- More on Google -

I heard about the new Froogle Local function a few days ago, but only had a chance to try it yesterday. According to this article in Betanews, it will be connected to Google Base, participation is free for retailers, and Google makes money by placing ads:

Google has plans to tie Google Base into its Froogle shopping search, which would allow users to scour a third-party database of product inventory. Such a service would take the guesswork out of finding what stores have the products a consumer wants, Google said.

Here is how it works: You go to http://froogle.google.com/ and type in the item and the location. Let's say, I want to find a Canon Powershot A520 digital camera in Austin, Texas. So I type in "canon powershot a520 austin" and hit the enter key. What do I get? A list of stores selling these cameras, with prices and locations, and a map of Austin where the stores are marked with little balloon icons. I can click on an icon in the list or on the maps to get driving directions.
Nifty idea, but so far there seems to be little content. I have found mostly items by the big electronics retailers. Results can also be somewhat off. A search for "rocking chair" returned a picture of a "Tuscan fire pit", and only by clicking on the picture did I see that it came with a "Tuscan rocking chair".
Overall, I have ounly found results provided by the big national retail chains, so the local aspect is not that pronounced. On the other hand, if retailers are responsible to provide Google with data, it is no surprise that small local merchants are not represented so far, as they do not have the time or staff for this.

Back to breakfast!
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Afraid of Google? -

In the most recent issue of WIRED magazine, there is an article that asks the question "Who is afraid of Google?" Not surprisingly, the answer is "Everyone" - Cable providers, TV networks, eBay, Craigslist, monster.com, telcos, Apple, Microsoft, book publishers, etc., etc.
The fact that people now "google" an item of information (but nobody "yahoos" or "msn's") shows how clearly google has won the search engine wars. Flush with money from its IPO, google now can go in about any directions it chooses.
Yet where will it go? There are lots of possibilities. While many people use the main options on google's home page, there is much more wating in the wings. Here you can see options such as Book Search or Google Earth. Other sections, such as Google Video, are currently definitely no ready for prime time - who watches these jerky and blurry videos on mostly obscure topics?
Naturally, I do not know what the company will roll out next, but they certainly have enough potential to surprise the public and confound their competitors. Remember how much storage space free e-mail accounts offered, before GMail came around and challenged them?
Yet in spite of these potentially great technologies (wouldn't it be useful to replace inter-library loan with google, for instance), there is the danger that google will try to become the portal to everything for everyone. Think of Yahoo!, which combines areas where it shines (directory, e-mail) with lackluster offerings (auctions). Therefore, google should choose its areas of expansion very carefully. I would like to see them take on eBay to create more competition in the auction market, but google would have to get it right (including a payment system) from the very start.

Until next time...
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Treasures on eBay -

Doesn't the title sound like on of those get-rich-quick-on-ebay books? However, I am not referring to first editions of Hawthorne's tales or genuine diamond necklaces that you can pick up for $9.99 -- no, the true treasures are to be found among the millions of users. Here are some examples:

• If you just opened a store, Owen&Emma's eBay Stores Library is a treasure trove of information
• Do you know what sells on eBay in certain categories? Look here.
• Are you having problems taking good photos? Here is a great resource.
• HTML coding? Store templates? If that is all alien to you, look here.
• Need some tools to make your auctions more attractive? Look no further!
• Account hijacking? A scary thought - but here is what you can do when it happens.
• A great collection of useful links - from copyright issues to shipping methods.
• Is this e-mail a spoof? Here are some great links that will help you decide.
  

I think eBay should be extremely grateful for these people who in many cases provide services one would expect the company to deliver...

So much for now...

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

-Beads of Wisdom -

Here are a few quotes from the famous and not so famous regarding beads:

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
Brenda Ueland

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Method is more important than strength, when you wish to control your enemies. By dropping golden beads near a snake, a crow once managed To have a passer-by kill the snake for the beads.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

[O]ur forebears are deserving of tribute for one indisputable reason, if for no other: without them we should not be here. Let us recognize that we are not the ultimate triumph but rather we are beads on a string. Let us behave with decency to the beads that were strung before us and hope modestly that the beads that come after us will not hold us of no account simply because we are dead.
Robertson Davies

America is a place where Jewish merchants sell Zen love beads to agnostics for Christmas.
John Burton Brimer

Have a great weekend!
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Beading Words -

Doesn't it sometimes happen to you that you know exactly what the doohickey looks like, but you cannot think of the word for it? Well, it happens to me, and here are some useful online resources for finding the right term for that beading whatchamacallit:

• Beading Glossary - Nice photos, but still incomplete.
• Fire Mountain Gems Glossary - these guys would certainly know their stuff. Some illustrations would have helped, though.
• Illustrated Glossary of Bead Terms - useful resource!
• Snazzy Cat Glossary - Not really a glossary, but rather an illustrated catalog.
• Japanese Beading Terms - helps you understand Japanese catalogs and books
• Bead Addict glossary
• Common Beading Terms
  

Bye for now!
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

Scam, Scam, Wonderful Scam

Is it just me, or is the scam desnity of the internet increasing? We are all used by now to the plaintive letters from widows of African dictators or high government officials looking for a trustworthy soul to help them get a few dozen million dollars out of their country, for a sufficient renumeration, of course.
Then there are the internet lotteries you won (even though you never entered them) and the utterly unknown relatives who died and left you millions. We can consider these classic scams part of the fabric of the internet, unfortunately.
However, the scammers are getting more sophisticated. Recently, there was a scam in which a bishop (sometimes a "prince", or even a "prince bishop") supposedly from Ghana wrote interpreters, asking for their services, as he was visiting the US, and his wife only spoke (insert language interpreter works with). This is how the scam then would proceed: Bishop sends forged check, bishop decides to stay only half the planned time, bishop asks interpreter to wire refund.
This indicates that the scammers are focusing on narrower targets and their stories are becoming somewhat more believable. Of course, eBay sellers are also a target. I have witnessed the following scam: Seller wants buyer to send item plus check for $500 to friends who are getting married in county X. Seller will be wired the money and paid $200 extra for his troubles, all he has to do is send item and check for $500 to friends right away...
Well, the scammers are not standing still and are changing their methods, so we have to keep informed. There are useful websites here, here and here.

Stay safe, and have great Thanksgiving!
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- The End of Newspapers? -

When Google launched the beta of Google Base (see previous posting), the German magazine Der Spiegel predicted the end of classified ads and the final decline of daily newspapers. Of course they were not the first one to predict that -- John Dvorak, for instance, said in Newspapers and Movies -- Both Fading Fast that "craigslist has probably sunk the business, with free classified advertising that is far more useful and functional than anything delivered by any newspaper. There was a lot of money made by the classifieds. That money is gone. Nobody knows how the newspapers can recover."
What we are witnessing is race for these new markets. Ebay launched Kijiji earlier this year, a free classified ad service available in many countries (except for the US). Of course craigslist has been adding international sites for a while, but Kijiji seems to be improving on it. For example, when I recently looked up Kijiji München (note that Kijiji is localized in many venues, whereas craiglist is in English), it offered 1,818 for sale/wanted ads, compared to a meagre 86 on craigslist Munich, while Paris had over 10,000 ads on Kijiji and only 528 on craigslist.
Newspapers have been trying out their own web-based classified, but my local paper certainly hasn't done it right. I tried to run an ad there the other day, but gave up on it as the process was so cumbersome compared to craigslist.
The proliferation of free classifieds on the web has its drawbacks to. Craigslist, for instance, routinely adds warnings about fraud and scam to responses from potential buyers. As with e-mail, once the cost of scams tends towards zero, their number will rise.
Whether Google base will turn out to be the big newspaper killer remains to be seen, but the general trend does not look good for the dailies.



Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Google Base -

That was fast. After a few weeks of rumors and speculation, Google Base went live yesterday. In case you missed all the announcements, Google Base is a new service (still in beta stage) that offers "a place where you can add all types of information that we'll host and make searchable online", as the GB homepage puts it. It also lets people offer things for sale, thus making it a potential competitor if not for eBay, then at least for Craigslist.
I fiddled around with the upload format and haven't quit ironed out the kinks yet. On the other hand, GB won't be flooded by people looking for things to buy anytime soon, as it does not appear on the main search bar.
While GB leaves me somehwat less than overwhelmed so far, the Google homepage has an interesting new look. Click on "Personalized Home" and you can add components to your Google homepage. There are the usual suspects, such as News, Weather and Sports, but it is the option "Create a Section" that makes this really interesting. You can simply enter a feed URL in the box and click on Go. Just for fun, I added the RSS feed of my eBay store, and now I can always see what is available in it;-)
A more practical use would be to add a feed from your favorite store, news site or blog. And that is the beauty of the new Google homepage - while other portals such as My Yahoo! give you a selection of components to choose from, you can build your own portal here.

Back to breakfast! Until next time...

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

Look for those Extra 1-Cent Stamps!

Just a short note today. The dreaded moment is here. The US Postal Service has announced new postal rates which will go into effect January 8.
The cost of mailing a first-class letter will rise from 37 to 39 cents, and a 1-lb Priority Mail package will now cost $ 4.05 instead of $3.85.
Not too bad, after all. I think I will be able to absorb the increased rates in my flat-rate shipping and handling fee. Maybe I will look for a cheaper source of packing material.
Now I just hope the postal service will continue to ship you free Priority Mail boxes, as that makes Priority Mail very attractive for mailing small items.
I would stay away from the eBay-branded boxes if you want to establish your own brand image. Why not use the plain boxes and have some nice address labels printed? VistaPrint has some great designs, though you might want to sign up for their e-mail newsletter first and wait for some of their frequent sales.

So, let's get ready for the busy holiday season!

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

Bead Stores - Offline and Online

I was recently in Seattle and visited a bead store in the downtown area. What a disappointment! While the prices were reasonable, the store looked dingy, had a confusing layout and poorly labeled items. It also did not make good use available space. That experience made me long for my favorite local store, Nomadic Notions right here in Austin. It offers a huge range of beads and findings, is well organized, and the staff is knowledgeable and friendly.
There is something to be said for looking at and handling the actual merchandise, but price and selection also make a good argument for mail-order and internet stores. My copy of the hefty Fire Mountain Gems catalog is well-thumbed by now, and the company's website offers an enormous wealth of everything a beader needs.
Of course eBay also has been a great source of beads and particularly of findings for me. My favorite sellers are Buzzinbeads and Value Beads.
Finally, jewelry has to be displayed properly when you photograph it, and I found Gems on Display to be a good source for display busts and easels - if they could only offer necklace displays in more colors!

So, let me know your favorite sources of beading supplies!

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

-Creating "Art" from eBay-

Well, I had heard of this person before - somebody who sold everthing in his house on eBay and wrote about the experience. Now this genius is back, and according to this article, he has literally recycled the idea.
It seems that the Everson Museum of Art is presenting an art exhibit that "displays the priority of belongings in a socioeconomic experiment. The showcase includes items such as a waffle maker, clothing, taco shells and Star Wars bed sheets." The artist has traced the erstwhile buyers of his stuff and asked them to loan him these items for the museum exhibit.
Am I overwhelmed by the sheer artistic genius of this? Not really. What concerns me is the tendency of newspaper stories about eBay to fall into three groups:
a) a rewrite of an eBay press release
b) a report about scam and fraud on eBay (true, but without any statistics that would put it in perspective)
c) a story about someone selling a (fill in the blank) oddity and making big bucks
Don't you get the impression that most journalist are absolutely clueless about the topic? Maybe they should start publishing their eBay feedback with their byline...

Enough ranting for today, until next time!

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Murder and Beads -

I just finished reading Bead on Trouble by Barbara Burnett Smith, a mystery novel set among beaders, and in Central Texas, no less.
First of all, let me say how amazed I was at the fragmentation of the mystery novel market. Of course I was aware of standard genres, such as the police procedural or the English whodunit, as well as mystery series with regional connections. I had even come across mystery series with themes such as book collecting (John Dunning's Booked to Die is an excellent read for bibliophiles) or running a teashop.
These days however, there appear to be mysteries for beaders, potters and scrapbookers as well -- can you imagine the problems for bookstore owners ("Where do you keep the mysteries about juvenile herb gardeners?")
Despite these somewhat dubious trends, Bead on Trouble is entertaining in itself. The protagonist, Kitzi Camden, is an ex-politician turned corporate trainer and part-time beader. When she attends a beading camp in the Texas Hill Country, mayhem ensues. There is an old flame, a potential new love interest, fierce competition for a lucrative contract from an art catalog, and murder... May Feather, a talented beader is found dead in a creek.
Of course it does not help that Kitzi discovered earlier that the victim was having an affair with the husband of Kitzi's best friend Beth...

Nice reading, and the author keeps stringing you along (sorry, could not resist the pun), so that the ending is surprising. The best part is the witty dialogs.

So much for today!

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Great Free Resources for Your Online Business -

Here are a few free resources that I found to be useful for selling on eBay and other online auction sites:

• The Postal Service! Surprisingly, its website (www.usps.com, not .gov, as one might expect) contains quite a few goodies, from online postage to custom forms in PDF format, and even free shipping boxes (if you use Priority Mail). The small boxes are great for sending lightweight items, such as bead jewelry, they are sturdy, can be dropped in a mailbox once postage has been affixed, and of course the price is hard to beat.
• Auction Shark (http://www.auctionshark.com/). If you sell on eBay, you probably already know how to look up completed auctions to get an idea of market prices for specific items. However, you can broaden your search by having Auction Shark searching (current) auctions on eBay, Amazon, Yahoo and Overstock auctions.
• Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/). Need to improve the photos you took (see my entry on photographing bead jewelry below)? Irfanview is a nifty free program that contains many photo-editing functions.
• Scrolling gallery (http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/xsell.htm). This freeware tool lets you enter your eBay auction numbers (or photo URLs) and descriptions on a website and then generates the code for a scrolling marquee that shows thumbnail pictures of your items. Just paste it into your About Me page on eBay or into your website, and presto!
• A free HTML editor. If you want to create a basic website, but are not too HTML-savvy, you might consider Netscape Composer, which is part of older versions of the free Netscape package (http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/download/archive.jsp). It has a simple interface, lets you create tables, insert photos, and more. This does not compare to high-end packages like Dreamweaver, but it will get a simple job done.
• An online thesaurus (http://www.m-w.com/). If you run out of words when writing your pithy, terse or loquacious auction description, take a look at this site. That might help you vary your descriptions a bit.

Until later.
Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- Scanning Bead Jewelry -

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, taking pictures of bead jewelry is not always easy. You have to watch for the proper lighting, keep small objects in focus and chose the correct background that highlights the object without distorting its colors or detracting from it.

Earrings pose a particular problem, as cameras might have a difficult time focusing on such small targets. I was wrestling with a difficult photo of earrings one day, when I came across the suggestion of using a scanner. I tried it it, and the results were great - very detailed images that preserved even the tiniest features.

Besides earrings, bracelets and necklaces can also be scanned, though depending on dimensions, you might only want to focus on specific details, such as the claspp or a focal bead. The only limitations I have found is that objects should not be too three-dimensional, as that can be tricky for some scanners.

Another issue is the background - sometimes the white plastic of the scanner lid just won't do. In this case, a simple sheet of construction paper (go for pastel colors) might be the solution.

What scanner should you get? There are reviews of scanners here. I personally like multifunction devices that also serve as printers and copiers (saves on desk space) and have had good experience with the very inexpensive Hewlett-Packard PSC 1315.

So, go ahead and scan!

Until next time...

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

Selling Bead Jewelry on eBay

I am not an “old eBayer” who has used this online mega-mall for years, so I have nothing to say about its pioneering days. Right now, eBay is obviously the 600-pound gorilla of the online auction world, dwarfing all its competitors.

There are some good reasons for this. The sign-up process for new users is relatively easy, there are lots of online tutorials, and of course there is the advantage of sheer size (which eBay plays up in its recent rather odd “It” advertising campaign), both for buyers looking for items and for sellers trying to find potential customers.

Yet considering that eBay is the market leader and has been in business for a decade, there are strange shortcomings, too. The PayPal system has its glitches, sometimes photos do not display in auctions, there are days when everything slows down to a crawl, and I even received a Dutch error message once when trying to access an eBay function. Considering that eBay does not have to find the merchandise, take photos, write descriptions, package and ship the merchandise, but rather just provides the virtual infrastructure for the sales, there should be far fewer glitches by now. Recently, store owners could not even access their sales reports for several weeks!

Are there alternatives? Amazon Marketplace has a brisk sale in used books, but is not too strong in other areas. Overstock.com has started its own auctions, and Yahoo Auctions recently allowed people to sell for free. Yet when you look through these auctions, you notice that (at least in my area) they appear to be smaller and less active. A while ago, I scrolled through one thousand auctions for bead jewelry and found only a handful of items that had a bid, and not a single one with multiple bids.

If there could be a contender in the auction arena, it might be Google, and recently there were some stories about Google testing an online sales service. So far, there has been no confirmation of this, though, and eBay still remains the king of auction sites.

- Photographing Bead Jewelry (on a Budget) -

When I think back and look at the first photos I took to use in my eBay ads, I can only shudder: they were rather blurry, looked flat and did not show true colors. While I am by no means an expert photographer, I have learned a lot since then, and I would like to share some tips and tricks on how to take good photos of jewelry without having to spend a fortune.
Here is what you will need:

1. A digital camera
2. Rechargeable batteries
3. A tripod
4. 2-3 worklights with 100 W bulbs
5. A translucent plastic storage box to set up as a "stage", in which the object is placed
   
6. Several pieces of silky cloth as backdrops
   
7. Display stands, busts etc.

You do not need to get a top-of-the-line digital camera with 5 Megapixels or more, but you should definitely get a digital rather than a conventional camera for the amount of money ( vs. cost of developing film) and time it will save you. The picture above was actually taken with a 1.3 Megapixel Canon Powershot A10 that I picked up for $139 several years ago. Recharagable batteries (my camera uses the NiMH type) are a must, as digital camera go through batteries quickly, and you could easily spend a lot of money on batteries otherwise. You should also invest in a decent tripod, as it will make your work easier and your photos less blurred.
The plastic box setup, with worklights shining from the side provides softened shadows, without your having to spend serious money on a cloud cube or similar equipment quite yet. Do not use your camera's flash (it tends to make small objects appear flat), and set the white balance to the type of lighting you are using (see your camera's manual). Some cloth (particularly the kind used for linings) in a nice neutral color makes for a good background.
Here are some further resources on photographing jewely:

• Camera Jim's eBay Photo Tips
  
• Building a Light Tent
• Practical eBay Photography Workshop

If yo have small objects, such as earrings, sometimes the best solution is not to photograph them at all, but use a scanner - but that would be the topic for another blog entry.

So much for today!

Cyberbeader
http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com

- The Lure and Lore of Gems -

When you work with gems, you occasionally come across fascinating stories. Did you know that jade, according to a Chinese myth, was created from the bones of a giant bird? Or that the tradition of birthstones is supposed to be derived from the 12 stones set in the breastplate of Aaron, as described in in Exodus 28, 15-30?
Gem names, too, have interesting origins. The name Amethyst, for instance, comes from the Greek word for "not drunken", as the stone was thought to guard against inebriation. Turquoise comes from the French word for "Turkish stone", as these gems were probably imported from there at one time.

Here is a list of online resources about the history and legends associated with gemstones:

• http://www.jewelrysupplier.com/index.html
• http://home.austin.rr.com/dsquared/myths.html
• http://www.malanijewelers.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=11
• http://www.couturejeweler.com/couturejeweler/jewelry_primer/AAJbirthstones.jsp
• http://www.love-story.com/bs00.htm
• http://www.minerals.net/index.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone

Until next time,

Cyberbeader

http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com