News and Announcements
(Archive)

Both of my main suppliers have just announced that they are increasing their prices starting in the new year.  The reason is the weakness of the dollar.  Since George W. Bush took office, the dollar has lost about 30% of its value.  Since 1985, when it was at its highest, it has lost over half of its value.  That means that $100 worth of beads purchased in 2001 now cost about $145, and $100 worth of beads purchased in 1985 now cost about $210 (these calculations do not include inflation).  In addition, importers must now pay additional import duties related to domestic security (I refuse to use the word "homeland" which sounds too much like "fatherland" to me).

So what does that mean for my prices?  Well, if a mass of beads that used to cost $40 goes to $50, then my price will also go up 25%.  My suppliers have not said that they are raising all their prices, so I don't know which beads will become more expensive.  If my suppliers raise the price of the table-cut "window" beads, then my prices could go from $3.50 per 20 to $4.25 or so.  I don't want to raise my prices, of course, but I make only a modest living from the business.

Unlike my suppliers, who will raise the prices on old stock, I will not be doing that.  Only newly purchased beads will be increased.  Thus, the price increases will be gradual.  Before the end of the year, I plan to restock many of the most popular styles.

The good news is that the dollar will eventually rise again.  If it ever becomes really strong, then prices will go down.  For that to happen, however, we need a new administration with intelligent economic policies.

Beginning immediately I will start posting one or two new bead styles every day instead of posting them all at once in the middle of the month.  This way, there will always be something new for my customers to see when they visit the site.  I am also hoping that this new schedule will result in sales which are more evenly spread out over the month.

My supplier of table-cut beads (also called window beads) has reneged on a previous agreement to give me credits for defective beads.  If, say, a particular bead style was 15% defective (which is not uncommon), they would give me a 15% credit towards my next order.  They are now insisting that I send back the entire lot of beads if I am dissatisfied with them, but that means that I must pay for shipping in both directions for beads that I don't end up using.  Because of this, I will not be ordering certain styles which I know to be very defective, including all the 12mm ovals and most of the 14mm ovals, and including these 12mm rectangles:  white picasso, black, opaque bright red, and possibly opaque pink and teal/white (among others).  I'm very sorry for this change, but it isn't my fault.  The amount of the credits they were giving me was very small, equal to about 1.5% of the total amount that I was purchasing from them.  Given that my purchases were exceeding $20,000 a year, you would think that they would treat me a little better!

On July 25th, Purebeads (and me) moved to Rhode Island.  If you would like to see where I am located now, please look at the vacation photos from June.

I hope you'll take a look at the photos from my vacation in May.  You can find them here.

I found a bead site on the internet which I think many of my customers will like:  www.mermaidscove.com.

It has a large selection of Czech beads which is similar to mine, and some of the prices are lower (gulp!).  Generally speaking, they charge less for smaller beads, and more for larger beads.  They also have pewter beads, gemstone beads, wood beads, and other beads I don't carry.  The proprietor has very good taste in selecting beads, the prices are reasonable, the shipping charges are low, and the site is well designed.  In addition to all this, they have the coolest logo I've ever seen!  If you order from them, let me know what the experience is like.

The United States Postal Service has completely revamped its rate structure, resulting in postal rates that are much higher for the kinds of packages that I send (small First Class packages and Priority packages).  It used to be that small bubble mailers shipped at the same First Class rates as letters, but now there is a special class for small packages.  The rates for 1 oz. and 2 oz. packages have more than doubled, and the rates for 3 oz. through 8 oz. packages have gone up dramatically.  However, larger First Class packages – in the range of 9 oz. to 13 oz. – have more moderate increases.  The rate for flat-rate envelopes has gone from $4.05 to $4.60.  The rate for flat-rate envelopes to Canada has gone from $7.50 to $9.00, and the rate for flat-rate envelopes to all other countries (to which they are available) has gone from $9.50 to $11.00.  The small international flat-rate envelope has been eliminated (see below).  There have also been increases for regular Air Mail to other countries.  All these new rates do not include insurance or the 50¢ that I charge for packing materials.

I feel that these increases are outrageous, but as a very small postal customer, there's nothing that I can do about them.  The new rates take effect May 14th.  Since my usual delay in getting packages in the mail is three to four days, my shopping cart will start charging the higher rates on May 10th.

The post office is eliminating the Small Global Priority Envelope (SBPE).  The SGPE allowed me to send up to one pound of beads for just $7 (including insurance).  Beginning on May 14th, I will have to mail all international packages in Large Global Priority Envelopes.  The cost will be $13 for up to $100 worth of beads, and $14 for up to $200 worth of beads.  Also, I won't be able to drop those packages in a mailbox, meaning that I will have to take them to a window at the post office.  And since my post office has 40-minute lines (or queues, as the British call them), I will have to wait until Friday or Saturday to mail all international packages (when the lines are shorter).  This will be a huge inconvenience for me and for my customers.

I am very sorry for these changes.  The elimination of the SGPE almost doubles the cost of mailing a pound of beads.

Instead of putting out-of-stock items on back-order and shipping them later, from now on I am going to give refunds for all out-of-stock items.  Following up on back-ordered items is time-consuming, and it also costs money.  It used to cost 83¢ to ship one back-ordered item to a customer (63¢ postage plus 20¢ for the bubble mailer, not including insurance); but with the new postal rates (see above), it will cost $1.50.  Consequently, when an item is out-of-stock but I expect to restock it later, I will leave it up to the customer to place a new order to purchase that item in the future.

Making this change is good in one respect:  My weakest point as a retailer is following up on problems relating to old orders.  This way I can issue the refund and be done with that order for good.  I appreciate your understanding.

I decided to standardize the price of all 8mm plain teardrops at $3.00 for 50 beads ("plain" meaning a single color without a coating).  Most of them were priced at $3.50, although a few were $2.90.  Most fancy 8mm and 10mm teardrop beads are now $3.25, down from about $3.70.

I decided that I had to increase the price of the 12mm polished window beads that I sell.  My price was so low that I was making very little money on them.  They take twice as much time to process as other beads because I examine each one for defects, so it didn't make sense to be charging so little.  My price for 20 beads is going from $3.00 to $3.50.  Even so, my prices are still lower than the competition.  Please note that these beads are polished by hand, which is why they're so expensive.  I'm sorry that it was necessary to make this change.

The dollar is weak again, and that means that it buys less in foreign countries.  I have also been told that salaries are going up in the Czech Republic.  Good salaries are always a good thing, but it means higher bead prices here in the U.S.  My main supplier is posting new beads with prices that are 30% to 75% higher than I would have paid a couple years ago.  However, my own price increases will be more moderate.  The prices of beads that I already have in stock will not go up until I restock them.

Because of the time it takes me to photograph beads, I have decided to start posting beads using pictures from the supplier.  Then, as soon as I have the time, I will take my own pictures and make the substitution.  This will allow me to get new beads on the site much faster.  If the supplier's picture is poor, I will explain how it differs from the actual beads.  If the supplier's picture is particularly good, I may never take my own picture.  This change does not mean that I will stop taking pictures; it just means that some beads will be posted using the supplier's picture temporarily.

In some cases, the supplier's picture may be so unsatisfactory that I will post the beads without any picture at all.  If you don't feel comfortable ordering beads without a picture, just wait a week and I will I post my own picture.  Example:  Let's say that I get 8mm teardrops in matte ruby red.  If you already know what ruby red looks like, and if you already know what the matte finish looks like, then you may feel comfortable buying the beads even though there isn't a picture.

I recently made the switch-over from storing my beads in plastic deli containers to storing them in plastic bags. Thus, I have hundreds of perfectly good 8 oz. deli containers to get rid of. They are good for storing beads, but only if you buy your beads in large quantities. One 8 oz. deli container will hold about 1200 6mm round beads or 600 8mm round beads, but most customers don't buy such large quantities. You can use them for food, but you must clean them first.  Except for the cost of postage, I am not charging for the containers. Please email me at the address at the bottom of the page if you would like me to send you some.

I have just purchased a light tent and professional lights for taking pictures.  With some bead types (especially round beads), the results have been disappointing, although some beads come out looking very good.  I've decided to continue photographing beads at the window, but I'll use the light tent when the results at the window aren't good, or when I need to take photographs at night.  In case you are curious, here is the equipment that I bought:

(Posted later:  I ended up concluding that the light tent wasn't very useful.  Beads didn't look natural when photographed in the cube, and it was annoying to work with.  Now I do what I have always done:  I wait for a sunny day and photograph the beads at the window.)

I am removing out-of-stock items from the navigation structure, so there will be no way for you to access the pages for those items via links or buttons.  I am doing this to make the site more manageable, both for me (when I work on it) and for my customers.  However, you can access any page by entering this address:

www.purebeads.com/[item #].htm

Thus, item numbers G009 and F175 can be found on these pages:

www.purebeads.com/G009.htm
www.purebeads.com/F175.htm

That's pretty easy, isn't it?  If you want to see all the items, just enter all the item numbers in your browser window.  Smooth glass beads start at G001 and faceted beads begin at F001.  Semiprecious beads (which I don't carry at present) start at S001.

I have put Google Checkout on my site.  Google Checkout is similar to PayPal.  It allows Google members to pay with their Google account instead of using their credit card, thus making it unnecessary for them to spread their credit card number around the internet.  There is now a Google Checkout button in the shopping cart (it isn't very well placed, in my opinion, but I don't control that).  If you don't have a Google account, just ignore the button and click on the "Go to Checkout" button, as usual.  Oddly, the Google Checkout button is on the main shopping cart page, whereas the PayPal button is on the first page of Checkout.

Google Checkout is a new service and there are bound to be some bugs.  One of the bugs that has already been identified is that the description for each item appears twice once you go to Google Checkout.  Just ignore that.

As my business grows and I find that I am having trouble keeping up with the orders, I need to find ways to streamline my operation.  One way to do this is to standardize bead quantities.  For example, I now sell most 8mm beads in quantities of 25, 50, 75 and 100.  When a customer orders 100 beads, I get the container, pull the beads off the hank, and put them into a baggie and label it.  But if the beads were already packed in bags of 50, then all I would have to do is to grab two bags of beads.  Standardizing on a quantity of 25 wouldn't work for two reasons:  first, it would be much more work to pack a mass of beads into 48 baggies than into 24 baggies; and second, customers who ordered 100 beads or more would get many small bags, and that could be confusing.  Thus, standardizing on a quantity of 50 is the only choice.

I am well aware that selling beads in lots of 50 will be a problem for some customers, especially those who make rosaries, but I feel that I have no choice.  After every mailing, I am falling far behind in getting the orders packed, so I need to find more efficient ways of working.  (Very large or expensive beads will be sold in lots of 20 instead of 50, and very small beads will be sold in lots of 100, as they are now.)

Along the same lines, I am also buying new metal shelving to put the beads on.  Up until now, the beads have been stacked in containers on a banquet table.  The table is now too small, and rummaging through containers is time-consuming.  When the shelves arrive, I will store the beads (already packed in their baggies) in long, narrow bins.  Each bin will hold about three styles of beads, and when a customer orders some, all I'll have to do is pull the bin out and grab the number of baggies that I need.  This new system should cut 50% to 75% off the time it takes me to pack orders.

I will begin to make these changes this month.  Thank you for your patience as my business grows, and thank you for making my business such a success!

My overall volume of sales has increased lately, and the response to my mailings has also increased.  As a result, I am finding it harder to get the orders shipped on time.  For example, after my mailing on April 16th, three weeks' worth of orders came in during the next four days, and I fell about five days behind in getting the orders shipped.  Since then my sales have remained high and I have been somewhat behind for several weeks now.  It is my goal to ship orders one day after they are placed, so I am not happy about this.  Eventually I will hire an employee and the situation will improve.  In the mean time, I guarantee that your order will be mailed within four calendar days, and in most instances it will ship within two days.  I'm sorry that I'm not able to do better.

I am no longer refunding shipping charges on returns unless the beads are defective or the customer feels that my pictures don't represent the beads accurately.  This change is necessary because I am seeing an increase in the number of customers who simply change their minds about what they want.  In such cases, I feel that it isn't fair to me to have to take a loss on shipping costs.  I run my business on small profit-margins and simply can't afford it.  As always, there is no restocking fee for any returns, no matter what the reason.

Up until now I have not had a uniform system for compensating for defective beads.  Starting this month, however, when a bead has more than 5% defects, I will insert a notation into the shopping cart which will remind me to include extra beads.  For example, if you see this:

(10%+)

it means that 10% of the beads are defective and I will compensate by including an extra 10% (or by examining each bead and eliminating the defective ones).  If, however, you see this:

(10%–)

it means that 10% of the beads are defective but I will not be including extra beads, most likely because I lowered the overall price instead.

For beads that have 5% defects or less, I make no effort to compensate since I consider that to be a reasonable level of defects.  The beads which are the most likely to have defects are beads which have more than one color in the glass, or which have some fancy feature such as a picasso coating or a window.  Many of the single-color beads that I sell are 100% perfect, or nearly so.

I have made adjustments to the Terms of Sale (the link is in the 2nd column above).  The new terms are not quite as customer-friendly as the old terms, but it was necessary for me to protect myself from dishonest customers.  In particular, if the tracking information for your order indicates that you received the shipment, I may not agree to replace the beads if you claim you didn't get them.  Under the old terms, a dishonest customer could claim that she didn't get the beads when in fact she did, and then I would be obliged to refund her money also.  Tracking is now used for all packages valued at $25 or more.

Postal rates are going up more than 5% on January 8th, so my shipping rates will also be going up.  In addition, I have started using the Delivery Confirmation feature on many First Class packages, so that will add to the rate increase.  The Delivery Confirmation feature is great because it tells me whether or not a customer's package was actually delivered.  (Please note that I didn't get around to adjusting the the shipping rates in my shopping cart until February 26th.)

Beginning December 1st, U.S. customers need only order $100 worth of beads to get free shipping (in addition to getting 10% off).  With free shipping, that is equivalent to getting 15% off.  Here are the new discounts:

All customers:  10% off for orders of $50 or more
U.S. customers:  Free shipping starts at $100
Canadian & Mexican customers:  Free shipping starts at $125
All other international customers:  Free shipping starts at $150

"Purebeads" is now a registered trademark!

Over the years, my pictures have gotten a lot of compliments, but the truth is that I wasn't being particularly careful to make sure that they matched the actual beads.  Now I am being more careful in that area, but as a result I am having many more problems fixing up the pictures than I used to have.  My camera tends to produce dark pictures, and sometimes in the process of lightening a picture to match the actual beads, the picture becomes washed-out and unnatural looking.  In order to keep a picture from looking unnatural, I sometimes have to leave it darker than it should be (which makes the beads in the picture look darker than they are).  If a picture isn't accurate, I usually make a note of it – it is important that you read any notes that accompany the beads you buy.

Checkout has a slightly new look.  You will find a big PayPal button above the area where you enter your address.  If you are a PayPal member and you wish to pay with PayPal, you only need to click that button and your shipping address will be sent to me.  (In other words, this saves you the trouble of typing your shipping address on my site.)  If you wish to pay with a credit card, simply skip the button and fill in your address as usual, and then continue to the next page and complete the payment process.

New pricing formula; lower prices

Up until now, my formula for pricing was very subjective.  I would start with a standard mark-up (for a certain number of beads depending on size) and then I would adjust it upwards or downwards based on the perceived value of the beads.  The new pricing structure is fairer.  For one thing, it includes a standard mark-up which is lower than the old mark-up.  Also, I do not increase the mark-up if the bead is particularly attractive.  If I find a bargain, then the bargain will be built into the price.  So far, the formula has resulted in lower prices for about 90% of the beads that I have applied it to.

In addition, larger beads will be sold in smaller quantities.  Instead of quantities of 25-50-75-100, I will be selling them in quantities of 10-20-30-40-50.  That should please customers who need just a small number of focal beads.

Please note that I do not intend to re-adjust the prices of old stock.  However, if I restock a bead, I will apply the new formula and the price should go down.

May, 2005

Fewer discount levels – sorry!

Because of the limitations of my shopping cart calculator (which can calculate only one discount level), I have eliminated the discounts for orders of $150 and $250 (the 10% discount for orders of $50 will remain).  However, I am offering free shipping for orders of $150 or more (for U.S. customers).  Thus, if you order $150 worth, you will get 10% off (that's $15 off) plus free shipping worth about $6.50.  That is equivalent to about 14% off.  Canadian and Mexican customers will get free shipping for orders of $175 or more, and other international customers will get free shipping for orders of $200 or more.

New shipping calculator

I am using new calculations to determine shipping amounts.  Instead of fixing shipping according to the number of items selected, shipping is now determined by the value of the order.  That will result in more realistic shipping amounts.  If the shipping amount on your order is too high, be assured that I will give you a store credit (or a refund, or allow you to select extra beads).

The way I count beads is changing

Most of the beads I buy come in hanks.  A hank of beads is a bunch of strands tied together, usually 12 strands.  Depending on the size of the bead, a strand will have 25, 50 or 100 beads on it.  In order to save time counting beads, I have decided to sell many beads in lots that correspond with the amount of beads on a strand.  Thus, if I buy a 6mm bead that comes in strands of 50, then I will sell that bead in lots of 50 and 100 (but not 25 or 75).  In the case of 4mm beads, the strands usually have 100 beads, so I will sell most 4mm beads in lots of 100.  I am sorry if this is an inconvenience – I understand that you may not want to buy 100 beads.  But the 4mm beads are so small, they are often hard to pick up with my fingers.

I lost four months of e-mails!

To all my correspondents:  My computer crashed while I was working in my "In" box, and the "In" box was corrupted.  As a result, I lost all my incoming emails from late December 2004 to April 12, 2005.  If you sent me an email of any importance during that time, please send it again.  Sorry!

January, 2005

Job-lot beads

In an effort to keep my prices down, I have started to buy job-lot beads.  Job-lot beads are generally less fancy than the other beads I buy, although not always.  Some of them have a higher percentage of defects, while some of them are absolutely perfect.  Many people think that job-lot beads must be super-cheap, but in actuality they cost only 25% to 35% less than full-price beads of comparable quality.  Job-lot beads are sold by weight rather than quantity, so I am never certain of how many beads I am actually getting.  Generally speaking, I price them about 25% lower than similar beads.  Although I buy them for less money, I still have to put the same amount of work into selling them.

December, 2004

Rebekah's Beads

My sister Rebekah accompanied me on my last two shopping trips, and she selected about half the beads that I got.  Her taste is different from mine, and I was glad to have her along because it helped me to expand my ideas of what is attractive.  She was the one who picked out the picasso window beads that have sold so well.  Rebekah likes window beads more than I do, and she also likes matte finishes and picasso coatings.  Because of her influence, I am now seeing beauty in beads I automatically passed up before.  Unfortunately, Rebekah is moving to California and won't be able to accompany me on any more buying trips.

November, 2004

Prices are going up

Because of the huge federal deficits that have developed as a result of our President's policy of cutting taxes without paying for them, the dollar has become extremely weak against other currencies.  A weak dollar means that imported goods become more expensive since the dollar buys less in other countries.  Ninety percent of the beads I carry are from the Czech Republic, and according to the exchange tables I have looked at, the dollar has dropped 43% against the Czech koruna in the last four years, and about 25% in the last two years.  The dollar has dropped even more against the Euro.  As a result, wholesale prices of Czech beads have risen, and are still rising.  Beads that would have cost $60 a mass two years ago, now cost $80, and I am finding fewer and fewer good deals.  Furthermore, according to one of my suppliers, the federal government is now charging an 8% duty on all imported goods for "homeland security" expenditures.  As a result, that supplier has just raised his prices 10% across the board.  I am taking less of a profit than I used to, but I can squeeze my profits only so much.  If you see my prices going up, please be aware that it isn't my fault.

October, 2004

New shopping cart links

I am switching all of my shopping-cart links to drop-down menus, and I am also switching from strands to lots.  In other words, instead of purchasing beads by the 16" strand, you will have a choice of 50-100 beads (for smaller sizes) or 25-100 beads (for larger sizes).  Until I finish, you will see a combination of the old links and the new drop-down menus.  This switch-over will result in some slight price adjustments, but prices will remain the same over all (some prices will go up a little, and some will go down).  The switch-over will be completed by November.  Thank you for your patience!

Discover Card now accepted

September, 2004

Flat-rate envelopes!  I have started using flat-rate envelopes to ship beads.  The savings on large orders are considerable.

Domestic:  I can fit up to 2.5 lbs. of beads (30-40 lots, depending on size) into a $3.85* flat-rate priority envelope (total shipping cost, $5.00-$6.00 with insurance).  As before, small quantities are shipped by first class mail to keep shipping costs down.  * The price of flat-rate envelopes was raised to $4.05 in 2006.  The cost of shipping an order in a flat-rate envelope is now $5.50.)

International:  I can fit 10-15 strands of beads, depending on size, into a $5 flat-rate global priority envelope, and 30-40 strands into a $9 global priority envelope (insurance extra).  12-15 strands are usually enough to get you a 10% discount, and 30-40 strands are usually enough to get you a 15% discount.  (Since posting this message, the price of small flat-rate envelopes has risen to $5.25, and I have stopped using large flat-rate international envelopes because they require a trip to the post office.  I now ship large orders in multiple small flat-rate envelopes.)