| Shopping • |
|
|
Freshwater Pearls •
|
|
|
|
Swarovski Crystal •
|
|
|
|
More Stuff •
|
|
|
|
The Contest is over. There are 7,811 beads in the bowl. This represents over $7,000 in lost sales. And this does not count what I've added to the bowl this year!
We sold over 40,000 of these beads last year so we discarded almost 20% of them. This is a reject rate higher than any other bead we sale. I've talked to the company that makes these and they say there is nothing that they can do about the quality.
|
Alphabet Beads --- Arrrgh I should pull my hair out.
You think you got a few Alphabet Beads that didn't look too good.
Check this out, these are the beads that we rejected between Oct. 1 and Jan. 1 2003.
| 
|
|
|
Since I buy them from Wholesalers I cannot send them back,
for some reason, silver wholesalers are real mean.
Therefore, we sell them for scrap.
|
|
|
We are having a contest - Guess how many Alphabet Beads are in
the bowl and win $50.00 Cash.
Clues : - According to my bathroom scale
this is about 13 Pounds of Silver Beads.
- It is a mix of all sizes but most of them are the small 4mm beads.
- That is an Ink Pen you see in the Beads.
- Each 5mm Alphabet Bead weighs about .8 grams -- you do the math..
- I made that bowl myself.. That doesn't really help. I just thought I would throw that in.
The Contest is over. There are 7,811 beads in the bowl. This represents over $7,000 in lost sales. And this does not count what I've added to the bowl this year!
We sold over 40,000 of these beads last year so we discarded almost 20% of them. This is a reject rate higher than any other bead we sale. I've talked to the company that makes these and they say there is nothing that they can do about the quality.
What One Customer Said.. After The Contest
Jerry
Before I discovered your web site, I ordered alphabet beads from
xBead.com. (Not Their Real Name) I received them yesterday and what a disappointment! 37 out
of 100 were what I would consider not usable. To top it off, they have a
no return policy. I talked to customer service and will be able to
exchange them. But, I was told that "that's just the way those beads
are".
Needless to say, I was DELIGHTED to read about your bowl of 7000 alphabet
beads. I appreciate your quality control and will be ordering from you
from now on.
Ideally, I would be hand picking my beads myself. Given the availability
and cost of retail beads, this just is not possible. THANK YOU for your
attention to the details.
M. DeDore Scotts Valley, CA
|
|
I had posted information about this contest in the rec.crafts.beads. This is how one person responded.
I haven't the foggiest idea of how many beads are in the bowl- foggy being
the operative word there, after getting pain medicine at my pre-operative
check up. However, I really love your sets of beads, and now I have a
(heh,heh,heh) plan for after the operation!
BTW, I'd probably sell some of them at a reduced rate in sets that say
impolite words. A slightly fudged "drat" or "stinky" would mean so much
more than a perfect set. You could sell imperfect punctuation ones in sets
to use as swear words, like in comic strips.
But here's where I get excited: If there are beads with good stamping on
one side, and unreadable stamping on the other, I'd overstamp them with a
flower or other cutesey pattern on there. That might be too much work for
you, but if you made a set like that as an idea, you could sell the one
sided beads to people who want to save money _and_ try the same idea. I'd
be happy with the one sided beads - I'd file off the bad side, and use
enamel paints to decorate the other side.
For beads with both sides bad, I'd be delighted to buy them for just a tad
more than scrap. With that, I could file both sides and then enamel them
whatever way I wished. Or I could use the silver cubes as the support for a
mostly translucent Polymer Clay bead. That would be cool: a translucent
but not quite transparent bead, supported in the middle by a few perfectly
spaced alphabet block beads. You can't make out the writing, maybe, but
that's not the point. A sky colored tint surrounding the word sky, with a
few clouds on the horizon... A polyclay sculpture of an aquarium, complete
with translucent water and a silver fish (The word "FISH" done in slightly
wonky beads)
Talk to us. How low will you go to sell the damaged alphabet beads? I know
that I'd be all right with the difference between the price of scrap silver
and the wholesale price of the bead for beads with no perfect faces, and the
difference between scrap and retail for items that have at least one perfect
face.. You don't have to settle for scrap prices for your wonky beads. The
only ones going to scrap are ones that really are scrap.
Perfect Bead = full retail price
no usable side + other defect = scrap, not usable as a bead
At least one usable side + otherwise okay bead = scrap price + 1/2 normal retail markup.
no usable side + otherwise okay bead = scrap price + 1/2 normal wholesale markup.
Win-Win-Win situation as far as I can tell.
I know that I would buy buttloads of beads this way, because I could use the
bead as a component in a larger bead.
Please let us know what you think of my idea - you've got 13 lbs. of scrap
sitting there that could earn you an awful lot more money.
Kathy N-V
P.S.: I think I should win the contest because I took scrap "bad beads" and
have given them a way to become useful members of the beading world: a total
that is greater than the sum of its parts.
"I asked God for all things that I might enjoy life. God gave me life that
I might enjoy all things."
|
|
