The Reeves Report

Please Do NOT Sit On The Fence!

2011-01-28T08:02:00.003-06:00

From time to time, we get reports from others in which they want us to share on our blog. We love sharing info that is shared with us but we have found that far too often, the ones who report something that is absolutely upsetting, offensive or whatever, will climb up on the fence once the report is out there on our blog.

Please, if you want us to look at your story and consider reporting on it, have the back bone to stand behind it and your initial comments to us. When you change your mind or whimp out after we write the story, it is too late and unfair to us because we are counting on your support after the article is written. We put our hearts into our personal stories here and would appreciate not being used.

So, if you want to send something for us to report on, please do and thank you. But if you are a fence sitter on the topic you are sending - please do not send it to us.

Bonanza Removes Rush Announcement Banners

2011-01-28T07:42:00.007-06:00

Just a quick not to state that on 1-23-11, Bonanza finally removed those intrusive banners from most pages on the site. That includes removal from each sellers booth.

Too bad they didn't do that before so many of us were censored and treated like unwanted step-children for giving our thoughts on the situation.

Doing the right thing to start with would have prevented many hard feelings.

At least for now, this little change is a step in a better direction.

As for us, we will not be renewing our paid membership even though Bonanza made this change. It's just too little, too late. Their continued disregard for sellers and the impact changes have on sellers is all too obvious in their actions.

Boomers' Online Shopping Outpaces Gen Y for Health, Beauty, Food, Beverage Products

2011-01-12T22:06:00.005-06:00

Study Shows Shoppers' Behavior Shifting to More Purchases Online

Despite shopping in general being down, online shopping has increased. 73 percent of shoppers who are buying more online are NOT shopping more -- they are just shopping differently. This was revealed in The Checkout, a newsletter that compiles data from the ongoing shopper experience study currently underway by The Integer Group ® and M/A/R/C ® Research.

"The number one reason why people decide to purchase online is to get a better deal. This is no surprise. When shoppers hunt for a singular item online, they search for a good price, attractive shipping options, and then they buy," said Randy Wahl, executive vice president, M/A/R/C Research.

While younger generations (18-24 year-olds) appear more comfortable shopping online, they continue to stick with 'safe' purchases in categories that historically, are purchased online (electronics, clothing, books and music). The surprise comes from the boomer shopper segment. When considering the somewhat newer CPG online shopping world (health, beauty, food, beverage), it's the older shoppers making these purchases. Although Gen Y may be increasing their overall online shopping (more than twice as many compared to 50-64 year-olds), they are not as quick to adopt when it comes to experimenting with making purchases in new categories. This behavior also seems to surface with marital status—married individuals are 58 percent more likely to buy food and beverage products online than single individuals.

"Categories that require hunting for multiple items at once, like food and beverage or health and beauty, introduces a new online buying mentality," said Craig Elston, senior vice president, Integer. "The concept of completing standard grocery shopping online is still new for most of us, and manufacturers and e-tailers need to understand that there are conventions ingrained in shopper behavior that they must disrupt."

Overall, the majority of shoppers still have trouble adapting to the world of online CPG. In the food and beverage category, nearly half of shoppers are currently saying they "haven't and never will" buy this category online.

Data for The Checkout comes from a national survey conducted by Integer and M/A/R/C where consumers are asked about their shopping attitudes, shopping behaviors, and economic outlook. Topics range from criteria shoppers use to select retailers, to which in-store stimulus is most likely to drive purchase, to factors that might lead shoppers to leave an aisle empty-handed. The Checkout is available for download at Integer's blog www.ShopperCulture.com or M/A/R/C's web site www.MARCresearch.com/thecheckout.

About The Integer Group

The Integer Group (www.integer.com) is one of the world's largest promotional, retail, and shopper marketing agencies, and a key member of TBWA Worldwide. Integer lives at the Intersection of Branding and Selling® and creates strategic marketing solutions for clients in categories that include retail, beverage, packaged goods, telecommunications, home and shelter, automotive aftermarket, and power sports. Integer has more than 1,200 employees, with global offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Join the conversation on shopping culture and brand strategy at www.shopperculture.com.

About Omnicom

Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations, and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

About M/A/R/C ® Research

M/A/R/C ® Research (www.MARCresearch.com) is a brand development firm dedicated to helping clients create, evaluate, and strengthen their brands. Our teams design and execute qualitative and quantitative, traditional and online solutions while adhering to a client-service ethic built on being easy to work with and delivering what is promised. Our core competency is measuring attitudes and behaviors to accurately explain and predict market share, revenue, and bottom line impact of a client's actions. We help our clients address consumer, channel, and B2B marketing issues to launch better products and services, attract and retain valuable customers, and build stronger brands. Our proven, marketing-issue focused solutions, support clients' brand building efforts.

SOURCE: The Integer Group

SEO.com Predicts the Top 9 SEO Strategies for 2011

2011-01-12T19:37:00.005-06:00

A growing list of new technologies and search marketing trends will join some old standbys to influence search engine rankings and generate more qualified leads and sales.

The start of 2011 didn't ring in shiny new strategies that will shock the online marketing world. However, specific tactics that emerged in 2010 will have a larger affect on the success of 2011 marketing campaigns.

"A lot of what worked in 2010 will carry over," said Nelson James, president of SEO.com. "But we are noticing a few trends that will build better links and produce more qualified leads."

SEO.com, an SEO firm, identifies the top nine strategies in 2011 (in no particular order):

1. Video Marketing –Boyd Norwood, SEO.com's director of SEO, has been doing tests on visitors that come from video sites like Youtube, Vimeo and other sites. So far, the results have been surprising.

"The conversion rate of visitors from Youtube was about 20 percent higher than from the search engines," said Boyd Norwood, director of SEO for SEO.com. "Video will continue to be big in 2011."

2. Social Impact (Ranking Factor) – 2010 was the year social media threw its weight around and affected search rankings. This will likely become more prevalent in the coming year. To increase rankings, SEO specialists will need to understand how to create valuable, shareable content and how to spread the word through various social sites.

"As the search engines put more emphasis on the popularity of links shared through Twitter and Facebook, social media will become a necessary tool for link building," said Nelson James, president of SEO.com

3. Blogging and Guest Blogging – Blogging continues to be an effective tool for thought leadership, link bait, and a way to leverage social media to drive website traffic and leads. Guest blogging benefits both the guest and the host. The host will get fresh content on its site while the guest blogger will received a link from the host. Both sides will be able to use each other’s resources to help share the blog and spread it online. It's a win-win for both involved.

"Guest blogging will be huge this year," said Greg Shuey, SEO.com's director of SEO. "It's a great way to obtain quality links, and to extend your network."

4. Conversion Optimization – While this is not technically part of SEO, conversion optimization, the process of turning more visitors into paying customers, will determine the success of any SEO campaign. It will become even more valuable in the coming year as more become aware of the practice that tests different designs, call to actions and other details to find what converts the most website visitors into leads and sales.

"Before, marketers were only concerned with driving more traffic and being content with their conversion rate," said Josh Summerhays, conversion optimization manager for SEO.com. "Now, some of those marketers are figuring out that it's cheaper and more effective to tweak their website to get more revenue out of the same amount of traffic."

"Conversion rate optimization will continue to be a difference maker for companies that embrace it," said Scott Miller, CEO of Vertster, a company that provides tools to help conversion optimization.

Tim Ash, author and CEO of SiteTuners.com, said in a message over Twitter: "Doing more with less is at the heart of conversion rate optimization and landing page optimization. Landing page efficiency is the new black."

5. Local Search Marketing – With 90 percent of shoppers searching Google before they head out the door, local Internet marketing and Google Maps are a must for any business trying to get people into their doors.

"Google has almost completely replaced the Yellow Pages as a place where people look for local businesses," said Lori Gilson, president of PRMarketing.com. "If you’re not on Google maps, you may as well not exist."

6. Mobile Marketing – With abundant smartphones, apps, widgets, location-based marketing through social media, discounts, coupons, QR codes, image and audio searches, and text message (SMS) marketing, mobile is poised to reach the big time. eMarketer's "2011 Marketing Trends Survey" says 35 percent of businesses worldwide plan on increasing their mobile marketing spend. Performics projects that mobile search clicks could be greater than 16 percent of all Google search clicks.

"Mobile got big last year. It will get bigger this year. And will be huge the year after," said Ash Buckles, VP of client services for SEO.com. "Search marketers will need to embrace mobile technology and make their products and websites mobile friendly."

7. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) – This older Internet marketing strategy is still a key element of search marketing. PPC creates awareness and produces qualified traffic and leads. eMarketer's survey says 41 percent of companies plan to increase both their search engine optimization and PPC spend in 2011.

"Some of the main benefits of PPC to an overall search marketing strategy is keyword research," said Todd Julien, president of PurePPC.com. "You can use PPC to help test what keywords deliver the highest quality of traffic to your site, while at the same time giving your business a boost in traffic."

8. Email Marketing – This old standby has made a strong comeback. eMarketer says 65 percent of businesses plan on increasing spending on e-mail marketing this year, which beats out the forecasted social media spend by 8 percent. Adage also reported that e-mail marketing provides a higher conversion rate than social media.

"E-mail is still a critical tool to drive leads and sales," James said. "It's still the best way to remarket to those visitors that you’ve attracted to your site from SEO and PPC."

9. Content Marketing – Content marketing (e.g. infographics, blog posts, press releases, whitepapers and articles) increases SEO through natural link building, establishes thought leadership, makes companies more interesting on social media, and drives traffic and leads.

"The future of marketing is not buying ad space," said David Scoville, creative director for PRMarketing.com. "It's in producing unique and interesting content and stories that attracts visitors and builds your brand. Companies must become journalists and storytellers."

About SEO.com

SEO.com is a SEO firm that delivers a big ROI for its clients by driving traffic to their websites through aggressive search engine optimization services, pay per click management, and social media marketing. SEO.com then turns those visitors into sales through user-friendly design and conversion optimization. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies.

Go Smile Achieves Success with Infused Commerce-powered Facebook Store

2011-01-12T19:26:00.007-06:00

Go Smile, the Smile Beauty company, partners with Infused Industries to open a store on the company’s Facebook page to help deal with the massive traffic spike resulting from Go Smile being featured as one of Jill’s “Steals and Deals” on the Today Show.

Go Smile, the Smile Beauty company, achieves success with their Facebook store, powered by
Infused Commerce.

After being featured as one of Jill’s “Steals and Deals” on the Today Show, the company’s e-commerce website was overwhelmed with enormous traffic resulting from the consumer response. The demand surge for their best-selling product, the Smile Whitening System, exceeded order processing capacity even after upgrading servers and staffing additional customer service representatives.

That’s when shoppers went to the company’s Facebook Page looking to get in on the deal.

Using Infused Commerce, the company quickly set up a store allowing consumers to shop on their Facebook Page without leaving Facebook.

“We experienced a tremendous response to this groundbreaking Facebook e-commerce functionality,” says Surj Gish, General Manager of E-Commerce at Go Smile.

“Infused Commerce immediately helped us capture sales and serve our Facebook community in a way that added value to our brand and our customers,” adds Mr. Gish.

During the product promotion, 37% of all visitors to the Facebook store made a purchase.

About Infused Industries

Infused Industries provides social commerce solutions that enable e-commerce merchants to sell products on Facebook and in embeddable widgets across the Internet. To learn more, visit
http://www.infusedcommerce.com.

New Survey Shows that Blogs are Two Times More Likely to Drive Beauty Product Purchases Than Magazines

2011-01-11T16:44:00.007-06:00

The survey also indicates that women still prefer a brick and mortar store over a website when it comes to purchasing beauty products

Belmont, CA

The results of a joint research survey of women’s shopping behaviors and the influence of media when it comes to beauty and personal care products were announced today by BlogHer, Inc., the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online, and DeVries Public Relations, a leading consumer agency representing some of the country’s top beauty and lifestyle brands.

The survey provides insight on the huge $7 billion health and beauty products market in the U.S., more specifically in the areas of online vs. offline purchasing, the relative influence traditional media and blogs have on the products women purchase and brand preference.

Key findings from the study include:

Blogs are more than two times more likely (63%) than magazines (26%) to have inspired a beauty product purchase over the last six months.

Women are just as likely to trust the beauty product advice from a Parenting (43%), Health (42%) or Lifestyle (37%) blog, as from a Beauty and Fashion blog (43%).

Women turn to and trust “familiar” bloggers more than store websites, social networks or message boards when seeking beauty product recommendations.

Women buy beauty products offline at a rate four times greater than online. Women tend to research online and buy offline.

"We've long believed at DeVries that trusted blogs have as much influence on purchase decisions as traditional media outlets, both inside the beauty category and out. We just didn't have data to confirm what we felt intuitively to be true,” said Stephanie Smirnov, President of DeVries Public Relations. “Our research partnership with BlogHer was forged to validate our hypothesis about blogger influence on beauty purchase decisions, and it's been extremely illuminating."

“BlogHer’s 2010 research on women, their social media usage and how it influences purchasing has been eye-opening about just how mainstream social media’s impact has become,” said Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder and COO of BlogHer, Inc. “Doing a deeper dive into the beauty product segment, specifically, revealed that even when purchasing ultimately takes place offline, online word-of-mouth maintains its powerful influence.”

About the Survey

“Beauty is in the Eye of the Blog Holder” was conducted using the following samples:

BlogHer Inc. in partnership with DeVries, fielded a 25 question survey across 25 million BlogHer network users, with a sample size of 1,074 total women across the United States.

The margin of error is +/- 2.9%.
All portions of the study were conducted in October 2010.

The full results of the “Beauty is in the Eye of the Blog Holder” survey can be found here: http://www.blogher.com/beauty-eye-blog-holder-0

About BlogHer

Reaching more than 25 million women each month (Nielsen Site Census, October 2010), BlogHer is the leading participatory news, entertainment and information network for women online. Founded in February 2005 by Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. Today BlogHer creates opportunities for members via a community hub (http://www.blogher.com), annual conferences and a publishing network of more than 2,500 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer provides the highest quality content on a range of topics, with all blogs continually edited to meet strict editorial standards, including content quality, category relevance and blog frequency. BlogHer enjoys a strategic partnership with iVillage, part of Women@NBCU. BlogHer’s investors are Venrock, GE/NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund, and Azure Capital Partners.

About DeVries

Founded in New York City in 1978, DeVries Public Relations is dedicated to providing consumer PR communications for a diverse roster of blue-chip brands that are a part of consumers’ everyday lives. DeVries provides a thorough spectrum of public relations and communications capabilities across the beauty, fashion, wellness, food/beverage and home categories. DeVries Public Relations is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

EyeBuyDirect.com Online Sales Grow 200% in 2010 Holiday Season

2011-01-11T16:37:00.009-06:00

Internet Retailer’s Revenue Growth Signals E-Commerce Trend Towards Social Engagement, Interactivity and Community

New York, NY

EyeBuyDirect.com, the leading online retailer for high-quality, stylish and affordable prescription eyeglasses, today announced a 200% online sales growth year-over-year, as the 2010 holiday season wraps up.

The Internet retailer for prescription eyeglasses, now in its fifth year of operations, has increased its daily web traffic by 67% from the previous year’s holiday season. The Internet retailer’s growing popularity and loyalty among customers can be attributed to very specific technological enhancements such as Facebox and EyeTry, which allowed customers to give their eyeglasses a “test drive” online and share their experience with a social network of more than 20,000 members.

“Improving the customer experience is at the heart of every business decision we make,” says Roy Hessel, CEO of EyeBuyDirect.com. “What’s most interesting is that our holiday sales growth didn’t result from expanding our inventory of eyeglasses, but instead from redesigning and enhancing our website to be more socially engaging, interactive and community-driven.”

By combining technology with social engagement, EyeBuyDirect.com saw a dramatic boost in the number of web visitors who made a direct purchase, thereby increasing the site’s conversion rate by 20%. As a result, the bounce back rate dropped 10% in comparison to the 2009 holiday season.

Hessel sees a promising future for the website over the next 3-5 years. “As we look to improve the online experience for our customers via social engagement, interactivity, technological enhancements and even cause marketing, we expect our sales and website traffic will grow as a direct response.”

About EyeBuyDirect.com

EyeBuyDirect.com is the leading online retailer for prescription eyeglasses committed to bringing optimal vision to customers around the world without sacrificing quality, style and, most importantly, affordable prices. Launched in 2005, EyeBuyDirect.com believes that vision care is a fundamental right for everyone. Offering an assortment of eyeglasses that run the gamut from functional and sturdy to fashion-forward and lightweight, EyeBuyDirect.com has something for everyone including designer deals from Gucci and Christian Dior.

Bonanza a finalist for Washington Technology Association's Consumer Product of the Year

2011-01-11T03:58:00.004-06:00

From the Bonanza blog:

Bonanza has been named a finalist in the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) Awards for Consumer Product or Service of the year. This is a pretty big deal in the Pacific Northwest and something we’re really excited about!

This year marks the 16th annual Industry Achievement Awards, a ‘signature event celebrating Washington’s technology industry.’ Other finalists include Logos Bible Software and Swype. The awards will be announced on February 24, 2011.

Congratulations to everyone in the Bonanza community. This acknowledgment is for all of you as well for making Bonanza what it is today!

About the Washington Technology Industry Association

The Washington Technology Industry Association, founded in 1984, is one of the largest statewide associations of technology companies, IT departments and individual technology professionals in North America. With more than 1,000 members representing more than 125,000 employees in Washington State, the association is a catalyst for sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services and advancing the value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington.

The association’s corporate sponsors are F5 Networks, HTC, Microsoft, Moss Adams LLP, RealNetworks, Regence BlueShield, Vertafore and Wells Fargo Insurance Services.

For more information, go to www.washingtontechnology.org.

Good luck Bonanza!

Free Webinar - 10 Blogging Strategies to Generate New Sales

2011-01-11T03:32:00.003-06:00

SEO Copywriter Gloria Rand presents a free webinar on ten blogging strategies that you can implement to generate new sales for your business.

Blogging may have been overshadowed in 2010 by Facebook, but it's still a valuable tool in a company's marketing arsenal.

Technorati, the leading blog search engine, reported last year that 58% of business owners who blog have sold products or services to their readers. So if you're a small business owner without a blog, 2011 is the time to launch one!

Join this free webinar to learn:

* Importance of using guest bloggers
* Why search engine optimization strategies are necessary
* How to leverage the power of social networking sites for your blog

You'll also get a sneak peek at the upcoming unGeeked e'lite social media, branding and marketing retreat coming to Orlando, FL in March.

Join SEO Copywriter & Social Media Consultant Gloria Rand for this high-impact, one hour webinar.

Space is limited.

Visit https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/745384030 to register.

Gloria Rand is a freelance copywriter, specializing in search engine and social media optimization. Services include: social media marketing, blog writing, email marketing, direct mail marketing

Gloople - The UK's 1st Social Sharing Ecommerce Platform

2011-01-11T03:25:00.007-06:00

A first in the UK: Gloople is placing e-commerce at the centre of social networking Gloople has been selected as a finalist for the Innovation in E-Commerce Award by Econsultancy Innovation Awards.

Winners will be announced on 14 January 2011.

Jan 10, 2011 – Harness the power of social conversation and increase your social media ROI with Gloople, the UK’s first ever fully integrated ‘social shopping’ e-commerce platform.

With more retailers adding social shopping capabilities to their commercial offering every day make sure your business isn’t left behind. Gloople provides a powerful and affordable e-commerce option for SME brands and retailers, enabling you to automate engagement with your consumers online.

Available to either licence or purchase with a range of customisable options for your business, Gloople allows consumers to make direct purchases from your brand’s embedded store without having to leave the comfort of their social networking ‘home’. Links with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter communicate your online consumers’ purchase behaviour to their entire social community, sending your brand viral.

We already have applications such as American Express’ iPhone app Social Currency which allows users to show off purchases made on their AmEx card to their online community, but where is the brand control? There is no direct brand to consumer communication here. Gloople provides brands with a fully customisable online sales platform, from which to engage directly in commercial activity with their online fan base through controlled social media interaction.

By offering rewards and incentives in return for further online interaction with your brand using Gloople’s GroupBuy facility, your brand’s online community is no longer simply a fanbase, but an empowered salesforce, expanding with every ‘tweet and ‘like’.
Perpetual creatures of consumption, what we purchase is symbolic of who we are and when combined with the allure of social media, it is only natural that we would want to share our online purchasing behaviour with our peers. We already broadcast our location to the world; with Gloople, we can now show off our latest purchases.

Other functionalities of Gloople such as the Social Hub provides online consumers with an arena to share purchase stories, advise and recommendations, promoting a sense community and conversation under the watchful eye of the brand. Gloople also has full mobile functionality; with a unique mobile application complete with branded search capabilities and even a payment system, Gloople is fully equipped to meet the demands of the Smartphone user.

http://www.gloople.co.uk/

Dr. Veronica Anderson On Social Media’s Exploitative Problems

2011-01-11T03:15:00.002-06:00

Jan 10, 2011 – Dr. Veronica Anderson, Founder and Host of health and wellness web radio talk show, Wellness for the Real World, recently published a blog on her website www.drveronica.com about social media’s spam-like growth. The blog, titled “The Exploitation of Social Media” explains the reasons why friend- and follower-requests from strangers that have no interest in your personal or business cause cloud the true relationship possibilities offered by social media.

Dr. Anderson writes, “I realize the business uses of social media to build an online presence, visibility, and search-ability, but I am determined to get rid of the crabs of social media in my circle of online connections. The bottom line is that I refuse to be bombarded by ads for weight loss products or SEO promises on my Twitter feed. Followers that appear out of the blue with no purpose are akin to junk mail – and I’ll reject them like I do spam.”

“The true gravity of the health consequences of social media is the risk for illness and declined healing. Many studies show that people who have a strong community or social circles have decreased illnesses of their body and mind. In fact, they heal faster from sickness and surgery… I choose to keep my social media networks exploitation-free and I encourage you to do the same in your own social media circle.” asserts Dr. Anderson.

Wellness for the Real World features information on developing a healthy and fit mind, body and spirit in today’s dynamic society. Dr. Anderson adds her easily understandable, fun-infused voice to the broad-audience discussion on today’s most popular medicines, alternative treatments, health policies and opinions of wellness – so that her listeners can benefit from truly vigorous life in the real world today.

The entire blog can be found at http://www.drveronica.com/blog/the-exploitation-of-social-media.php.

To learn more about Dr. Veronica Anderson and Wellness for the Real World, please visit http://www.drveronica.com.

Listen in to Dr. Veronica Anderson’s web radio show at www.blogtalkradio.com.

About Wellness for the Real World:

Learn about wellness for your mind, body and spirit on Dr. Veronica Anderson’s weekly WebTalkRadio.net broadcasted radio interview program. Each weekly radio show showcases current issues with timely guest interviews. Dr. Veronica draws from her education and experiences to unpack complicated medical details, analyze health reports and share her thoughts on today’s issues with her listeners in three recurring categories: Food of the Week, Fits You To A “Tea”, and The Veronica Report, a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on Corporate America and how they are watching out for our wellbeing.

About Dr. Veronica Anderson:

Dr. Veronica has become known by many for her intellectual and passionate commentary on today’s most popular and debated health perspectives. In addition to her regular radio talk show, Veronica’s upbeat and outspoken perspectives on healthy living have been featured on TV talk shows including Our World with Neil Cavuto (Fox News Channel), and Live with Adam Carolla (syndicated). In addition, radio hosts coast to coast have seen their lines light up as listeners clamor to hear more of Veronica’s straight-forward, pull-no-punches philosophy. She also serves as Host and Guide for Medicine Woman, Modern World, a healthy living travel adventure series for the web.

Determined to become a doctor at age four, Dr. Veronica completed pre-med at Princeton University, received her MD with honors after internship and residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and New York’s Mt. Sinai Medical Center, where she received a fellowship in glaucoma. She has practiced at Robert Wood Johnson, Philadelphia’s Wills Eye Hospital, and is also a fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Veronica Anderson holds a black belt in taekwondo and has completed two marathons.

Vote for Your Favorite Online Marketplace On AuctionBytes

2011-01-11T03:00:00.008-06:00

AuctionBytes, the independent trade publication for online sellers, is collecting votes through January 19 for its second annual Sellers Choice Awards. Participants are asked to cast a vote for the Internet marketplace that best promotes profitability, customer service, communication and ease of use.

Here's the link:
http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2011/1/1293989608.html

US Commerce Secret White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Announce Steps To Enhance Online Security & National Office for Identity Trust Strategy

2011-01-10T12:17:00.011-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 7, 2011
CONTACT OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
202-482-4883

Planned office will foster private-sector collaboration in growing confidence, privacy and convenience in online transactions

Remarks

At a forum with Silicon Valley business and academic leaders at Stanford University, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt today announced plans to create a National Program Office to help foster an environment in which sensitive online transactions can be carried out with greater levels of trust.

The National Program Office, to be established within the Department of Commerce, would coordinate federal activities needed to implement the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), an Obama administration initiative aimed at establishing identity solutions and privacy-enhancing technologies that will make the online environment more secure and convenient for consumers. The national office would serve as the point of contact to bring the public and private sectors together to meet this challenge.

“The Internet will not reach its full potential until users and consumers feel more secure and confident than they do today when they go online,” Locke said. “A coordinated national strategy to significantly improve online trust will put e-commerce on stronger footing. The National Program Office will engage the best minds in the field from both the public and private sectors to give people greater confidence that their personal information is safe when they engage in online transactions.”

“With the full participation of industry and the general public, NSTIC plans to nurture the development of a secure and privacy-enhancing ‘identity ecosystem’ for the Internet,” Schmidt said. “This identity ecosystem would instill greater confidence in online transactions with less personal information being collected and stored with each transaction, lowering the risk of identity theft.”

Created in response to President Obama’s Cyberspace Policy Review, NSTIC is a key building block in the national effort to secure cyberspace. NSTIC strives to enhance online trust through increased security and privacy. It focuses on improving the ability to authenticate individuals, organizations, and the underlying infrastructure, such as servers and routers, involved in sensitive online transactions. At the same time, it provides consumers a choice - those who want to remain anonymous for activities like blogging will continue to be able to do so. Online service providers that opt in to such a system would follow a set of security and privacy guidelines.

NSTIC’s anticipated benefits for consumers include increased convenience, security and privacy. For example, implementation of NSTIC would allow users the option to obtain secure, interoperable credentials from a range of service providers that would authenticate their identity for a variety of transactions such as banking, accessing electronic health records and ordering products. This would simplify these transactions for users and reduce the amount of private information users must reveal to the many organizations they deal with online. Such a marketplace will ensure that no single credential or centralized database can emerge.

In the NSTIC vision, businesses would enjoy new market opportunities, with the ability to deliver services and transactions previously considered too risky. Government would be able to expand online services for constituents, so they can operate with greater efficiency and transparency; remove impediments to e-commerce; and increase public safety by bolstering the integrity of networks and systems.

As the Federal coordinator, the National Program Office would collaborate with other Federal partners, including the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration on NSTIC implementation. The National Program Office would work to:

Build consensus on legal and policy frameworks necessary to achieve the NSTIC vision, including ways to enhance privacy, free expression and open markets;
Work with industry to identify where new standards or collaborative efforts may be needed;
Support collaboration within the government; and
Promote important pilot projects and other NSTIC implementations.
E-commerce worldwide is estimated at $10 trillion of business online annually. E-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2010 were estimated at over $41 billion; up 13.6 percent over the same period last year.

“Identity theft is rampant and growing. Increasingly sophisticated cyber hackers and thieves continue to steal personal information, bank account data and proprietary information. The NSTIC will take important steps forward to enhance the trust of user and consumer confidence in all of their online transactions,” said U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski.

Senator Mikulski, who chairs the Commerce, Justice, Science subcommittee on Appropriations, added “I will be an active partner with Secretary Locke, NIST Director Gallagher and Cybersecurity Coordinator Schmidt to implement this important program. I can think of no better place than the National Institute of Standards and Technology for this important initiative to be housed.”

“Establishing this office represents an important step in the process of protecting the security and privacy of online transactions, said U.S. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “ It’s a critical piece of the larger cybersecurity puzzle. I look forward to working with the Administration this year in enacting comprehensive legislation that will address the challenges we face in securing cyberspace.”

Later this year, the Commerce Department plans to hold a workshop to highlight the existing initiatives in this strategy. Representatives from industry, academia, civil society organizations, standards-setting organizations, and all levels of government will be encouraged to attend and collaborate on the development of an interoperable identity ecosystem.

New Bonanza Social Media Rep. Jeremiah Mattocks Unprofessional & Repulsive Facebook Response

2011-01-09T23:34:00.087-06:00

On December 22, 2010, Jeremiah Mattocks wrote about his arrival to and duties at Bonanza.

Here is the Bonanza blog link to his announcement:
http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Introducing_Jeremy

It is fairly well known that Bonanza.com staff has a so-called sense of humor. While humor is great, the timing of and the situation / delivery of this humor should be wisely looked at before applying it.

Jeremiah states in his introduction that he has something to do with a "comedy" website. We have been to that website and do not really see the humor in it. At best, it is a very sad, forced sense of humor.

Here is the link to the "comedy" site:
http://itgetsworser.com/

Anyway, we firmly believe that there is nothing wrong with a little humor so long as it does not reflect badly on the site and/or its sellers. In fact, it is nice to lighten up a bit from time to time BUT what happened to a well established Bonanza member today was just too much to ignore.

Here is the run down of the story as noted by Sofyblu2 (note: her avatar is of one of her dogs) on her Facebook wall (caution - strong & offensive language follows):

This is how a social media rep responds to a friend request????? by Russ Kawecki on Sunday, January 9, 2011 at 12:59pm

How would you feel about this? While doing my usual thing on FB I see the person hired to do the social media duties on Bonanza has also posted on a thread I am on. I think cool! A Bonanza employee! I will request friendship. This is the message I am sent by the social media rep:

Jeremiah Arthur Mattocks 09 January 2011 at 00:05

Subject: friend request?

Dear Russ Kawecki,

Imagine my surprise upon receiving a friend request from you, as you appear to be an animal; it was my understanding that animals other than Homo sapiens sapiens lacked the cognitive faculties social media requires. Either I have been grossly mistaken, or you are an unusually intelligent canine. A canine lives with me—he eats cat shit from the litter box. With your exceptional intelligence, I wonder, do you eat cat shit from the litter box when the opportunity is presented?

I do hope you’re the type of beast who accepts constructive criticism with grace. Please don’t think me rude for saying so, but we humans usually use Facebook for befriending people we know in person. I can’t remember meeting a genius dog, and I think that’s something I would remember. I understand why you might be seeking friendship outside of your peers, given your anomalous IQ, but I thought you might like to know.

Cheers,
Jeremy – a human

This is the very person hired to be our social media rep. Sweet huh?? Would one not think if they were hired for that type of position that they may have people sending friend requests and to have the god given brains to see if perhaps the requester was a part of the site you work on?

To say I am beyond offended is putting it mildly. If he said this crap to me who else that are buyers and sellers has he responded to in this manner?

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=180531435300228&comments

What kind of business person would represent Bonanza in this manner? What must potential sellers and buyers think if they are greeted with this sort of response? What must blog and media writers think in the same situation? What about potential investors - they may be wanting to learn more about Bonanza when they contact you? Do you also send them the same type of foul mouthed nasty message simply because you don't know them?

Jeremiah! You should know that it is hard to say who is behind those avatars. If you are such a social media guru, you should already know this! Seriously, you need to take lessons from Facebook for Dummies because what you did was not only unprofessional and not funny but it also makes you appear to be a real jerk. You most certainly did not appear to be a good representative for Bonanza or their sellers.

What you said was NOT funny. It was STUPID! Maybe you ought to be checking your "anomalous IQ." You are not as bright or witty as you think you are. Your comments were absolutely sick!

How many people have you run off from Bonanza with this kind of behavior?

Sellers wonder why there are very few buyers and sales on Bonanza, well, I think we found at least one reason in your response to Sofyblu2.

What is funny, this also shows just how out of touch you are with Bonanza, Jeremiah! You see, Sofy has been a Bonanzle/Bonanza member since 08-27-2008 and is on the forums daily. She posts multiple times everyday. If you had any kind of serious connection with Bonanza and its members, you would have known her avatar!

Bonanza needs to fire this joker and get someone in there that knows what they are doing. This jokers club thing will not sustain Bonanza. What it will do is kill the site. No one who is a serious seller or a buyer looking for a site they can trust will use Bonanza if it does not rid itself of the bad humor that is frequently offered up by those with a grade school attitude.

Who is running Bonanza anyway?
Many sellers are trying to make a living at least in part on Bonanza. They need professionals at the helm, not a bunch of clowns. Get some business minded people in there and fire those that have no idea how to interact on a professional level.

UPDATE:

Alex Berg posted to Sofy's FB wall. Here is a copy and paste of the spin. (And yes Alex, it is spin.)

Hi everyone. I understand the frustration and anger, and I am not making light of this, but I want to try to clear the air on a few things.

Jeremy was using his personal Facebook account and was responding to a request from someone who he ...thought was an old friend and was playing along. I assure you that he would not have responded as such if he thought the communication was in any way Bonanza-related. He sent a very heart-felt apology directly to Sofy once he was made aware of the error.

Let me add my own apology here as well. Sofy, I’m sorry you were spoken to in such a fashion. This is not the manner in which we speak to people in the community. If I thought Jeremy was being malicious in any way towards anyone in the Bonanza community please believe me that swift action would be taken.

Did he make a mistake in assuming it was a friend? Yes. Should he have checked who it was first? Yes. Regrettably, he made an honest, and now very public, mistake. I can assure you he has learned a lot from this.

Thank you for your understanding. I hope you'll all give him, and Bonanza, the benefit of the doubt that this was a mistake and not a reflection of how Bonanza treats community members.

Alex Berg
That excuse is so.... oh man, I can't find the words for it. All I can say is most of us did not fall off the turnip truck in the last 30 minutes. "Playing along" with what Alex? Sofy sent a friend request. As far as we understand it, that is not a game but it is a common thing done on FB. Normally, members approve, deny or simply ignore friend requests. They don't usually send rude and offensive responses.

As one of the responders on Sofy's FB wall states:

I only have three things to say about this...

1) Wow, what an interesting coincidence, that he had an 'old friend' named Russ Kawecki!!?

2) Hmmm, if I got a request from my 'old friend' Russ Kawecki, I might have accepted the friend request... at the same time as I was asking him if he ate cat shit and insulting his intelligence.

3) When I felt it necessary to explain to my 'old friend' that FB is normally reserved for friends that I know in person, I might have thunk that my 'old friend' Russ might take it to mean...Since I don't know you, why are you invading my personal FB space?

...okay, four things...

4) Which brings us back around to immature, rude & crude, and not a very good choice for a social media rep.
---

And another poster responds on Sofy's wall:

IMHO the young man is a loose cannon.

The origin of "loose cannon" comes from Victor Hugo's last novel, Quatrevingt-treize (or "Ninety-Three" in English). In it, a sailor was negligent in not securing a cannon on board, causing it to be tos...sed about in a storm. The moral is, even in a storm, it's not something outside of us that is capable of doing the worst damage, but what's INSIDE of us. The novel was published in 1874.

If Jeremy "thought" he was chatting with an old friend (but was not sure), he should not have replied in the manner he did. To hand over such a position to someone this inexperienced is clearly a mistake. Surely his talents could be used more effectively in another position with Bonanza for now, while he studies up on proper communications as a representative for an up and coming venue. The reputation of Bonanza (and each booth owner) is still young and fragile. It needs to be guarded CLOSELY. There is no room for error.

Stepping down off my soap box.
---

The above posters are 100% correct, as far as we are concerned.

It appears that the kid hasn't enough common sense to know when to shut off the so called comedic relief. It was a problem in this instance BUT how many other times has this happened - it was Bonanza related - but we don't know about it, yet?

What does it matter if the person he was speaking to was a Bonanza member, a possible investor or potential Bonanza seller or buyer? It shouldn't matter who he wronged but what should matter is that someone contacted him with a friend request because of his connection to Bonanza and he delivered a horrendous repsonse.

No apology can make this right. The dirty deed, hurt feelings and etc have already been done. (It's like when our kids used to get caught doing something wrong and they would say - sorry - and then go on with life as if nothing happened. BUT it did happen!)

Well, what Alex is sayig is that Bonanza and its sellers will continue to be represented by this childish person. Whatever Bonanza is paying him is far too much and the risk they are taking with the site reputation (thus, the reputation of each and every seller on the site) is extremely high.

What Alex fails to see (probably because he is relatively new to Bonanza) is that most of us have given Bonanza the benefit of the doubt for so long (since mid to late 2008) that we now know when our leg is being pulled. We have seen the spin, time and time again. And guess what? Our legs have been stretched as far as they can go but being dizzy from the spin hasn't blinded us from the truth.

Click here to read another Bonanza sellers blog on this topic.

UPDATE:

Sofy just posted on her wall, the following:

******* MY TURN :) *********************************
First off I would like to say thank you to all our friends that were so supportive to us. That means a tremendous amount that you will never realize.

I believe that this actually opened ...a door to allow Management to see that we need to be treated with TOTAL respect both on and off the site. That our opinions do matter and that as contributors to the site that we do deserve a voice in the very thing that effects our lives..our business. To that I fervently pray and wish that no one leaves. I believe we can make this all work as long as there is some give and take on both sides. And I mean BOTH sides.

Jeremy did send me an apology. However, I quit earlier than usual and did not receive it until a few minutes ago as i dug thru my mail. Alex's response was some 5 hours later than when Jeremy apologized.

As this is my problem..I am willing to accept Jeremy's apology with the agreement that he apologize to the community. However to avoid any further problems I am requesting that it be done so that no comments can be left. It is now time to heal.I have thought long and hard about this.. I do not want him fired. My expectations from Jeremy are that he will learn from this kick in the ass, that being careless is no way to go thru life, that he realize in his youth that he actually is responsible for our livelihoods, his actions directly effect my business. He may not yet have a mortgage nor a family, but perhaps this will allow him to see how how his actions do effect others. And that I expect him to pick up his slack and do the job he was hired to do and to do it beyond the call of duty.

A lot of things have been said and I think a lot of it has just been building up for so long that the dam finally had to burst. We as sellers have felt like we no longer mattered to what many felt like what was home. I want my home back again and I want us all to succeed. Again that is going to take the work of BOTH us and management.
---

I understand forgiveness and all of that but this guy could make or break Bonanza and/or each one of us who sell on Bonanza since he is supposed to be the "social" guy that helps get the site name out there and hopefully, bring buyers to Bonanza. I firmly believe, allowing him to stay at Bonanza will be a huge mistake. (The same goes with all of the others who have committed - not funny capers - that can directly affect our businesses with which we support ourselves and our families.)

While this may have seemed to be an attack on Sofy, it really was more than that. It was an attack on all of Bonanza and its sellers. So, I kind of have a problem with one person telling me and the rest of the site members how to feel about this whole situation (sorry, Sofy). I think all of the sellers have feelings on what happened and all of them have merit. We have every right to call for the kid to be fired as he is also representing us in whatever he posts to and in conjunction with social media. I think his "mistake" proves that he is not mature enough to handle the postion and he lacks very important basic decision making skills. Bonanza needs someone who has REAL experience with social media - not just some kid who plays around with social media and some ridiculous "comedy" website. (By the way, did you see the Christmas cartoon on his site? Bad taste for the social media guru of a selling venue, if you ask me.)

So, I am a bit bugged that anyone thinks that this should be the end of it and that life just simply goes on - because it doesn't. That same thinking did not work for my kids when they lived at home - it certainly is not going to work for this kid in Seattle who has the potential to destroy our business.
--

UPDATE:

Jeremiah posted an apology on Sofy's wall:

Dear Bonanza community,
...
For all the anger, hurt, frustration, and loss of trust I’ve caused, I am very sorry. Your anger with me is expected. But the thing I’m most ashamed of is how I’ve damaged your relationship with Bonanza. Not content to hold me personally responsible for my own private, stupid actions, I’ve seen Bonanza’s name dragged through the mud; I couldn’t feel more terrible about this than I already do.

When Bonanza hired me, they did so not because I was an expert, but because they saw potential. I’ll be the first to say I’m not an expert. I’m learning, I’m human, and I made a big mistake. This is, without a doubt, the biggest and stupidest mistake I’ve made. But that is exactly what it was: a mistake. This was not me being malicious or callous or knowingly disrespecting a Bonanza seller. This was an honest, albeit idiotic, mistake. But I promise you this: I won’t make this mistake again. No matter where I find myself in the future, I’ve learned a valuable lesson that I’ll never forget.

Since my message has already been made public, I owe you all more than just an apology—I owe you an explanation.

I share a weird sense of humor with many of my close friends. Every once in a while, one of them will create a new fictional Facebook account as a joke. I will respond in kind and find myself friends with another fictitious entity. I’ve been Facebook friends with a rag doll, a mannequin, and a pet chinchilla. I’m not asking you to laugh, but I hope you will understand that this was a ridiculous attempt at humor made in the worst possible way at the worst possible time. Unused to representing a company in my private life, I assumed this new friend request came from one of my old friends up to their zany hijinks again.

What I’m trying to say is I made a horrible assumption. Since I assumed the request came from a close friend, it made sense to me to respond as if I were talking to a friend’s pet. It made absolutely no sense to respond to a valued member of our community in that way. To say I am sorry would be an understatement. I am mortified to find out that my message went to a Bonanzler who was trying to connect in earnest. This is not intended to be an excuse at all. I accept full responsibility for the mess I made. This is just an explanation.

What I’ve learned from this is that I represent Bonanza personally as well as professionally. And given that many of you earn your living on Bonanza, I take this lesson very, very seriously. I understand now, more than ever, that I have a duty to the entire community that doesn’t end when the work day is over.

To everyone I hurt with my carelessness: I deeply, truly regret my actions. Your anger and disappointment is completely understandable. I’ve read your messages, I’ve taken them to heart, and I’m ready to start showing you how much I value your role in Bonanza.

I am so sorry. I hope you’ll forgive my carelessness.

Sincerely,

Jeremy
---

Ok, that seems like a very heartfelt apology. Thank you Jeremy!

But the question of his ability to effectively and professionally represent Bonanza and all of its sellers is still unanswered. Is it worth the risk to continue on this course with a social media guru who didn't realize the full realm that social media plays on a selling venue? Is it worth the risk to have someone represent you who has no idea just what their job is and/or how his personal life can cause problems for his business life online?

It's not just this one mistake. It is several mistakes that have happened involving Bonanza reps. This poor kid just got caught up in the strange workings of Bonanza. There have been several blunders by those who represent Bonanza so for many, this mistake was the icing on the cake.

I still say, this should not be allowed to happen and there should be a termination as it appears Bonanza hired someone that they liked personally or liked his sense of humor at an interview rather than someone who had the appropriate credentials to do a job that can make or break not only Bonanza but all of the sellers on Bonanza.

UPDATE:

ColderIce & Pheadra talk about this situation:

John and Pheadra Talk Social Media Mistep at Bonaza by ColderICE

Note: We disagree with CI's initial comments about peoples avatars. No matter what the avatar looks like, no one should be talked to like that. No social rep of a selling venue should say bad things to anyone whether someone uses their own picture or just a simple graphic as their avatar. After all, anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that it is a person typing messages on Facebook and not any animal.

As far as the comments about a social media rep and not knowing enough to separate their personal stuff from their business stuff (a real social media rep would have known this info before they went looking for employment), we wrote the basics on this back in August 2009. For that matter, this same advice is all over the internet. Here's the link:
http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2009/08/online-seller-professionalism.html

And - anyone who has been out in the working world knows that people can and do recognize you due to your work. Sometimes the 2 portions of your life do cross over. This is why many employers have policies about your conduct on and off the job. In most all cases, employers fire those who cross over the line in a manner that can hurt their businesses. This is true in both government and private sector jobs.

And yes, many of us have made mis-steps in our lives but for the most part, they do not hurt anyone but ourselves. There is little room for mis-steps that can hurt all sellers on a selling venue.

And the lynch mob comments: this has nothing to do with a lynch mob. It has to do with holding the selling venue responsible for their choice of such a rep. Ultimately, the selling venue is responsible to all of their sellers when they hire someone to fill a position that is representing everyone. Yes, Jeremy made a huge mistake (that credentialed social media reps would likely not make) but it was Bonanza that hired him so they are the ones who hold the majority of blame. Personally, we don't really care where someone like this works as long as it is far away from our business if they have no idea how to do their job or the seriousness of the responsibilities surrounding the job.

None of this has changed our minds. Get a REAL social media rep or do without one completely. Sellers work too hard to build their reputations to have some green horn come in and ruin it for them with snarky comments. Doesn't Bonanza do background checks on the people they hire? If not, this is proof that they should.

We just checked out the link to the site that Jeremiah claims that he is a "social media specialist." Oh Lord, if this is what got him the job, Bonanza also needs to hire a personnel director to do their hiring because their judgment is clouded with their weird humor. Anyone reading the page can see, this guy is not who you want representing your company. Here is the link (a social media specialist would never have "suck my cocktails" on their site where they are soliciting employment but it is on this site):
http://www.jeremiahmattocks.com/about

Added 01-11-2011 - Link to Colder Ice's article on the above subject:
http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2011/01/10/did-bonanza-com-pick-the-wrong-name-out-of-the-social-media-specialist-hat/

JA Winter Show At Javits Convention Center In New York

2011-01-09T04:20:00.000-06:00

Click Here To Register

Javits Convention Center
New York City

SHOW DATES & HOURS
Sunday - February 27
Show Floor: 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Registration: 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Monday - February 28
Show Floor: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Registration: 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday - March 1
Show Floor: 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Registration: 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

JCK Show Announces Extended Dates and Enhanced Features

2011-01-08T04:08:00.005-06:00

By JCK Staff
Posted on January 7, 2011

As JCK Las Vegas 2011 finds its new home at Mandalay Bay this June, attendees can expect extended show days, new exhibitors, and new product focus areas, JCK Events announced Jan. 6.

The show will feature a redesigned show floor organized by product category to aid buyers in efficiently shopping the JCK show floor. More than 80 percent of the floor will occupy product location “destinations” with the introduction of silver, bridal, fashion jewelry, and pearls.

A growing number of new exhibitors have signed up for this year’s show, including Temple St. Clair, Rio Tinto Diamonds, Lagos, Alex Sepkus, and Breitling (at Swiss Watch at JCK), among others.

In addition, extended dates for LUXURY, Equipment Technology & Supplies, and AGTA will allow additional opportunities for buyers to source key areas of the show floor. LUXURY, typically a three-day event, will expand to seven: May 31–June 6 (May 31–June 2 by invitation only). AGTA will run June 2–7, and Equipment, Technology & Supplies runs June 3–7.

We're Back & We Found Poop In The Sandbox, Again

2011-01-03T02:35:00.003-06:00

As far back as I can remember, it has been said in various ways that we shouldn't poop in our sandbox or a sandbox that we frequent. Even an animal will not poop in their bed. You likely know the old saying - you made your bed, now you have to lie in it. The same holds true for sandboxes.

Well, some reading this will say that I am pooping in a sandbox I frequent but that is not the case. What I am going to do in the next several posts is to out some of those who are doing the pooping and point out some of the poop that is just so deep, it can't escape being written about.

We have been gone awhile do to a recent move and health issues so the following will not necessarily be in the proper chronological order, date wise of the event, but I will try to include when it happened in the posts.

Please remember, when your sandbox or one you frequent is being polluted and no one is doing any poop scooping or they scoop in a discriminating way, it is not wrong to warn others to be aware of the poop so they can try not to get any on their shoes. I, for one, can not remain quiet any longer.

And by the way, Bonanza thinks that they can gain buyer trust with logos from PayPal, VeriSign, Truste and etc. Well, until they clean up the riff raff on the site and run the forums consistently without prejudice, trust will be an issue. Logos do not instill trust. A well run site with honest sellers who list items as what they are (not what they are not) is what it takes. The site needs to build trust in the usual way, not off the backs of other websites. Those are some examples of removing the poop.

We Will No Longer Post On The Bonanza Forums

2011-01-03T02:15:00.005-06:00

Due to an incident on 11-04-10, we have had enough. Seems that Bonanza wants their members to think that they are able to express themselves but that is clearly not the case.

Here is a post from Bonanza forums written by Mark that states, in part:

"Hey everyone,

Each day one of the first things that we do is browse the forums to get a sense of how the community is doing, what is new, how everyone is, etc. The past couple of days we have seen a couple of posters that stated that they were “afraid to post” or “hesitant to discuss sensitive matters” in the forums for fear of being DMV’d (Disemvoweled, suspended, etc, see definitions below). So that everyone in the community is clear, that is not how we roll. We totally want you to talk, discuss, and have constructive conversations and carry on as you always have. The idea that we do not want you to disagree or the be “only cheery” is not true and not realistic. That being said, we are very intent on having one of the most friendliest and empowering communities online, which we are. Does that mean that you cannot disagree with someone? Not even. Bill and I disagree all the time (mostly about Racquetball rules and the best Nachos in Seattle). But when you do disagree (on Bonanza), you need to disagree constructively and in a professional manner. We want to make sure that we are fostering a community that is welcoming to all, buyers and sellers, because lets face it, there is enough dreariness in this world to go around."

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/136442

We got disemvoweled and a forum violation on page four in this thread:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/9/topics/138465?page=4

If you don't like clicking on links, you can click on the below screenshot to enlarge it to see the missing vowels:

This is what was written before the disemvoweling:

>>Why does the Rush banner show up in my booth? We hope that Rushes are going to become one of the differentiating features of Bonanza — so we don’t want these to be an event that is buried where it won’t be seen. We will be closely monitoring if and how the Rush announcement affects buying behavior, but given how many buyers visit from search and click away after one page, we figure it can’t be a bad thing to give them a second place to glance at if the original item they came to see didn’t meet their buying criteria.

And of course, any buyer, whether logged in or not, can hide the Rush notification with a single click.<<

If Bonz is going to leave that banner in our booth and take no consideration that we work hard to bring buyers to OUR booth (our time and effort with no help from Bonz to bring them to our booth) then we will NOT be renewing our premiere membership.

Bonz has no right to put that banner in our booth to take our customers out of our booth. We don't want our visitors/buyers seeing that banner in our booth! We can NOT hide that banner from our visitors/buyers by clicking anything.

We don't want that banner in our booth and nothing is going to change our opinion.

To keep taking away our control of our booths and business is wrong on every level.

Bummin' more and more about the so-called upgrades of the site because they are not considering what is best for the sellers but seem to be only concerned about bells, whistles and taking more choices away from the sellers.

I am sorry - I thought the Rush could be a great opportunity for Bonz and the sellers but if the above statement is the case, that means Rushs will only be good for some sellers at the expense of the rest of us sellers.

Here is a screen shot of the post to prove the above is what was written. Please click on the graphic to enlarge it:

After we got the violation email we sent this to support:

Just thought I'd say how childish that was to violate me and DMV me for my opinion on Bonz destroying our businesses with their bells and whistles.

It's ok, I won't post in your stupid forums no more but you can bet my blog will be busy being filled with posts this weekend when I have more time...

And just for the record, I won't DMV Bonz management but don't be surprised if I call out any spin you may post.

I am angry that you are taking our businesses out from under us and you should have expected some of us would speak out.... But of course, you probably did and kept that nasty violation button hot and ready.

Have a great night!
---

Then Mark waits 3 days to respond with:

Mark, Nov 07 23:21 (PST):

Really sorry for any trouble in the forums. We really enjoy having you in the community and sincerely appreciate your support in the forums. We hope that you reconsider your position and that we see you participating soon.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanza Team
---

Who the heck is he kidding? Why would anyone post just to have him or other Bonz management humiliate them in the forums?

This wasn't the first time they slapped me/us around in the forums but you can bet your bottom dollar that it won't happen again.

Those forums are a joke.
The rules they use are a bigger joke.
Their rule enforcement is not consistent and causes further issues. (If you aren't a favorite with management, you best look out!)

Just simply stated, the post that Mark made that states we shouldn't be hesitant to post in the forums is a bold faced lie! We know all too well - how they "roll," as Mark put it.

Some forum members have not only been told that "Bonanza may not be right for them" (basically a suggestion to leave the site) due to issues they have had in the forums and others have been threatened in private emails. We can promise you, you can not speak freely there.

Things have gotten even worse than ever before since Bonanza got the money from the investors. It seems that any member is now expendable. We are not needed.

If you use Bonanza forums, be aware that you may find trouble lurking for you.

For those that don't know, what we write on our blogs can also get us into trouble with Bonanza management. If they happen to read anything negative about them or the site, sometimes they respond in a manner that is not so kind. Yes friends, Hitler and his cohorts may have been reincarnated so please be careful.

Unprofessional, Irresponsible Post By Bonanza Management In Their "Roundtable Questions"

2011-01-03T01:45:00.005-06:00

Management of a venue with forums should lead by example. Whatever the site rules are, management should be the first to follow those rules. Horseplay and/or "testing" (whatever they want to call it) should not be done where potential buyers may see it when they visit the site. The first impression is what buyers remember and when something questionable or unprofessional is seen, buyers will notice. Many will run fast and furious from a site that appears less than business-like.

Bonanza's rules regarding the use of the roundtable question area states, in part:

Bonanza's Roundtable is a place you can get general questions about items answered from the community. Any user can ask a question, and any user can post an answer. Keep in mind when answering that accuracy counts; the community votes for the best answer. If your response gets the most votes, Bonanza's system remembers you as an excellent reference for a particular category of items. As a trusted resource, your response will get priority over others when a similar question arises.

The rest of the info about roundtable questions can be found at:
http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/roundtable?layout=&title=What+are+%27Roundtable+Questions%3F%27

Bonanza also states in their forum rules, in part, the following which believe is to somewhat govern the whole site:

•Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.

The forum guidelines can be found here:
http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

Bonanza's own, Mark Dorsey posted a roundtable question on December 22, 2010, that should not have ever been posted. It was fairly early in the evening and remaining up to read for several hours, during prime shopping time. This should not have been posted at all - Not by Bonanza members - Not by management - Not by anyone!

We figured that the post and subsequent posts would not last long because someone with some sense was bound to see what was going and complain so we took the following screenshots so we had proof of what was said. Click the below graphics below to enlarge them.

There you have it. Bonanza management talking about drinking as if it was to be expected of Bonanza members and visitors through the holiday season. What was he thinking?

Here are some of the responses to Mark's roundtable question - click on the graphics to enlarge them:

Mark sent an apology and an explanation to at least one person for his irresponsible post to the roundtable. Mark said:

"The roundtable had been stagnant for over a week and I was trying to think of something to post just to test to make sure it was working properly."

While we don't believe that excuse, we have to give him credit for admitting that he made an error in judgment and aplogizing.
---

And if that wasn't enough, 2 days later, someone brought up the above mentioned roundtable question in their own roundtable question. Click the graphics below to enlarge them.

The above new post to the roundtable didn't last too awfully long but it should not have happened and was caused by the unprofessional behavior in the original post.

Forum Guideline Implementation Inconsistencies Create Issues Amongst Bonanza Users

2011-01-03T01:24:00.011-06:00

There has not been a time that we can remember that one of the threads which originated from us has ever been allowed to stay in the forums. For whatever reason, they have been sent to drama and deleted shortly after, just simply deleted and now with the new Bonanza management toy, threads that we have started have ended up in purgatory. Bonanza purgatory is where a thread does not get deleted or moved to drama but it is set in limbo where only those that have bookmarked it can find it again. You can still post to it if you can find it but it does not show up on the people page of the forums.

Well, one time we confronted Mark at Bonanza support and here is what he said as to why one thread went to purgatory:

I can understand how you may think that you are being targeted, as I know there have been a couple of posts from you that were taken off of the front page rotation. Let me explain why, that will help so that in the future you can continue to post such topics but word them differently so they do not wind up the same fate.

Using your title as a first example:

"Threatening OBO Message -Is it necessary & in sellers/sites best interest?"

It is a very strongly worded title that may invoke drama, which we try to steer clear of. Instead, try wording it something like this:

"I think we should word the OBO message differently, what do you think?

The second title is more inviting of constructive feedback and is less likely to be cast off of the home page.

If you have a quick look at the description of the OP, you will also see words that are inviting of drama:

"so Bay-like"

"so what!"

"why the threatening message?"

"nasty message."

Your posts are very strong and opinionated. They serve only to fire people up and invite dramatic responses. We are not unreasonable and have always responded to constructive feedback from all. But it needs to be constructive and not delivered so strongly so that it delivers the wrong message to us and also invites dramatic posts from others.

Hope this helps you understand the process. Just in case, here are some links to our guidelines that will also assist:

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/topic_tags?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+topic+tags%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/general/disemvowel?layout=&title=What+does+it+mean+to+become+%22disemvoweled%3F%22
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Funny how as adults, we are being told what to write and how to express it. After all, we are not smart enough to get our message across without censorship and or coaching.

We don't know when it happened or why but the thread eventually was completely removed:
http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/127219?page=1

Oh, and here is another thread that we started only to have it land in purgatory without an explanation:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/124288?page=1

When questioned, all Mark said was:

"The post is still live and can be seen by all. Thank you for your support of our community and for the helpful information you are providing.

Regards,
Mark
The Bonanzle Team"

That was so untrue! It was only able to be seen by those who saved the link.

And one time, I got a message from Mark, can't find it right now but I know I have it somewhere, where he stated that the message I was trying to convey in a post I had made is one similar to posts that they have seen posted by others that led to discord, or something like that, so he removed a post that I had made. (The post I had written was not causing any issues but because someone at some other time had posted a "similar" post that caused a stink, mine had to go!)

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Then when you look at the forum guidelines, they state in part:

•Other conduct unbecoming a good community member: expressing polictical or religious viewpoints, asking for donations, using foul language, engaging in threads of adult nature (drugs, drinking, etc.), threatening to talk to lawyers or file lawsuits, stalking, booth chat hijacking, starting topics about topics that have been reclassified, unnecessarily assuming the worst in others or Bonanza, spam.

http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/general/forum_rules?layout=&title=What+are+the+forum+rules+and+guidelines%3F

There have been posts on this blog where we have talked about how Bonanza management have favorite members on the site and that those members are treated differently than others. That's not saying anything bad about these particular members because management is making the choice to treat those members better than others.

Anyway, with all that I have said above, I can not for the life of me understand why this post is still on the forums! It was started in drama but threads get obliterated there also. So what gives?

Here is the thread: http://www.bonanza.com/forums/10/topics/146141

The thread is bringing up a topic that has been reclassified which is against forum policies;

And the thread is talking about religion which is agaist forum policies.

Besides that, people have been a bit snippy in that thread and yet it remains.

Why the favortism? Who knows but it is clearly obvious on Bonanza, no one can ever convince me otherwise.

What else is funny about this, since this drama thread has started, the prayer request threads have popped up quite a bit and no one is doing anything to enforce the forum policies. Funny how that works!

What I don't get is Bonanza is a selling venue. These kinds of threads offering support or whatever can be done on any of tons of sites that are available on the internet for that sole purpose. There are private emails, Bonz emails (Bmail,) there is a chatbox in each sellers booth and there are QT's. So why does this kind of thing show up in a selling venues forums?

Some say get rid of Christmas, Easter and etc if they enforce the religious policy. That would be silly because while many people associate those holidays with religion, many others do not. In all honesty, those titles are so commercial that the true name of the holidays and meanings of them have been lost for the most part.

But back to the message of this post, it does matter who you are on Bonanza when it comes to posting in the forums.

Bonanza.com Blatantly Diverts Traffic Away From Sellers Booths

2011-01-03T01:20:00.004-06:00

Without any consideration for sellers feelings, Bonanza placed a huge banner on their booth to the sites new Bonanza Rush's, effectively creating a diversion to potential buyers who may visit a particular sellers booth.

At first, the banner in each individual booth was as big as the banner on the home page. Click the graphic to enlarge the screenshot:

Many sellers complained on the Bonanza blog and in one instance, where we asked to have the banner removed from our booth, we were told they would look into. Once again, to enlarge the screenshots below, click on each of them.

Then a short while later, Bonanza founder, Bill Harding wrote the following post:

When I saw what Bill wrote, which was completely contrary to the message Alex wrote on the blog, I was miffed.

The reasoning for these ridiculous banners in our booth is not as stated but we believe it is because they are not going to advertise the rushes BUT they are going to suck off sellers efforts at promoting their booth to draw buyers into their booths. Rather than advertising outside of Facebook, Twitter and emails (which go to a great number of people that are already Bonz members and know about the Rushs,) they are forcing sellers to do the work for them indirectly.

Bill's post was a page before I got disemvoweled on the same thread:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/9/topics/138465?page=3

At some point, Bonanza did finally reduce the size of the leaching banner but it is still in every sellers booth, just waiting for one of the buyers that that seller worked so hard to draw in to click on that thing and be pulled away from that sellers listings.

Seems to me that Bonanza is forgetting that many sellers left eBay because they were being told how to run their businesses and their choices of how or what was going on with their stores and/or listings were being taken away.

Just how long does Bonanza think they can continue on this course of - do what we want / to hell with the sellers and their thoughts and feelings - before they start leaving Bonz for places that value and respect them?

PayPal Gets Free Advertising On Bonanza Sellers Listings

2011-01-03T01:15:00.006-06:00

Crazy at it may seem, sellers at Bonanza were forced to give up prime real estate on their product listings without an ounce of choice in the matter.

Bonanza decided on their own without any consideration to how their sellers may feel about adding a badge on their listings to simply add a badge but even worse, there is a link to learn more about using Paypal on Bonanza.

Here is what it looks like. You can click the graphic to enlarge the screenshot we took:

Here is the link to the learn more part of the PayPal banner - http://www.bonanza.com/site_help/offers/pp_buyer_protection?layout=false&title=Paypal+Buyer+Protection

In the infomation provided at the above link, Bonanza is USING PayPal's buyer protection in an attempt to instill buyer trust BUT they are diverting trust from all Bonanza sellers, especially those who do not accept PayPal with the following statement:

Purchases made with PayPal as the payment method. Purchases made through Google Checkout or with a money order or other payment method won't be covered.

Nothing like using the sellers listings to promote PayPal for free and then throw a large majority of sellers (some who have paid Bonanza memberships) under the bus.

If Bonanza was truly interested in buyer trust, they would market the Bonanza name broadly - TV, radio, newspaper, magazines and etc so that buyers know that it is not interested in being a fly by night site.

Instead, they are running on the coat tails of PayPal's buyer protection program.

Why doesn't Bonanza do the same thing with Google Checkout? They too have a buyer protection program. Why make one payment service sound so much better over the other when they both provid excellent buyer protection? It can be found here: http://checkout.google.com/support/?hl=en

It makes us think that they are getting some kind of kickback for advertising PayPal. We can't think of any reason Bonanza would give up such a highly visible space on sellers listings and risk angering sellers doing so without something inticing them to do so.

Here is what Bonanza sellers had to say about the PayPal badge:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/140746

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/140753

At some point along the way, Bonanza made that huge badge an option and sellers were eventually able to turn the thing off.

Use Caution Buying Jewelry On Bonanza.com

2011-01-03T00:55:00.007-06:00

We feel a bit bad about not posting this sooner, especially since the Christmas shopping season is over but we hope it will still help those who buy or intend to buy jewelry on Bonanza.com.

As we wrote in a September 2010 post - http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2010/09/everything-that-glitters-gold-is-it.html - there are issues on Bonanza with sellers misrepresenting their jewelry products as being gold when they are gold plate or other lesser valued jewelry.

We reported to Bonanza management about a seller. They must have gotten ahold of the seller and said something because the listing titles were changed a bit but for the worse. Seems the titles were shortened up to look even more like the items are really karated gold.

So, we reported the situation and demanded something be done, pointed out the issues and etc.

We got this note back from support:

Mark, Sep 23 10:49 (PDT):

We have addressed this. Additionally, this seller has 100% feedback and has always shown a willingness to do the right thing. So while we can understand your concerns, we would encourage you to let Bonanza handle the situation as we have always done.

Thanks,
Mark
The Bonanza Team
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The buyer that contacted me about the seller in question also got a less than helpful response from support that was shared with us. It states (we took the buyers name out):

Hello,
I did check out her listings, her past practices, and sales. I also did some research on the gold-layering process, and she appears to be following the letter of the law when describing her jewelry. I know that you didn't get what you thought you were buying, but I don't believe that the seller was intentionally deceptive about the items. However, I'm glad to hear that everything worked out for you with the refund.

Tom
The Bonanza Team
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Okay, so we have allowed Bonanza to handle the situation but guess what? They haven't done a thing about the situation. The seller is still listing gold plated (so-called layered gold according to the seller) as if it is karated gold and on top of that, making comments about other sellers not being honest when they say their karated gold is solid karated gold.

Bonanza management is allowing sellers to list improperly and against the FTC rules, guidelines and laws that all jewelry sellers must follow. They know it, we have sent them the FTC information. There is no excuse for this to be happening except for the fact that Bonanza makes money each time there is a sale. I am sure that they are counting on buyers of this cheap jewelry will not notice in time to get their money back thus, Bonanza gets their cut even if the buyer got ripped off.

Before buying jewelry on Bonanza:
Know the product you intend to buy.
If you don't know the product well, research it with Google search.
Ask tons of questions.
Try to buy from sellers you know.
Make your purchase with a credit card so you have solid recourse if you get taken.

Here are some screenshots of the deception - click them to enlarge them so they are easier to read.

The insult to other gold jewelry sellers.

Untrue titles stating the items are karated gold.

Clearly deceptive listings!

This seller requires buyers of items that are not as described to return the item back to them on the buyers dime. I suppose to divert returns but a buyer should never have to pay postage to return an item that was sold deceptively.

Now remember, these are just examples of some of the deceptive listings by this seller. They have many more listings than are reported here.

Allowing this seller to list like this is unbelievable. Not only is it deceptive to buyers but it is unfair to sellers of true karated gold. After all, their prices can never be as low as those offered by this seller so this seller will likely get the sale before an ethical seller who lists their products properly.
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The other night, 12-30-10, we were snooping around Bonanza and saw someone Tweet (a paid tweeting service on the site) for a seller who had an 18K gold ring for sale. For whatever reason, we clicked on the link to open the listing only to find it was not 18K but it was 18K gold plated! So, this paid Tweeting service is spreading the deceptive listing all over Twitter BUT they don't even realize they are doing anything wrong.

To make matters worse, this same item turned up on a handpicked list that was on Bonanza's home page. We took a screenshot with the mouseover pop up showing how the ring was listed as 18K. Click the below screenshot to enlarge it.

The seller of this item must know very little about jewelry as an 18K gold ring would not be listed as "fashion jewelry" by a reputable jeweler.
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The sad part is, most sellers know that many buyers see a title, a picture they like and then make a purchase. Many do not completely read the listing so this kind of marketing is very effective.

Until this changes, please use caution purchasing jewelry on Bonanza.

With all of that said, you can find all of what the FTC says about jewelry and the proper way to mark and market it here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm

The FTC also offers the following info about buying gold jewelry here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro02.shtm

Not So Nice Hand Picked List On Bonanza's Home Page

2011-01-03T00:25:00.006-06:00

The other night 12-31-10, I was snooping around and went to Bonanza's home page. I rarely, if ever, go there so imagine my surprise when I saw the following handpicked list inhabiting this prime real estate.

It is called, Find Your Woody Here.

Please click the below graphic to enlarge it.
It all seems innocent enough until you see the note about what the item in the right, lower corner says when you mouse over it. At first it appears to simply say My Woody with a picture but when you mouse over it, it says - My Woody Got Me A Lei. If you decide to click on the image instead of simply mouse over it and get the large version of the picture in the listing.

I don't know about you but I don't think that item should be on the home page of any selling venue that considers themselves to be family friendly. What must buyers think when they see that? Sure, some will think it is funny but many will not.

Just the term "woody" is bad enough since it means something sexual to some.

And to think that Bonanza management is responsible for picking the lists that hit the home page just blows me away! What were they thinking?! Don't they know that something like that on the home page may reflect badly on all sellers of the site?!Where was their common sense in choosing this HPL?

Bonanza Touts A Review That May Be Unintentionally Deceptive

2011-01-03T00:05:00.002-06:00

On Bonanza's blog, they wrote and article dated Dec. 3, 2010 about a review they received by 'The Budget Fashionista'. You can see the blog post at http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Bags_Bonanza_Reviewed

While the author may have had good intentions, they obviously did not know about all of the fake bags that were reported to Bonanza management by members of The Purse Forum. They also must not have known about the mess with a Bonanza seller selling the same person to about 9 or 10 different buyers from The Purse Forum just a couple of weeks before the review was written.

Here is a link to a thread in The Purse Forum about the issue - http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/warning-bonanza-glitch-641492.html

If you are going to buy bags on Bonanza, know the product you are considering and if you are unsure, run the listing info past the members at The Purse Forum to see what their take is on the item, don't just make the purchase and find out later that you have been taken.

Yes, there are fakes on all sites but not all sites are as green at detecting them.

Since Bonanza upset the owners and members of The Purse Forum, it is even more difficult now for them to know which bags are fake as they counted on TPF to tell them which items were fake and needed to be removed.

Sales Up Across The Board For Ecommerce Businesses Except For Bonanza

2011-01-02T23:55:00.005-06:00

All over the internet there are reports quoted by Comscore.com stating that online holiday sales rose 13% through December 26, reaching $30.81 billion.

Click the below link to read a complete AuctionBytes report on the topic:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y10/m12/i30/s04

All you have to do is Google for the information and thousands of reports say that this holdiay season was quite the success.

So why on Bonanza.com are there few sellers stating that sales were good or better than last year?

Here are some links on the topic from Bonanza forums:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/4/topics/144497

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/143797

We think that Bonanza changing their name at the end of September 2010 played a role in the lack of sales but more than that, the lack of advertising is probably the culprit.

Bonanza did absolutely no advertising but on Facebook, Twitter and their site newsletter BUT that advertising was far too late to help get the site name out there to help anyone this holiday shopping season.

Here is just one of the links from the Bonanza forum that show how their sellers felt about the late or lack of advertising:

http://www.bonanza.com/forums/1/topics/142810

Here is the late Bonanza newsletter which was emailed out 12-06-2010. By this time, most buyers had gotten much of their shopping done.

http://bonanza.cmail5.com/T/ViewEmail/r/A1A6ACEB85FF1638/57ED3B42B82DBC56D9767B6002735221

Also on December 06, 2010 - Bonanza was bragging on their site blog that they were mentioned in Lucky magazine. Well, since the mention was written in a way to draw more sellers to Bonanza, we question what there really was to brag about since what Bonanza needs is a stream of buyers, not sellers. This is not to mention that the magazine did not hit newsstands until AFTER the holiday shopping season.

Here's the link: http://www.bonanza.com/blog/main/Bonanza_in_Lucky_Magazine

What's really a sad note is that at least one top seller on Bonanza has been a seller of a Tweeting service to promote sellers booths instead of sellers with a physical product for sale (see the below graphic.) That says a lot about the lack of sales on the site!

Unless Bonanza gets serious about helping their sellers draw buyers to the site, it's hard to believe that things will be getting any better for sellers. From what Bonanza has said up to this point, paid advertising of any real value is not in their near future plans. Until Bonanza is a name that is recognized by shoppers, we believe that sales will continue to be dismal for most sellers.

It's not just the lack of holiday sales, all year long sellers scream about the lack of sales on Bonanza. Sellers can only do so much to draw buyers in - it is time for Bonanza to step up to the plate.

ClickTale Shows Where Consumers Go After Leaving Your Site

2010-11-23T06:34:00.008-06:00

ClickTale is releasing their Drill Down Funnel today. Marketed to help brands understand where consumers go after they enter a website. This information could be helpful in improving landing pages, sales & advertising campaigns and product information to help keep visitors on site and to convert them into consumers.

How does ClickTale work?

ClickTale captures every mouse move, click, scroll and keystroke that a visitor makes inside a webpage, and then sends this information back to the ClickTale servers in a highly compressed package. Our servers take a snapshot of the webpage as experienced by the visitor, and combine it with the visitor actions to recreate the original browsing session. When you then login to your ClickTale account you can see your visitor recordings, visual heatmaps and other behavioral reports.

Will ClickTale affect visitors’ browsing experience or page loading times?

Website visitors don’t notice any difference in their browsing experience since ClickTale is optimized for minimal use of CPU and bandwidth resources. In addition: Only about 5K of highly compressed data per recording is sent back to our servers, which has no noticeable impact on site performance. The ClickTale tracking code is small and compressed, and is delivered via a Content Delivery Network that is extremely fast and reliable. Customers usually choose to record only a small fraction of their total traffic, and the extra load is not noticeable on the servers. The ClickTale code is loaded at the end of the page, and therefore does not affect page load times at all.

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ClickTale offers several tutorials, click this link to view:

http://www.clicktale.com/resources/video_tutorials

About ClickTale (from their website):

ClickTale is the industry leader in Customer Experience Analytics (CEA), providing businesses with revolutionary insights into their customers’ online behavior. Over 50,000 businesses rely on ClickTale to optimize website performance, improve usability and dramatically increase conversion rates. ClickTale tracks every mouse move, click and scroll, creating playable videos of customers’ entire browsing sessions as well as powerful visual heatmaps and behavioral reports that perfectly complement traditional web analytics. As a fully hosted subscription service, ClickTale is cost-effective and quick to set up.

Company History
Founded in June 2006 by Dr. Tal Schwartz (CEO) and Arik Yavilevich (CTO), ClickTale is based in Ramat Gan, Israel and funded by leading venture capital firm YL Ventures and angel investors.

ClickTale has won much acclaim and has been written up in numerous media outlets. You can read some of the stories about us in the Media Mentions page. We are proud to have been named one of Red Herring's Top 100 Most Promising Companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2008 as well as one of the 15 Hottest Israeli Internet Companies in 2008 by the California Israel Chamber of Commerce.

Civil suit charges Overstock with misrepresenting prices

2010-11-23T06:11:00.003-06:00

A civil lawsuit filed in Superior Court of California in Alameda County yesterday charges Overstock.com Inc. with making “untrue and misleading” claims about its prices. The suit, which was filed by seven Northern California district attorneys, alleges that Overstock’s comparison prices, which the web retailer uses as a basis for setting discounts, are consistently inaccurate.

The suit states that since January 1, 2006, “Overstock routinely and systematically made untrue and misleading comparative advertising claims about the prices of its products.” The complaint charges that prices presented under the labels “List Price” and “Compare At (Overstock) Price” were not prevailing market prices and that Overstock “used various misleading measures to inflate the comparative prices, and thus artificially increase the discounts it claimed to be offering customers.”

The suit also charges that Overstock.com’s misleading pricing applied to “virtually every product listing” since January 2006, and seeks at least $15 million in fines and restitution for misleading pricing information published on Overstock.com.

To read the rest of the article, click HERE.

BBB Advises Online Shoppers This Holiday Season

2010-11-23T05:47:00.005-06:00

The BBB is offering advice to holdiay shoppers. Actually, it's good advice to follow all of the time.

Protect your computer: Install a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Check for and install the latest updates.

Shop trustworthy websites: Look for the BBB seal and other widely-recognized "trustmarks" on retail websites. Click on the seals to confirm they're valid.

Protect personal information: Read a site's privacy policy and understand what personal information is being requested and how it will be used. If no policy is posted, that's a red flag that they may sell your information without your permission.

Beware of too-good-to-be-true deals: Offers on websites and in unsolicited e-mails may offer extremely low prices on hard-to-get items. There may be hidden costs - or your purchase may sign you up for a monthly charge. Look for and read the fine print.

Beware of phishing: Legitimate businesses do not send e-mails claiming problems with an order or account to lure the buyer into revealing financial information. If you receive such an e-mail, the BBB recommends picking up the phone and calling the contact number on the website where the purchase was made to confirm any problem with the transaction.

Confirm that your online purchase is secure: Look at the website address or URL in the box at the top of your browser screen. There should be an "s" after "http" or a lock symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. If you have doubts about security, right-click anywhere on the page, and select "Properties" to see the real URL. The dialog box should say whether the site is encrypted.

Pay with a credit card: Under federal law, you can dispute the charges if you don't receive the item. Shoppers also have dispute rights if there are unauthorized charges on the card, and many card issuers have "zero liability" policies if someone steals your card number and uses it. Never wire money.

Keep documentation of your order: Save a copy of the confirmation page or e-mails confirming the order until you receive the item and are satisfied.

Check your credit card statements often: The BBB recommends that you check your account regularly for suspicious activity by going online or calling your credit card company. Make sure statements match up with purchases you know you made.

Know your rights: Federal law requires that orders made by phone, mail or online be shipped by the date promised, or within 30 days if no delivery time was stated. If goods aren't shipped on time, shoppers can cancel and demand a refund. Consumers also may reject merchandise if it is defective or if it was misrepresented.

Boocoo Auctions Institutes Site Fees

2010-11-23T05:24:00.006-06:00

New site, Boocoo was free since opening up in Beta. Things have changed and it appears that the fees they have in place are rather high for a new, unproven site.

According to the site:

Boocoo auctions charges a required final value fee of 6%. This means if you post an item for sale and find a buyer your fee is 6% of the final price, including handling. There are no required listing fees and no fees for bidders/buyers.

The 6% final value fee applies only to the first $1,000. If you sell an item for over $1,000 you pay 6% of $1,000, and everything above that is pure profit, with no fee!

Beginning November 1st boocoo will also charge for some optional listing enhancements (Bold, Highlighted, and Category Featured). We’re adding these charges based on customer feedback. It was brought to our attention that too many listings were enhanced because it’s free - in some categories it was difficult to find normal listings! Give you an example, of roughly 7,900 listings in ‘collectibles’ 7,400 were “category featured” you finally reached “all listings” on page 298. Here’s one more, on the first 3 pages of ‘Antiques’ only 3 listings were not using bold titles. It’s truly a case of free destroying the value.

Here’s how we’re going to transition: on November 1 we’ll remove the enhancements from all listings, the next time you list or relist an item you will have to add the optional enhancements if you want them, otherwise continue listing for free and pay only if you sell. This should be good for everyone; Sellers will be able to draw attention to special items and we’re still in no danger of moving up any tax brackets.

All listing enhancements are optional:

Bold - 50 cents
Highlight Listing - 75 cents
Category Featured - $2.00

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We are registered on Boocoo but have never listed anything. With these fees, it is highly unlikely that we ever will.

What's All The Buzz About Addoway?

2010-11-23T04:52:00.004-06:00

Everyone we have talked to lately is talking about moving or at least spreading their inventory out to Addoway. Some very long time, loyal sellers of various sites have been talking about Addoway and encouraging other sellers to join them on the site. So, we just had to go snooping to see what we could see.

It appears to be a rather well put together site. We decided to check out the press info. There it states:

Addoway is an online marketplace for all things fashion, collectibles and much, much more. Our mission is to bring the next generation of "social commerce" to the masses, where shoppers can buy from their friends and the merchants they trust. While other notable marketplaces use stranger's experiences to create reputation, Addoway integrates directly with Facebook, giving users recommendations to reputable sellers through people they already know.

Addoway recommends independent merchants that friends have purchased from in the past, merchants that friends know personally and others who are upfront about their identity and reputation.

Shop for everything from designer clothing and jewelry to unique crafts and collectibles, all at up to 70% off!

---

That last paragraph turns us off since we are not interested in selling on a site that offers that kind of discount. It gives the impression of a bargain basement or a site that was intitially overpriced just to offer such discounts.

We looked further at the press info and it states:

FREE online storefront with built-in marketing, inventory and order management tools;

Listing importing from eBay and Etsy - List new items in seconds or import inventory from eBay and Etsy. Even sync inventory so you never run out of stock on Addoway;

Social Marketing - Grow your business using our automated Social Marketing tools and Referral Incentives to keep the buyers coming back.

Plus free distribution to the most popular product search portals reaching millions of shoppers - Bing, Google Shopping, Oodle, The Find and Shop Wiki.

There are no fees to sell and it takes seconds to sign up.

---

We went to the area on their site - what users are saying - and found some familiar sellers (several from Bonanza and some from Etsy and eBay). It is always interesting when sellers who have been loyal to other marketplaces show up on newer sites. It's a bit of a sign that the site may have potential and/or a disenchantment with the site(s) that they had previously been so loyal to.

---

We checked out the "Share and Save" link. It states:

What are Addo Bucks?

Addo Bucks is a special currency you can earn on Addoway for sharing with your friends. Every Addoway member is given 25 Addo Bucks to start with, and can earn Addo Bucks for referring friends, submitting new listings, placing orders, rating sellers and more. Addo Bucks can be redeemed for discounts on Addoway purchases, Prizes & Rewards and more.

---

Finally, I clicked on the "Sell" tab:

This is where they offer sellers to become "Pro members" for $8.95 a month or $75 per year. Not too bad compared to other sites. Even on Bonanza, another "free" marketplace, their paid memberships start at $10 up to $24 per month plus final value fees.

You can check out the Pro Member features at http://www.addoway.com/promembership

---

All in all, it appears to be a very clean and efficient site with an experienced staff. It will be fun to watch how the site does over the next few years.

eCrater Expands Sevices To The UK

2010-11-23T04:43:00.006-06:00

eCrater has launched their online selling venue in the UK, http://www.ecrater.co.uk .

A post by eCrater adminisitration in the eCrater forums (we believe authored by Dimitri) on 11-04-2010 states:

As you all probably know we recently announced that we launched a UK version of our marketplace.

http://www.ecrater.co.uk

If you would like to list your products in the new marketplace:

1) you must maintain prices on both USD and GBP
2) you must ship to United Kingdom

We encourage all US merchants to start selling in GBP as well which will bring more buyers to their stores. The main advantage is that your products will be listed in both our US and UK marketplaces. They will also be posted to both Google Product Search and Google Product Search UK. In addition all merchants will receive their own store under the ecrater.co.uk domain.

It is very easy to convert your prices to GBP. One can use the global editor to do this. Select "set UK price", choose "Price in USD" as base, choose the * operator and fill out the user value: 0.624 (1 USD = 0.624 GBP)

Please note that your prices in USD will remain unaffected, the operation merely adds prices in GBP as well.

If you want to get rid of the GBP prices then just use the global editor and select action "set UK price" and select operator "delete"

To set the shipping rates to UK please fill out the shipping matrix rates for United Kingdom. If you already use the USPS calculator you don't have to do anything because we convert the shipping rates to GBP automatically.

Please note that fixed shipping rates are not available for shipping to the UK at this time. Only the fixed rates for US-Mainland, Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada will convert to GBP automatically.

There is also an option called "Enable GBP currency" in the Options menu. This will add another price field in the following pages: add products, edit product and copy product. It will also enable you to fill out the Google Checkout UK merchant ID and key in the Payment Options menu.

US and UK stores will share the same name, just the domain will be different so no need to reserve a name if you already have a store with eCRATER.

It is currently not possible to have a UK store without a US store.

If the conversion rate considerably changes, the prices can be easily updated with the global editor. However in reality this will happen rarely because USD is a stable currency.

If offline payments are accepted in the US store, these will display and be accepted in the UK store. At this time, these can't be removed from just the UK store. However these may change in future.

To sell only part of the items in the UK store, set the price in GBP for only the items that are to be sold in the UK store. This can be done in both global-editor and add product menu. If the item has a price in GBP you will see it in ecrater.co.uk. If the item does not have a price in GBP, the item will be only available in ecrater.com

If you want to accept Google Checkout in your UK store you need a bank account in GBP and then you have to sign up for Google Checkout UK. The bank account in British pound is requirement of Google Checkout.

If you want to set up Google Analytics for your UK store please fill out the "UK Google Analytics ID" in menu options. To get the UK analytics ID you need to add your UK store URL in Google Analytics first.

Did You Get Permission To Do That?

2010-10-19T22:47:00.006-05:00

When a site wishes to integrate with another site, there are usually talks between the sites and permissions to be granted before such an activity takes place.

Seems that there has been an issue of not asking permission to ask ThePurseForum's members for their log in information - including their TPF password at Bags.Bonanza.com.

ThePurseForum put up a banner across their forum, below their header but above where you can read the threads for those Bonanza users who also use ThePurseForum. Bonanza is the parent company of Bags.Bonanza.com. Below is a copy of the banner (click it to enlarge it.)

Vlad & Megs of ThePurseForum acted quickly when they found Bags.Bonanza.com presenting its users with an option on their profile page to verify their PurseForum membership by providing Bonanza with their PurseForum username and password.

According to Vlad's original post, "This function on Bags.Bonanza.com is not authorized, sanctioned or supported by the PurseForum, its parent company and its owners."

Read more here: http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/attn-bonanza-users-635298.html

Below is a graphic of the link that users were seeing and the form where users would input their information.

Click the graphic to enlarge.They also advised their members about internet security in general.

Vlad & Megs are looking out for their members and the integrity of their site.
--

Bill Harding, the founder of Bonanza, posted this into ThePurseForum alert thread in post 64 of the thread:

"Hey all,

So exciting to see our name in lights, if not under the exact circumstances I would have chosen! :)

Given the tremendous overlap between TPF users and Bonanza users, we had hoped that increased integration between the sites could provide a win-win where we sent new traffic and new registrations to TPF, and our TPF users could get to re-meet each other on our site.

That said, we certainly understand if Vlad would rather not incorporate such functionality at this time, so we've taken down the site linker until such time that we are told Vlad is cool with it coming back into existence (if ever).

For the record, we never save users' password or sensitive information on our system longer than absolutely necessary. Like our imports from other sites, we have safeguards in place to ensure that all personal information is encrypted while we have it, and purged from our servers as soon as we have verified an established identity.

Our plan is to continue to build the most functionality and widest inventory of bags available online, at prices far lower for sellers than other marketplaces. We have already personally reached out to the big V&M to offer to discuss whether this functionality would be beneficial to our sites' mutual users. And we plan to continue to have a presence on tPf to the extent we're able.

Bill Harding
CEO
Bonanza.com"
--
Then, in response to some PurseForum members questions in post 75, he responded with:

"@AuntFlo: As pointed out by some others, tPf is not the first site that we let our users link their accounts to; generally speaking, we think that being able to connect accounts between the different sites you use is a useful idea for our mutual users. And we had hoped the traffic we hope to drive to tPf through the feature would make it a win-win. But again, we're fine taking the feature down, it certainly isn't a major aspect of the overall site, just a nicety we had hoped would make for a better experience.

@MissMollie: The tracking number showing up is an issue we only heard about recently; we will be looking into it today and it will likely be fixed by tomorrow.

@iluv: It's probably fairly clear at this point, but our primary rationale was user convenience. And the fact that we had already built out similar functionality to link with other sites meant that we already had the technology to temporarily store user info in a secure fashion. But we certainly don't want to step on toes for sites that aren't comfortable with such features, which is why we've taken it down.

Bill Harding
CEO
Bonanza"
--

It has always been a PurseForum rule that users can not have more than one user ID. Also, about a year ago, ThePurseForum decided not to allow company representatives to utilize their forums as means to interact with their customers. So, they "Sofa King Banned" Bill, Mark and Tom (of Bonanza) from using their site any longer.

While they were at it, they closed the Bonanzle/Bonanza thread where Bonanza staff would interact with their users. Bonanza was using information from the thread to detect conterfeit handbags and other designer items listed on Bonanza and their new handbag site.

Here is the link to that thread:

http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/bonanzle-fakes-421522.html

Now the question is, what kind of damage to Bonanza and their handbag site was caused by management simply doing what they wanted and not asking for the proper permissions first?

While we do not believe that Bonanza had any mailicious intentions, we applaud ThePurseForum staff for acting swiftly to protect their site and members.

More Unprofessional Antics At OLA

2010-10-12T03:44:00.034-05:00

It is easy for people interested in shopping or selling on the internet to find out about the unsavory behaviors displayed by OLA administration - onlineauction.com - and/or its members.

One good place to check is on PSU. They have a whole section available to read more about OLA - click here to be enlightened.

You can also read through the list of Google search results about OLA "ripoffs" by clicking here.

And, more about onlineauction.com by clicking here and here.

The latest reported antic takes the cake. It is probably the craziest thing we have seen an online selling venue do.

Betty Lou, of seewhatimsellingnow, has reported that she cancelled her founding membership last spring to allow OLA time to do the necessary steps to cancel her account and not charge her credit card again (the final date of her membership would be 08-10). When she checked her account the other day, it stated that her account was not to expire until 08-11 which means they did not cancel her account. Betty Lou sent an email to support to make sure that her account was cancelled and to let them know not to charge her credit card again.

On 08-11-10, Betty Lou was going to check on her account and was greeted with this when trying to log into her account:

Click The Graphic To EnlargeAmazing!

Betty Lou never received an email response to her email about her membership but instead, found her link was changed to (or redirected to) a link to the above fake Internet Explorer page. Here's the link that her OLA log in was changed to: http://www.onlineauction.com/End.htm

What kind of site does this kind of thing?

So, Betty Lou has cancelled her credit card associated with her OLA account to ensure that they do not bill her card again. While that is a major inconvenience, we believe that she had no other choice due to the above response and the sites track record of charging credit cards of members who have previously cancelled their memberships.

If you want to read more about Betty Lou's story or other experiences of various people who have dealt with OLA, just go to the links above in this post. It's a lot to take in since some of OLA's members actually show their true colors in the PSU forums. Maybe you should have your coffee and a sack lunch with you as you start to read. lol

We do not recommend using OLA due to what we feel is unethical behavior of the site administration and some of their members. A serious seller should also protect the reputation of their business. As with anything, people might feel your reputation is not so hot if you hang out with others with questionable reputations. You know, the guilt by association thing. We give OLA 2 thumbs down. If we had more thumbs, they would all be down.

No Zing In Bling

2010-09-30T22:52:00.006-05:00

Posted: Sep 30, 2010 08:40 AM by Eugene Bukoveczky

Fewer Now Saying It with Diamonds

Judging by the recent sales data emerging from the jewelry industry, it now appears that the persistence of tough times for a sizable swath of middle America is continuing to force many to forgo those small relatively inexpensive items of "bling" that would normally be a natural purchase for anyone in a relationship. And that trend appears to be taking its toll on a once thriving industry.

Sales Slump Still Hurting Zales

Among the major casualties of this spending slowdown on jewelry is Zales (NYSE:ZLC), a jewelry retailer who's business targeting the "middle" jewelry market continues to suffer due to a combination of shrinking overall demand and intensifying competition over what remains. While the company managed to pare back its losses from horrendous to slightly better than expected in its latest quarter, the company's same store sales, a key measure of retail health, continue to head lower.

New CEO Pulls Company Back from Brink

Coming up with a new strategy to turn sales around will no doubt be uppermost on the mind of newly installed Zales' CEO, Theo Killion. His move into the top executive's seat comes after a several months of holding the reins on an interim basis during which time he navigated the company through a funding crisis and kept alive a critical relationship with Citigroup (NYSE:C), who arranges the issuance of the retailer's branded credit card. Roughly 40% of Zale's U.S. sales are made using those cards.

Sales Slowdown Industry Wide

But while Killion's recent efforts may have pulled the company back from the brink, turning it into a profitable operation won't be easy. The slump in "mid-market" jewelry sales looks to be broad and deep. Rivals such as Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) and Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), whose overall sales numbers have been buoyed by recovery in sales to high-end customers, have nevertheless reported soft sales of lower priced items.

To read the rest of the article, click the below link:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/No-Zing-In-Bling...

Everything That Glitters - Is It Fine Gold? Do Internet Venues Have A Responsibility To Ensure Listings Are Legal?

2010-09-27T00:15:00.137-05:00

This post is to help you understand a little more about jewelry, it's creation and what the FTC states is the proper way to sell jewelry. It will also include information about a recent mishap by an online seller (not us) in selling their jewelry. We are also going to touch on the responsibilities of online selling venues when sellers list jewelry items in manner that is inconsistent with the FTC rules, guidelines and laws.

Shopping on the internet for fine jewelry can be a challenge, to say the least. When you are looking at a piece and you read the description, sometimes you may wonder exactly what materials are really used in creating it. Some sellers do not disclose all of the necessary information for you to make an educated decision in making a purchase.

We sell Black Hills Gold jewelry and a few other jewelry items on the internet and we try very hard to give the necessary information for our potential buyers to know exactly what they are getting. Many other sellers do a great job of this also.

Take a look at these pictures, can you tell which is 14K gold, gold filled, gold plated or so-called layered gold?
Hint: Only one piece is 14 karat gold.
On the internet, it is next to impossible to know what you are getting until it arrives in the mail. After all, you can not see the actual item or check for markings that would help in analyzing the item. All you have to go on is the sellers picture and description. You see it is gold colored, shiny and looks to be the real thing. Sometimes, you don't even know after it arrives, unless you take it to a jeweler for an appraisal.

You may be wondering why we are writing this.

A buyer on one of the venues we sell on contacted us and asked us to take a look at a listing for an item that they had purchased and received. They felt that the listing was deceptive and that what they got was not 18K gold as was stated. When they got the item they - "immediately knew that something was wrong, because if they were 18k they would have been tiny. Instead they were big. Then I looked and no mark of 18k on the earrings." - As stated by the buyer.

So, we went to the listing to take a look and were shocked. The listing stated:

"This is a pair of two toned gold butterfly earrings. They are a little more than 1/2 inch high and also a little more than a half inch wide. This beautiful jewelry is nickel free and it will never tarnish. Is it solid gold? No, there is no such thing and it is definitely not plated, it is 18 Karat Gold. It is sold in fine jewelry stores all over the world and I am offering it to you at a fraction of their price."

(We highlighted the deceptive text that tells the buyer they are getting 18K jewelry.)

The seller also had a list of keywords in the listing but the words that were most apt to cause further belief that the items were in fact 18K were:

18 Karat Gold, White Gold, and Yellow Gold

Also, there was a link within the listing which offered more info on the jewelry that the seller offered. It states:

"This is “Real Gold” , but not “Solid Gold”. It is manufactured in a 7 layer process. This is not plated gold or gold filled. It is a seven layer process that makes top quality, hypo allergenic, nickel and lead free GOLD Jewelry affordable without the high price tag of “Solid Gold”! It consists of layers of 24k, 18k AND 22k solid gold over 3 very thin base layers of special high quality metals, topped off with a clear protective finish for strength and lasting beauty. Perfect for everyday wear or stunning pieces just for special occasions!! This will not “chip” , peel, flake, “turn”, or rust.
--
(We highlighted and underlined the most revealing portions of the above text from the seller.)

Ok, so a buyer of this item is now totally mixed up as to what they are getting and unless they know a bit about jewelry, they believe they are really getting 18K fine jewelry. Of course, that is not the case. The seller is really offering gold plated jewelry. The dead give away is the 7 layer process. The buyer is not getting fine jewelry and we know of no fine jewelry stores that offer this kind of jewelry. It is merely costume jewelry.Once we saw this, we contacted the support staff on the site and were met with less than positive results. The seller changed the titles of the listings to remove 18K from them but the listings descriptions remained the same and are still deceptive to the buyers. The seller also did not remove the verbiage about not being gold plated. The titles still used the word gold without a proper qualifier. So, we contacted support again and stated the laws and etc only to be met with the following:

"We are not the law, we are XX.com. We do not enforce the law. We do not enforce whether you or anyone else follows the law, that is up to the individual seller to do so. Same goes for any one else on the site, they are responsible for themselves. We do not want any of our users imposing their beliefs or their interpretations of the law on any of our users. They are responsible for themselves, not for any one else on the site.

We have addressed the seller, they have made the changes and we are satisfied with those changes. Additionally the seller has 100% feedback."
--

So, that basically is telling us to mind our own business and the site is going to do nothing about this seller intentionally taking advantage of buyers. We sort of found that comment a bit funny, if it wasn't so sad, because the FTC is very clear about how jewelry is to be marketed. It doesn't take a legal degree to understand it.

We understand that the site does not enforce the law but when a violation is brought to their attention, they should handle it properly. It is our opinion that the site is aiding this ripoff if they choose to ignore it. Their own site rules state that sellers are to list their items in accordance to all laws that are applicable for the products they sell. If they are going to remove fake, counterfeit and etc items, (as they sometimes do and it should be noted that they get lots of reports from the PurseForum about fakes and not just reports on purses from there that they act on without much doubt about the reports) we believe that they also should be responsible for this. (After all, listing costume jewelry as 18K fine jewelry is listing fakes.) How else can they justify removing any products whatsoever if they are not going to apply their own site rules consistently and fairly?

We also do not believe that a seller having 100% feedback has any basis in determining the honesty of the seller or the way they represent (in this case, misrepresent) the items in their listings. This seller has only had a few sales of their jewelry items and those poor souls probably don't realize they have been ripped off. The buyer that contacted me has not left feedback yet but if they ever do, I would not expect it to be positive.

It should be noted that the buyer did get their money back with some resistance from the seller (wanting the buyer to ship the item back at the buyers expense) and the seller insisting that the item was 18K gold (and without the buyer asking for a refund, the buyer was just discussing the item content.) After the buyer refused to send the product back at her own cost becasue she didn't make the mistake, the seller told the buyer to keep the item also.

Then it gets better. The buyer sent the seller a note about the other listings they have up and questioned their gold content. The seller sent this in response:

"Hello,

You got your money back, you got your free earrings, now I am asking you to leave me alone. You know nothing about this jewelry or how it is made. Unless you know the manufacturer and have discussed with them as to how it is made, you cannot made a blanket statement and say that this jewelry is plated. It is not and I will not say that it is, that would be cheating customers.

I don’t know what your problem is, but DO NOT CONTACT me again through (site name deleted by our blog) or any other way. I have referred your message on (site name deleted by our blog) to support."
--

With that the buyer dropped the situation and went on with their life until 2 or 3 days later when the seller of the plated jewelry sent the following, completely unexpected, rude note:

"Lady, I don’t know what your problem with me is, but I would suggest that you do some research and investigating before you make a blanket statement about someones merchandise. As for asking ‘your jeweler, most of them do not know anything about any jewelry except for what they sell and they will tell you that a competitors jewelry is not ’real’ because they want your business. There is a big difference between Gold Plated and Gold Layered jewelry….

Is Gold Layered the same as Gold Plated Jewellery?
NO! Do not mistake Layered jewellery for plated jewellery as there is no comparison. Gold plated jewellery chips, flakes, and wears off. Gold Layered jewellery is fine jewellery that is in fact 15 times as thick as plated jewellery and can therefore be worn on a daily basis.

You have no idea what my jewelry is made of and for some reason you seem to think that you are an expert or else you just want me to leave (site name deleted by our blog). I don’t know and I don’t care, but if you make any more rash judgments about me or my product, I will be contacting my attorney regarding a lawsuit for harassment and lies about. me. You got a pair of free earrings that will last you a lifetime and you got your satisfaction. May God Bless You and Keep You the rest of your life."
--

Boy, talk about customer service (or intimidation and abuse)! It's hard to believe that anyone would act like that after being questioned about their jewelry and its gold content, especially if the items were in fact - 18K and not a lesser product.

Seems to us that the seller is feeling pretty defensive after getting caught in what appears to be a pack of lies and they don't like questions very much.

At first we gave the seller the benefit of the doubt when looking at their listings. We thought maybe they hooked up with a supplier that told them all of this stuff and the seller didn't know any better BUT now, it appears the guilt is making them very aggressive.
--

Look What We Just Found!

We found this interesting Squidoo Lens, it talks about "layered gold jewlery," a "7 layer process," and being "lead & nickel free" (same kind of statements as the above seller was using.)
http://www.squidoo.com/gold_layered_jewellery

We then went to the website noted in the Lens:
http://www.glorisjewels.com/

When clicking on the above sites "about" tab, we found the same description as the seller was using in this post.

And note, in part of the sellers emails above - they used 2 terms - jewelry and jewellery. We believe that the seller was copying and pasting the information where they are using the term jewellry (with the double l and an extra e) because that is not a normal way for a US seller to spell the word jewelry but on the website, which is Canada based, it would be normal for them to spell it that way, as is noted throughout their site.

Also, this site makes the same statement as the seller in this story:
Is Gold Layered the same as Gold Plated Jewellery?
NO! Do not mistake Layered jewellery for plated jewellery as there is no comparison. Gold plated jewellery chips, flakes, and wears off. Gold Layered jewellery is fine jewellery that is in fact 15 times as thick as plated jewellery and can therefore be worn on a daily basis.
http://www.glorisjewels.com/what_is_gold_layered_jewellery_

Here's a graphic from the above page showing the process.
Note all of the layers in relation to the base metal portion BEFORE any gold is supposedly applied. Also note that out of the "7 layers," only 3 of the layers consist of any reported gold in this diagram. This gold is completely different and not even close to the same family as a product that is created in karat gold. Karat gold does NOT go through this kind of "layering process." When looking at the above graphic, there does not appear to be very much gold content to these pieces.

Also on the website it states that the "layers" of base metals are fused "with heat" for a certain amount of time which is controlled by special equipment. (This sounds very much like a plating process to us.)

To us and in our opinion, it is just a fancy way of saying plating and a new advertising gimmick to make possible buyers think they are getting more than what they are paying for.

We don't know if this is the supplier that the seller in this story is using but we find the similarities are worth noting. Oh, and they do have a reseller program.
Gold jewelry is created several different ways:

Die Struck

The method in which metals are mechanically hammered into hardened steel dies to produce definite impressions. This process is used on a lot of signet rings.

Cast

The method in which metals are poured or forced into molds which have cavities in the shape or form of the articles to be produced. Of the various casting processes, lost-wax casting is the one most commonly used. Lost-wax casting means the item is first sculpted from wax. The original wax sculpture, or a copy of it, is then used to make a mold and is lost in the actual casting process (thus the name lost wax casting).

Note: Black Hills Gold is created via lost wax casting.

You can find a video we have on our blog about lost wax casting here:
http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2009/08/jewelry-casting-general-information.html

Gold Filled & Rolled-Gold Plate

Continuous plates of metal are covered mechanically by means such as soldering, brazing, or welding. The karat gold used is at least 10kt fine, and this gold covering can be applied to one or more surfaces of the base metal. Many quality costume jewelry manufacturers use this process to imitate the karat gold look of fine jewelry. Gold filled or rolled gold jewelry is not as durable as karat fine jewelry, however, because the actual layer of gold on the item is extremely thin.

Gold Electroplate

Electroplate is the process of affixing a plate or layer of fine gold onto a base of metal by an electrolytic process (uses electricity and chemicals). This process can be used to improve appearance and to prevent disintegration. Since the gold plate used won't stick to most gemstones, you can have your problem costume jewelry plated to improve its appearance, or to help if you are experiencing discoloration from your costume or fine jewelry onto your skin. Like gold plate, this process imitates the karat gold look of fine jewelry, but is not as durable due to the thin layer of gold.

Here's a link to more info on gold filled and elecroplating: http://www.artisanplating.com/articles/goldfilled.html#manufacturing

What is karated gold jewelry?

All gold castings start with pure 24 karat gold. 24 karat gold is too soft to use to make jewelry. For jewelry, this pure gold is mixed with an alloy to provide the strength needed for continued wear. These alloys may be copper, zinc, silicon, nickel, silver or boron to name a few. The mixture of metals then designates the gold as 18K, 14K or 10K and so on rather than pure 24K.

The requirements to label a product as being gold filled:

Gold filled is a hollow tube of usually 14K gold (sometimes 10K is used) that is filled with another metal. The exterior of the gold filled jewelry is solid karated gold and everything you can see or touch is a solid layer of karated gold.

In the USA this process is referred to as ‘gold filled’. In Europe the same process will be called ‘rolled gold’. Both terms are synonymous with each other. Many jewelry purchasers outside the jewelry trade mistakenly think 'gold filled' is the same as 'gold-plate'. 'Gold filled is a much higher quality product.

As less gold is being used gold-filled or rolled gold jewelry is a cost effective alternative to karated gold jewelry.

How to tell what you are buying:

Any manufacturers selling karat gold jewelry must designate its purity and stamp the ring with their hallmark (a unique symbol for their business). This hallmark and designation are usually placed on the underside of the jewelry and will be in extremely small script.

Check out any gold rings or wedding bands that you have to find the hallmark. You should see both a manufacturer’s symbol and a designation such as 10K or 14K punched into the metal.

If you have purchased some karated gold rings that only have the purity designation stamped into the metal - not to worry. This indicates that the jewelry was artisan crafted and not mass-produced by a manufacturer.

(From what is karated gold to this point was offered at: http://www.suite101.com/content/karated-gold-versus-gold-filled-a12910)

The FTC has a jewelry guide which applies to persons, partnerships, or corporations, at every level of the trade (including but not limited to manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers) engaged in the business of offering for sale, selling, or distributing industry products.

These guides were set to prevent consumer deception, persons, partnerships, or corporations in the business of appraising, identifying, or grading industry products should utilize the terminology and standards set forth in the guides.

These guides apply to claims and representations about industry products included in labeling, advertising, promotional materials, and all other forms of marketing, whether asserted directly or by implication, through words, symbols, emblems, logos, illustrations, depictions, product brand names, or through any other means.

In part they state:

§ 23.4 Misrepresentation as to gold content.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to misrepresent the presence of gold or gold alloy in an industry product, or the quantity or karat fineness of gold or gold alloy contained in the product, or the karat fineness, thickness, weight ratio, or manner of application of any gold or gold alloy plating, covering, or coating on any surface of an industry product or part thereof.

(b) The following are examples of markings or descriptions that may be misleading:

(1) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation, without qualification, to describe all or part of an industry product, which is not composed throughout of fine (24 karat) gold.

(2) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product composed throughout of an alloy of gold, unless a correct designation of the karat fineness of the alloy immediately precedes the word "Gold" or its abbreviation, and such fineness designation is of at least equal conspicuousness.

(3) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product that is not composed throughout of gold or a gold alloy, but is surface-plated or coated with gold alloy, unless the word "Gold" or its abbreviation is adequately qualified to indicate that the product or part is only surface-plated.

(4) Use of the term "Gold Plate," "Gold Plated," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part contains a surface-plating of gold alloy, applied by any process, which is of such thickness and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured.

(5) Use of the terms "Gold Filled," "Rolled Gold Plate," "Rolled Gold Plated," "Gold Overlay," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part contains a surface-plating of gold alloy applied by a mechanical process and of such thickness and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured, and unless the term is immediately preceded by a correct designation of the karat fineness of the alloy that is of at least equal conspicuousness as the term used.

(6) Use of the terms "Gold Plate," "Gold Plated," "Gold Filled," "Rolled Gold Plate," "Rolled Gold Plated," "Gold Overlay,'' or any abbreviation to describe a product in which the layer of gold plating has been covered with a base metal (such as nickel), which is covered with a thin wash of gold, unless there is a disclosure that the primary gold coating is covered with a base metal, which is gold washed.

(7) Use of the term "Gold Electroplate," "Gold Electroplated," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part is electroplated with gold or a gold alloy and such electroplating is of such karat fineness, thickness, and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured.

(8) Use of any name, terminology, or other term to misrepresent that an industry product is equal or superior to, or different than, a known and established type of industry product with reference to its gold content or method of manufacture.

(9) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation, or of a quality mark implying gold content (e.g., 9 karat), to describe all or part of an industry product that is composed throughout of an alloy of gold of less than 10 karat fineness.

** Note to paragraph (b) § 23.4: The provisions regarding the use of the word "Gold," or any abbreviation, as described above, are applicable to "Duragold," "Diragold," "Noblegold," "Goldine," "Layered Gold," or any words or terms of similar meaning.

With all of that said, you can find all of what the FTC says about jewelry and the proper way to mark and market it here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm
--

The FTC also offers the following info about buying gold jewelry here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro02.shtm
What responsibility does the venue have in all of this?

Legally, we are unsure but we all know how eBay has been hit by lawsuit after lawsuit over the years for various illegal listings. Even on eBay, they would not allow the listings offered by the seller in this story to remain on their site. They force the sellers to list according to the law. When you list jewelry there, there are even warnings and what not that pop up about listing jewelry items appropriately and that you could suffer consequences if you list contrary to what is stated. They also listen to their users when it comes reports of listings that are questionable. (Can't believe we found something good to say about eBay.)

We would think that the site does hold some responsibility, at least to the buyers who shop there. If they want buyers to feel safe and to come back to purchase again, they need to build credibility with them. This is done by offering products that are described properly and delievered in a timely fashion. The site can do this by making it difficult for sellers to list their items improperly and by really investigating and acting upon user complaints, not just blowing the users off.

How many buyers have to go through this before complaints are filed with the proper authorities and those authorities come to the site and wreak havoc on all sellers and/or the site itself?

As a final note:

The key to gold jewelry shopping online is to know your gold and the industry terminology. When shopping at a jewelry website, look for clarity as to what the jewelry is made of and its weight. Gold is expensive, about $1300 per ounce at this writing, so if the price seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

Have you had a bad experience buying jewelry online?
If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.

All other comments are also welcomed.

6pm.com Hiccups Great Deals - Items Over $1,000 Sold @ $49.99!

2010-05-25T10:44:00.001-05:00

Deals were runnning rampant on Friday at a popular online shopping website, 6pm.com, a subsidiary of Zappos. The site had mis-priced almost all items at $49.99. Products on 6pm.com most always sell for over $1,000.

"When we figured out the mistake was happening, we had to shut down the site for a bit until we got the pricing problem fixed," says Aaron Magness, director of brand marketing and business development for parent company Zappos Development.

"While we’re sure this was a great deal for customers, it was inadvertent, and we took a big loss (over $1.6 million) selling so many items so far under cost."

"However, it was our mistake. We will be honoring all purchases that took place on 6pm.com during our mess up," he says. "We apologize to anyone that was confused and/or frustrated during our little hiccup, and thank you all for being such great customers."

Magness states - "Let's just say this was not a boring weekend for us."

Endorsements - What About Them?

2010-05-23T00:20:00.011-05:00

To clarify, here is the Merriam-Webster definition of endorsement:

2 a : to approve openly - endorse an idea -; especially : to express support or approval of publicly and definitely - endorse a mayoral candidate - b : to recommend (as a product or service) usually for financial compensation - shoes endorsed by a pro basketball player -

Whether or not you are paid, endorsements should be taken seriously and not handed out lightly. It should also be considered who's endorsement is displayed about us and/or our products.

Some sellers use endorsements as a means to help potential customers feel more confident about buying from them. Legitimate endorsements can be quite effective in building buyer confidence.

Endorsements can also tear down that confidence when they are later found to come from someone of a tarnished reputation, if they are later found to be fraudulently left and so on. Sellers need to realize the full importance of endorsements. The endorsement mess for Tiger Woods, Michael Phelps and the long list of athletes who have fallen from grace also happens with ecommerce sales.

Some people believe in leaving endorsements simply because a seller was helpful, even though they bought nothing from the seller - some leave endorsements for their friends, simply because they like them - some people leave endorsements for you if you leave them one - many people leave endorsements, yet they have never purchased from or conducted any kind of business with the endorsee and the list goes on. We believe that leaving an endorsement for these reasons is not only wrong but it also dilutes the value of any true endorsements the seller has recieved.

In our opinion, leaving an endorsement should not be taken lightly. If you buy something from a seller and you are thrilled with the product and the service, you might likely want to leave an endorsement. This would be a proper reason to do so. You should pick your words carefully and be specific as to why you are leaving the endorsement.

Many people do not realize that the FTC has laws, rules and guidelines in place that govern endorsements anywhere they are used to sell products. Here is what they have to say.

In Part:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

Click here to read the full text of the revised Endorsement & Testimonial Guidelines.

Facebook, MySpace & Other Social Networking Sites Share Personal Info With Advertisers

2010-05-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending user information to advertisers that could be used to find consumers' names and other personal details, despite statements in their privacy policy that they don't share user information without consent.

What happens is that these sites send user names or ID numbers tied to the user's personal profiles when the user's click on ads. This infomation assists the advertisers in looking up the user's personal details which include a person's real name, age, hometown and occupation. Each site shares various data and what is shared depends on which site is used. This information sharing is typical across the web but the social networking sites provide privacy policies agains such behavior.

The Wall Street Journal states:

"Several large advertising companies identified by the Journal as receiving the data, including Google Inc.'s DoubleClick and Yahoo Inc.'s Right Media, said they were unaware of the data being sent to them from the social-networking sites, and said they haven't made use of it."

It is also reported that LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga and Digg also sent advertising companies user names or ID numbers in the same manner. Even Twitter was found to pass web addresses and user names of profiles visited on Twitter.com when users clicked links in profiles.

Facebook took this procedure to a higher level. Sometimes they sent information on which user name or ID was clicking on the ad PLUS the user name or ID of the page being viewed. This information lets an advertiser know a bit about a user's interests.

A letter has been sent to the FTC by Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who studies Internet advertising. He is requesting an investigation of Facebook's practices.

Bonanzle Wins @ Seattle 2.0

2010-05-20T07:45:00.013-05:00

Seattle 2.0 was created in 2007 with one goal in mind: To help tech entrepreneurs build great companies.

Seattle 2.0 is made up of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, consultants and members of a healthy and ever-growing startup community around Seattle.

Each year they hold a conference and award several businesses that fit into the various categories Seattle 2.0 have designated. The conference and awards help connect investors and businesses. The 2010 event was the second of it's kind.

Bonanzle was nominated as the Best Bootstrapped Startup at the Seattle 2.0 Awards. Last night, they won the award for that category.

Congratulations Bonanzle!

Featured Seller - Princess Peony 05-18-10

2010-05-18T00:40:00.017-05:00

Sparkklejar at Etsy, is a friend of ours. Her teen daughter is also a seller on Etsy. She sells under the name Princess Peony.

From Princess Peony's profile:

I sell paper reclaimed and repurposed creations, salvaged goodies, simple crafts, and destash items.

The money I earn from my etsy sales is applied to my color guard fees and dues. Thank You for supporting me!

I just learned how to make origami boxes and I hope you like them. I am just learning how to craft with paper and I think it's a fun and responsible way to make old damaged books have a happy ending.

Here are some great items offered by Princess Peony:

6 Cinderella Paper Heart Tags From Childrens Book Repurposed Pink Bows Ribbons
6 heart tags hand cut from an old Cinderella story book by disney.

Pink ribbon ties and small bows

Large size hearts approx. 4" by 4 1/2" at longest areas

I traced the inner book page heart by using a cookie cutter, and free cut a border around it. Border is acid free craft paper.

7 Repurposed Origami Favor Boxes With Lids Vintage Chilrens Atlas Book
I do not destroy or cut up good books

This vintage childrens picture atlas was out dated and missing pages.

Free from bad smells and made in a smoke free home

Repurposed into 7 origami boxes made from the pages

3 1/4" by 3 1/4" by approx 1 5/8" deep

Shipped usps priority with recycled foam blocks to prevent crushing during transit~please recycle.
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Stop in and visit Princess Peony to see what she has created lately. While you are there, grab some great buys!

Be sure to also stop in and visit Sparkklejar for some great shabby chic products. Tell her Dakota sent you!

A Huge Stamp Project!

2010-05-18T00:05:00.000-05:00

We are totally excited about a stamp collection that was given to us for absolutely nothing. We were given a large box, 2 shoeboxes, 4 or 5 plastic bags with tubs, boxes, and other containers of stamps and several stamp collecting supplies.

We do not know a thing about stamps or the collecting of them but it appears that we are going to have to learn!

In these containers are stamps dating back to 1902 (at least that we've found upon a couple of brief inspections). Some are unused, some are used - there are some US and some foreign but there is a huge variety. Some are neatly stored in albums and some are in various containers waiting to be sorted. A few still need to be seperated from the envelopes so we will have to learn the proper procedure of doing that.

We have been snooping all over the internet to find whatever information is available to help identify each stamp. We aren't sure what the best way to proceed is but looking up and researching each one of the thousands of stamps we were given is an intimidating task. There were a few stamp collecting books included that may be helpful but we think we are going to need more extensive sources.

Also included are some full display pages. One includes the 25th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy's death. We are amazed at the variety of designs that we do not remember ever seeing, even though they were issued during our lifetime. The older stamps are quite interesting and ornate. It's easy to see why stamp collecting is such a fun hobby.

There are even some First Day Covers from various years. Some are well kept while some have bent corners on the outer envelopes. We haven't opened them to check on the condition of the inner envelopes yet. All of the stamps on these are equally as interesting as the individual stamps in this collection.

When we first brought these stamps home, we went to one of the seller forums we frequent and asked for information on idenification and values. We had no idea where to start. We did get a lot of useful information to help us begin this project but it didn't take long for someome to come along and try to discourage us. We were told by one person that stamps can be valuable enough to pay off a car but then another person said that the value of stamps became diluted during the time that baby boomers were doing the collecting. He even said that if any of the stamps we were given were not used, they would have more value as postage than as a possible future sale.

The person talking about the diluted stamp market was talking mostly about the foreign stamps. In the large box, we have a book with many foreign stamps from all over the world. We are not going to let that information discourage us. We are going to look into these stamps to find out for ourselves. If nothing else, it looks to be an educational journey ahead - learning the history behind the stamps.

** If any of our readers has any helpful information or advice on how to handle this collection and the proper way to do things, we would greatly appreciate it if you would contact us. **

We are excited about the adventure ahead!

34th ACE© It Mid-Year Educational Conference

2010-05-17T23:25:00.009-05:00

Crown Plaza Hotel
Warwick RI
August 14 - 17, 2010

The National Association of Jewelry Appraisers (NAJA) will hold its 34th Annual Mid-Year Conference this summer. This conference is geared towards professional appraisers.

The theme of the conference is: "Antique Jewelry--Facts vs. Myths".

Schedule:

Saturday, August 13, 2010

Twelve Months of Change: The Ups & Downs of the Jewelry Market
Simon Teakle

JSI - Jewelry Search Investigators! Demystifying the Dating of a Jewel Suzanne Martinez, GG & Tim Spauwen, FGA

The Value of Time: The Language and Fundamentals of Evaluating
Wristwatches and Pocketwatches Edward S. Faber

When Art Met Metal: Evaluating mid-20th Century Studio Jewelry
from Margaret de Patta to Earl Pardon, 1940-1980 Patricia Kiley Faber, GG

Dating & Authenticating Through Gems Rui Galopim de Carvalho, FGA

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Egypt: Then and Now Yvonne Markowitz

Arts & Crafts vs. Art Nouveau: Similarities & Differences Elyse Zorn Karlin

All You Want to Know About British Hallmarks and More Danusia Niklewicz, GG & Bill Whetstone

A View from the Backside Peter Shemonsky, GG

Advanced Hallmarks - (and you thought you knew it all!) Danusia Niklewicz, GG & Bill Whetstone

Period Fashions & The Appropriate Baubles Mona Miller, GG

Monday, August 16, 2010

Etruscan Revival 101 Robert C. Aretz, GG

Pimped Out Pocket Watches Gary Lester, GG

Another Feather on the Cap: “Regal Head Ornaments” Kathrin N. Schoenke, GG

Good Marriages, Bad Marriages ... What’s an Appraiser to Do? Gloria Lieberman

Tuesday August 17, 2010

A Better Understanding of Precious Metal Content Dave Atlas, GG

Link & Link: an Overview of Chain from Antiquity to the Modern Age Ann Cahoon

Something Old, Something New Chris Ploof

Unveiling the Mystery of Enamel Richard McMullen

Click here to view the conference brochure.

Click here for the registration form.

GIA & Law Officers to Fight International Jewelry Crime

2010-05-16T10:49:00.006-05:00

Special agents and detectives from international law enforcement agencies gathered at the Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) Carlsbad campus recently for a two-week crash course in gemology that was specifically requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Law officers from Brazil, Colombia, Belgium, India, Thailand, the UK and the UAE joined detectives from the New York and Los Angeles police departments and FBI specials agents from New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington, D.C. to get a first-hand look at how gemological information can help them solve crimes.

The group was exposed to a broad range of gemstone topics, including how to use gemological tools (loupes, tweezers, microscopes); the Four C's of diamonds and what to look for in clarity, cut and color; synthetics, imitations and color treatments; the diamond industry and the Kimberley Process; field identification of colored stones; and how to read GIA grading reports.

Learning about the science and tools of gemstones is a priceless opportunity, according to Patrick Peys, of the Belgium Federal Police, an experienced gem detective and lead investigator of the 2003 Antwerp Diamond Center heist of nearly half a billion dollars in diamonds, cash and other valuables.

“There is a big difference between being an operational police officer and having knowledge about the product you’re investigating,” Peys said. “That kind of basic information might give you an advantage you otherwise would not have.”

Working with law enforcement officials is a very important aspect of GIA’s mission to protect the public trust, said Donna Baker, president and CEO of GIA. “It is imperative that we continue to work with these detectives and special agents on the front lines of fast-moving gem crimes.”

“The thieves communicate and coordinate across international boundaries – we need to do the same if we want to stop them. Giving law enforcement officials access to our resources and gemological information will help them close the net on those who steal from and take advantage of the public. This is a mission we are proud to share with law officers around the world.”

Law enforcement agencies and GIA have a long history of working together to solve gem-related crimes, said Tom Moses, senior vice president of GIA Laboratory and Research. “Our grading reports and inscriptions are the most effective ways to protect gemstones and information on thousands of them are stored in GIA’s database for future reference,” he said.

The database, started in the 1980s, has proved to be extremely useful for investigators, according to Daniel McCaffrey of the FBI’s New York field office. “It’s so significant to have this relationship with GIA and to have a starting point,” he said. “Literally hundreds and hundreds of stones have been recovered because of it.”

Ivy Cutler, records coordinator for the GIA Laboratory in New York notifies law enforcement officials when GIA identifies stolen gemstones and acts as a liaison during investigations. She was recently honored by the Jewelers Security Alliance for her efforts to recover stolen gems and educate law enforcement agencies about gemology.

“Gems are one of the most concentrated forms of wealth, and diamonds travel very quickly,” Cutler said. “It’s amazing how frequently the stolen diamonds flow back to GIA. The crime community is small, the crooks are very smart and a lot of the trade is unaware of what they are handling.”

The investigators added that meeting their counterparts from other countries was one of the best outcomes of the two-week seminar.

“I’m very involved in diamond investigations and as far as I know, GIA is the only organization that is really doing something to bring law enforcement officers together to educate them and get that network working,” Peys said. “For me, that’s very visionary.”

Bonanzle Up 2010 – Exploding Forward

2010-05-14T06:35:00.019-05:00

Bonanzle Up 2010 – Exploding Forward
This is the Main National Event with the Bonanzle Team, including Founder/CEO Bill Harding.

Live!

August 7th, 2010 at the Four Points Sheraton in Kansas City, MO.

Arranged is a one day line of fantastic speakers, including none other than the baby’s daddy himeself, Bill Harding and Mr. John “ColderICE” Lawson.

You do not want to miss this event. So register now!

Registration fee is $25.00 on a pre-sale basis. After July 7th, the price goes up to $35.00. You will need to purchase a registration for each person attending. Each registration purchased, means one name badge and one seat at event. The full name and Bonanzle ID you submit with purchase will be on the name badge you receive at the event.

A secured room rate of $70.00 per night at the Four Points Sheraton for our attendees is available. They have extended the rate from 3 days before till 3 days after the event! There is a live link on registration page to secure your special room rate.

Dress is Business/Business Casual

Preliminary Schedule of Events:

Friday August 6th

Tanner's Bar (inside Sheraton) 7-12pm - Meet and Greet

Saturday August 7th

8:00 - 8:30 Registration and Coffee

8:30 - 12:00 Presentations

12:00 - 1:15 Lunch

1:15 - 5:00 Presentations

7-12 Bonanzle Night Life After Hours -- Location to Be Announced

Registration:
http://www.bonanzleboardroom.com/bonanzle-up-2010/

Questions?
info@bonanzleboardroom.com

Gold prices could hit $1,500

2010-05-14T04:54:00.012-05:00

New York -- Gold prices, which touched a new high of $1,249 an ounce Thursday, are expected to head northwards on a "medium-term basis," reaching $1,338 to $1,550 levels, according to reports from Kitco and ScotiaMocatta, the global bullion banking division of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Analysts say that even at current levels, investors in gold have already made a profit of approximately 7.92 percent, and that investor desire for physical gold will remain strong and will support higher prices.

In India, higher gold prices might prompt a pull back in consumer jewelry demand, analysts says, but with the Hindu holy day Akshaya Tritiya right around the corner, market reports also indicate that consumers have already begun purchasing large amounts of gold. Though the holy day is not until May 16, customers have been making their bookings in order to take advantage of the current price advantage. At press time, gold was trading at just under $1,240 per ounce.

According to tradition, starting a new activity or buying valuables, including gold jewelry, on the day of Akshaya Tritiya is thought to bring individuals luck and success.

Gold prices since January have primarily remained in the $1,000 and $1,100 range, but broke the $1,200 mark in early May and continue to climb.

Source

In case you haven't noticed,
silver is trading at a pretty high price also.

Featured Seller - Vianvi: Vintage Jewelry Showcase On Ruby Lane 03-11-10

2010-05-11T22:21:00.030-05:00

If you are into really awesome vintage jewelry, you most certainly should check out Vianvi: Vintage Jewelry Showcase on Ruby Lane. Their items are not only absolutely beautiful, many are very unique. They carry estate diamond & gemstone jewelry, rings and vintage designer costume jewelry. They offer their items exclusively on Ruby Lane. Vianvi has been a RL member since January 2008.

Vianvi is a must see store if you appreciate fantastic jewelry pieces!

Click the titles below, they connect directly to the listing.

London Blue 3.33 ct Topaz & .88 ct VS Diamond Ring in 14k- Just Appraised at $3200 USD!

Rare 5-strand Angel Skin Coral & 14k Gold Bead Necklace

1.43ct Cushion-Cut Natural Fancy Yellow Diamond Engagement Ring

Art Deco 14k Designer Bangle with Genuine Rubies, Sapphires & Cultured Pearls - Appraised at $2850 CAD!

Rare Italian-Made Exquisite Natural JADEITE
and 4ct Diamond Necklace

About Vianvi: Vintage Jewelry Showcase

(Info gathered from Vianvi's Ruby Lane profile.)

We specialize in diamond and gemstone vintage and antique jewelry: rings, necklaces, bracelets etc fashioned from 10k, 14k, 18k and higher. You'll find sapphires, rubies, emeralds in our lovely pieces, along with more unusual stones like alexandrite, yellow canary diamonds, and pad sapphires. Besides fine jewelry from CARTIER and TIFFANY, we also carry a limited range of designer costume jewelry: Sherman, Schiaparelli, Caviness, Miriam Haskell, Weiss, D&E (Juliana) along with unsigned items.

All our gold items are tested via standard acid testing, even if stamped with a karat content, and all diamond jewelry is tested via our top-of-the-line PRESIDIUM Diamond & Gemstone Tester. Appraisals are available on many of our higher end pieces.

We are a mother (Viga) & daughter (Victoria) team i.e. Vi and Vi which makes us VIANVI. We opened our shop VINTAGE JEWELRY SHOWCASE, here on RUBY LANE, back in 2008. Since then we've serviced customers worldwide and some of their praise for our items and service is listed below for you to read so you can feel comfortable shopping with us. We are now looking forward serving them again, and gaining new customers worldwide at our newly opened shop at RUBY PLAZA. Please see the direct link to ViANvi: VINTAGE & CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIBLE JEWELRY above. You'll be able to purchase new or newer items there if that's what you want, along with other items we couldn't sell in our Ruby Lane shop. We hope you'll take the time to check us out there and bookmark both shops. And if you previously had some of our items on your wish list here at Ruby Lane and don't see them there now, check our RUBY PLAZA shop. Your Wish List item might be listed there now instead

Viga is the source of our designer vintage costume jewelry (Sherman, Schiaparelli, Hagler, Haskell, Weiss etc) but both she and Victoria are focused on fine jewelry ie. diamond and gemstone rings, necklaces, pendants, brooches & bracelets. Victoria specializes in diamond & gemstone rings and also sells loose diamonds and gemstones from her personal website, BUY GENUINE GEMSTONES . (Contact Victoria for further information on her gemstones for your jewelry projects).

Both of us are always attending estate sales, auctions, antique shows and other venues in search of beautiful jewelry. We're incorrigible shoppers and can't resist lovely pieces. We're always shopping with our customers in mind and try to find items you won't find elsewhere. So count on us to offer you the unique, the unusual. Join our growing list of happy customers who always tell us we carry the most beautiful, quality items at the most realistic prices.

Viga and Victoria are both regular contributors to the RUBY LANE BLOG.

Viga also writes 2 other blogs: Vianvi: VINTAGE & CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY and for those interested in Sherman jewellery, SHERMAN VINTAGE JEWELRY Blog located at Blogger. As well, she is the webmaster of 3 information sites that are focused on jewelry and collectibles. Just search GOOGLE for DESIGNER VINTAGE JEWELRY, BUY GENUINE GEMSTONES INFO and ViAnVi: Diamond & Gemstone Jewelry and Other Collectibles

One of the best parts about buying from us is that one of us, if not both, is always around to answer emails or questions about our beautiful jewelry.

We are based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada but have been selling to customers worldwide for months now via auctions, our personal websites and out of our home. We have developed a loyal customer base because of the quality of our jewelry, our customer service, our ability to respond quickly to all inquiries and as one customer has said, our "willingness to go the extra mile" for customer satisfaction.

On our high-end items, we are willing to offer LAY-A-WAY Just contact us and ask! And though we hate to do this, any PAY PAL PAYMENTS subject to small additional fee.

If possible, we prefer and encourage our Canadian customers to use INTERAC in preference to PayPal. Please enquire if you are unfamiliar with online INTERAC.

We invite any visitors from our local area in Hamilton/Niagara to view our jewelry in person at your convenience. For those out of our immediate vicinity, we are only an email or phone call away .... but please consider time zones!
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Be sure to check in with Vianvi soon and often!

JCK Las Vegas June 4-7, 2010

2010-05-11T01:54:00.006-05:00

JCK Las Vegas is committed to providing the best, most comprehensive experience for buyers and exhibitors --- setting the jewelry industry standard for quality and choice in a secure, trusted environment. It's the best place to build and sustain relationships with all of the major suppliers as well as source the largest selection of jewelry, gems, timepieces and product line launches.

Show Information

Dates, Times and Location:

JCK Las Vegas Exhibits:
Friday, June 4 – Monday, June 7, 2010

Friday, June 4 9:30am - 6:00pm
Saturday, June 5 9:30am - 6:00pm
Sunday, June 6 9:30am - 6:00pm
Monday, June 7 9:30am - 4:00pm

Sands Expo & Convention Center / The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino - Las Vegas, NV

AGTA Exhibits:
Thursday, June 3 – Monday, June 7, 2010

Thursday, June 3 10:00am - 6:00pm
Friday, June 4 9:30am - 6:00pm
Saturday, June 5 9:30am - 6:00pm
Sunday, June 6 9:30am - 6:00pm
Monday, June 7 9:30am - 4:00pm

The AGTA GemFair™ Cultured Pearl & Jewelry Pavilion is located in The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino Grand Ballroom adjacent to the Sand's Convention Center.

Click here for new buyer qualifications.

Click here for more information and to register online.

Click here if you are interested in exhibiting.

Las Vegas Antique Jewelry & Watch Show 2010

2010-05-11T01:23:00.008-05:00

Show Times
June 3 - June 5, 2010: 11 AM to 7 PM
June 6, 2010: 11 AM to 4 PM

Ticket Prices
$15 for all four days

Opens 1 Day before the JCK Show!

**Trade Only**
Valid ID and Business Card Required for Entry

Located at:
MGM Grand Pavilion
MGM Grand Las Vegas
3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Click Here To Purchase Tickets Online.

Internet Retailer Names 2010 Top 10 Retailers

2010-05-11T00:09:00.017-05:00

Internet Retailer has named the top 10 internet retailers for 2010 in their annual Top 500 Guide of the most successful internet retailers.

Number one is Amazon which reported $24.51 billion in sales in 2009, up almost 28% from the $19.17 billion sales in 2008.

Here are the Top 10 and their 2009 sales totals. Also included is the percentage of change over the previous year:

1. Amazon (AMZN): $24.51 billion, up almost 28%

2. Staples Inc (SPLS): $9.8 billion, up 27.3 percent

3. Dell Inc (DELL): $4.53 billion, down 6.2 percent

4. Apple Inc (AAPL): $4.25 billion, up 16.7 percent

5. Office Depot (ODP): $4.1 billion, down 14.6 percent

6. Wal-Mart.com (WMT): $3.5 billion, up 19.8 percent

7. OfficeMax (OMX): $2.78 billion, down 10 percent

8. Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD): $2.77 billion, up 3 percent

9. CDW Corp. (CDW): $2.47 billion, down 5 percent

10. Best Buy (BBY): $2.45 billion, up 20 percent

According to Internet Retailer, the Top 10 accounted for more than 45% of all U.S. online sales in 2009.

The Top 10 accomplished this by:

Strong name recognition and brand awareness;

Focusing their efforts on their most loyal customers last year;

Offering large quantities of merchandise;

Offering lots of discount deals and

Providing a superior online shopping experience.

Amazon remains on the top due to their excellent customer service.

Customer Service - An Opportunity To Stand Out & Gain Repeat Business

2010-05-09T22:42:00.036-05:00

An internet buyer enters a shop within a multi-seller venue. They see an item that catches their eye but they are unsure of the size offered so the buyer sends an email to the seller asking about the size.

It's not too long until this buyer gets a response from the seller. The buyer opens the email to read
In Part:

"The sizes are in the listing. Would you like me to put them in the titles?"

Of course the buyer is shocked at this response and wonders just what kind of seller would talk to them like that.

The buyer then writes back:

"I’m sorry that I asked about the sizes. You see I’m fairly new to the computer and at my age learning something new isn’t so easy. I didn’t realize that all I would’ve needed to do was to click on the picture of the product to see the details. It took one of my kids to point this out to me. You really must think I’m stupid but really I’m sorry."
---

In this case, the buyer was an elderly person with little computer experience and has never shopped online before. Of course the seller did not know this before they responded to the email. By keeping responses professional, this buyer would not have felt the need to explain the reason for their question.

After the email of explanation from the buyer, the seller changed their tune and acted much more civil than in their first response.

*********************************************When dealing with customers online, sellers never know who they are dealing with. It could be a youngster who is quite computer savvy, a middle aged person who knows their way around the internet fairly well or in this case, it could also be an elderly person who is learning their way around.

One thing is for sure when dealing with any customer online, the way a seller responds to an email can leave a lasting impression. Sometimes, that impression will cost the seller possible customers and sales.

Answering emails and other interactions sellers have with thier customers should never leave the buyer feeling stupid as they did in the above circumstance. The customer service a seller provides should always be courteous and professional.

Building a successful business online is hard work. You should put forth the same effort you would if you were running a brick and mortar business. To stand out from your competition and to keep buyers coming back emphasizing customer service will give you the edge. Keeping your customers happy will lead to loyal visitors of your site. Here are some things you can do to provide your customers with the best online shopping experience possible.

Tips for all online venues including multi-seller:

Sell products that you know well. Selling products you know a lot about makes it easy to answer questions and to list the product with all pertinent information. Help your customers make educated purchases by providing as much information about each item as possible. Provide the best images of the product as possible. Picutres of various angles of the item are helpful to your customers. Include size, colors, weight and any features the item comes with to allow customers to know exactly what they will be getting when they buy something from your site.

Provide great products at the best possible price. Some sellers believe in adding a free gift to orders. Our belief is that if you sell great products at the best possible price, your product will stand alone quite well. Added gifts may be a nice gesture but your customer may not even care for the item. Some sellers believe in constant sales promotions and coupons. We believe that if your prices are set at the best price possible, you will not need to do either. In fact, if you are not already overcharging your buyer before having a sale or offering a coupon, you would lose money. Another fact is, if you raise your prices before offering a sales promotion or coupon, you are operating against the FTC rules and guidelines. Giving every buyer the best possible price will create many repeat customers.

Always provide what you promise and in the timeframe stated. If you promise customers something, whether it is a particular product, free shipping, fast delivery, a replacement item or whatever, make sure you do exactly that. Besides being against the FTC rules and guidelines, it also shows poor customer service if you do not do as you stated.

Make communication easy. List your email, fax, phone numbers and any other contact information in places where shoppers will easily see them. If a "Contact" page is available to you, place your information there also.

Establish credibility anyway you can. Many people, especially those new to buying things online, find it difficult to trust an online business. You should do everything you can to inform customers about you and your business. Provide addresses, photos, and honest customer testimonials, if available, to help build the trust of your customer base.

Develop an informative email template. Templates can help ensure sure that all of your customers are getting essential information and the same level of service. Create basic templates that will allow you to add in individual responses to each customer as you need to. Personalize them to suit each customer and the item purchased such as, including their name, item title or other ways to further connect with the customer.

Respond to emails and calls as soon as possible. Do not leave customers hanging or wondering what is going on. Answer inquiries as soon as possible. Create a fast and reliable system to respond to emails. Unless you have a part of your business dedicated solely to customer service, you’re going to have to figure out how to handle the emails that you get to provide your customers timely responses to their questions and orders. Create set times to check your email. Answer easier questions first rather than those that might require you to do some research, so that no one is ever left waiting too long for a response.

Maintain a courteous, professional and caring attitude. Always be professional when dealing with your customers, but not so much that it seems that you don't care about the customer. Make sure your customers know that you genuinely care about their problems and concerns and that you want to provide them with fantastic service.

Write emails carefully and thoughtfully. Emails make it very difficult to feel the tone and meaning behind even the simplest of statements. It can be challenging to diffuse a situation or resolve a problem with a customer. When writing emails, it’s best to stick with a polite, courteous tone. Doing so leaves little room for misinterpretation of what you are trying to say and exactly what you mean. Without seeing facial expressions, such as we do in person, it is tough to pick up on what is being said and /or the tone of the email.

Learn how to listen well to customer needs. To find out what will satisfy your customers and make them happy, sometimes you just need to be quiet and really listen to what they are telling you. Pay attention to word choice, tone of voice and most importantly, how they feel about their experience. Use that information to make their shopping experience the best it can be.

Always let you customers know that they are important. If you want to repeat business from your customers, communicate so that they know that they really matter to you and that their orders, no matter how large or small, are important to you. Listen to what they have to say. Be completely sincere in your appreciation of their business.

Remember the importance of accommodating customer requests whenever possible. Try to accommodate special requests as much as you can. This can make a big difference in how buyers see you and your business.

Always send confirmation emails. Whether automated or manual, when a customer places an order with you, always let them know that you’ve received their order and that you’re processing it. If you have an automated email sent upon receipt of an order, that should be sufficient. It is courteous to send an email when you ship the product. If you have all necessary information regarding times noted in your listings or your policies / terms of service, it is not necessary to send a notice of shipment but buyers seem to appreciate them. They like knowing the status of their purchase as much as possible. This may also help the customer to feel confident in purchasing from you.

Keep customers updated. A big part of creating customer confidence is always letting customers know what is happening, even if there is some kind of problem that arises or if there is going to be a delay. Once again, if all of the shipping information, including timeframes is included in your terms of service, this does not need to be done by email unless there is a variance in the information provided and what is actually happening. Customers should never have to wonder about the status of their order, so send them emails, give them a call, and provide easy options if there is ever something out of ordinary happening with their order.

Provide clear policies and terms of service. You can avoid many problems by clearly stating all of your policies, terms of service and anything else that could possibly be of concern to your customers. If a problem arises, the buyer will know what to expect from you. Doing so also protects both you and your customers.

Ensure the security of all personal information. Many people fear that their personal information will not be secure when they place an order online. Ensuring that your site is secure can ease their fears. Let customers know about the security programs and etc. you have in place to protect their private information.

Provide multiple payment options. Not all customers like the same payment services or options. You could lose sales because you only provide customers with one way to pay.

AlWAYS thank your customers for their purchase in each email you send.

Remember small touches say a lot. The little things are what customers will remember when buying from you, and they will set you apart from all of the other online retailers. For example, offer free gift wrap or send out handwritten thank you notes with each purchase.

Try to exceed buyer expectations. Customers are pleasantly surprised when you exceede their expectations regarding customer service. It can be as simple as very fast shipping with packages arriving sooner than expected or going out of your way to produce a special order. Customers will remember the way they were treated and they will come back for more if you provide fantastic service.

Follow up with your customers after the sale. Follow up with customers to see how they felt about their experience and make sure that problems have been resolved satisfactorily. This will open the door to communication and let your customer know that you truly care about them and appreciate their patronage.

Try to always end sales on a high note. When a customer emails or calls you with a problem or concern, make sure the call does not end on a negative note. Try to keep communication positive by stating the things that you are doing to solve their issues instead of ending your call or email with an apology. Assure you customer that they can look forward to a good resolution.

Always be completely honest with your customers. Never lie to your customers. Even if you feel like you are protecting your reputation, honesty really is the best policy. If you have made a mistake, be honest and upfront about the problem. Customers will appreciate the gesture and may realize that your business is trustworthy.

Treat problems as an opportunity for your customer service skills to shine. Changing your attitude about customer compaints can be an opportunity to provide customer service at it's best. Working through issues can provide you the chance to prove to your customers what a great business you are running.

Allow customers a choice of solutions. Sometimes you and your customer have different ideas as to what solution is best for the issues at hand. Give your customers options that may resolve the problem positively for them so they know you really care about serving their needs and resolving the issue amicably. If you ask what the customer feels is the best way to make them happy, may be the easiest way to reolve an issue.

Never argue with your customers. Customers may not always be right, but as far as your business is concerned, they can make or break you. Do whatever it takes to fix whatever it is the customer is dissatisfied about.

Apologizing can be the best resolve. Everyone makes a mitake from time to time. Take responsibility for any errors made by your company, even if they weren’t directly your fault. Sometimes the best way to fix a problem is simply to aplolgize. You should always apologize to customers for any errors on the part of your company. Customers appreciate a sincere apology.

Do not try too hard and overcompensate. It is a good idea to give unhappy customers a little something extra to make sure they are satisfied but do not try too hard and overcompensate. Always remember to look professional in your dealings.

Trust your customers, most are very honest. Most people are reluctant to complain. Trust your customers when they say they have a problem. They usually are telling the truth and are not just out to take something from you for nothing. By trusting your customers, they will likely become a loyal shopper when you help them to solve their issues.

Don’t try to upsell to unhappy customers. Some business guides will tell you that you should use every opportunity to upsell customers. When a customer has had a negative experience with a purchase, they might be a little irritated if the same company tried to sell them something else while fixing the initial problem. Forget upselling and work on keeping your customers happy.

Do not script customer service phone calls. If you offer phone support, do not use a script. Customers will become annoyed and it makes it difficult for them to get answers for their specific problem. Have some standard operating procedures on hand for common problems, but do not script entire conversations.

Know when a customer needs to be sent to your competition. There are times when your business simply is not the best solution for some customers. While sending them to your competitor might cost you a sale, it can save you from having a dissatisfied customer.

Focus on turning shoppers into customers, not sales. The long term strategy for your business should be more about building customer relationships than making individual sales. It is more difficult and takes a lot more time to attract new customers than it does to make repeat customers out of existing ones. Happy customers will be your best source of business.

Providing great customer service should be an essential part of your business.
Tips for your own website:

Use a good, reliable hosting service. Your web host can influence customer service. Your host shoud keep your site reliable and fast loading. Be sure to go with a host that can easily handle the traffic coming to your site.

Make your site easy to buy on. One reason people shop on the Internet is because it is easier and more convenient than driving to a regular store and waiting in line. To keep customers shopping on your site, you need to make it as easy as possible. Create your site so that buying is done with as few clicks as possible. Do not force customers to fill out needless forms just to place an order. Make your site buyer friendly so they don't give up and move on to another site.

Assure ease of use for all customers. Before you launch your ecommerce site, make sure that it is set up to be as easy to use as possible. Allow the least computer savvy person you know to try your site and ask them to provide feedback.

Provide a FAQ's section. There are usually some common questions that your customers will ask. Rather than making your customers ask these questions individually, create a page only for FAQ's so your customers can find the answers fast.

Set up a live chat for customers to contact you. Chat on your site can provide easily accessible customer service. Chat allows customers to ask questions and to get information about their purchases without having to take the time to call or write and then wait for an answer.

Prominently display a help button or link on your site. If a customer needs help, they shouldn't have to hunt all over your site to find a way to get help. Place the help button or link on every page of your site so your customers can get help at any step of their ordering process.

Use the best shopping cart software available. Your shopping cart is the way you get paid, so get the best cart you possible can. Purchase a cart that will be easy and reliable for customers to use. It should also have a great support team to help you if a problem should arise.

Track all orders carefully. Before you launch your ecommerce site, you should have a reliable way of tracking your orders from your storeroom all of the way to your customer. Most customers will eagerly await their arrival so they will want a way to learn when the item may arrive.

Find the right people and assure that they are well trained. If you hire staff to provide customer service, be sure your employees will enjoy working with your customers and making their experience as good as possible. Your staff needs to be thoroughly trained and knowledgeable about your business and what you are selling. Your customer service representatives may be the only direct interaction customers have with your company. You staff should provide a positive experience for your customers.

Create a rating system. Poviding a way for customers to rate their purchases and write reviews for other potential customers can be helpful to you and future customers. Hearing that other customers liked a product is often enough assurance for an undecided buyer to add the item to their shopping cart. Even negative feedback can help you if you use it to improve your products and / or service.

Go the extra mile for your customers. Make your business stand apart from all of the rest. Be willing to go farther to make a customer happy and perhaps create repeat business.

Black Hills Gold & The Vaudeville Musician

2010-05-07T14:32:00.017-05:00

The above image is clickable for better viewing.
Heather, a travel blog reader, recently sent us an interesting email. She had been sorting through a collection of antique sheet music and other belongings that had been in her family for years.

Among them was an old poster dating back to the 1930’s or early 40’s. The poster was from the Black Hills Jewelry Shop, owned by E.O. Lampinen, and formerly located at 48 Sherman Street in Deadwood.

After a little digging and some help from the folks at the Deadwood Historic Preservation Center, we found out that the poster has quite the past. It belonged to a man named Frank Ernest, who as far as we can tell, was a traveling vaudeville musician.

Ernest, it seems, performed all over the country, including the once famous Gayety Theatre in Detroit. At some point during Ernest’s travels he made his way into the Black Hills and bought his wife, Sarah Ernest, some Black Hills Gold jewelry from E.O. Lampinen’s store.

Now Lampinen, you see, was one of the early pioneers of Black Hills Gold manufacturing and owned the store, but also the Black Hills Gold Manufacturing Company. As you can see on the poster above, most prices of Black Hills Gold jewelry at that time were in the $3 – $5 range.

On the back of the poster is a hand-written note indicating that Frank Ernest, the musician, spent a whopping $6 at Lampinen’s Deadwood store!

The details of Frank Ernest and his wife trail off after his purchase in Deadwood, but the story of E.O. Lampinen’s Black Hills Jewelry Shop continues. Years later, in 1944, Lampinen sold his business to an area entrepreneur named Ivan Landstrom. The sale included all tools, molds and equipment from the store and the manufacturing company.

Ivan Landstrom moved the business to Rapid City and created the now world-famous Landstrom’s Original Black Hills Gold Creations company. Fast forward about 50 years; in 1995 Landstrom’s acquired the F.L. Thorpe jewelry company, also of Deadwood.

Thorpe was one of the other original Black Hills Gold manufacturers and he and Lampinen were actually one-time business partners. The acquisition of the Thorpe company effectively made Landstrom’s the sole owner of all of the original Black Hills Gold designs.

Landstrom’s still operates in Rapid City and is open year-round for tours of the facility. Tours are given daily at 10:00 a.m and 1:00 p.m. If you go, be sure to ask about Lampinen, Thorpe and the others who helped make Black Hills Gold the unmistakable design that it is today.

********************************************
This wonderful article and graphic is reprinted with permission by the author, Joe Rainboth. Joe writes articles in the Black Hills Travel Blog. Our heartfelt thanks to Joe for graciously allowing us to share this wonderful article.

Joe is a resident of Spearfish, S.D. He grew up in the tall-corn state of Iowa, where he developed an early interest in all things outdoors. After high school he moved to Vermillion, S.D., where he earned his bachelor’s degree in public relations and advertising. During his college years, two things caught his attention: the beauty of western South Dakota’s Black Hills and a girl from those Black Hills. After graduating from college, Joe traveled across the country as a recruiter for the University of South Dakota. He saw the sights from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas and everywhere in between, but it was the Black Hills (and the girl) that kept drawing him back. He and wife moved back to the Black Hills in 2008. He's an avid hiker, mountain biker and road cyclist whose future plans include trying to fit a pair of kayaks into the spare bedroom.

Internet Retailer Conference And Exhibition 2010 - June 8 to 11

2010-05-07T05:50:00.000-05:00

Hear the Nation's Top Retail Experts

The speaker roster for the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2010 represents the largest group of expert speakers ever assembled in online retailing. The 175 speakers at IRCE 2010 represent all industry segments that conduct e-retailing operations. Such diversity of speakers is one of the hallmarks of IRCE, and it explains why its conference agenda appeals to all players in e-retailing. Simply put, the IRCE agenda covers e-retailing from a wide variety of perspectives and shows bias toward none.

This year's Internet Retailer Conference keynote speaker is Imran Jooma, Senior Vice President and General Manager, E-Commerce, Sears Holdings Corp., who will discuss Sears' extensive e-commerce strategy, which includes not only web sites but also mobile commerce and a far-reaching social media effort. He will tell attendees how that approach prepares Sears for today's always-connected but careful spending consumer—and how that strategy will enable Sears to take market share in the new retailing world.

Featured Speaker Dennis McEniry will talk about how Estee Lauder took its premium worldwide beauty brand to 300 web sites in 29 countries with $100 million in annual sales and grew it to become Estee lauder's fastest growing sales channel and a major contributor of bottom-line profits.

Featured Speaker Geoffrey Robertson will discuss how the century-old auto-parts retailer Whitney Automotive became an Internet business as a way to shore up its fading prospects. Featured Speaker Tony Ellison will talk about how he leveraged the advantages of being a small online-only retailer to grow sales in the recession while his bigger office supply competitors were shrinking.

Largest Display of E-Commerce Technology

Propelled by such significant and steady growth of conference attendees, IRCE has always been the favorite show for e-commerce vendors, who know they will be exhibiting their solutions in a high-traffic exhibit hall. As a result, IRCE's exhibit hall has always boasted the largest display of e-commerce technology in the world with more booths than all other U.S. e-retailing events combined. IRCE 2010 will be no exception. Its 170,000-square-foot Exhibit Hall will house the exhibits of 375 e-commerce solution providers who collectively account for three-quarters of the e-commerce technology market, making the information available in the Exhibit Hall as compelling as that provided in the conference sessions.
Click Here For More information And To Register Online.

Decline In Loyalty For Many Consumer Goods Brands

2010-05-06T19:15:00.015-05:00

comScore ARS Reports Decline in Loyalty for Many Consumer Goods Brands During Recession

Clear Evidence that “Trading Down” is Driven by Consumers’ Need for Cost Savings

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the March 2010 results of a study on brand loyalty among consumer goods products, showing a significant decline in consumers’ allegiance to their favorite brands during the past two years. The results of the study were presented by comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni at the Festival of Media conference in Valencia, Spain on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

“A decline in loyalty to consumer goods brands is typically one of the byproducts of a recession as consumers give greater consideration to price,” said Mr. Fulgoni. “Research we’ve conducted at comScore ARS has quantified the impact of the ‘trading down’ effect within a number of different product categories, highlighting consumers’ increasing willingness to switch brands in the face of pocketbook constraints.”

Brand Loyalty Diminishes Across All Product Categories and Segments in Study

The study evaluated the change in brand loyalty within a number of consumer goods categories, including health & beauty aids, OTC medications, apparel, food, household products and housewares. As the economic downturn has continued, the percentage of shoppers who typically buy the brands they want most has steadily declined across the categories examined. In March 2010, less than 50 percent of shoppers reported purchasing the brand they want most.

In some categories, particularly CPG household products and housewares, consumers were already more likely to buy a brand they didn’t “want most” at the start of the recession. Some categories (e.g., paper towels, facial tissue) have not seen increased trading down from a brand perspective, possibly because such categories have led the way in tiering, allowing consumers to stick with their preferred brand at a more attractive price point. As the economic downturn has persisted, this trading down behavior appears to be spreading to categories that were previously immune (e.g. HBA, OTC). The increases in trading down in these categories have largely occurred in the last year. Higher ticket items have seen large increases in trading down possibly due to larger absolute savings on a single purchase.

As part of the study, U.S. consumers were also asked about the type of brand they did buy when not their preferred one, with a focus on the importance of promotional discounts and lower price in causing the shift.

For most categories, the drop in likelihood to shop for the brand wanted most is not restricted to buying other brands on sale. Rather, a sizeable percentage of the change in shopping approach is being driven by a decision to convert to less expensive brands to save money.

Mr. Fulgoni added: “Despite these shifting consumer dynamics, research has repeatedly shown that premium brands which invest in marketing and promotion activities aimed at maintaining buying at ‘preferred’ levels are able to minimize short-term erosion of share to less expensive brands and position themselves for a bounce-back when the economy improves.”

Update: Stolen Mail Report

2010-05-05T18:39:00.031-05:00

We just contacted KELO, a local news station about a report they did this evening about our mail that disappeared in 2007. The reporter will be sharing our story sometime tomorrow.

The reason for the follow up is because the news station was led to believe that the mail theft victims got their stuff back when not everyone did. All we got was empty packages.

** Here is the link to our original story:

http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2010/05/where-do-missing-packages-go-mail-theft.html

** Here's the news report:

Stolen Mail Found Years After Being Sent

By Ben Dunsmoor
Published: May 5, 2010, 5:54 PM

SIOUX FALLS, SD - Thousands of people who sent a letter or package that never made it to its destination are now getting them back.

Last June, Michael Dallas Andersen of Garretson was sent to prison for stealing that mail. Andersen pleaded guilty to one count of stealing and opening mail last year. He admitted to taking the mail between 2006 and 2008. But it wasn't until after the case was closed that authorities found the more than 30,000 pieces of mail Andersen had stolen.

Packages are being returned to sender by the postal service, not because they had the wrong address but because they just found the mail that is nearly four years old.

"What we've been trying to do is find a way to get this mail back to its rightful owners," Pete Nowacki of the U.S. Postal Service said.

Officials with the Postal Service say Michael Andersen worked as a private contractor who would haul the mail from the Sioux Falls processing center to the airport. For two years, Andersen took thousands of parcels and stocked them away in an abandoned storage garage. Authorities didn't find the garage until this past February, eight months after Andersen was sentenced for the crime.

"There were materials that were being sent to somebody that had been separated from the package. So we've been doing what we can to sort of do a little bit of detective work trying to match this up and trying to make sure it gets back with the correct package," Nowacki said.

After finding the mail in February, federal investigators sifted through it, and now it is starting to be mailed back.

"The type of service we normally provide wasn't provided here and there's nothing we can do to make up for that, but what we can do is everything we can in our power to try and help people get some sort of closure, some sort of peace of mind that they know at least they've gotten their piece back. They know it's not out there missing somewhere," Nowacki said.

Andersen was sentenced last June to one year in prison and ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution.

KELO & this story

Latest UPDATE:

Today, KELO ran the update that included our packages that were caught in the mail theft that took place here, in Sioux Falls.

** Here's the report and a video:

Stolen Mail Returned To Woman

Posts By Ben Dunsmoor
Published: May 6, 2010, 6:12 PM

SIOUX FALLS, SD - A Sioux Falls woman is upset over her stolen mail that hasn't been returned. The mail in question was stolen between August 2006 and August 2008.

A couple of torn up envelopes is all Brenda Reeves has to show for the jewelry she sold on e-Bay two-and-a-half years ago.

"There I sat thinking, 'Gosh, I wonder what was in there,'" Reeves said.

The two small envelopes had fashion jewelry; as for this large package, she's still trying to figure that out.

"December of 2007. That's almost two and a half years ago. That's a long time," Reeves said.

The confusion started when the packages showed up on her doorstep this week. She wasn't expecting anything, but when she opened up the parcels and found ripped up envelopes and a letter from the U.S. Postal Service saying her mail was stolen two years ago, she was speechless.

"Wasn't too sure what to think and then I opened them and then I was horrified," Reeves said.

She wasn't just horrified that her mail was stolen, but that this case had gone on for more than three years and she didn't know anything about it until this week.

"Somebody got away with our merchandise and we had unhappy customers evidently because they didn't get their merchandise and I'm questioning why were we never contacted," Reeves said.

Michael Andersen was sentenced to one year in prison last year and ordered to pay $2,600 in restitution. But by looking at her torn up envelopes, Reeves thinks Andersen stole, stored and never delivered a lot more mail than that.

"If you've got 30,000 pieces of mail missing and I have three right here that had nothing in it, how many others didn't have anything in it?" Reeves said.

The Postal Service didn't find the garage where Andersen kept the mail until February of this year, eight months after Andersen was sentenced.

Officials say they're doing their best to match up items that were found in the garage with the empty packages that were also in the garage. But with 30,000 pieces of mail, it's a big job to take on.

KELO & this story

The comment about the number of packages and how many may be missing their contents was made in regards to the restitution that was set in the legal case in this story. It just seems like an awfully low amount considering how much merchandise this person likely made off with. How many others got nothing but empty envelopes or boxes back? How much should the restitution have really been set at?

Also, if the missing items are sitting in some bin somewhere in the USPS system, what are they going to do with it? They never contacted us to see what might have belonged in the packages. It doesn't seem like USPS did all that they could to match up the contents to the empty packages.

We will be contacting USPS about this situation to see what else may be done.

eBay Pulls Auction For Madonna's Personal Journals

2010-05-05T03:49:00.014-05:00

eBay pulled a multi-million dollar auction for Madonna's personal journals and other Madonna related items at 10am Monday morning. TMZ reports that "a rep for the singer was able to convince eBay that "they" were the rightful owners."

The seller, a man who bought the collection at a blind auction for $150 at a Chatsworth, California storage facility, is rightfully upset.

The storage unit belonged to Melissa Crowe. Crowe was Madonna’s personal assistant from 1987 to 1996. In the storage unit was Madonna’s personal daily journals, from 1988 to 1992, an address book containing famous names, personal pictures of Madonna and her family, among other things. The items in the unit went up for auction when the storage fees went unpaid.

The collector who bought the Madonna items and then placed them on eBay listed them with a starting bid of $2.5 million for the whole lot.

In the description of the items on eBay, the seller stated:

"Today at a moving company, I bought some boxes that were owned by Melissa Crowe. She was Madonna Ciccone's (singer known as 'Madonna') assistant from the years 1987-1996 ... 17 binders/book on everything Madonna and Melissa did! I have not looked through each page, but there is a little of everything in them."

Crowe had gone on blogs making negative comments about the auction and telling people not to buy the items.

PopEater reports that Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, told them - "These are not Madonna's diaries."

Madonna’s personal daily journals, from 1988 to 1992.

A peek inside of one item.

Madonna’s address book

1959 - Baby Madonna and her family.

"Faux" Is NOT A Legal Qualifier For Pearls

2010-05-05T02:26:00.030-05:00

The FTC has strict guidelines regarding precious metals and gemstones. They are located here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm .

It is often that you will find sellers on various venues improperly listing their jewelry items. We have pointed out the FTC guidelines, rules, regulations and etc. to several of these marketplaces in hopes of educating the sellers. It seems no matter what, the FTC information we provide these sites is ignored.

Yesterday, we received a newsletter from one marketplace that bothered us. We have brought this subject up in their forums only to be blasted by irrate sellers and blown off by staff. Even after the entire FTC info was sent, the sellers on this site continue to list their jewelry incorrectly.

This is the section of the newsletter that bothered us:

Not only does it show that the improper terminology is still being used by the sellers on the site, it also proves that the sites' own newsletter is not using legal qualifiers to describe jewelry items in the above links it provided. It is as though the site is laughing at the FTC.

In case you are unsure of which words in the above graphic are incorrect, they are - "Faux pearls". The other terms, such as "Reproduction antiques," appear odd to us also but we know little about those topics so we are addressing the topic we are sure of.

When we clicked on the link provided in the newsletter, we found over 1400 listings for the term "faux pearl" BUT they did not have the proper qualifier in the title. When opening the listings, most did not mention that the pearls were not real but they continued to use the term "faux pearl" throughout.

According to the FTC:

§ 23.18 Definitions of various pearls.

As used in these guides, the terms set forth below have the following meanings:

(a) Pearl: A calcareous concretion consisting essentially of alternating concentric layers of carbonate of lime and organic material formed within the body of certain mollusks, the result of an abnormal secretory process caused by an irritation of the mantle of the mollusk following the intrusion of some foreign body inside the shell of the mollusk, or due to some abnormal physiological condition in the mollusk, neither of which has in any way been caused or induced by humans.

(b) Cultured Pearl: The composite product created when a nucleus (usually a sphere of calcareous mollusk shell) planted by humans inside the shell or in the mantle of a mollusk is coated with nacre by the mollusk.

(c) Imitation Pearl: A manufactured product composed of any material or materials that simulate in appearance a pearl or cultured pearl.

(d) Seed Pearl: A small pearl, as defined in (a), that measures approximately two millimeters or less.

§ 23.19 Misuse of the word "pearl."

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to use the unqualified word "pearl" or any other word or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to any object or product that is not in fact a pearl, as defined in § 23.18(a).

(b) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "pearl" to describe, identify, or refer to a cultured pearl unless it is immediately preceded, with equal conspicuousness, by the word "cultured" or "cultivated," or by some other word or phrase of like meaning, so as to indicate definitely and clearly that the product is not a pearl.

(c) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "pearl" to describe, identify, or refer to an imitation pearl unless it is immediately preceded, with equal conspicuousness, by the word "artificial," "imitation," or "simulated," or by some other word or phrase of like meaning, so as to indicate definitely and clearly that the product is not a pearl.

(d) It is unfair or deceptive to use the terms "faux pearl," "fashion pearl," "Mother of Pearl," or any other such term to describe or qualify an imitation pearl product unless it is immediately preceded, with equal conspicuousness, by the word "artificial," "imitation," or "simulated," or by some other word or phrase of like meaning, so as to indicate definitely and clearly that the product is not a pearl.

§ 23.20 Misuse of terms such as "cultured pearl," "seed pearl," "Oriental pearl," "natura," "kultured," "real," "gem," "synthetic," and regional designations.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "cultured pearl," "cultivated pearl," or any other word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to any imitation pearl.

(b) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "seed pearl" or any word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to a cultured or an imitation pearl, without using the appropriate qualifying term "cultured" (e.g., "cultured seed pearl") or "simulated," "artificial," or "imitation" (e.g., "imitation seed pearl").

(c) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "Oriental pearl" or any word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to any industry product other than a pearl taken from a salt water mollusk and of the distinctive appearance and type of pearls obtained from mollusks inhabiting the Persian Gulf and recognized in the jewelry trade as Oriental pearls.

(d) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "Oriental" to describe, identify, or refer to any cultured or imitation pearl.

(e) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "natura," "natural," "nature’s," or any word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to a cultured or imitation pearl. It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "organic" to describe, identify, or refer to an imitation pearl, unless the term is qualified in such a way as to make clear that the product is not a natural or cultured pearl.

f) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "kultured," "semi-cultured pearl," "cultured-like," "part-cultured," "pre-mature cultured pearl," or any word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to an imitation pearl.

(g) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "South Sea pearl" unless it describes, identifies, or refers to a pearl that is taken from a salt water mollusk of the Pacific Ocean South Sea Islands, Australia, or Southeast Asia. It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "South Sea cultured pearl" unless it describes, identifies, or refers to a cultured pearl formed in a salt water mollusk of the Pacific Ocean South Sea Islands, Australia, or Southeast Asia.

(h) It is unfair or deceptive to use the term "Biwa cultured pearl" unless it describes, identifies, or refers to cultured pearls grown in fresh water mollusks in the lakes and rivers of Japan.

(i) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "real," "genuine," "precious," or any word, term, or phrase of like meaning to describe, identify, or refer to any imitation pearl.

(j) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "gem" to describe, identify, or refer to a pearl or cultured pearl that does not possess the beauty, symmetry, rarity, and value necessary for qualification as a gem.

Note to paragraph (j): Use of the word "gem" with respect to cultured pearls should be avoided since few cultured pearls possess the necessary qualifications to properly be termed "gems." Imitation pearls should not be described as "gems."

(k) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "synthetic" or similar terms to describe cultured or imitation pearls.

(l) It is unfair or deceptive to use the terms "Japanese Pearls," "Chinese Pearls," "Mallorca Pearls," or any regional designation to describe, identify, or refer to any cultured or imitation pearl, unless the term is immediately preceded, with equal conspicuousness, by the word "cultured," "artificial," "imitation," or "simulated," or by some other word or phrase of like meaning, so as to indicate definitely and clearly that the product is a cultured or imitation pearl.

§ 23.21 Misrepresentation as to cultured pearls.

It is unfair or deceptive to misrepresent the manner in which cultured pearls are produced, the size of the nucleus artificially inserted in the mollusk and included in cultured pearls, the length of time that such products remained in the mollusk, the thickness of the nacre coating, the value and quality of cultured pearls as compared with the value and quality of pearls and imitation pearls, or any other material matter relating to the formation, structure, properties, characteristics, and qualities of cultured pearls.

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We wish that the owners of all sites would take this issue more seriously and make their sellers list properly. It is all about consumer protection and if a site intends to hold any credibility, they should follow all of the laws, rules, regulations and guidelines as they pertain to them and the products represented on their sites. They shouldn't simply pick and choose which one's they are going to follow.

Where Do Missing Packages Go? Mail Theft Does Happen

2010-05-04T18:44:00.017-05:00

Most online sellers have had buyers who have contacted them because their package is slow to arrive or has failed to arrive. Sometimes it is a case of another family member picking up the mail and forgetting to let the buyer know that it has arrived, it may be a case of being impatient or whatever. Then of course, once in a very great while, it is someone trying to get two items for the price of one. At any rate, things may not always be as they seem.

We have only had one serious incident with USPS in all of our years selling online. That was when 8-10 packages turned up missing and when we contacted the PO, they said that a whole truck of mail was abandoned in a mountain pass in the dead of winter. We never saw the mail again, the buyers never got the mail and in the end, all were refunded, including us.

After what happened today, we have realized that there is another twist that can take place.

Today, we got some USPS shipping supplies. We were not around when the mail carrier arrived so they left them on the front step. Under the supplies were 3 priority mail envelopes.

We were horrified when we opened them.

One was a priority mail box that we sent 12-08-07
One was a 4 X 8 bubble mailer we sent 12-08-07
The last one was a 4 X 8 bubble mailer we sent 02-09-08

All had been torn open with the contents missing.

USPS enclosed the same letter in each package. We were just sick.

Here's the letter:

Dear Postal Customer:

The enclosed mail piece was recovered recently from an abandoned storage unit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We believe that the storage unit was used by a suspect in a mail theft prior to his arrest. On June 19, 2009, that suspect was convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment for the violation of Title 18 USC 1702, Obsrtuction of Correspondence.

Our investigation is now closed. This letter is to inform you that we no longer require custody of the enclosed mail piece and are returning the mail to you. It is apparent that your mail piece was tampered with and that some or all of the contents are missing. We have worked as best as we can to match any loose contents to the appropriate mail piece but have not always been successful.

If you have experienced a financial loss due to the theft of the enclosed mail, please enter a mail theft complaint at www.postalinspecors.uspis.gov or call the Postal Inspection Service at (877) 876-2455, option 3. If you believe you may have been the victim of identity theft, please contact one of the following credit reporting agencies to place a fraud alert on your account:

Equifax (800) 525-6285
Experian (888) 397-3748
TansUnion (800) 680-7829

We regret any loss and inconvenience this may have caused you. Please be assured of our continued attention to the security of mail while in the custody of the U.S. Postal Service.

Sincerely,
Handwritten Signature Here
Joseph P Schneiders
Postal Inspector

After thinking about it, this means that the mail disappeared while in USPS custody. It did not happen after it was delivered, it happened right here in Sioux Falls after we sent it on it's way. It never got out of town and all of it was headed for cities on the different coasts.

It is hard to believe that this kind of thing can happen but low and behold, it happened to us.

We don't remember these particular pieces and will have to go through our records to see what the items were and go about filing the complaints as necessary. It sure seems odd that USPS never contacted us in all of this time. The one who stole the mail is due to get out of jail next month, if he hasn't already.

We wonder:

Why didn’t USPS let us know something earlier so we could advise our customers? We didn’t have to tell them what happened as far as the exact details but just to give them a heads up that there was a problem.

The way this was handled, the customers likely thought we may have been less than truthful with info about the package.

It just seems that 2.5 years after the first packages disappeared and just before the culprit that stole the packages gets out of jail is, at the very least, a little bit late.

Why wasn't any of this on the local news or in the newspapers? It was such a hush, hush deal that even those that were victims had no idea about it until now.

Sellers don’t always watch all of the Delivery Confirmation or tracking info on their packages until they arrive to the customer. After all, they have tons of other things they need to be doing but it appears that sellers should check the Delivery Confirmation and tracking on all of their packages from now on if they don't already.

When a buyer contacts the seller claiming that their package has not arrived, this is another scenario that the seller may want to consider when trying to locate the item.

2009 Internet Crime Complaints Up 22.3%

2010-04-30T07:11:00.004-05:00

From 01-01-09 to 12-31-09, internet crime complaints were up 22.3% compared to the same period in 2008.

The complaints totaled $559.7 million lost with the median loss of $575.

Click here to read the entire report.

OTA Publishes 2010 Online Safety Honor Roll Citing Adoption of Consumer Protection Best Practices

2010-04-30T06:50:00.006-05:00

8% of the Leading Companies Make the Grade

Washington, DC – April 22, 2010 – The majority of consumer websites remain vulnerable to online fraud, even as growing numbers of businesses deploy online safety measures, according to a new survey announced today by the Online Trust Alliance.

The annual survey of best practices to help protect consumers from the onslaught of forged email, phishing sites and malware found of the 1,200 companies analyzed, only 113 qualified to be named to the OTA Online Safety 2010 Honor Roll. The survey examined 1,200 domains and analyzed 500 million email messages purporting to come from the Fortune 500, Internet Retail 500, top 100 financial Institutions in North America and consumer facing federal government web sites. Sites were evaluated based on their usage of email authentication standards and Extended Validation SSL Certificates (EV SSL) and the presence of malware.

While 92% of the companies failed to adopt these best practices, 14% Internet Retail 500, 13% of the top 100 financial institutions and 6% of the Fortune 500 passed. Only 3% of the top consumer facing government sites made the grade, while 29% of OTA members walked the talk, demonstrating their commitment and leadership to locking out online fraud.

“Security has always been a top priority for PayPal, and we appreciate OTA's acknowledgement of our efforts to provide millions of customers around the world with a safer online payment service," said Michael Barrett, chief information security officer of PayPal. “We support OTA's efforts to drive industry adoption of standards that make the Internet safer for consumers and look forward to continued collaboration."

2010 Honor Roll Report

Appendix & Honor Roll Company Listing

Highlights:

8% (113 companies) earned entry into the OTA 2010 Online Safety Honor Roll, for their adoption of EV SSL Certificates, one or more forms of email authentication and successful scan for malware.

Over 26% of the Internet Retail 500 and top 100 financial services companies have adopted EV SSL certificates.

Worldwide growth of EV SSL certificates has exceeded 90%, growing to 23,000 deployments.

26% of leading financial institutions (FIs) have adopted EV SSL, and 51% adopted email authentication, a growth of 13% in one year, yet only 13% have adopted both recommendations.

OTA members lead in embracing best practices with over 98% adopting email authentication and nearly 32% adopting EV SSL.

14% of the Internet Retail 500 and 13% of the Top 100 FIs have adopted both email authentication and EV SSL certificates.

The largest retailers and businesses continue to show the highest level of adoption of email authentication with 76% of the Internet Retail 100 and 54% of the IR 500.

Government agencies adoption of email authentication remains stagnant at 32%, while over 60% of their sites and/or email have been spoofed in the past four months.

“While major corporations, banks, governmental agencies and industry working groups talk about best practices, the majority are failing to adopt, risking demands for added regulations,” said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of the OTA.

OTA has recognized several “North Stars,” organizations demonstrating commitment to best practices, industry collaboration and consumer education. Leaders include Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, eBay, Microsoft and PayPal.

“These organizations are to be commended for their security and privacy leadership and commitment to self-regulations, helping drive others to do the same,” Mr. Spiezle said. “Not only do their consumers benefit, but so do their employees and stockholders.”

OTA is calling on all consumer financial institutions, commerce sites and consumer facing governmental agencies to implement EV SSL certificates, email authentication and complete daily site scans for malware and vulnerabilities by September 1, 2010. It the belief those brands who do so, will increase consumer protection and trust while demonstrating a commitment to self regulation.

Updates to this report will be shared at the Online Trust & Cybersecurity Forum at Georgetown University on September 22-24, 2010.

https://otalliance.org/dc.html

* Percentage adjusted for companies who are on one or more list.

Midnight Eclipse Collection By Coleman

2010-04-30T05:29:00.005-05:00

We have been adding pieces from the Midnight Eclipse Collection created by Black Hills Gold by Coleman.

We hope you will watch our stores for more listings from this collection to be added soon.

Bonanzle Rocks! Investors Drop $1 Million For Advancement Of The Site

2010-04-29T09:18:00.001-05:00

Bonanzle has a lot to be proud of and excited about these days. They have locked in $1 million from some of the top investors in the Seattle, Wa. area.

Way to go Bonanzle!!

Here is what Bonanzle's founder and CEO, Bill Harding has to say:

Why get funded? And why now?

We couldn't be happier about finally having the resources to buy a Bonanzle rocket ship. Mark has already dibsed first trip to Mars. For "normal" startups, raising money from investors is usually one of the first matters to get taken care of. If not for the strong support of our community and dear old Google search, we would have needed to do this a year ago. But because of Bonanzle's fast-spreading reputation (and thus sales), we have been able to bide our time and wait until we saw a deal that was simply too good to pass up.

This is that deal. Our group of investors is comprised of many of Seattle's most respected entrepeneurs and investors -- people who understand the significance of what we've built, what our community means to the site, and who agree with the service-first mantra that is going to help us continue to grow rapidly for years to come.

We feel like we owe this to our sellers. So many Bonanzle users have spent countless hours setting up their booths, marketing their items on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, and have done all they can to build a successful business on Bonanzle. For the people who have stuck with us as we've grown, we want to prove our commitment to doing everything in our power to ensure that the time spent booth building is rewarded with a user experience that continues to improve, and continues to deliver an ever-growing number of buyers over time.

What changes?

The biggest change coming will be the increased speed at which we can fix bugs and create a more polished user experience. To this point, Bonanzle has been built with a very small development team. As our number of buyers continues to grow month after month, our obligation to tending the community grows, and the amount of time available to add meaningful improvements shrinks. If there's one thing we will never be OK with, it's stagnation. Though it will take some time to put the right team in place, within the next few months, we expect that our speed of evolution will become even faster than it had been back in the glory days of 2k9.

Another personal pet peeve of mine over the last year has been how little time we've had to focus test our buying and selling experiences. With our new resources, one of my first priorities will be to put in place a sustainable plan to ensure that stuff works the way that real users expect it to, not just the way we think it probably ought to work at the time its added.

What doesn't change?

This is probably the equally important, if not more important, question to many of our existing users.

First of all, Mark and I will continue to perform the same roles we have had. That is, Mark will continue to ensure that we provide the best support experience of any marketplace online, and I'll continue to work toward creating a fast and simple site that is fun to use.

Bonanzle will remain a product-driven company, as opposed to a marketing-driven company. It's true that we are treading toward more advertising through Adwords and otherwise, and we will continue to incrementally spend on a limited amount of advertising. But fundamentally, it is our belief that $1 spent on building a better site will provide more sustained value than $1 buying a single customer, and then sending that customer into a mediocre experience. During this crucial phase of our growth, it is imperative that we focus on what makes the Bonanzle experience unique, and polish it like crazy until it is so wonderful it makes new users weep in joyful triumph. (<-- use of hyperbole, but you get the idea).

Oh, and for all the paranoiacs in the crowd, I would be remiss not to state the obvious: that fees here are obviously not changing (they're locked in, remember?)

What is Bonanzle doing next?

1. Hiring (say, you wouldn't happen to know any good programmers, designers, or product/ui specialists, would you?)

2. Everything else. Where "everything else" includes: working to get our sellers more detailed metrics about their item visitors and sales; making it easier to register and chat on the site if you don't have an account; investigating means by which to make it easier for new visitors to trust Bonanzle and our sellers; building ways to make category-specific shopping experience interesting; and countless other surprises of the pleasant sort.

http://www.bonanzle.com/blogs/167
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Bonanzle has really shown how they are not just a fly by night company and the fact that investors are willing to drop their money on the site says a lot for the potential of the site. It looks like there is a very bright future ahead!

Congratulations to Bonanzle, Bill Harding and the rest of the staff!

eCrater Hits 1 Millionth Sale

2010-04-29T02:37:00.000-05:00

eCrater has hit it's 1 millionth sale. All of that hard work and dedication by eCrater staff and sellers has paid off.

Sales seem to be increasing and sellers are quite happy with the site. Completely free to sell on eCrater, sellers are seeing the site as a viable and profitable venue.

Figuring out just how many sales have taken place is a bit difficult as many sales may be completed off-site. For this announcement, the invoice numbers were used but they have likely cleared far more sales than one million.

Congratulations eCrater!

Switching Gears A Little Bit

2010-04-13T03:43:00.007-05:00

I am sorry that it has been a while since our last post but the real world has been pulling on us. Anyway, I want to let our readers know that we will no longer have time to blog about all of the latest ecommerce news as it happens. We will still do what we can.

We will likely spend more time writing about our products and our favorite ecommerce sellers.

If you have something you want us to add to the blog, (you are a site owner or know some breaking news, etc) please send it to us and we will be sure to include it.

Thank you for reading our blog in the past and we hope that you will continue to do so with the change.

Bonanzle Brand Protection Program

2010-04-13T03:04:00.008-05:00

Bonanzle has a program that few know about. It is like the eBay Vero program. I found out about it when I was reporting some bootleg DVD's.

While Bonanzle would not give a list of participants, we do know the following are involved:

Burberry

Chanel

Gibson Guitar Corporation

The Indian Arts & Crafts Board

Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc.

There are likely more but we didn't put too much time into snooping around.

When emailing with Mark Dorsey, he gave me permission to print the following information that is sent to trademark owners:

Our goal is to assist you in protecting your brand and protecting consumers from inadvertently purchasing an item that is a replica or counterfeit. Our tools will allow you to set up alerts so that you will be notified each time an item with your selected key words is listed. You will be provided a link to the item(s) and have the option to report and remove these items. The offender will receive an email notifying them of the action along with a link back to your profile page where they can learn why their item was removed. It is important that you include a means of contact on your "about me" page should the seller have additional questions. This could be in the form on an email address, website or 800 number.

Step one: Register (Free) an account at Bonanzle and populate your "About Me" page.
Once you have registered and you are logged into your account you will go to your My Bonanzle > My Profile page and populate your "About Me" profile. Please also upload a logo to your profile image.

Step two: Set up Saved Item Search (Alerts)
Our system will allow you to set alerts on key terms often used in the listings of replica/counterfeit items. You will be emailed these alerts to your email address you have registered with Bonanzle. There is no limit to the amount of alerts you can set up. To set up alerts, go to your My Bonanzle > Buying Activity > Saved Item Search > Create a new Saved Item Search. You will have the option to set your alert up and also to narrow down your alerts using a filter provided. When you have completed creating the alert click on "Create."

Step three: Reporting and removing offending items
When you locate an item that infringes on your brand, you will see an "Actions" link towards the bottom of the description. Clicking on this link will open up a list of actions to perform, one being "Report Violation." Clicking on the "Report Violation" link will remove the item and send an email to the offending account that their item was removed by the Brand Protection Manager of "XXXX" company. The email will also provide a link back to your "About Me" profile which should include information on how the seller can contact the brand should they have additional questions.

Step four: Confirm to Bonanzle that you have set up your "About Me" page and provide a contact email that we can forward to those who may have questions about the removal of their items. Additionally please provide us with the user name of each account that you have set up so that we can activate your tools.
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As is true for any ecommerce venue, this is a smart move. If a multi-seller venue wants to gain credibility with buyers, sellers and those that create many of the items offered for sale, they must have a program such as this place.

Kudos to Bonanzle for putting this progran in place!

What Happened To Sales On eCrater?

2010-04-13T02:13:00.002-05:00

We have always said good things about eCrater and boasted about the great sales there but something has gone awry.

Since the Google Shopping changes, our sales have fallen to nearly nothing. What is going on?

Has anyone else noticed this?

Facebook User Statistics

2010-03-19T23:53:00.009-05:00

According to Retrevo Gadgetology Report:

18% of Facebook users less than 25 years old check the site every few hours.

61% of Facebook users 24 years old or less check Facebbok daily.

18% of the same group check Facebook every few hours.

Older Facebook users visited the site less.

55% of Facebook users 25 years old and over check Facebook daily (study was of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers).

11% of that same group check Facebook every few hours.

The use of Apple’s popular iPhone might help social sites grow.

28% of iPhone users check or update Twitter before they rise.

26% check our update Twitter before they turn on the TV.

23% use their iPhone to access morning news.
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16% of respondents 24 years old or less use Twitter and/or Facebook to get morning news.

24% of respondents 24 years old or less and 12% of those 25 and over can be interrupted by an electronic message when using the restroom.

49% of respondents 24 years old or less and 27% of those 25 years and over, can be interrupted by an electronic message while eating a meal.

22% of respondents in the 24 or less group, and 11% of older consumers, can be interrupted by an electronic message while in a meeting.

40% of respondents say they don't mind being interrupted for a message when having a meal.

7% say they would even check a message during an intimate moment.

Brands seem to be paying attention to the popularity of social media. A recent survey by web marketing consultants E-consultancy, who surveyed 400 companies, 19% of whom were e-retailers, found 77% were using Twitter. That could be because it is cheap.

32% said they do not spend anything on social media beyond their employees’ time.

36% spend less than $5,000 a year and 12% spend $10,000 or less.

Amazon Fears iBookstore & Seeking 3 Year Contracts

2010-03-19T11:15:00.005-05:00

iPad and iBookstore, is venturing into publishing in a couple of weeks. Amazon is fearful, juding by their actions. Amazon's Kindle could fall by the wayside regarding e-book sales.

Due to anticipation of Apple's grand opening of iBookstore, Amazon is now trying to get e-book publishers to sign three year contracts. These contracts have a "no compete" clause so that other retailers will not get better prices or treatment, according to The New York Times.

Earlier this year, Amazon had a conflict with Macmillan over them switching to an agency model. That model allowed retailers like Amazon to act as agents for the publisher. These agents would also earn a 30% commission on prices set by the publisher. Amazon commented that those prices were "needlessly high."

During that well publicized issue, Amazon's stock fell. At that point, Amazon temporarily stopped selling all Macmillan books in protest.

It will be interesting to see just what Amazon will do to protect their share of sales on April 3rd when Apple's iBookstore launchs in the US on iPad.

Apple has also been trying to get participating publishers involved with its iBookstore, The New York Times reported. They have been courting Macmillan, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin and Hachette.

Random House Publishing is the only one who has not signed on yet, The Times said.

Participating publishers will use the agency model for iBookstore sales. The publishers will set their own prices and Apple will get 30 percent of those sales.

Apple does have include a "no compete" clause that states that publishers must not allow other retailers to sell their e-books for a lower price than their iBookstore offers, according to The Times.

Amazon also launched their new Kindle for Macintosh on Thursday. It is a free application used for reading Kindle books on Macintosh computers.

Facebook Traffic -V- Profitable Use

2010-03-17T23:38:00.000-05:00

Facebook Traffic: A Whole Lot of Hustle but Not Much Flow

By Mike Pearson
E-Commerce Times
03/17/10 5:00 AM PT

What does the mad rush of traffic to Facebook mean, really? The social networking colossus drew more traffic than Google for the third time this year, but Facebook still hasn't figured out how to turn all that activity into gold. It's not as though users are turning to Facebook as their primary Internet search tool -- and advertisers apparently don't see it that way either.

Click here to read the rest of this interesting article.

Twitter Everywhere - Use It From Nearly Anywhere

2010-03-17T22:21:00.001-05:00

This week Twitter announced a new platform known as @anywhere. The app helps popular websites integrate Twitter features with ease. Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Bing, YouTube, AdAge, MSNBC, Digg, The Huffington Post and The New York Times are a few of Twitter's partners with a headstart on this project.

On the Twitter blog, Biz Stone states: "We've developed a new set of frameworks for adding this Twitter experience anywhere on the web. Soon, sites many of us visit every day will be able to recreate these open, engaging interactions providing a new layer of value for visitors without sending them to Twitter.com."

He went on to say: "Our open technology platform is well known and Twitter APIs are already widely implemented but this is a different approach because we've created something incredibly simple. Rather than implementing APIs, site owners need only drop in a few lines of javascript."

Please Help Find Stolen Vietnam Memorabilia

2010-03-13T05:27:00.049-06:00

My Uncle Fred started a local salvage yard several years ago. His son, my cousin Tom, was a partner in the business and took over the yard when my uncle retired. Both my uncle and aunt passed away several years ago so Tom kept the business going. Tom stored some of his prized possessions and treasures at the salvage yard. They were stored in a foot locker on the 2nd floor of the office building.

The other night, thieves broke in and took lots of tools and etc… but Tom doesn’t care about that. It was the foot locker filled with his medals, certificates, citations, insignias, personal letters from home, and cassette tapes from his parents during his time in Vietnam. These items are irreplacable and only have great value to Tom.

He had always been a tough guy in his day and he did 2 tours in Vietnam as a US Marine but this situation has devastated him. He was in tears when he found these treasures gone. His heart is so big that you can ask him for help and it would be unusual for him to say no.

I am hoping that someone who reads this may have information to aid in the recovery of Tom's things. If you have any information, Click Here To Contact Us By Email. We would be very happy to help get Tom's things back to him.

** There will be no questions asked and Tom is offering a reward for the return of his belongings. **

Anyway, here is a news video of what happened to Tom.

Other things that are missing:

Binoculars

Many tools

Small toolbox

Sockets

Ratchets

Clamps

Vice grips

Kodak Easyshare C190 digital camera

Remington 30-06

Flash drive

Redwood Wireless USB modem

Sirius satellite receivers

If Tom gets nothing else back, I pray that he gets his foot locker with the contents it had in it when it was taken.

Update:

It sounds like Tom is pretty much on his own in finding his stuff. Here is an article from today's newspaper about it:

Theft of war medals pains vet