The World's Most Useful Gem & Jewelry Monthly Newsletter
Written by Carolyn Doyle for customers of The Dorado Company and other visitors to the
azgem.com website who subscribe.
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Usable Gems... and a little opinion.
Buying Gems With PayPal
Buying gems with PayPal is safe and easy.
What is PayPal?
Why do you use PayPal?
Is PayPal safe?
These are questions I'm asked occasionally (and once
recently). I don't get
the questions as often as I did several years ago. I've not written about PayPal
since right after we first began using it, so... I'll relate the story now.
I was aware of PayPal when we started the azgem.com
website in the summer of 1999, but we decided to go with an old fashioned credit
card processing service (bank merchant account) rather than PayPal.
Why? Because I couldn't see into the future! PayPal was
newly established, and only had a million or so account holders.
Buying
gems with PayPal was a new thing back then. In fact buying anything
with PayPal was unusual in 1999.
A few years ago we were looking for ways to keep our
costs (and your price) low, and the high credit card processing fees were an obvious
target.
We had been using PayPal to order books and videos for our
personal use since 1999, so we took a fresh look at PayPal as a merchant. PayPal
had grown up! New features, new security protections, and many more users made
PayPal more attractive.
We began using PayPal to receive payments and cancelled
our expensive credit card processing account. That move has worked out well.
You can buy gem stones and jewelry from your computer
using your credit card, debit card, or eCheck. You also get PayPal's buyer
protection in addition to our guarantee.
You get an invoice from us through PayPal
You never have to give us your payment information
(card number)
You get gems and jewelry at lower prices
We see your payment almost instantly
We ship your order quickly
Buying gems using PayPal (and buying almost anything else)
is safe and easy... and that's good for both of us.
PayPal now has more than 100 million account holders. I don't know the number of internet merchants accepting payments
through PayPal, but it has to be huge, maybe millions.
Click on the box...
and have Google start putting money in your bank account!
If you're an internet merchant, I can highly recommend PayPal as an
effective and efficient way to receive payments.
A Google search for the keyword phrase paypal alternatives returns a number of listings and ads for
some other opinions.
What are the gems featured above?
Iolite (water sapphire)
oval
The many colors of garnet, the January
birthstone
Spessartite garnet trillion
Gem Industry News...
Online Holiday Retail Sales
Here is part of another press release from comScore.com.
JEWELRY CATEGORY FUELS RECORD ONLINE HOLIDAY SPENDING
RESTON,
Va., December 22, 2006 “Late-season online shoppers spent
more than $1.5 billion in the first three days of the final work-week before
Christmas (December 18 – December 20), up 35 percent versus the corresponding
days last year,” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks. “In past
years, online spending slowed significantly well before Christmas, but this
year, spending has accelerated up until the final days of the holiday season.
The surge in late season online buying appears to be the result of retailers’
shipping guarantees, coupled with consumers’ willingness to pay for expedited
shipping and their confidence that their purchases will arrive on time.”
High-Ticket
Purchases and Popular Gift Items Drive 2006 Holiday Spending Growth
Growth in online retail this holiday season has been primarily driven by
significant spending increases in both high-ticket and popular gift categories.
High-ticket categories experiencing gains include Jewelry & Watches (up 66
percent), Video Game Consoles (up 54 percent) and Consumer Electronics (up 33
percent). Popular gift categories include Video Games (up 65 percent), Event
Tickets (up 54 percent), Toys (up 36 percent), Sport & Fitness (up 34
percent), and Apparel & Accessories (up 31 percent).
My Opinion:
Online sales just keep on growing! I think they have grown to
the point where tax-hungry state and local governments will renew their
cry to tax online sales.
Congress has blocked earlier attempts by states and local governments
from imposing sales taxes on online sales. But this new Congress will be
tax-friendly. Look for online sales taxes within two years...
possibly a Federal online sales tax, rather than state and local.
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Tucson
Shows On The Horizon
The largest gathering of colored stone industry players the world
has ever seen will happen in Tucson beginning at the end of this
month. If you're going to be
there, drop me an email. Maybe we can have a cup of coffee and rest our
feet together..
Jewelry
Dealers
How
was your Christmas season? I hope it was as good as ours. Thanks,
everyone!
Now we can all take a week off to recharge... and then start
gearing up for Valentines Day.
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JCK Las Vegas
The 2007 edition of theJCK Show - Las Vegas will be held in two
locations: The Sands Expo and Convention Center/The Venetian Hotel
Resort & Casino and, for the first time, the Las Vegas Convention
Center.
This show is for jewelry store operators, and is a huge show held in
early June of each year. Maybe this year JCK will enter the 21st century
and allow internet jewelry retailers to attend.
And if they don't, there are other shows held in Vegas a couple of
days before. You can meet many of the same manufacturers at the other
shows.
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Want to (gulp) unsubscribe?
and let me know
what you want to do.
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How
was your Christmas season? I hope it was as good as ours. Thanks,
everyone!
