It makes me ill every time I have to use ebay, either as a seller or a buyer. You never know what's going to happen and you can be sure ebay and/or Paypal will not stand behind you.

So 2 weeks ago I put 7 ATI cards up on ebay. 5 sold fine but 2 had highest bidders with 0 feedback. They never paid. I had to wait 4 days to file a dispute with ebay, and then 4 more days for the buyers not to reply, so ebay could refund my selling fees. Now the cards are relisted and selling again. I'm deleting any bids where the user has a 0 feedback score as this seems to be happening again! I've also blocked users with no paypal account from bidding (as much I hate to do that given the nature of paypal!) If someone doesn't pay this time I'll have to do a buy it now to guarantee payment - seems this is a common problem as the ebay forums mention it quite a bit. Thought I'd give everyone a heads up here though.

Has anyone else experienced such issues?

There is an option you can select that will prevent buyers with 0 feedback from bidding on ur items.

It's not ideal compared to what we are used to, but a 15 year payoff is 6.7% annually. This is considered to be a good investment in the non-bitcoin world. If you found such a good investment, you could ride it infinitely with a 4% Safe withdrawl rate.

Bitcoin people kind of have their heads up their asses when it comes to what a normal return is.

...given that no one has seen a working BFL ASIC product.

Well, I did spend a few days reading up on the pros/cons of ASIC pre-orders, thinking about it, and figuring out the best position on the issue.

My decision: ASIC is too risky right now. ESPECIALLY for pre-ordering non-existent hardware (yes, that includes hardware "in development")

1. No final hardware has been shown off; furthermore, there have already been many delays to the ship date.
2. One or more companies could be a scam. Bitcoin is all about making easy money, and it HAS attracted many scams and scammers in the past.
3. Recouping one's investment might already be impossible, unless you're in the top 5% of the wait list.
4. ASICs are only good for ONE thing. As gutsy as buying 18 GPUs was, it wasn't really all that risky. They can always be sold to gamers at any time. If you can't make back your $1300 Single due to skyrocketing difficulty, you're screwed. No one's going to shut off their ASIC. No one's going to repurpose a Single into a gaming rig. If someone quits and sells his Single, guess what? The buyer will fire it back up and it will be back on the Network. When the difficulty goes up, it WON'T be coming down...ever.
5. The whole ASIC thing gives me a bad feeling -- I mean about profitability. There is no barrier to entry; just plug & play. No more cooling setups, building clever rigs, finding space for them, watching the 15 amp circuit breaker limit, etc. My entire being says this is where things go "parabolic" -- where a dozen individuals or companies come in and BECOME the network. Or at least 95% of it.

None of this applies to you because they are requiring you to comply with the law.  There is no crime being committed by MtGox and nor are they committing any tort.  Asking you to identify yourself in accordance with AML/KYC requirements is not coercion or extortion.  Nonetheless, I really hope that you do make a complaint to the A-G and file a civil action.  You'll give the lawyers some free entertainment and likely end up with your financial accounts being investigated for possible tax evasion.

Dwolla is equally involved in this identity thing, the difference is that they are cloaking their approach in the "isn't it cool that we can now interact with you through Facebook" line of bullshit. Same intrusive back-rape, same demand for access to your privacy without justifiable cause other than to make them a better buyout target, and to provide them with data to whore out to other companies for big paydays.

And no, I don't work for Gox, or Dwolla, or any other entity that has been described in this community. Or consult for them. It's just pure my attitude and experience in the world talking.

If you dont want to hand over your ID why cant they just give you back the money ?

This is the ethical thing to do.

Sorry friend, but consumer protection laws do not include extortion clauses. You entered into an agreement with them, and if you read the fine print, that agreement included language that they can and will take whatever actions, and make whatever changes, they feel necessary to run/improve/stay legal with their business.

The chances of your State Attorney General doing anything other than filing your complaint in the round file are exactly zero. It's a company based in Japan, doing business through the internet exchanged hypothetical tokens of value that have no corporeal existence. They are offering at least as secure a protection scheme for your documents as your state driver's license agency, probably safer, they have a stronger vested interest in protecting your data than either your state or federal taxing authorities, and have less than a fraction of a percent of the exposure that your bank, your doctor and dentist, stock broker, credit card company, landlord, school, mortgage lender, selective service bureau, post office automobile dealership where you purchased a car or any police department that has stopped you for a moving violation; yet every one of those entities saw, and probably photocopied your identification documents. And most of them are keeping them in electronic form, on servers that are about as secure as Paris Hilton's virtue.

Send them your id. Add a specific statement that you will hold them liable for any data loss of breach of the security of your information, and demand that they destroy all traces of that document when you stop doing business with them.

Extortion.   "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Mt.Gox failure to disclosure their identification policies in advance may be shady, hell it may even be illegal (doubtful) but under no possible interpretation of any law is it extortion. Even if it WAS extortion that is a criminal matter.  You can't seek civil damages for a criminal charge.  Even if a judge ruled that MtGox can't ask for your ID you have suffered no damages (legal sense of the word).  You can't seek redress for damages never suffered.

Under the totally implausible scenario that anyone took your case seriously, and you made it to court, and survived motions to dismiss, and ended up winning at best you would get your $100 back (maybe with some interest and no not that 1% per day interest in the lending forum the 1.5% APR interest you could claim as damages).  So in a year you might get $101.50.  Well no you won't but that is under the most asininely optimistic scenario you could possibly hope for.

Extortion.   "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

I am certain your day job isn't law and I would recommend you not give up your day job any time soon.  Mt.Gox failure to disclosure their identification policies in advance may be shady hell it may even be illegal (doubtful) but under no possible interpretation of any law is it extortion. Even if it WAS extortion that is a criminal matter.  You can seek civil damages for a criminal charge.

The DEA prides itself on big hauls and tends to leave small stuff to the locals. Success in their line of work is measured in kilos and tons.

I can see them making a bit of noise about SR crackdowns to discourage use of the site, but it's hard to imagine them dedicating a ton of technological resources to a relatively tiny number of people selling each other dime bags over the Internet.

I could be wrong, but it seems like it would be a waste of a lot of time, energy, and money for very little return. Granted, that statement could apply to all drug law enforcement.