Hi there. My name is Marc and I own a small retail store here in beautiful Pacific Grove, California. The name of my store is Ambrosia. I've been in retail for many years and in 2004 I opened up my own little shop where I sell new and previously owned merchandise. I sell a lot of glassware, pottery, vintage collectibles and jewelry. My biggest seller is jewelry. I didn't intend to, but when one is in retail one has to be adaptable and so I stock new and previously owned pieces. This is a huge tourist area and tourists don want to buy many breakable items to pack. Jewelry is small enough for most ladies to pack and that fine with me. It allows me to be a little less stressful about the other items that may sit on the shelf for some time.

I am not an expert in any particular thing. I use the resources that I have such as my small library of books, publications, friends, and of course the Internet. I've met many wonderful people who know way more than I do about collectibles and antiques. Through correspondence with others I have also made good friends. The Internet has been a Godsend for me when doing research. Sure there are a lot of people out there giving the wrong information, but when one knows how to sort through all of the crapola, you really can learn about almost anything your heart desires. And when it comes to collecting, the Internet is a fantastic source. It's like one humongous library at your fingertips.

As far as my time on EBay goes, it has had been good and bad. Most of the bad times are when people don't know how to pack fragile items. I work 7 days a week and even though I get insurance on everything I buy, I just don't have the time to run to the post office to try and collect on damaged goods. I have found that in 99% of the time it was not the carrier mistake or that they damaged the goods while carrying the box. People just don't take the time in preparing ahead of time before shipping breakable items.

I use 1/2-inch bubble wrap, not that flimsy stuff at Staples or Office Depot, and not only do I wrap once around an item I wrap 2 or even 3 times around it. I also make sure that the box can't be crushed from the top, bottom or sides. I just don't understand why people are so careless when shipping merchandise across the country. It really ticks me off to no end when someone tells me, "well you bought insurance." Anyway that's my biggest problem on EBay. When I ship out a fragile item you can bet it will be well wrapped and boxed.

I've been buying for years on EBay but only recently have I started selling. I have noticed that prices really do fluctuate with the times. And during these hard times I've seen some pretty low prices going for a lot of real good collectible pieces. I guess only time will tell if that changes or not. Yes it's good to get a bargain, but then if you are a true collector of a certain type of glassware or pottery it doesn bode well that the value has suddenly dropped dramatically. It's cyclical of course. I am, however, seeing more and more sellers using reserves and buy it now features. I used to not like seeing a reserve price on items, but now that I am selling I can understand how it is a necessity in some cases.

Well that's about it for me. If you're ever my way stop in and say hi. You can find me at 125 Ocean View Blvd., which is also called the American Tin Cannery. It's one block away from the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium so it's not hard to find. I always enjoy meeting new people. That's the biggest reason I opened this store. Some day I hope to pay myself. It a good thing my wife still has her day job. LOL