Meet Jan and Newt Vail of JaNewt eMart

(as of November, 2009) JaNewt eMart has gone mobile. Jan and Newt (JaNewt) have retired from the 9-5 workforce and are living & traveling full time in a 39 foot long 5th wheel (for non-US readers, a 5th wheel is a style of caravan/trailer that connects to the tow truck in the same manner you connect the trailer on a lorrie).

We have too much fun selling on the internet and especially on eBay to give it up so we are continuing selling along with lots of traveling and fishing. Right now we are in Florida for a while but at some point, we'll just have to change our item location to, "On the road, USA", and switch from zip code calculated shipping to flat rate since we won't know when we list exactly which zip code we'll be in when time comes to ship the item to the buyer.

 Here is our new home. 400 square feet when all three slides are extended is not a lot of room but for an older couple with only a small dog, it is cozy.

It took a great deal of shopping to decide on a floor plan since these are mostly offered with only living space and little room for storing eBay 'stuff'. RV's, known as 'toy haulers', use the rear 1/3 as garage space for motorcycles or ATVs. One had too little 'eBay' space and the other not enough living space for full time use. We finally found a new design that has a very small garage space that was perfect so we bought a 2008 model. The garage is a laundry room, eBay storage and working room, and a place to pack long fishing rods for travel.

Operating an eBay business as we plan would not have been possible a few years ago but cell/mobile phones, wireless internet and satellite television have opened up new possibilities and  we plan to enjoy exploring them.  We sold all non-essential things from the house before putting it on the market while we parked at a nearby active gold mine and then moved to the Florida panhandle via stays in Georgia & Alabama. Along the way we discovered that some of our 'essentials' really weren't and sold or gave away yet more possesions we didn't need.

We will be starting a blog describing the process of going mobile. I'd love to hear from any others who have a non-standard way of running their business and if you agree, will probably feature you in a posting.

Please drop me a note via email using the link below.