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Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Christmas reflections
(12/25/08) It's been an interesting year. Remember the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times?"
However, there were some bright spots, too.
We discovered RetailMeNot, the premier site on the web for coupons and bargains. Check it out. You won't be sorry you did!
Our JCEarrings Jody Coyote website got off to a roaring start! Turns out people really like being able to see hundreds of different Jody Coyote earring designs. We've even gotten mentions on E-Commerce and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.
We started writing freelance articles at Helium.com.
And we've been immensely gratified by the attention given our Southwestern sterling silver jewelry.
Agnes: A Love Story
(10/04/08) A few weeks after my husband and I moved into our new house in August 1995, a small black cat showed up in our open garage. I petted her and stroked her undercarriage gently. Aha. Nursing mother. The kittens can't be far away.
And they weren't, just under a juniper bush next to our front porch. We had a front row seat to view the three tiny furbabies (one black, one black and white, and one grey and white) greet their mom and come running for a meal.
We had two cats already and certainly had no plans to adopt any more. But by the same token we didn't want these guys growing up feral. That's a short, nasty, brutish life for a cat. One day we trapped all three kittens plus Mom. We put them in the safety of our mostly-empty garage. And there they grew up. Before long
We couldn't have parted with them anyway. We called them "The Kids." Phil, Agnes Grey and Baby Kitty were here to stay, as was their mom.
 Baby Kitty and Agnes (Junior, the devil cat, is eyeing them darkly)Mama Kitty was the first to leave us in 2004, stricken with an oral squamous cell carcinoma. Phil, the black cat, followed in 2007 after a 15-month battle with kidney failure.
 The Kids (Agnes, Baby and Phil), early 2007Two weeks ago we noticed Agnes was bypassing the food bowls in the morning -- most un-Agnes of her. She was the heaviest cat, tipping the scales at 13 lbs. The vet came up with a tentative diagnosis of pancreatitis with hepatic lipidosis.
 InseparableA word about hepatic lipidosis: It can strike any cat that stops eating, even if it's for only a few days. Like us, cats burn fat when they're not gobbling down food, but unlike us, their livers can't handle it very well. The treatment usually is to force feed the cat to minimize further damage to the liver.
 Unfortunately, the pancreatitis made Agnes feel too sick to eat and once she stopped she never started again. We had a feeding tube put in and embarked on an exhausting regimen of round-the-clock feedings, which she endured with barely a protest, but she was nauseated all the time. We finally had to hospitalize her. She died this evening at 9:00 pm. Her poor body just gave out. She was 13 years and a few months old.
 Teddy and Phil watch Junior out in the yard while Agnes napsAgnes had the amazing ability to know -- even half a house away -- when another cat was being groomed and to line up for her turn. She never bit anyone, human or beast, or lifted a paw in anger. She was gentle, sweet, funny and a little bit crazy, but the good kind of crazy. She loved rolling in a pile of laundry. And she loved us very much. Rest in peace, dear girl. The world is a darker place without you.
Our new (ish) website
(09/04/08) Having long been the top seller of
Your Southwestern style
(08/30/08) Secretly craving the gleaming look of
We Love KnickerPicker
(07/16/08) Check it out. Put this model through her paces. There are four more where she came from. What a great way to sell lingerie.
This just in...
(07/13/08)
Scary Changes Afoot at eBay
(06/24/08) So many new rules and sanctions have emanated from eBay HQ over the last six months that honestly sometimes it feels like our heads are spinning. We can't help wondering where it will all end. One thing seems certain, though: eBay-as-we-knew-it is gone, probably forever. Top management seems determined to flood the site with listings from a megaseller who gets to list for free.
No matter. We love you and we love what we do, so we'll be on eBay as long as we can, bringing you fabulous department store jewelry at up to 95% off department store prices. And now we have
Our New eBay Store
(06/11/08) We've resisted this move for a long time. We like running 99 cent no reserve auctions so there is quick turnover of jewelry. But this year it became apparent that sometimes the right buyer for a piece isn't watching eBay when the auction ends. We have about 250 pieces in
--Charleen/"Clarence"
The Last Lecture
(04/29/08) Perhaps you've heard of Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who became a YouTube phenom with his talk on "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." His inspiring lecture is now out in a book and audio CD.
Time is all we have, and you may not have as much as you think.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
Hope you bought yourself something glittery with your refund!
--Charleen/"Clarence"
--Charleen/"Clarence"
eBay changes: Fewer choices for buyers?
(01/30/08) Yesterday, eBay announced dozens of changes to the site, including fee increases and penalties for sellers. There are too many new rules to go into here. Today I just want to talk about one aspect of the "New eBay": Detailed Seller Ratings or DSRs.
There are four DSR categories for every seller: Item as described, Communication, Shipping time, and Shipping/handling charges. Buyers can rate the transaction from one to five stars in each of these categories. Most sellers rank quite high on the first three. Shipping/handling is where sellers are usually dinged. Here's an example.
Consider foxy_facets, the highest-volume seller in the Jewelry and Watches category with 35,500 listings. foxy_facets does a lot of things right and almost nothing wrong. They start many items at 1 cent or 94 cents. Shipping is a mere $3.95 and they will combine for an additional $1.95 per item. They get raves about their quick shipping.
Yet foxy_facets DSR for shipping and handling charges is 4.3.
Despite doing a huge volume of business, foxy_facets will not qualify for eBay's PowerSeller program starting in July. You must have 4.5 or better on all 4 DSRs.
Fee discounts for PowerSellers start in April. You must have 4.6 or better on all 4 DSRs to qualify for a 5 percent discount. foxy_facets will not qualify.
Mind you, this is a seller who has live help available and a toll-free number, not to mention a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But as a result of yet another change, foxy_facets may suffer reduced visibility in search results as well, while paying higher fees than some of its competitors.
Our concern is that the "New eBay" has raised fees and made it much harder to do business, to the extent that we may very well see an exodus of sellers. Fewer sellers mean fewer choices. And that can't be good for buyers.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
--Charleen/"Clarence"
--Charleen/"Clarence"
--Charleen/"Clarence"
A colonoscopy for Christmas
(12/03/07) Normally I like to keep things light and breezy here on ClearanceClarence.com. Today, however, I'd like to take a moment to tell you about my friend Nancy Kelem.
 If you asked me about Nancy, I'd say she was the most cheerful, fun-loving, caring person I've ever met and probably the only friend who has ever taken the time to help me overcome my shyness. She seemed to have it all: a fabulous job, an adoring spouse and a terrific house in the hills. Secretly I envied her. At the age of 42, she decided it was time to start her family, and like everything she took on, she went full speed ahead, giving birth to two sons and adopting a daughter from China. Her husband Steve tells what happened: When Nancy turned 50, she got a card from her doctor saying it was time for a colonoscopy. Nancy decided it wasn't important and didn't do it. A year and a half later she was really constipated and in a lot of pain and nothing worked. Specialist after specialist couldn't figure it out until they gave her a colonscopy. Then they found a huge tumor in her colon. They said, judging by the size, that it had been growing for about 18 months--about the same amount of time that she procrastinated. She was scheduled for surgery the next week. Just to be sure, the surgeon scheduled an MRI for Nancy. That's when the found that it had metastasized to her lymph and liver. Surgery was no longer an option, so she met with an oncologist who said the only remaining option was chemotherapy, and that the average lifetime was 18 months. After a second opinion at Stanford, a third at UCSF and a fourth at Dana-Farber, they all concluded that Kaiser was providing the best treatment known. Nancy being Nancy, she spent her remaining time crusading for what she believed in: better schools for Los Altos Hills children and the passage of the California Compassionate Choices Act. Nancy died on December 1, 2007. Colonoscopy is distasteful and involves an unpleasant day of preparation beforehand. Just the thought makes me quake. But I'm doing it right before Christmas. Please, if you're due for the screening (usually when you turn 50), talk to your doctor and schedule it. If you have any risk factor for colon cancer, even if you haven't hit the big 5-0, schedule it. Consider having it done anyway even if your medical history doesn't indicate risk. Thank you. Take care. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Most Watched rings
(11/27/07) If you haven't seen it yet, take a gander here for our real-time reporting on eBay's Most Watched (ergo, most wanted) rings. There are some real beauties popping up that are new, estate, antique or vintage.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
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5,116 people knocking at our front door
(11/17/07) Good heavens, it was just like that old eBay ad on Wednesday. You remember the TV commercial where this guy is trying to find a clock on eBay. He opens his front door and there are people all over his porch, sidewalk, lawn, cramming the street and all through the neighborhood...each holding a different clock.
Well, ClearanceClarence.com had 5,116 visitors on November 15! We *think* what happened was someone picked up on a nice blog entry about us, then posted it to freebie sites TwistedBranches, fatwallet forums, freestufftimes.com and slickdeals.net. Needless to say, the free jewelry we'd offered that day was gone in seconds. Thanks for all the attention, whoever you are out there. It's nice to be noticed. We like you, too. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Your page is here, Pearl (11/10/07) All about genuine pearls with a handy guide to necklace lengths. --Charleen/"Clarence"
From the same crazed minds
(11/10/07) that brought you ClearanceClarence.com, now comes a stupendous site with everything comfortable for your cat: MyChildEatsBugs. If you have a cat, you know how much joy he or she brings to your life.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
--Charleen/"Clarence"
Favorable exchange rates are believed to be a contributing factor, as well as the rising price of silver.
I can see a scenario in which foreign buyers also find high-quality sterling silver jewelry a good investment. Could be, could be. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver, which is a higher content than the Morgan dollar at 90% pure silver.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
 No one can resist a fluffy blanket. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Mexican silver comes to ClearanceClarence.com (10/21/07) Our new page features a biography of William Spratling, known as the Father of Mexican Silver. --Charleen/"Clarence"
More kinds of free jewelry on our home page (10/18/07) We are starting to offer short runs of certain types of jewelry as our FREE jewelry promotion. It may be only a few pairs of an earring style, or rings that are all size 7. Keep an eye on the home page because when we exhaust our supply of these short runs, they're gone. We'll post a "Sorry!" when that happens. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Our Jody Coyote page crept in on little cat feet (10/07/07) An explanatory note on this Eugene, Oregon purveyor of fresh Asian-inspired earrings being long overdue, we created one. It is here for your reading pleasure. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Announcing our new Red Hat Society page! (10/02/07) Great for those who are curious or those who seek all things RHS. Who are the Red Hatters, these flashy convention-flouting women in gaudy headgear? Read about their antics here. --Charleen/"Clarence"
Welcome to Hall of Shame, a new feature that exposes deception in the jewelry industry wherever we find it. Today's source: eBay.
The So-Called Russian Diamond
 eBay has clear and firm rules governing the use of the word "diamond" (to refer to a gemstone) in an auction listing. The word "diamond", when used to describe a stone that is not a natural diamond, must be preceded or followed by words such as "synthetic", "lab-created", "man-made", etc. And simulants may not be listed in the Natural Diamonds category. As far as metal is concerned, eBay also requires accuracy. If a piece is gold-plated rather than solid gold, it must be indicated in the auction title (using "gp" as an abbreviation is acceptable) as well as the description. Today's Hall of Shame winner fails all three of these tests. The ring features a so-called Russian diamond, a term that means exactly nothing unless it refers to a natural diamond mined in Russia. This stone in this auction, however, is a simulant -- a lab-created piece. But the reader doesn't find that out until way down at the bottom of the auction. The fact that the band is gold-plated is concealed until the very end as well. For shame. Gold Jewelry That Isn't The seller: mr.bruned, based in Thailand. What he sells: purportedly 14k gold and gemstone jewelry.
 mr.bruned has over a hundred complaints of misrepresentation alleging the 14k gold is not gold but plated junk jewelry. His feedback percentage is 96.4% but that doesn't tell the whole story. Many complaints about him are posted as positives, probably to avoid receiving retaliatory negative feedback. The real question is: Why is this guy allowed to continue selling on eBay? Hard-working honest sellers are being punished by eBay because their DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings, the detested "star" system) are too low, but this guy skates along without a care in the world. If someone complains about the cheap crap jewelry he sends, he offers a 50% refund. Even so, he's still making money! For shame, eBay. For shame.
A Poignant Story, a Daughter's eBay Journey
(09/01/07) in today's Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition or online.
`On Sept. 17, 2003, in a chaotic intensive-care ward, just before being medically induced into a coma, my mother summoned all of her energy and whatever oxygen she could to make one request: "Take care of my eBay."'
It's a story about how a daughter goes on an odyssey to meet the people who interacted with her mother, an avid collector of Venetian glass who spent about $25,000 in one year on eBay. She makes some surprising discoveries.
--Charleen/"Clarence"
August 2007 archive (in case you missed it)
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