That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you play the geographical arbitrage game.

Sounds kinda shady, but I'm open to any explanation.

those mags were accompanied by national geographic.  

Hey Lee,I'm primarily a West Coast, California geographic.

Most won't, but if you give them a reasonable explanation, they may go along, and you don't have to offer then incentives.  

Thank Wayne for the explanation.

Dave, thanks for the explanation, I appreciate it.

Your explanation of events is long and a bit difficult to read (you may want to shorten to encourage more responses), but I would try to go over this person's head/chain of command and complain that they did not explain that the $100 was non refunadable. 

UNITED STATES TREASURY BEGINS CRACK DOWN ON MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH HIGH END RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE In an effort to combat money laundering in the real estate sector, The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), a bureau of The United States Treasury Department, has issued Geographic Targeting Orders (GTO) that will temporarily require title insurance companies to identify the names and social security numbers of the natural persons behind LLC's and other opaque structures that are used as shell companies to purchase high end residential real estate.Reporting will be required on "All Cash" purchases of residential properties that exceed $3,000,000 in Manhattan and $1,000,000 in Miami-Dade County.

We've been working expired for over a year and I think you would be better going after a geographic farm.