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Typical U.S. Shipments
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Typical Foreign Shipment
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March 10, 2009
My wife, Pam, has been buying and selling antique, vintage, and newer jewelry items for over 20 years. She doesn't consider herself an expert on anything but does have the experience to know quite a bit about her items.
One thing Pam is not good at is computers. In fact, she can’t deal with any electronics very well. The TV remote presents its’ challenges! Lucky for us, this is where I shine. I’m educated as an electronic engineer although I am now in commercial real estate. So computers are almost second nature to me. Ebay makes it easy anyway.
Together we make a fairly good Ebay team. We’ve been on Ebay since April 1999. We don’t make a living with it (I only have enough time to put about 60 auctions a week on) but we do enjoy the work. It’s become a hobby for me.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. I got my item and the color is different than on the computer.
Monitors can be very different in color. I don’t alter the color of my photos with the possible exception of the extreme close-ups to show a makers or fineness mark. Sometimes I need to dull the color for the close-up to make it readable. If you get an item and don’t like it for any reason, please return it for a full refund.
2. How long do I have to pay?
As long as you have emailed me and I know you haven’t forgotten about the payment, I will wait a couple of weeks. If I have had no contact from you, I will send a reminder invoice after about a week. If that fails to get a response, I will then use Ebays dispute console.
3. I noticed that you ask customers to let you know when payment has been sent. Why?
It saves both of us time. If you’ve used the Ebay checkout or emailed me to let me know your payment is on the way, I can have it ready to ship ASAP. If you don’t let me know, I assume that you are waiting to combine shipping charges.
4. How do you combine the shipping and handling charges?
Now that I have switched over to free shipping, I can't combine. Ebay doesn't (yet) have any clear way for me to discount for multiple item buyers. I'm hoping that changes in the future.
5. How will my items be shipped?
For U.S. shipments, I ship in small boxes and the items are bubble wrapped for protection. USPS delivery confirmation is included but signature confirmation is optional and extra (email and let me know you want it). Overseas and Canadian orders are shipped in bubble wrap envelopes with a small box inside and the item is bubble wrapped. I do that in order to keep the weight down but still provide a safe journey. I ship U.S. mail only. If you want a service that is provided by U.S. mail but is not offered please email and ask me for a quote on it. I’ll do my best to accommodate you.
6. My item arrived damaged or didn’t arrive at all. What can I do? I ship in boxes (to the US) and have never had a package arrive with damaged contents but contact me if there is a problem. I use USPS delivery confirmation, if they don't show the package as delivered in a reasonable time, please let me know and I'll contact the post office. If it is shown as delivered, please look around and ask family members if they saw it (this is usually the case).
7. When will my item ship?
I typically ship the next business day after payment has been received. If you pay by 9 AM EST (M-Fri), it will ship that day.
8. How much is the shipping to an overseas location?
Ebays shipping calculator can be used to determine this. If your still having trouble figuring it out, please email me.
9. Your items start awfully low. Are they cheap products?
No. I start the auctions low because I know that Ebayers will bid it up to a fair (auction) price. Sometimes this backfires and items sell for much less than they should but that’s life.
10. Do you have a Buy It Now price on this item?
If it’s a vintage or antique item we tend not to put BINs on. This is because we want the community to set the price. If it’s a newer item then we may use BIN (especially around Christmas) and we try to set very fair prices.
11. How do you test gold and diamonds and what about carrot weights?
We use acid test for gold and a Mizar DiamondNite All-In-One Diamond and Moissanite Tester for diamonds. We aren’t jewelers or gemologists so we can only guess at the size of stones by experience. If a carrot weight is given, it’s because one of our jewelers told us the weight or the item was marked when we bought it or because we are giving you our best estimate which will be clearly stated in the auction.
12. Ok so your not jewelers, how do you know if the item is a gemstone or crystal or if it’s natural or lab created?
Experience has taught us (mostly Pam) how to tell a crystal from a real stone. We also use a Presidium Gem Tester to verify the type of stone that we're selling. We guarantee everything that we sell so we tend to err on the side of caution. We don’t have the ability to tell lab created from natural stones though. This is because a lab created stone is real and we can’t tell the difference by looking at it through a loop or checking it on the tester. If we know for sure (we were told by one of our expert sellers) it will be listed in the auction.
13. Where do you get all this vintage stuff?
Pam has a network of sellers throughout New England. She also goes to estate auctions and all kinds of sales. She puts over 30k miles a year on her car and loves what she does!
14. What type of camera do you use?
I get this question a few times a year and I love it! I love it because I consider myself to be a terrible photographer and I consider the question to be a real compliment. I use a Fuji Finepix S700 that I bought on Ebay. It has a close-up mode that works pretty well for small jewelry items. It’s a 7.1 MP camera but I have it set to 1MB fine mode. I use an inexpensive light tent (also bought on Ebay) and 2 6500k lights. I don’t use a flash because I think it messes up the colors.
15. Do you have another one of these? I got outbid at the last second.
Probably not. The vast majority of our items are one of a kind (to us anyway). People tend to collect certain items so we may have another Trifari necklace for example but it won't be the same one. There are rare exceptions to this and I usually offer a second chance to the next highest bidder in those cases.
16. Are you as handsome as you sound?
Yes. I could be a model for Abercrombie.
17. Have you ever lied to your customers?
Only once (see number 16).
A word about feedback. Ebay gives Seller discounts for high star ratings. I do appreciate all 5 stars. If you feel you can't, please email and let me know why.
Finally, I do my best to accurately describe all items. However, like everyone, I make mistakes. I do my very best to correct them when I find them. If you notice a mistake in my listing please email and let me know. If you have purchased an item from me that isn’t as described I will take a return and refund you the s/h charges as well. If you purchase an item that you decide you don’t want to keep just email me within 7 days of receipt and I will give you the return address and refund you as soon as the item arrives.
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