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Caleb's Bead Blog
The blog has been moved here, where visitors can leave comments: http://purebeads.blogspot.com
Here is the original blog as I started it: (I started this blog on 8/24/09 so that I could record my thoughts about the bead business. There are things I want to say that are not appropriate for the News & Announcements section, so I am putting them here. I am not using a blog form, and readers won't be able to post their comments (though that may change). I expect to record my thoughts here only occasionally. The latest entries will be on top.) * * * September 3, 2009 – Why Things Are a Little Slow Here On the home page I have a little blurb about my mother and my health, and I thought I would expand on those things since they are affecting my business. My mother, who is elderly and has dementia, had to go to the hospital with a minor infection, and it has taken up a lot of my time. There have been communications with my siblings about what to do about her situation. I also had to pick her up at the hospital, and I have spent extra time with her since she got home. All of that has cut into the time I can spend on the business. Regarding my health, about two years ago I switched from one brand of thyroid medication to another. I didn't know that the new brand was more potent; and even though the dosage was the same, over a period of time I developed the symptoms of over-active thyroid. And those symptoms are very obnoxious! People with over-active thyroid (called hyperthyroidism) go through this cycle every day: The excess thyroid hormone causes their metabolism to run faster. As the evening approaches, they become exhausted from being "revved up" all day. But the excess thyroid hormone prevents them from being able to nap. And when it's time to go bed, they sleep fitfully and don't get as many hours as they need. That's exactly what has been happening to me for a week now. Consequently, I've been dragging around without much energy to get the work done. In addition to that, I developed severe heart palpitations, which were pretty frightening. By the way, the thyroid problem is why I haven't sent out the usual end-of-month mailing announcing new beads. I just don't have the energy to handle an influx of orders. I'll send out the mailing as soon as I feel better. August 27, 2009 – New Beads Look at what beads are coming! I just received these, and I will post them before the end of September. Here are the supplier's pictures:
What incredible colors! These are synthetically coated beads, but I still love them. Colors like this can't be accomplished with just glass. (Well, a designer with the talent of Louis Comfort Tiffany could make them, but who wants to pay $5 per bead?) Unfortunately, the flowers will be pretty expensive. The supplier knows these are desirable beads and puts a high price on them. I will post them with both my own picture and the supplier's picture. About the Premium beads: I am thinking about moving them onto the color-grouped pages. I'll put them at the bottom of each page where I now have a space for semi-precious beads (which I never stock). I'm concerned that the Premium/Lampwork page will become too unwieldy. I have to admit that I am enjoying buying the Premium beads. So many of them are so beautiful! For so long I passed up the most beautiful beads because I thought they wouldn't sell. Now I can get them! August 24, 2009 – Prices
Today I discovered that my main supplier increased the price for the G1515 beads (13mm amethyst cinnamon buns) by 112% – that's more than double the old price – and they did it even though those beads are old stock for them (purchased long ago, before the dollar lost value). The new price makes those beads more expensive than the 12mm polished beads! That means that I'll have to put a premium price on the G1515 beads if I restock them, and I'm concerned they won't sell at such a high price. The supplier raised its prices for an obvious reason: The new colors they got in were much more expensive than the old colors because the dollar has lost more than half of value since then. They didn't want to have just two colors posted with a high price, so they raised all the colors to the same high price. However, they could have compromised by raising all the prices by a moderate amount. Or they could have just simply put a note on the site saying "these colors are more expensive because they were bought when the dollar was weak". But for some reason, this supplier feels that they can't be so honest with their customers. (In fact, in the past they were more honest than they are at present – they used to indicate when a bead style was heavily cracked, but now they don't.) If they had left the old colors at the old price, it might have accelerated their sale. My concern about prices is that they won't come down once the dollar gets stronger, as it is bound to do. Once the supplier has taken a style that cost X amount and increased the price to 2X, they aren't going to want to go back to charging X, even when it's no longer necessary. So these increases that we are seeing may be permanent. I should say that this supplier has held the line on many prices. That's good, but if they hold the line on one bead style, they have to make it up by raising the price of another bead style. Even so, raising prices on old stock is obnoxious, no matter what the circumstances.
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