I believe that he will be a good president. Many of those on his team left somewhat early to work on the issues affecting our nation. From what I understand of his economic policies, he is looking at ways to help small business and tax payers. He is also looking to bolster America’s image overseas by pulling out of Iraq and closing down Guantanamo Bay. This positive approach to nation building will serve us well.

It will take time though. Everyone is feeling the pinch and I hope and him and his team can have us back on the right track by 2010. An era of prosperity and peace is ahead but we must make it through these tough times first.

And we will!

Many of the changes that have been necessary over Virtual Gems is almost complete. We have several vendors whose products we still need to list and there are some bugs still but we will have them all ironed out soon.

SeannLewis.com is doing very well also. I am looking to change the name though. I think that too many people associate a dot-com with websites and that is not the only thing that we do. I am looking at many of the opportunities coming up and I see us in a very good position for the future.

My cats are doing well. For those that don’t know I have 4 cats. Their names are Gregory P. Bigglesworth or Mr. Bigglesworth, Fuzzy Wuzzles a.k.a. Mr. Fuzzles, Lizzie D. Kat and Snowbell. Snowbell is the one in the picture and the other three pictures will be coming soon. I used to have a fifth cat Dave but he is gone now.

My birthday was yesterday. I spent it alone mostly but finally my girl came by and we hung out for a bit. I have been consumed with work and I haven’t gotten out much lately. I did receive a lot of calls lately though and I appreciate the well wishers.

That’s all for now. I hope that everyone out there is having a good one. Keep an eye on this blog. It may prove interesting.

-Seann

When we started this site it was because we had seen a unique opportunity developing. Ebay was changing many of their business practices and was in the process of alienating many of their sellers. Since Candace already had experience with selling jewelry I decided to give it a go. A business plan was drawn up and theboth of us used our funds to get the site started. I also went out on a limb and put most of the company’s financials in my name and gave personal guarantees.

We thought it best to move fast becuase the opportunity may take a while to present itself. That was the first mistake. Since I didn’t know much about how Ebay auctions should work I submitted software packages to Candy and asked her to evaluate them. That was my second mistake. Candy really didn’t look at them and we decided on a package that didn’t work out too well for us. I took full control of the customer service packages and have been very pleased with those.

After a few months and as we were struggling along we realized that we would need some help. That is when we brought in Mark Romness and Donna Canan. Both were friends of Candace and seemed like nice people. At this point I gave very explicit instructions on how to make the site more visible. I relied on others to get the job done because I have another business. That was the third mistake. A lot of the work went undone.

The software package did not work out so well. It was full of bugs and didn’t look nice. After months of trying to get it to work and lots of money spent, we went to the current software package. That was the first real breakthrough. This package is very easy to modify and the user community and customer service is great. Finally, we had an easy to manage product with great customer service. I was happy with the project and hoped that we could focus on the marketing aspect.

Marketing stalled. Honestly, nobody was looking at the site. The business plan called for us to be profitable within months and earning six figures within a year. I know that sounds outrageous but we thought that it might be possible given the climate. So in October we redoubled our efforts.

It was a disaster. The collapsing economy, coupled with Candace’s mistakes kept our numbers down. Also my own business was suffering due to the fact that Virtual Gems was taking up more and more of my time. So I started refocusing my efforts in November on my primary business SeannLewis.com. Candace wasn’t happy about that. She also was not happy with the work of some of the other members of Virtual Gems. She wanted to lock Donna out but I didn’t because we hadn’t talked to her yet.

Now around this time I got into some trouble with some bounced checks that I thought were taken care of. I didn’t do anything wrong and since Mark and I were already working together he helped me out. Also I got into a working relationship with Intel through JDMI. Things were going slowly but well.

Apparently I was the only one to think so. In November, the other members of the organization conspired behind my back to get rid of me. They setup another holdings company and stole information from ours. They asked me to make backups and used that to start the other site. I had no reason to feel that anything was amiss. I didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have backups in more than one location so I agreed. Now the first thing that they did was cancel the merchants account with Humboldt. According to them Mark Romness called and said tat it was decided that it was not needed and that we were going through . I am not clear as to who he said had decided that but they closed the account. Then they setup a hosting account with a local vendor in Candace’s name. They setup a whole other site and decided it was time to strike.

On the 19th of November, Godaddy sent me an email telling me that my settings had changed. I called and tried to access my account with my PIN. They said that it was invalid. I hadn’t changed my PIN since I started and couldn’t believe it. We then went through their authentication process and it failed. I panicked. I tried to access the website and couldn’t. I was almost completely locked out. Fearing the worst I accessed the database and took a look at who was listed as the admins. t was Candace’s husband and one of her employees. I then tried to reset my my password with the email account and found that the response email was going to a Comcast account. I have Time Warner and I use hotmail for personal stuff.

I wiped the database and had to prove my case to Godaddy. That was easy enough since I had papers showing that I owned everything. They returned control to me the next day and I locked them out and canceled their email accounts. I tried talking to Candy and she gave me some BS sob story and some crap about the FBI. She asked me to give her control of the domain names. I followed up and none of it panned out. It didn’t make sense anyway. Unfortunately they did have time to backup the database and take the information. They may have also put in place malicious code to defraud customers.

Since they were not acting for the best interests of the company I asked them to simply remove my name from their site and links to the Virtual Shops sites and Virtual Gems. They asked for the domain names and decided to tell people that Virtual Shops does not exist. I asked them to recant and when they didn’t I posted information stating theat we are still here and that the we are in no way associated with Vintage Gems. They asked me to disassociate with Virtual Gems and I gave them a price that I though th was fair. THey wanted to give me 5% of ther profits for a year but that would be stupid. They are operating under Vintage Gems Emporium, LLC and I wouldn’t make anything. 5% of nothing is nothing. The smears didn’t come until they decided to try and bully me in the court of public opinion.

There are some interesting points to ponder. The site’s traffic is steadily increasing. Our hits from search engines go up everyday. People are selling and Candy has not deleted her auctions. I could ban her but I am interested to see what their next move is. Their sites traffic i not that good and they are using software that I setup to run a rogue site and smear me. Their site informs me as to their traffic and other stats and it is not where it needs to be. A Lot of their site still links to Virtual Gems. To be honest I am a bit worn out but I will keep this thing moving. The New Year is approaching. Sales are going up and I managed to convince some jewelry stores to post their merchandise. I have some good people that I am working with and will run the site and all Virtual Store sites.

Had they just disassociated themselves I would have been fine. I don’t mind that they go off and do something else but don’t try to cut me out of what is rightfully mine.

I hope this clears up,

Seann Lewis

When we started this site it was because we had seen a unique opportunity developing. Ebay was changing many of their business practices and was in the process of alienating many of their sellers. Since Candace already had experience with selling jewelry I decided to give it a go. A business plan was drawn up and theboth of us used our funds to get the site started. I also went out on a limb and put most of the company’s financials in my name and gave personal guarantees.

We thought it best to move fast becuase the opportunity may take a while to present itself. That was the first mistake. Since I didn’t know much about how Ebay auctions should work I submitted software packages to Candy and asked her to evaluate them. That was my second mistake. Candy really didn’t look at them and we decided on a package that didn’t work out too well for us. I took full control of the customer service packages and have been very pleased with those.

After a few months and as we were struggling along we realized that we would need some help. That is when we brought in Mark Romness and Donna Canan. Both were friends of Candace and seemed like nice people. At this point I gave very explicit instructions on how to make the site more visible. I relied on others to get the job done because I have another business. That was the third mistake. A lot of the work went undone.

The software package did not work out so well. It was full of bugs and didn’t look nice. After months of trying to get it to work and lots of money spent, we went to the current software package. That was the first real breakthrough. This package is very easy to modify and the user community and customer service is great. Finally, we had an easy to manage product with great customer service. I was happy with the project and hoped that we could focus on the marketing aspect.

Marketing stalled. Honestly, nobody was looking at the site. The business plan called for us to be profitable within months and earning six figures within a year. I know that sounds outrageous but we thought that it might be possible given the climate. So in October we redoubled our efforts.

It was a disaster. The collapsing economy, coupled with Candace’s mistakes kept our numbers down. Also my own business was suffering due to the fact that Virtual Gems was taking up more and more of my time. So I started refocusing my efforts in November on my primary business SeannLewis.com. Candace wasn’t happy about that. She also was not happy with the work of some of the other members of Virtual Gems. She wanted to lock Donna out but I didn’t because we hadn’t talked to her yet.

Now around this time I got into some trouble with some bounced checks that I thought were taken care of. I didn’t do anything wrong and since Mark and I were already working together he helped me out. Also I got into a working relationship with Intel through JDMI. Things were going slowly but well.

Apparently I was the only one to think so. In November, the other members of the organization conspired behind my back to get rid of me. They setup another holdings company and stole information from ours. They asked me to make backups and used that to start the other site. I had no reason to feel that anything was amiss. I didn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have backups in more than one location so I agreed. Now the first thing that they did was cancel the merchants account with Humboldt. According to them Mark Romness called and said tat it was decided that it was not needed and that we were going through . I am not clear as to who he said had decided that but they closed the account. Then they setup a hosting account with a local vendor in Candace’s name. They setup a whole other site and decided it was time to strike.

On the 19th of November, Godaddy sent me an email telling me that my settings had changed. I called and tried to access my account with my PIN. They said that it was invalid. I hadn’t changed my PIN since I started and couldn’t believe it. We then went through their authentication process and it failed. I panicked. I tried to access the website and couldn’t. I was almost completely locked out. Fearing the worst I accessed the database and took a look at who was listed as the  admins. t was Candace’s husband and one of her employees. I then tried to reset my my password with the email account and found that the response email was going to a Comcast account. I have Time Warner and I use hotmail for personal stuff.

I wiped the database and had to prove my case to Godaddy. That was easy enough since I had papers showing that I owned everything. They returned control to me the next day and I locked them out and canceled their email accounts. I tried talking to Candy and she gave me some BS sob story and some crap about the FBI. She asked me to give her control of the domain names. I followed up and none of it panned out. It didn’t make sense anyway. Unfortunately they did have time to backup the database and take the information. They may have also put in place malicious code to defraud customers.

Since they were not acting for the best interests of the company I asked them to simply remove my name from their site and links to the Virtual Shops sites and Virtual Gems. They asked for the domain names and decided to tell people that Virtual Shops does not exist. I asked them to recant  and when they didn’t I posted information stating theat we are still here and that the we are in no way associated with Vintage Gems. They asked me to disassociate with Virtual Gems and I gave them a price that I though th was fair. THey wanted to give me 5% of ther profits for a year but that would be stupid. They are operating under Vintage Gems Emporium, LLC and I wouldn’t make anything. 5% of nothing is nothing. The smears didn’t come until they decided to try and bully me in the court of public opinion.

There are some interesting points to ponder. The site’s traffic is steadily increasing. Our hits from search engines go up everyday. People are selling and Candy has not deleted her auctions. I could ban her but I am interested to see what their next move is. Their sites traffic i not that good and they are using software that I setup to run a rogue site and smear me. Their site informs me as to their traffic and other stats and it is not where it needs to be. A Lot of their site still links to Virtual Gems. To be honest I am a bit worn out but I will keep this thing moving. The New Year is approaching. Sales are going up and I managed to convince some jewelry stores to post their merchandise. I have some good people that I am working with and will run the site and all Virtual Store sites.

Had they just disassociated themselves I would have been fine. I don’t mind that they go off and do something else but don’t try to cut me out of what is rightfully mine.

I hope this clears up,

Seann Lewis

1. Ebay doesn’t need the small seller anymore, why? Because the large seller is less hassle and make ebay more money. So where will ebay be without the small seller giving their total assortment of auctions a little specialty store attitude. Ebay wants to be Walmart or really Amazon.com…lesser quality and more volume and have moved away from smaller shops that offer variety and quality. Ebay wants to secure their buyer base to shore up their market penetration .. thus the whacked new feedback policy and paypal (owned by Ebay) resolution group finding for the buyer more often the seller even when proof is provided. Since Meg Whitman left and believe you me she was no saint, Ebay has become de-sensitized and de-humanized and has turned its back on the small seller who made them what they are today.

1. In all of my years of buying and selling on Ebay, things have really changed. I started shopping on Ebay from a little Webtv unit in my living room in 1995-96. I remember feeling how great this was that I could reach out and bid on anything with the hope to win it. I remember many of Ebay sellers did not even have photos with their auctions but that did not stop me… I went by the written description and I never remember being disappointed with what came in the mail.

   I also remember never worrying about sending money (those days it was a check and money order payment plan) to virtual strangers and again I do not remember ever getting stiffed. I am going to sound my grandmother when I say “those were the good old days”. All my life I had been a collector of all things unique. I have about ten collections I add to on a regular basis and they include Native American jewelry and pottery, Salvadore Dali’ prints and paintings, boxes… anything with a lid and most made from natural materials like tortoise, horn, ivory and more, well anyway you get the picture… I collected everything and anything so in 2000 I decided to start selling on Ebay. At first it was things I had tired of and then I slowly bought things at auctions to resell. Mostly it was china and glass which I had a general knowledge about and in my first month I sold $8,000…. I though wow this is easy, I like it and most of all I am making great money. Well the years went by, fees went up, things became more cumbersome (they always try to fix things that aren’t broken) and getting any type of service from Ebay had become a thing of the past. Well getting to my point, I have seen Ebay go from a terrific and fun place to visit and eventual sell to fearful of getting the “boot” for some ridiculous misstep on my part. Ebay doesn’t care about the small boutique seller that I am. Ebay has moved their emphasis to being more like Amazon.com and their business model seems to be one of selling a lot of new and in some cases garbage stuff at fixed prices. Life for small seller like myself on Ebay has changed dramatically. These changes have included paying up to 11% of my auction sold price back to Ebay, not being able to leave negative feedback which quite honestly takes away my incentive to work with buyer to resolve anything, lower powerseller service and it goes on and on…. and to make a long story short… I want to sell in an auction format somewhere other than Ebay!!!

I am glad that you are able to come to our site. We are a family of cats that own several people. Our names are Snowbell, Lizzie, Fuzzles and Bigglesworth. We like to sit down and shop, watch movies and play games.