February 3, 2009, 1:40 pm : Virtual Gems Emporium heeds the President’s call

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January has been an exciting month and February seems as though it will also. We have a new President and many believed that it could not be done. He is already starting to fulfill many of the promises that he swore to and that has inspired many Americans including those here at Virtual Gems Emporium. I think that with history being made Black History Month has taken on a new meaning. We have decided to celebrate it by answering the President’s call to service to our fellow man

In an effort to do our part to help the economy we are offering everyone 50% off of all fees. That’s right, 50%. We already have thousands of products to choose from and our traffic is off the charts. By helping you with your bottom line we are doing our part to help the economy and spur growth.

We will also be out there getting involved in youth programs, environmental activity and other charitable work and we invite you to do the same . Next month, we will post picture of that work and we ask that you send us your pictures so that we can post those also. Send your pictures to admin@virtualgemsemporium.com.

Thank you.

July 20, 2008, 7:46 pm : HOW EBAY HAS CHANGED SINCE ITS INCEPTION

Filed Under: Problems with Ebay, Uncategorized
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1. In all of my years of buying and selling on Ebay, things have really changed. I started shopping on Ebay from a little Webtv unit in my living room in 1995-96. I remember feeling how great this was that I could reach out and bid on anything with the hope to win it. I remember many of Ebay sellers did not even have photos with their auctions but that did not stop me… I went by the written description and I never remember being disappointed with what came in the mail.

   I also remember never worrying about sending money (those days it was a check and money order payment plan) to virtual strangers and again I do not remember ever getting stiffed. I am going to sound my grandmother when I say “those were the good old days”. All my life I had been a collector of all things unique. I have about ten collections I add to on a regular basis and they include Native American jewelry and pottery, Salvadore Dali’ prints and paintings, boxes… anything with a lid and most made from natural materials like tortoise, horn, ivory and more, well anyway you get the picture… I collected everything and anything so in 2000 I decided to start selling on Ebay. At first it was things I had tired of and then I slowly bought things at auctions to resell. Mostly it was china and glass which I had a general knowledge about and in my first month I sold $8,000…. I though wow this is easy, I like it and most of all I am making great money. Well the years went by, fees went up, things became more cumbersome (they always try to fix things that aren’t broken) and getting any type of service from Ebay had become a thing of the past. Well getting to my point, I have seen Ebay go from a terrific and fun place to visit and eventual sell to fearful of getting the “boot” for some ridiculous misstep on my part. Ebay doesn’t care about the small boutique seller that I am. Ebay has moved their emphasis to being more like Amazon.com and their business model seems to be one of selling a lot of new and in some cases garbage stuff at fixed prices. Life for small seller like myself on Ebay has changed dramatically. These changes have included paying up to 11% of my auction sold price back to Ebay, not being able to leave negative feedback which quite honestly takes away my incentive to work with buyer to resolve anything, lower powerseller service and it goes on and on…. and to make a long story short… I want to sell in an auction format somewhere other than Ebay!!!