As of April 19, 2011, they’re adding a final value fee to the total price including the shipping.  This means that if you order an appliance that you can only find in the U.S. and you live in Italy, your seller has to pay 9% of everything, including the $25-$30 that it’ll cost to ship it to you.  So your shipping will cost more so that they can pay eBay’s fees and still be able to send you your American waffle iron or handmade African American quilts.

So as sellers are looking for new places to sell, buyers are looking for new places to buy where the markup won’t be an extra 10% or more because of site fees.  Fortunately Google has a solution:  Google Product Search.

Now, using the same search engine you use to find any other kind of information, Google will bring you the products you want, and you can sort by relevance or price.  The way it works is that sites submit data feeds to Google Merchant Center with just the bare bones information about each product they have.  So you don’t have to shovel through loads of pages to find what you’re looking for, or wonder if the site you’re looking at really has the best bargain.

In fact, if you’re looking for anything on Google, you can click the “Shopping” tab or link on the sidebar to see if there are books or other things for sale related to what you’re reading about.

So now, it doesn’t matter what any auction site does to their fees.  If someone has the best price, even if it’s on their small HTML site with manually submitted feeds, you’re going to find the best deal.  You won’t miss out just because some can afford to hire a team of developers and some can’t.  This will make it much easier to buy direct from the source.

The only problem at the moment is that too many webmasters think it’s difficult to make a data feed.  It isn’t.  You don’t even need to know HTML.  Once more figure this out, things are going to start moving fast.  Meanwhile, I’ve found some great deals on sites I didn’t even know existed before.

Try it out!

Papa Legba Maraca Pendant by Shelloya

As the world enters harder times economically, there’s been a slow and quiet revolution moving people away from both mainstream and New Age faiths.  People are finding more peace and solace in esotericism, gnosticism, and ancestral belief systems, and showing it through what they wear.

In the past few years, more people, both Indian and not, have been sporting salwar, saree, Yoga pants, and bindi.  It has become pretty normal to see a Europen woman wearing Indian clothing.  Then there was the upsurge in African and old European braided hairstyles.  Now, more and more people are sporting African clothing and accessories.  It has gone beyond dashiki and derived dresses, and gotten into Adinkra symbol t-shirts and Orisha necklaces.

As yet, few of the big name designers seem that interested in delving beyond the odd Yemaya goddess pendant or Damballa like snake bracelet.  So this time around, to get the good stuff, you have to know someone, make your own, or shop around artist stores and sites.

Both Etsy and Ebay are good places to start your search.  First however, you may want to read up on Vodun, Muthi, and other African belief systems to see which is more in line with your personal beliefs.  It’s always a good idea to know the symbolism behind the things you buy.  I’ve seen guys walking around in necklaces that mean, “I’m a pretty unmarried virgin girl.”

I have bought from them before, and they are very fast and dependable, with excellent customer service.

I don’t know how long it will last, so get there now to take advantage of the deal.

OP is a wholesaler, so you get the good price if you buy the 9 lbs block.  Just cut it into pieces and wrap it in nice paper to give as a gift.  When it’s sold in the fancy shops, this is exactly what they do so it’ll look “rustic”.  This is a gift I would be very happy if someone gave to me.