Happy Halloween, trick or treat! Get a treat with your purchase today, write "treat" in the comments box on the order form. And if you are a blog reader, you get a head start on "Make an Offer" days November 1 and 2 on the JadeBangleBracelets web site, items #JBB. Click here for more information and to make your offer. October 31

I didn't get sick or have anything bad happen while I was on vacation, so it looks like my black jade did its job to protect me. And it looked great with my Santa Muerte costume Saturday night. No more time off until after Lunar New Year, business gets busy because people love their good quality jade as gifts, or something special for themselves. The potential buyer wants to send me a box of more than 100 jade bangles to list on the YYJ site to make a "bargain" section, and they are all C grade color treated, and he doesn't want to mention that it's not natural, so I told him that neither site is for sale at this time, to him. YYJ will stay as it is. Some customers were feeling like they needed to quickly make purchases before things changed, but now you can take your time, because YYJ will not change. As I have written before, people usually choose the kind of jade that is best for them: your eyes see a jade piece and if your heart and spirit feel joy, well being or a positive emotion, then your brain knows that is the right choice for you. Jade is very personal, so take your time to find the best jade for your body, mind and spirit. October 28

What kind of jade am I taking on my vacation trip? I will definitely wear the jade bangle I wear all the time. Its good qi energy will keep me balanced and it's very yin and peaceful, good for relaxing. But it's flu season, I will be around a lot of people, so I am going to wear a "black" deep deep green Chinese jade bangle on my other wrist, my right wrist, because black jade is for protection from physical and spiritual threats. And I will take one of my "spacer" gold bangle bracelets because I might add a white with "hong" yellow/orange jadeite bangle which balances the spleen meridian so I will avoid digestive problems eating all the different foods. I also have a nice carved bangle I'm thinking of taking. When I don't wear the black jade, I keep it in my handbag, and it's always with me, the qi energy is so protective. Maybe it keeps my purse from getting snatched, too! Friends often comment that I am full of energy when I get home and get right back into my life. There's nothing worse than coming home and being sick for a week, and when traveling breathing/head illness and stomach illness are top two things that make people sick. Although I am always telling jade bangle loving women to buy the best jade bangle they can afford and wear it all the time, if you wear "jade as medicine" you realize that jade serves other purposes than looking pretty on your wrist. Enjoy that jade, will be back to work October 28. October 20

Part II of October 10 blog: There is more mis-information about jade than true facts online. And that contributed to the end of my friend's jade business. Most YYJ customers appreciate the natural-ness of jade, and appreciate the saying "the jade carver always leaves something behind". That's part of natural product, including silk fabric, hand knitted items. The not-being-perfect is what makes it special. And if you closely examine jade with a strong light, you will always find "something". Nicks around carved jade bangles, clarification lines in the jade that especially obvious in translucent jade were what women complained about. He sold on eBay and took payments with PayPal, and customers would complain to eBay and PayPal that they received their item "damaged". PayPal would take the full amount of the product plus the shipping out of his account and refund it to the customer. And he couldn't afford the loss of the shipping to USA and other countries outside of China, the costs to sell on ebay, final value fees of items sold, especially when what he got "returned" was often a cheap bangle purchased from another seller, or an empty box. So he lost his jade, the shipping, and the desire to sell. He was the last honest jade seller on eBay. This week I was looking at jade bangles on ebay and saw some very obviously dyed jade bangles by a seller who claimed they were "natural". I messaged him that he was being dishonest selling them as natural and he was adamant that they were natural. I sent a photo to my Chinese jade supplier who told me it's almost impossible to get natural Chinese jade now, the price is higher than Burmese jadeite, and that dyed jade is what is being sold now. And he wrote that even Chinese jade sellers don't understand about jade. I told this to the persons interested in buying YYJ business, and they responded they will probably also sell dyed and "fake jade" as natural jade, since YYJ has the reputation of selling good quality. Jade business has turned from being a respectable business to a joke, and all the fraudulence makes me disgusted. And even more disgusted to know a potential buyer of YYJ would go along with the joke. I feel like my friend in China who stopped his jade business, I could empathize with everything he told me. It's so disturbing. I am going to take next week off, take a vacation and think about all this. I will be gone, close the store on Tuesday, return on Sunday October 27. Today's Special is Make an Offer on the estate and vintage jade, and will be the Special through Friday, maybe the weekend. I would rather sell YYJ to customers who love and appreciate jade than have it become part of the "jade joke" so all reasonable offers have been accepted. October 17

I was trying to contact my "oldest" jade supplier in China. He was one of the few world-wide jadeite sellers when I started YYJ in 2000. I was impressed with the quality of jadeite stone he offered, and his carved jade bangles were fabulous. The first customer I had referred me to him. I was selling only Chinese jade, and she suggested I also sell Burmese jadeite as there were no other online sellers in USA at that time. She is Vietnamese, and had been buying her jade from him for a few years, and very happy with his jade. The year we moved to Florida, 2004, I couldn't go to China, and contacted him to sell me bangles, and he was no longer selling the carved bangles, and had very limited quantity of smooth bangles. It was the last time I was able to purchase wholesale from him. A couple years later, he stopped adding new items to his web site. He told me the jade business in China was really changing, the quality was going downhill, and sellers were getting too greedy and corrupt and the fake jades were everywhere. When I visited his web site this week, he didn't have any jade, and was selling electronics now. We had a good discussion about the jade business as it is today, and why he stopped selling jade. The biggest reason is the corrupt practices of jade sellers now. Jade used to be a very traditional, honorable business, and now it is one of the big fake business in China. He told me that with the 3D printers, jade bangles can be made from crystal materials with a coating of real jadeite on the outside, so it tests as real jade. I told him I had been getting inundated with Chinese sellers trying to sell me these "jade bangle making machines" for a couple of years. And amazingly, these bangles have "genuine" certificates of authenticity. He told me that Western women and Chinese and Asian women, espeically those living outside of China now, want good green jade, translucent, but not pay the thousands of dollars that genuine, natural jade like this sells for. So the market eagerly worked to make "jade" that looks good green and translucent. And "perfect". More about this in the next blog. October 10

The people who are interested in buying the YYJ business have no experience with selling online. Maintaining a web site, a shopping cart, credit card processors, shipping are mind boggling when you start, and I have let them know it requires working several hours every day. If you want your online business to reach customers, you have to keep it "new" and updated. But the big difference in how they intend to change this business is to keep it like most online businesses, like amazon.com, department stores, electronic stores: the customer wants an item and pays the price. They don't want to have any personal relationships with customers, give advice about the jade, the sizing for bangles, the energies of jade. And no price negotiation. Yes, those tasks are time consuming, but jade lovers, especially jade bangle loving women, have many questions. And long time customers ask for (and get!) discounts. And they want to receive their purchase as soon as possible. I ship by the next business day, but these people think there is no rush to get orders shipped. They are shocked when I inform them there's no way you can get paid by credit card and NOT have that information reported to the IRS so you have to pay taxes on your earnings. None of these people have a passion for jade. They just want a successful online business they can make a living from. But don't want to get started now to enjoy the rewards of the upcoming holiday sales because it's "too much work". It looks like I will keep YYJ through the holidays, but continue to improve the web site by replacing some photos, updating the web pages, to keep it in good shape just in case that jade loving person who wants to make a business of their passion comes along. October 8

There is a limited inventory of three color "fu lu shou" jadeite bangle bracelets. Fu lu shou is symbolic of happiness, health and luck. They are traditionally worn around the holiday seasons, and the holidays have started in China, with the October 1 holiday coming to a close, and then Chinese New Year in a couple of months. If you have been reading the blog, you may have followed that we are working on trying to retire our jade business, either through selling off the inventory over a couple of years, or selling the business outright. There are three people interested in purchasing the web site, but none of them has had any experience with doing internet business, so they are all somewhat nervous about all that is involved in an online business. But one of the things they all want is that this web site is updated, including the photos. Last month we moved most of the carved jadeite bangle bracelets to the JadeBangleBracelets.com web site because new photos needed to be taken. One of the potential buyers told me the page with the fu lu shou jade bangles didn't have as good photos as the other pages. We are already getting into our holiday sales and don't know when we will have time to re-take all the photos, although some have already been replaced with better photos. So right now they are on sale, the price reduced, because it would be easier to sell them than do all the work to take the photos and re-do the page. And when the work is done, the price will go back up. AND when I sell the web site, the potential buyers have told me that they are going to increase the prices. The man from Hong Kong thinks that all of our prices are much too low. So if you have been wanting a fu lu shou jade bangle, now is a good time to get one. The sale has started, and will be featured as Monday's Daily Special. Click here for fu lu shou jadeite bangles. October 6

Ying Yu Jade "Women's Wellness Weekend", selection of our most popular jade ben wa balls and jade eggs for kegel exercise and pelvic health on sale. You can read about how jade balls and eggs helps women, click here. A doctor in China gave me a jade egg to help with menopause, and it was not only very lovely "yin", but really helped with dryness, that "gotta go" sensation, and doing the kegel exercise actually helped to tighten my abdominal muscles and gave me a flatter stomach. And you blog readers know that when I find a jade product I like, I gotta share! It took me a couple of years to get some made up to the quality "foreign" women expect. The Chinese like them "natural", including not very polished, and slight flat spots to keep them from being too slippery, but often "Western" women regard this natural-ness as "flaws", although I prefer the more natural-ness of the jade stone for my personal use. If you have been thinking about getting "something" natural for your womanly "yin" health, this is a good time. If you are a man looking for a special gift for your woman, these are really helpful. Basic instructions are included.
October 5

I love "black" Chinese jade. When I travel, I either wear or keep one in my handbag. Black jade has qi energy for protection, cleansing. Black Chinese jade is truly deep deep green color, most photos make it appear to be black, and you have to hold it up to the light to see that it is really green. In fact, that's a good way to "test" your black Chinese jade, you should see some green in it when in the light. I have "platinum" (gray) hair that I let grow out naturally a couple of years ago, and my best eye make up color is charcoal. I still have natural color hair strands that color and it is a good natural color choice. Brown eyes, but still the charcoal colors look best. I saw an ad for Clinique's new eyeshadow jade, "Black Jade" and of course I had to try it. The color on their web site shows it quite a bit lighter and greener than it actually is, but I am glad I took the chance to buy it (I do most of my shopping online). It is the perfect color for me. Since it's a powder shadow, I use it for eyeliner also, and a little "smudging" in the corners is all the eye makeup I need for a normal, natural day. And of course now I have to wear my black jade bangle. I keep looking in the mirror because it's still amazing to me that the eye shadow looks so much just like the black jade. Link to Clinique October 3

The Calm Spirit / Ying Yu Jade complete October newsletter is available online now, click here. This month features Chinese medicine wellness information for October 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.October1

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