public as a way to keep your accounts absolutely secure for all debit-type internet because (I don't think I'm atypical in this regard) their credit card is essentially a debit card for most of their online transactions: who has to pay off a book bought from the Big River in monthly installments? And who isn't worried about credit-card theft?
Once people are comfortable with this, vendors could offer the micropayment option for people who didn't wish to be continually assaulted by advertisements. To name one example, how about charging a penny per post on a much better organized, feature-sensible version of Facebook that doesn't continually try to worm personal data out of you and doesn't bombard you with spurious advertisements or 'friends' of a dubious nature? Judging from the number of complaints I've heard, I'm guessing a lot of people would switch to the micropayment version. And why not? At penny a post, this is probably on the order of a dollar a month for most people, a bargain price for making the annoyance go away (not to mention the far superior interface) . . . and those pennies add up if your Mark Zuckerman. Anyway, just a thought -- sorry for being so long-winded about it.
]]>I look forward to a future where publishing catches up with the age... but in the interim, your essays in this area have pushed me away from the consumption of pirated books and into an unwilling acceptance of walled gardens and other horrors.
]]>If you mean this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banker%27s_draft
Yes. Bank check or official check or similar over here. But they have fallen into disrepute over the last 10 years or so. Lots of fraud. So banks started holding them till the issuing bank cleared them so their utility goes down to that of a personal check. (Having only a few banks nationwide would solve this but brings other issues.)
If you really want to move large amounts of money around it's not that hard if you can visit "your" bank when they are open to set things up. Or even another bank if you don't mind paying a few extra $$$ in fees. The real issues come up when you want to do things when banks are not open.
I'm on an email list for large auctions. Closed plants and such. If you want to take "it" away on the spot you need to provide a letter of credit or similar before you show up so the seller can verify the funds are available. A bank letter of credit is similar to your Banker's Draft except it's a guarantee that the funds are available, but not depositable.
I may have a few details wrong, it's been a decade or more since I move around $10K or more. But it wasn't all that hard if you planned it up front.
As the article on Banker's Drafts notes, paper instruments for transferring money are going away.
]]>As will surprise nobody who's read Neptune's Brood, that's coming hand-in-hand with the assumption that everyone will have nigh instantaneous communication over all distances at all times. Need to buy a tractor on a Saturday in Nebraska? No problem. Need to get money out of your London bank when you're in Thailand? No problem. Of course, that communication needs to be not only nigh instantaneous and ubiquitous but also secure - if your credit card is being copied to Russia or the bank on the other end is actually a teenager in Nigeria the whole scheme is likely to fall apart quickly.
It's working pretty well so far, aside from rather a lot of misplaced credit card numbers; how it will have played out in a hundred years is open to enough game changing variables that I won't speculate yet.
]]>Anyway, yes you can do cash. But you can also set this up electronically.
An important part of this is that some (many?,most?) of the people (in the US) who talk about needing cash for everything also talk about black helicopters and 5 year supplies of food and ammo.
3. Deposits. A Security Deposit of $1,000.00 will be requested from all Auction bidders wishing to register and participate in the Auction sale. PIS, in its sole discretion, for non-US Residents or companies, may also require a deposit of not less than twenty five percent (25%) of the Buyer’s TOTAL EXPECTED PURCHASE PRICE as an additional Security Deposit prior to registration approval. For all other bidders, PIS requires a deposit of not less than twenty five percent (25%) of the Buyer's TOTAL PURCHASE PRICE by the end of sale day - with the balance due by the end of the next business day. This can be in the form of cash, a cashier’s check, or business check with a bank letter of guarantee for Onsite auctions. For Electronic bidders, at its discretion, PIS may contact bidders via email or telephone before or during the sale to provide a bank letter of guarantee or wire transfer as a deposit. If PIS does not receive a response from its attempts to contact Buyer or if the Buyer does not provide a deposit, PIS reserves the right to refuse or cancel Buyer's bids and re-sell Goods. 4. Invoices & Payment Instructions. For Onsite and Webcast auctions, winning bidders can request a printed paper invoice from the Accounting Manager at the sale location during or after the sale. Electronic bidders will be sent an electronic invoice to the email address provided during registration. Invoices can be faxed upon request. Detailed payment instructions for each sale are available in the printed lot catalog at the sale location on the day of the sale. Electronic bidders will be sent detailed payment instructions via email along with their invoice. 5. Payments. PIS must receive the balance of the total purchase price no later than the close of business on the day following the auction (the "Final Payment Date"). All payments must be by cashier's or certified check, federal wire transfer of immediately available funds or a corporate check accompanied with a bank letter of guarantee, and all of the foregoing must be in form, scope and substance acceptable to PIS. Credit cards are only accepted for Electronic bidding registration and for Liquidated Damages in the event of a default. If paying by credit card, the exchange rate for sales conducted in foreign currencies will be posted the day of the sale and will be based upon the current currency conversion rates. Without limiting PIS discretion, no corporate checks without a bank guarantee and no personal checks will be accepted. No title shall pass to Buyer until the total purchase price and all Taxes have been paid to PIS in collected funds.]]>
It would need to be picked up by the banks, not the customers; the people deploying it would need access to Visa (or whoever)'s credit card creation API. It's kinda double-entry transactions, where you alert your "store of value" that an amount is to be paid and receive a transaction ID, then give the payee that transaction ID to allow them to redeem the money from your store of value. Building it on credit cards takes advantage of existing infrastructure.
Part of the problem with credit cards for micropayments is that credit card micropayments need to be aggregated to prevent credit card processing fees swallowing up the whole payment - and more. This is handleable, but tends to require a central payment processor (see: Amazon Payments, Paypal, Flattr, Google Checkout, etc.).
]]>Chiming in to note relevant just-released study: http://authorearnings.com/july-2014-author-earnings-report/
Perhaps there is, or will be, more of a market for really good freelance editors who are not tied to a publisher.
That way you could still engage the professional services of an editor, without having to deal with the publisher. I'm sure there are all sorts of details that would need thrashing out - such as, the editor will still expect to get paid; how to do that without recreating most of the evils of a publishing contract? - but it might start to free up authors such as our esteemed host a little more. Worst case, it loosens the grip of the Big Five.
]]>But I thought it was very interesting to see that indie publishers now outsell the Big Five, at least on Kindle, which is a pretty good proxy for 'all ebooks,' for reasons OGH has also explained elsewhere.
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