Friday, April 11, 2008

TIMESHARING AND CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME IN D.C.




After a week of welcoming home our Son from his latest overseas tour, we joined our Granddaughter and other Son for Easter week at the Wyndham Old Alexandria Resort. As the name suggests, the Wyndham is located in "Old Alexandria", nestled between the Hilton and the Embassy Suites, and very convenient to the King Street Metro Station. The accommodations, two 1bdrm units, were very well appointed and the Wyndham staff were very helpful and accommodating during our stay.

During the week, we visited D.C. by the Metro and enjoyed restaurants within walking distance of the Wyndham; so we never had to take our vehicle out of the covered parking area provided by the Resort. The cherry trees were just beginning to bloom, along with other flora and fauna; and although the weather was a bit nippy during the morning and evening hours, the weather inbetween was very pleasant.

In D.C.,we were able to see the Magna Carta of 1297, (one of 12 originals) , along with the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and many other original documents on display. We also toured the Smithsthonian, the art museum, and the Smithsthonian Annex at Dulles Airport.

After we checked out of the Wyndham, we spent a day touring Annapolis and the U.S. Naval Academy, the alma mater of our two Sons, and another day touring the Mount Vernon home of our first President, George Washington.

The Wyndham at Old Alexandria is a great place to stay, when you want to tour D.C. and the surrounding area. They also have an indoor pool and exercise room; and a game room for the young ones.




HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM PLUNDERHERE.COM



Important announcement to all Plunderhere Members

In Dec 2007, negotiations were opened for the purchase of
PlunderHere. These negotiations and contracts were completed as of
April 1, 2008. Part of the deal is I'm to stay on as admin.

The acquisition will give PlunderHere the financial backing that I,
as a sole proprietor, cannot give.

Since PlunderHere will soon be moving servers, and while for the most
part this should be without a hitch.. I do wholeheartedly suggest
making back ups of your listings. The easiest way would be to open a
spreadsheet file, like the boostlister format, and make the necessary
copies.

Below is a statement from one of Plunderhere's new backers or better
known in the foums as 'Superdeals' the Wordsmith.

Just remember I'm, still the 'Chief Skillet Wielder'

Mo



Hi Everybody

Well it's been a very hectic time for us with the negotiations with
Mo and all the work involved in taking on a site as big as PH.

Mo has done a phenomenal job in building this up from when she took
over and has been a massive help in both the handover and the
ongoing work both in progress and also with what is planned.

To put it simply, PH has simply gone from a sole proprietorship to a
Corporation and only change is there are now more people to take away
the work crippling Mo.

Personally, we do not view this as a sale but more as step for us to
come in as financial backers as Mo's actual remuneration will not
only remain the same but will improve as the site grows.

Plunderhere.com and .net will be registered under Palgold Card
Services LLC, which is a US company trading as Plunderhere.com

I have been active in the PH forums for awhile working in conjunction
with the tech team to sort out and enhance the running of PH as the
site has grown so fast, Mo I know was flat out with answering emails,
helping in the forums, doing all the accounts and for her to work on
the tech stuff too was just way too much so we stepped in.

Now Mo is still doing what she does best and that's helping everybody
at PH, she isn't going anywhere and will remain as a very valuable
asset and partner to the business.

The server change will be performed by a professional server manager
who fully understands the script we use, backups will be made and
when this happens we will go into 'maintenance mode' so nobody is
caught off-guard, we will also give at the very least a full weeks
notice prior to the change so everybody is aware. It will be a day
during the early hours of the morning (USA time) and could take up to
24 hours to complete simply because the site is so big.

Listings can continue comfortably up to the point we announce the
move and then I recommend you hold off until we are completed, this
we will announce very soon first in these forums and then elsewhere.

Now we only recently completed the deal with Mo to step in and the
last week has been chaotic for us as Mo needed some urgent work doing
which gave us little or no time to announce anything.

We have the fortunate luck to have a wonderful team of moderators,
several whom now I have dealt with personally and especially Kevin
(Kevinatgrannys) who has liaised between myself and the Tech team to
help us improve and PH to where it is now. Mo has continued her super
support to the user base enabling us to get on with this work, which
is still very much ongoing even as I write this.

Also a special thank you to those of you who have helped me already
and to the rest of you I will come to know soon who are already
helping in a massive way.I cannot express what an amazing community
spirit runs through these forums other than it is the only site I
have come across with such a family and friendly orientated feel to
it.

Even I do not get to avoid Mo's 'Skillet' if something doesn't work
so we will all keep each other on our toes!!!

Other than adjust the cosmetic look of PH we have NO plans to change
the fees, or fiddle and play with anything that will upset or
disjoint you, our valuable members. We will listen to feedback and as
Mo and Kevin know, if we come up with an idea I/we consult with them
first but at the same time Mo and our users are giving us great ideas
too, many of which are being worked on now.

Plunderhere Europe will soon be ready and we will announce when this
will officially launch!

Mo, I know will continue to treat PH as her own as she has a vested
ongoing interest not just working with us but to help all of you, our
valuable users to build your businesses as best as possible.

Kindest regards
Mark ..Superdeals' the 'Wordsmith'
Plunderhere Tech Team
______________________________________________

copperpenny22
Join me at:
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No trees were killed in the transmission of this message, but a large
number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

A PERFECT MOTHER'S DAY GIFT







This Wedgwood Jasperware Sweet Dish is in the hard-to-find white-on-green. It measures 6 inches by 3 1/4 inches and is in mint condition, with no chips, cracks, or restorations. The base markings are: "Wedgwood Made in England", circa 1958.

We accept PayPal, RevolutionMoneyExchange, money orders, and bank checks. Personal checks are also accepted; however, shipment will be delayed to allow for check clearing. Buyer pays flat rate of $7.50 for shipping and insurance. Insurance is required.

This lovely Wedgwood item can be purchased at our online store at:
http://www.oldandsold.com/cgi-bin/auction.cgi?general&1207957139
Reserve price is $40.00 on this OldandSold Auction.

PLUNDERHERE.COM ARTICLE IN AUCTIONBYTES



PlunderHere Auction Site an 'Up and Comer'
By Jan Perry
AuctionBytes.com
April 06, 2008

Picture eBay in the early days and you'd be looking at a pretty good
description of the PlunderHere auction site. Although they've been at
it for a couple of years, they still consider themselves an "up-and-
comer" with a chance of challenging the auction giant. And they think
they can do it with an approach that's pretty much the same game -
only with rules that favor the players instead of the house.

A free basic membership comes with 41 onsite privileges including
those you'd expect like buying, selling and member-to-member
communication - and a few that you might not - such as use of
personal avatars or banners (they even have templates to help you
create them), photo hosting services for four photos per item, and
the ability to bring eBay listings as well as eBay feedback
statistics onto the PlunderHere site.

PlunderHere imposes a flat rate 2.5% final value fee on any item that
sells. There are no listing fees for posting an item on
PlunderHere.com. In fact, there are no listing fees, no reserve price
fees, no gallery fees, no Buy-it-Now fees and no second category
fees. There are, however, nominal charges for other auction posting
features such as bold or highlighted listings (.25), featured item
listings ($2) and main featured placement ($5), should you wish to
use them. These seller costs are low compared to eBay, which charges
$5, $19.95, and $39.95 respectively for those same services. For
store owners, preferred placement is $5 per month and featured
placement is $2.50, otherwise basic stores are free.

There's one thing you do pay for at PlunderHere that you don't at
eBay (only because they don't have them). They're called attention
grabbers, and for a nickel a listing, you can add these cute little
icons to your heading copy on the listing page. There are tires,
tools, flags, arrows and even a pretty pink package among the symbols
to choose from. The auction site also allows "wanted listings" and
has a "parts only" sale section.

The founder of PlunderHere.com created the site for those looking for
a new venue to sell their merchandise or services and for buyers to
have more options, writing: "Although we are new, we hope to rapidly
rise to the point of being on an equal level as that "other"
competitor, and eventually overshadow them all together by excelling
in every possible facet of this industry, with customer service being
our top priority. We wish to finally be able to offer all sellers and
buyers an honest "WE CARE ABOUT YOU" attitude, as opposed to
the "take it or leave it" canned responses you are forced to accept
elsewhere."

Like eBay, there is an active member community including bulletin
boards, newsletters, buyer/seller guides and a section with favorite
recipes. Signing up is easy, listing items to sell is a breeze, and
navigation on the site is simple and direct.

That's the good news. The bad news is the same for every auction site
that isn't eBay: significantly fewer buyers.

PlunderHere has under 5,000 members and currently offers
approximately 70,000 items for sale through active auctions, fixed-
price sales and store items combined. Compare that to 276,000,000
registered user IDs on eBay and 113,000,000 listings.

But PlunderHere clearly has a sense of humor. It ran a contest for
funny listings and some of them were gems. OnAngelsWings posted an
auction for "Preschool Protectors." The auction offered the services
of two tough looking little boys who could be shipped out to serve as
playground bodyguards for the weak and the bullied. (The copy clearly
states that this is not an actual auction - although the selling
price, $99,999,999.99, might have been a pretty good indication of
that fact.)

A few other listings included "A truck load of snow" for $999, an
$899.99 "foolproof alarm clock" that comes complete with a "cold
nose, four paws and a rather loud bark," and one for "a used and
broke ex-husband." The header on this million-dollar bargain warns
that the purchase is a "parts only" deal since "some parts don't
work."

Visit PlunderHere.com here:
http://www.plunderhere.com

About the author:
Jan Perry is a freelance writer currently living in Northern
Kentucky. She has authored a web site review column for The
Cincinnati Post for the past 10 years (http://www.perrypostings.com)
along with features on everything from rock climbing in Red River
Gorge to her wild ride in a Red Baron biplane. She's been an eBay
member, buying and selling, since 1997 and a collector of many things
just about all of her 56 years. She's in the process of selling a
collection/accumulation of more than half-a-million new, used and
antique buttons through eBay. She has written an as yet unpublished
mystery book and is currently working on her first novel.
______________________________________________

copperpenny22
Join me at:
http://www.myspace.com/pennyspantry
http://www.squidoo.com/pennyspantry
http://pennyspantry.blogspot.com
http://www.reallysmartdeals.com?r=58073
http://www.powersellersunite.com/portal.php
http://www.pheebay.com/forums
http://www.thecrabbyhost.com/forum/indix.php