It's been hard to write anything about beads when my mind has been preoccupied with the gravity of the situation in Japan. Art & culture are sobered by these events, the very events that define a culture & how they respond to the world around them.
So I'd like to applaud Fable Trading, distributor of Trollbeads in the UK, for stepping forwards and making a donation to the Japanese relief through each sale of the recently released Kimono beads. https://www.facebook.com/notes/my-trollbeads/kimono-beads-to-support-victims-of-japanese-tsunami/205291846148880
A quote from their post: "...a donation of 50p from the sale of each ... Kimono bead will be made towards helping victims of the Japanese disaster." Donations will be made retroactively as well for the Kimono beads that have already been sold. Thank you Fable, let us hope that other distributors can step forwards and show their support as well.
A few other notes for this week: Rumor has it that there will be a price decrease in Canada on the glass beads to bring them closer in line to the US pricing. This change has come about most likely from the elimination of the middleman distributor system that Trendy Group & Lund Trading had in the past. The new distributor, Allura IBB, has been announced on Trollbeads.com and hails from Vancouver. They have a long history of distributing to the Canadian market and we hope to see some positive changes.
OOAKs have increased from 28 Euro to 39 Euro overseas. So if you see any at the old price that you love you had better get them now. There is also talk of preventing Europe from selling OOAK beads to the North American market. I think this would be a bad move for the simple reason that the logistics & shopping habits of collectors in North America are much different than overseas. The US and Canada are huge countries where many collectors rely on the internet to purchase beads. Geographically people may not have a dealer within driving distance at all. If the online market is controlled it opens up the opportunity for US dealer websites to abuse the prices putting them at a premium or for the ebay speculators to buy from European shops at regular price and then auction them on ebay for retarded prices. (Excuse my politically incorrect wording.)
Now I can guess WHICH U.S. dealers are probably lobbying for this. So can you if you do online shopping in the States. Several online dealers have had a history of jacking OOAK prices to unfair amounts. But if they'd just provide the beads & price them fairly the U.S collectors will come into the local shops. So I'm hoping this is just their talk and that TB New Jersey has the foresight to keep a free flow of beads worldwide. This is the global fun of collecting. A free exchange of beads worldwide.
So I'd like to applaud Fable Trading, distributor of Trollbeads in the UK, for stepping forwards and making a donation to the Japanese relief through each sale of the recently released Kimono beads. https://www.facebook.com/notes/my-trollbeads/kimono-beads-to-support-victims-of-japanese-tsunami/205291846148880
A quote from their post: "...a donation of 50p from the sale of each ... Kimono bead will be made towards helping victims of the Japanese disaster." Donations will be made retroactively as well for the Kimono beads that have already been sold. Thank you Fable, let us hope that other distributors can step forwards and show their support as well.
A few other notes for this week: Rumor has it that there will be a price decrease in Canada on the glass beads to bring them closer in line to the US pricing. This change has come about most likely from the elimination of the middleman distributor system that Trendy Group & Lund Trading had in the past. The new distributor, Allura IBB, has been announced on Trollbeads.com and hails from Vancouver. They have a long history of distributing to the Canadian market and we hope to see some positive changes.
OOAKs have increased from 28 Euro to 39 Euro overseas. So if you see any at the old price that you love you had better get them now. There is also talk of preventing Europe from selling OOAK beads to the North American market. I think this would be a bad move for the simple reason that the logistics & shopping habits of collectors in North America are much different than overseas. The US and Canada are huge countries where many collectors rely on the internet to purchase beads. Geographically people may not have a dealer within driving distance at all. If the online market is controlled it opens up the opportunity for US dealer websites to abuse the prices putting them at a premium or for the ebay speculators to buy from European shops at regular price and then auction them on ebay for retarded prices. (Excuse my politically incorrect wording.)
Now I can guess WHICH U.S. dealers are probably lobbying for this. So can you if you do online shopping in the States. Several online dealers have had a history of jacking OOAK prices to unfair amounts. But if they'd just provide the beads & price them fairly the U.S collectors will come into the local shops. So I'm hoping this is just their talk and that TB New Jersey has the foresight to keep a free flow of beads worldwide. This is the global fun of collecting. A free exchange of beads worldwide.
