Yahoo Groups Message Boards

I have been on many message boards on many different venues, over the years, but my absolute favorite message boards are the ones with Yahoo Groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/

They differ from others in many respects - 

• Every message posted can be sent to an email box; 
• it is very easy to respond to any message;
• a Daily Digest can be set up and sent one time a day;
• a reader can go to the board and read there and not get anything in email;
• the posted messages can be read individually or by subject; 
• they are easy to turn off when on vacation or not wanting the emails cluttering the mail box. 
• plus many more positive aspects. 

There are thousands of groups on any and every subject under the sun.

Some of the groups I belong to are about RVing; eBay; The Law of Attraction,; Young Living Essential Oil; PrePaid Legal, FreeCycle and Buy and Sell groups in our city, plus many more.  

There are a few caveats - 

• on the social groups they tend to get click-ish and very personal.  And unfortunately there are always a few "mouths" who have to be in everyone's face and bring drama to the group.  They are best to be ignored and interact with the people who offer information and insight.;
• On the business groups there is alot of moderation, to prevent spamming, so there is a delay in responses going live.. I tend to think that on some of the give away boards the moderators get first dibs on the stuff being given away.

Some of my favorites are -

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpringsPlantAndSeedExchange/?yguid=205762662
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/eBay-Sellers/?yguid=205762662
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/AllAboutRVing/?yguid=205762663

TRIP TO FLORIDA, JAN. 2010

Wow, it took a lot but we finally got gone on Wed. 1/13. After a lot of help from my son, Sean, the car got up on the trailer but it was too late on Tues. to leave so the plan was to head out early on Wed. That turned into 12 Noonish after another few delays.

Driving out of Colorado there were these snowdrifts that looked like waves frozen in time (which they really are– LOL). I kinda liked the colors; a lot of them were pinkish.

It is not often there is a town with the same name as an acquaintance so I took this photo for Suzie.

We have passed through Dodge City about 2 years ago on our way to Branson. The road was under construction and still is. Last time we checked it out and it looked like old buildings that were newly constructed with new paint – all hype.

Lots of feed lots along the way too. If you don’t see them you can certainly smell them.

Somebody likes wind spinners and yard decorations. I bet there were about 200+ feet.

I read that since it is so cold that some birds will be flying further south. This is one of 4 flocks of geese we saw, all at the same time. H-U-G-E is an understatement.

We passed through Rock, OK and saw a sign in front of a house said - You are between Rock
and our house!!

There was a tiny, rural post office here too, where we stopped to mail an international package. The lady behind the window said she does not do these very often, so Gene had to tell her how.

A dear friend is from Shawnee, OK and knows people there. We waved at them at we went past!!

The whole 3^rd day was foggy and this was one of the worst sections just east of Shawnee.

We woke up this AM in Checotah, OK to these beautiful Cardinals in the tree next to our window. We hardly ever see pretty or different birds at our house in CO, so this was a treat. A huge blue jay visited too.

It rained all last night and is raining east of here in Arkansas, so we are staying put until tomorrow. The weather says sunny all the way to FL.

Why Do I Sell on eBay?

Flower, I (Love) You, Butterfly on Rice

I think that of the millions and millions of sellers on eBay, each one would have a different answer.

Yesterday I read a post on message board that got me thinking and validating my commitment to our business.

The poster worked in a 2 person office - her and the boss. She did the best job she could do but as time went on the boss started treating her, as her slave. But to complicate it, the boss also treated her as her best friend. In fact she was hoping her helper would go into a craft business with her.

On Sat. the boss called and asked where the info was for the health insurance company and went on to explain that she wanted to pay it because the end of this month was to be the gal's last day!

The gal is now committed to work eBay full time and to be self employed.

Oh boy how many times have we heard or know of someone going through something similar. It seems the more we give to bosses and companies, the more they take and assume they can demand.

I had my own bad experience in New York. The guy had a Yahoo store and my office was in the basement, next to the washer and dryer. His was solely a drop ship business and in the 1st year he grossed 1.5 million dollars. I was the only employee and at times processed over 100 orders a day.

As business grew I was doing work at home (without extra pay - of course) but having that work done made the job easier so it was in my best interest to do it.

One day after lunch I walked into the office and 'the' wife had hung laundry all over the basement. I told her I was leaving and to let me know when the clothes were down.

After that I knew that I would never work for anyone again. Both Gene and I are retired so our time is our own and we have said, many times, that if we weren't doing eBay http://tinyurl.com/d6qyy6 , craft shows or state fairs, what would we be doing? Sitting around watching TV and getting old? Now we can sell while we are RVing, at home - wherever and whenever we want!!

So what do we do at these shows? We write names or simple pictures on both sides of a grain of rice, put it into a tiny glass vial that then becomes a charm for a necklace, key chain, cell phone fob, etc. I typically do not list these on eBay because each one is custom made and there are many choices to get to the finished product.


At the very least our brains are staying very active and it also gives us something to do that we love.

We have met some fantastic eBayers and other vendors face to face in all our travels and have spent time visiting with them. Without exception every one feels like we have been friends forever and there is never a gap in conversation. In fact there is never enough time to visit!


Why we sell what we sell will be the topic of a future blog. And more about our Rice Necklace business too. So check back often.

To Break the Boredom on a Long Trip

When we are traveling in the east there is lots to see but once we got into Texas it was a lot of the same - either miles of farm land or prairie

Since we have a sense of humor we occupy ourselves by making jokes about certain things. Please feel free to add yours on too.

Watch for ice on bridge - What do we do once we find it?

Rt. 66 Gas - How is that different than gas from beans; from cabbage, chicken, turkey or onions?

Cuervo, NM - Does Jose live there?

We saw a big RV pulling a small camper. Is that the mother in law quarters?

More to come!!!

Traveling / RVing & doing eBay too - Some basics

This is the 1st of a series how to's that we have learned from in our experiences of traveling and continuing our eBay business, both by car and now in the RV.

When we bought our RV we knew we would be selling on the road, so made sure it had lots of storage space. Everything is stored in the plastic bins with tight fitting lids and stored in the 'basement'. Smaller and more valuable items are in their own plastic shoe boxes under the bed.

Hardware - Besides the computer and printer the only way to go is with an air card. I call them a cell phone for a laptop. Most companies have them now and they run about $60.00 a month.

There have been only a few spots where there is no cell phone signal so therefore no air card signal either.

Depending on the size of your business, there is no way to work and keep up with email, questions and sales, looking for someplace that has WiFi. And that is especially true in an RV where you don't have a lot of flexibility on where you park and instant decisions where to turn.

For us and this is just MHO, I hate putting my store on vacation. It is risky business, and hard to get geared up again.

Mailing Packages - It is a good idea to use the zip code you are mailing from. I think this is especially important when it is a priority package - because of the zones - Not so much with 1st class.

Most RV parks will accept outgoing mail. We had one problem when we were parked at a WalMart over night since they do not take outgoing mail! That is a whole 'nther subject and we won't be doing that again anytime soon - only in an emergency!!!!

Shipping - My husband is the shipping department and brings all the materials he would use at home including larger things in the event of large combined purchases. He also brought some priority boxes, with the thinking if he needed more he could get them easy enough from a post office. And if we ran out of something there are always office supply stores.

Merchandise - We have structured what we sell on the road in a way that won't be to heavy or bulky. We left all breakables at home. That took several weeks of planning and organization so the items would expire just before we left.

If you are parked in one place for awhile it is easy to visit thrift shops and yard sales or outlet stores. Don't forget the local Craigslist too!

List the items right away so you don't have to carry them with you very far. But stick to the rule of light things. You don't want them to be heavy and accumulate without selling and you have to haul them.

I am always available to talk eBay so if you are passing through or near Colorado Springs, CO write and lets meet up and visit.