Ying Yu Jade
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I often receive
emails from people who find photos of jade bangles that look exactly like
mine including the distinctive dragon silk background fabric, and they
want to know why I sell so cheap on these other web sites. Unfortunately,
several jade sellers have stolen my photos, my text and stories, and used
them on their web sites. It's very difficult and time consuming to take
good photos of jade, and taking photos is what I spend the most time on,
and YYJ photos are very good and very accurate, so it's easier to steal
a photo from my web site than it is to take a photo of your own jade.
Most of YYJ and JBB photos have our name in the center, and it's still
easier to figure out how to get the name off than take a good photo. And
yes, there are programs that can keep your photos from being copied, and
your text from being copied, but people who want your internet material
will find ways around it. So I say the "serenity prayer", to
remind what I can and cannot change, and continue to be honest and not
worry about what other sellers do. It's unfortunate for customers that
the jade business has had a history of dishonest practice, as I do get
questions and concerns from people and I can tell they have had a bad
experience buying jade. When you buy from YYJ and JBB you get what you
pay for, and I take good care to buy carefully and keep prices under the
retail price that jade bangles sell for in China.
This is the end of the August
jade blog. Thanks for looking in, and I'm always happy to hear from you.
August 30
Our internet service provide is Embarq DSL, and it's been terribly unreliable the past few weeks, many internet outages for no reason. The other option available to us for high speed internet is Brighthouse and while the cable internet is reliable, the people who service it are so irresponsible and customer service is dreadful. So I apologize in advance if some days I don't have internet connectivity to respond to your emails and get your orders processed as quickly as I would like to. I try to give good customer service and treat people the way I want to be treated. Today I called Monterey Bay about an order I placed 11 days ago. It took them three days to ship one shirt, and I still haven't received it, and their customer service really didn't care. This always reminds me to give you the best customer service I am able to do. I try to personally respond and take care of problems as quickly as I can. When I order something online, I want to get it fast, and I know you want to get your orders fast, too. I try to upload the daily special by 8 AM EST, but some mornings I have no internet connection, so if you see yesterday's date, check back later. Maybe Embarq will care enough to resolve their poor performance and we'll get back to "normal" soon. August 28
Thursdays Daily Special is a discount in the Estate/Trade In jade section. These are all rare and one-of-a-kind jades, and it's the first time I've offered a discount on them. I haven't taken trade in jade for a couple of years now, and am near the end of the few remaining pieces. I want to expand this section to also sell some of the samples I get from sellers who hope to be suppliers for Ying Yu Jade. Most of the time the samples are nice, but I won't buy from these sellers because of their selling policies. They expect me to pay with bank international wire transfer, which offers no safety for me. The Chinese sellers I do buy from don't take credit cards, but do accept PayPal payments, which gives me some safety when I purchase from them. There was a jade seller I made small purchases from for a couple of years and received nice quality jade from him. But when I placed a large order after I built up a trust relationship, he sent me not only fake jade but also some things that weren't jade, things I don't sell. And then there's this Chinese selling practice that never makes sense to me-when I order the samples I get a reasonable price, but then I make a larger order, the price gets raised higher. Usually when you order more quantity, you get a discounted price, but 90% of the time it's the other way around when I buy from China. So I am planning to make a page on the web site of samples I get, which will be fun to look at to see "what's new" in the market, and you can give me feedback so I can pursue the items you tell me you like. August 27
I listed new jade bangles today, including two old river Chinese jade bangles. Unfortunately one has a scratch on the inside, so it went into the clearance section, which makes it a great value. I saw two jade bangles, the natural color river jade, listed on ebay as "Qing dynasty antique jade bangles" and selling for up to $595. They do look antique, and the jade is old, so it's called "old river jade" but the actual carving on the jade bangle is new. These are rarely seen for sale, my supplier gets them from a remote area, and if I were dishonest I could sell them in the Estate section as antique for twice as much, but I do believe in Karma, and treat others as I would like to be treated, with honesty. So if you want an antique looking jade bangle, of very old jade, these are for you. Unfortunately the carver makes them in only 59-64mm, but some are wider so they fit like they're smaller. If they're not your size, you can still enjoy displaying one on a bangle stand. August 25
Back to the Blog: Tropical storm Flo arrived on Monday last week, and stuck around through Saturday. It rained, and rained, and rained some more. When it wasn't raining, I went outside and it felt like I was in water, the humidity was very high. So what did I do while I was stuck indoors? List new products for Ying Yu Jade. There's two "bi", or donut, jade pendants I had set in bails so you can wear them on a chain. Bi is symbol of protection and safety, and heaven. There are also some really cute silk "frog" pouches in a variety of colors from Beijing's famous Silk Market. I took a red one for luck and filled it with money and credit cards to keep in my handbag. I'm going to take another to put in extra media cards for my digital camera and PDA so I can keep busy while I'm in situations where I'm "waiting", like appointments. They are so versatile, and with the frog closure also secure. Due to the rain, I haven't showed them to "the girlfriends" yet, so get them now before they see them! August 24
It's 30 days to the Beijing Olympics, and I am changing the blog to focus on China and Beijing during the next month. Click here to go to the Beijing Olympics Blog. Of course, there will be reference to jade, because jade is to China as is apple pie to America! July 8
A friend showed me a catalog that sold the jade flower necklaces and bracelets (the bracelets I bought sold out as soon as I listed them) and pointed out that they were selling for $50 each. I've been selling them for less than $25, and she thought the ones on YYJ were a great deal. I think they are fairly priced. However, as I wrote last time, Chinese things and jade especially are becoming popular because of the Olympics. These are pretty to wear in summer, and you can hand wash the entire necklace if you need to, so they are a fun and fashiony way to wear precious jade. And I'm not going to raise prices to match the catalogs! July 8
I've been watching some of the Olympics trials, and it's fun to see the scenes they show of China, and Beijing. The world will be watching China, and I'm sure surpised at how modern Beijing is. Of course, most of us go to China to see Chinese things, not modern things, and China is changing fast. I've been selling more of the Chinese culture items recently, not only jade bangles and pendants. There's classic Chinese art on the web site, teapot sets and jade carvings, and other interesting items. When you see scenes of Chinese women in the cities, not only do you see them wearing jade, but they love their pearl necklaces and earring sets. Beijing has the best pearl market in China at Hong Qiao, where I purchased some really good quality pearls at low prices to pass on to YYJ customers. The Chinese influence in fashion and accessories will be strong through next year, so now is a good time to join in the fun and spirit of the Beijing Olympics and purchase trendy Chinese items. July 6
This is a second story of finally realizing something I didn't know. I have met quite a few people in China and at the end of our visit, we take photos. A few years ago when I was looking at the photos of people I met, all of us in the photo, no one is smiling except me. I thought perhaps I misunderstood, that they really didn't want their photo with me, but were taking the photo with me to be polite. I mentioned this as I was showing the photos to a friend who lives in Tianjin, who finally told me that Chinese people don't smile in photos. However, that's not exactly true now. I think perhaps people over the age of 40 don't smile, while younger people do, because I hear them counting "yi, er, san" then say "xiao" (smile). It's a real challenge to not offend anyone when visiting a foreign country. When doing business, I don't want to behave like a tourist! July 4
As I wrote yesterday, the fine grained jadeite has the highest chime and the best energy. Todays Special is a slender, natural white lao pit jadeite bangle. Lao pit? Is that my new jade, or my new word? Chinese language, culture and customs are as different as night and day from Western. Every time I go to China, things that happened "dawn on me" days, weeks, months, years later! My Chinese language is limited. And if you know anything about Mandarin Chinese, you know that one word can have four different inflections, each a different meaning. So it's challenging comprehending and speaking. When I first started buying jade, I heard the term "lao pit" but what I heard and comprehended was the "lao" which means "old" and I thought the reference was to me personally, as foreigners are often referred to as "lao wei", which means "old foreigner". This expression is used as often in the large cities, but is still used in smaller town which is where I go to search out the best jade. So I thought the reference of "lao" was regarding me, not the jade, because I was buying "new" pieces of jade. So I actually have bought and sold lao pit old mine jade for quite a while, but didn't know that's what it was called, and I didn't figure it out until my last buying trip in March. So I'm not just showing off my new jade, I'm showing off my newly figured out terminology. Duh! I do always laugh at myself when I finally figure out something like that! July 3
Many of the jade decriptions include an energetic description as well as a general description. There's a Chinese saying that when a person wears a jade piece for a long time, the jade becomes the person. The qi energy is exchanged. When I shop for jade, if it doesn't have good energy, I don't consider buying it. The good quality jades, the old mine lao pit jades, have wonderful energy, they "chime" high, and holding them evokes very ancient feelings and energies. Some customers choose jade as jewelry, and some customers choose jade for the energy, too. So much more these days, I'm hearing from customers that they love the energy of their jades. I love buying and selling jade because it' beautifulto wear, and has so much energy from the earth. Working with all these jade pieces is the best job I ever had! July 2
The
Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade complete
July newsletter is available online now, click here. This month features
Chinese medicine wellness information for July regarding balance of body,
mind and spirit. There is information about what kind of jade to wear
this month if you wear jade for your health, and more.
July 1, 2008
