News & Announcements

Since I started my business seven years ago, I have focussed on buying and selling reasonably priced beads.  I have passed up many beautiful beads because they were too expensive.  There are many other bead-sellers who sell expensive beads one bead at a time, and I have always been a little contemptuous of those sellers.  However, I've decided that I want to carry some of those beads myself.  One of the things that has prompted me to make this change is that a customer put me in touch with a supplier that sells some of the most beautiful beads I have ever seen, but they cost two to four times what my usual suppliers charge for similar beads.  Consequently, I am going to start carrying some very expensive beads.  I will continue to carry the less-expensive beads, but I will add a section called "Premium Beads" where you'll find beads that cost 25¢ to $1.20 each.  (I'm talking about pressed beads, not lampwork beads.)

In addition to buying these high-priced beads, I am going to loosen my pocketbook and spend more for the regular beads.  Let me give you some examples:  If, in the past, I paid $40 to $50 per mass for a certain kind of bead, passing up beads that cost $70 or $80 per mass, I'll now buy the more-expensive beads if the colors are really nice.  Consequently, even some of the "regular" beads will be more expensive.

Please click here to see the beads I am thinking of buying.  Are they worth 25¢ to $1.20 each?

Higher prices for polished window beads, sorry!

I have decided to raise my standard price for 20 polished window beads from $3.70 to $4.00 starting in July (that's an additional 1.5 cents per bead, not much!).  I have always taken a lower-than-normal markup on these beads, lower than the markup I give to the cheapest beads on the site.  However, I spend hours inspecting them individually, and I also cull about 15% of them as defective.  Furthermore, one of my suppliers has raised its prices on these beads, so my profit has been squeezed (happily, the other supplier has held the price steady for 6 years, but they may raise their prices too).  I apologize for this change, but I have no choice.  Please note that the dollar continues to be extremely weak again European currencies, so all sellers of imported goods are seeing very high wholesale prices.

New scale for photos

Last January I started photographing beads to the same scale so that their sizes could be compared on-screen, but it didn't work out.  The 3mm and 4mm beads came out way too small in the photos, and the larger beads came out way too big.  I am still using the scale, but I have adjusted it slightly to increase the size of the small beads and decrease the size of the large beads.  This way, you'll be able to see the details of the small beads better, and the large beads will fit into the thumbnail photos better.  (Is that clear?)

Google Checkout is a payment-processing service similar to PayPal.  I have offered it as a payment option on this site for two or three years.  However, they are raising their rates in May, so I have cancelled my account with them as of April 19th.

The post office has come out with a new, small, flat-rate box which holds up to 3 lbs. of beads.  It costs the same as a flat-rate envelope, and it will be much easier for me to pack.  Also, I won't have to pay for a bubble liner.  Since the box is rigid, I've decided that it isn't necessary to pad the beads.  If it turns out that customers are getting broken beads, then I will use padding.  Some packages will continue to go out in flat-rate envelopes, since they can hold up to 4 lbs.

I am now making the photos to a uniform scale.  I am not doing it in the usual way, however, which would involve positioning the camera at a set distance from the beads and then reducing the pictures a set amount.  Rather, when I reduce a picture for the web, through trial and error I arrive at a size which shows the beads at the same size as other similar beads.  Thus, all 6mm beads will now be 30 pixels long in the pictures, 8mm beads will be 40 pixels long in the pictures, 10mm beads will be 50 pixels long in the pictures, etc.  4mm beads and 3mm beads will end up looking quite small in the pictures – but then, they are small.

Starting January 5th, every order that goes out will have a packing slip in it.  Previously, I included packing slips only in orders with a value of $50 or more.  Doing that saved me time and work.  Recently, however, I realized that customers need to know what should be in the package they are receiving.  To save on paper, I have developed a packing slip which fits on half a page.

I have increased the threshold for free shipping on international orders from $200 to $225.  I did this for a couple reasons.  First, it costs me more per $100 to ship an international order than a domestic order.  Second, my credit-card processing company charges me a higher interest rate on international orders, so I already lose a bit more money on international.  Raising the threshold just evens things out.

My plate is pretty full here in Rhode Island, so I'll be using more pictures provided by my suppliers when posting new beads.  I'll only do that if I feel that the pictures are accurate.  I apologize for not posting 30 new bead styles each month as I promised.  I'll try to post 30 new bead styles this month.

I am supporting Barack Obama for President, and I am very much against John McCain, who does not – despite his reputation – strike me as principled maverick.  Please click here to read my article on the subject.

Higher threshold for 10% discount

It severely pains me to do this, but I've increased the threshold to get the 10% discount.  Previously, if you ordered $50 worth of beads, the cart would cut that to $45.  Now you must order $50 worth of beads after the discount is applied (that is, you have to order $55.56 worth of beads, and the cart will cut that to $50).  I have made this change to help pay for the new higher-priced payment processing system (see the next entry).  You can still get 10% off, but you just need to order a little more.  If you are totally steamed about this, feel free to let me know.

New and better payment-processing

I have been using a regular PayPal business account to accept payments, but many customers had problems when using a credit card.  So I upgraded to a more-expensive service which should prove less problematic.  To pay for the new service, my prices will have to rise a very small amount, about 2%.  What that means is that about half the items will go up 10 cents.  If the price of a bead goes up more than that, it's because I am passing along a price increase from the supplier.  The weak dollar is driving the prices of imported items up, up, up.

Price going up for polished rectangles

I am increasing the price for the 12mm polished beads from $3.60 to $3.70 for 20 beads.  I've never really charged what these beads are worth, especially since I examine every bead individually.  I am probably the only beadseller who does that, and it takes a great deal of time.  Also, about 10% of the beads are discarded due to defects, so I am losing money on some of them.

Chinese beads

China now has a thriving bead business.  For the most part, they have imitated the Czech styles, although they also offer some styles of their own.  Shipping from China is horrendously expensive, but the beads are cheaper overall, so it evens out (almost).  The first Chinese styles will appear on my site in a few weeks.  I will, of course, continue to carry Czech beads.

Starting two or three years ago, I resolved to mark each packet of defective beads with this legend:  "You paid a reduced price for these beads because some are defective."  But I have remembered to do that only about half the time.  Consequently, I've decided to dispense with the legend altogether.  If you receive defective beads, please go to the Detail page for that bead to see if you paid a reduced price.  If so, you have already been compensated for the defects.  If not, please contact me for a refund.

If a bead has cracks, but the cracks are hard to see, and the beads are not coming apart, I won't be reducing the price.  In the past I would always have reduced the price, but I've decided that it's enough for me to simply inform the customer.  Cracks are common in glass beads, but if the cracks really don't make a difference in the appearance, I don't see why I should lose any income!  If, however, the cracks are clearly visible, or if some beads are actually breaking, I'll reduce the price as I always have.

About 20% of the beads that I carry come loose from the supplier (instead of coming on hanks of strands).  If those beads are in the range of 7mm to 9mm, I will sell them in lots of 60 in addition to the usual lots of 50.  Beads which come from the supplier on strands of 25 or 50 will continue to be sold in lots of 50 only.  I may eventually choose to sell all 7mm to 9mm beads in lots of 60, but it will cause me a great deal of extra work, so it may never happen.  If I feel that I can do it without too much extra work, I will.

For those rosary-makers who end up with extra beads, I am wondering if they can't be made into matching bracelets.  Or perhaps you could occasionally make a "funky" rosary with multi-colored beads.  These are just suggestions, of course.  I am not Catholic, so I don't know how appropriate my ideas are.

Please click here to say hello to Tillie!

Unfortunately, I have had to increase the minimum that an international customer spends to get free shipping from $150 to $200 (after discount).  There are two reasons for this:  first, the high expense of international shipments, and second, I pay higher credit-card and PayPal fees for international orders, so I actually make a little less money on them.  I apologize for this change.  I know that a $200 minimum is prohibitive, but it's the best I can do.