Pinterest appears to be the ultimate marketing tool at first glance. Everything you pin has the potential to be repinned by your friends, and their friends, and their friends etc until someone, somewhere along the line might follow the pin to your shop and make a purchase. With the right keywords in the little comment box it also has the potential to be found and shared by random strangers as they search for "Victorian Decor" "Art Deco" and other specific keywords.

 Dark red Garnets are the gems that we have come to associate with the January Birthstone. We are comfortable with these traditional colors, just like we would be comfortable around the glow of the embers in a fireplace on these January days. But Garnet can be so much more!

In “Rinker on Collectibles” Column 1300, the 25th anniversary column, I informed readers that I prepared a Top 10 list of changes in the antiques and collectibles field in the last five years that I planned to share with them. Before doing so, I asked readers to e-mail their suggestions as to what changes should be included on my list and asked Dana Morykan, a friend and colleague, to post on www.harryrinker.com the two December 2007 “Rinker on Collectibles” 20th anniversary columns in which I identified and analyzed the Top 10 changes in the field since this column’s birth.

We are nesting...the move is complete. We feel at home in the "new digs" and are enjoying life on the beach. Well, almost on the beach. The beach is two blocks away. We have a great view and my daily walks are very rewarding both visually and spiritually. Operating a business out of your home can sometimes become a complicated matter. People ask me all the time, "where do you keep all that stuff?". Well, I keep it right here with me.

As the digital age progresses, what long-term collecting prospects do you see for vintage electronics?

While the importance of local, regional, and national marketplaces in maximizing the value of objects being sold value is diminishing in the digital age, they still play a role. Further, it is hard to conceive a time when their importance will disappear.

A big thank you to all the Ruby Lane shop owners who nominated Ruby Lane for ECommerceBytes (formerly AuctionBytes) 3rd Annual Sellers Choice Awards Official 2012 Survey. Ruby Lane had enough votes to secure one of the 16 online marketplace slots in the prestigious ECommerceBytes survey.

The Adjustment Bureau is my new name for Ruby Lane’s secret shopper program. If you saw the recent movie you know that “The Adjustment Bureau” was a secret organization with inside information about the way an individual SHOULD be living and the path they SHOULD be taking. When they observed someone stepping off the path or going in a wrong direction they stepped in to adjust the circumstances, putting the person on the right path once more.

 Although scrimshaw encompasses all decorated pieces of marine mammal bone and ivory, most people associate the term most closely with the teeth of sperm whales.