News and Announcements

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 they really don't make a difference to the appearance, I don't see why I should reduce my markup.  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 expense of international shipments, and second, I pay higher credit-card and PayPal fees for international orders.  I apologize for this change.

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.

New schedule for posting beads

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.

I will be carrying fewer table-cut beads, sorry!

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.

For those of you who have noticed my ongoing and tortured efforts to find the right font for my logo, I think I have finally found it (see above).  Let me know what you think!

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.

Bad news for international customers

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.

Lower price for 8mm teardrops

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.