FEATURE STORY

The bead community has taken to the Internet with an almost frightening enthusiasm. Between chat groups, newsgroups, beader's Web sites, and online auctions, there's plenty to keep a bead fanatic busy.

“You bought what on the Internet?” “Beads.” “How'd you do that?” “On auction.” “On auction? On the Internet?” “Yes.”

“Was this like buying that Boogie Bass or the Garden Weasel from TV? How do you do it? Are you nuts? There's no way in a million this could actually work. How do you get them? How do you pay for them? Do you know anyone else who's done it? What if you get them and you hate them? What if you don't get them at all? What if they arrive broken? What if . . .” The preceding conversation was an exchange between a rather frantic reluctant debutante in the world of cyber-commerce and an enthusiastic buyer of beads online who had bravely dared to venture into unknown territories. The experiences of heroic e-shoppers may not seem to equal those of the crew of the H.M.S. Beagle, but we courageous adventurers may yet regale our grandchildren with bold tales of our pioneer exploits. Or, at least, share our insights as an introductory guide for bead-needy folks who are considering exploring the magical world of electronic wallet extraction. Virtually any kind of bead that exists can show up online, be it antique, ethnographic, lampworked, seed, Czech, Venetian, gemstone . . . you name it, it's there. Not just beads, but bead-related items - tools, findings, finished jewelry, etc. - are available on the Internet. In the past decade, technology has completely changed the way we live - and the way we shop. Now, at any time, day or night, in your jammies or in the nude, you can be buying beads! Can life get any better than that?

bead by Sharon Bates LOGGING ON. Here's how to get started: if you use any of the search engines (lately I've been using iwon.com in hopes I can win some money to finance my bead habit) and you type in “beads,” you will find that there are, at a very conservative estimate, 90,581 items you can click on, with more arriving every day. This should be enough to keep you entertained for several months. Tell your family to slip your meals under the door. BeadNet (http://www.mcs.net/%7Esimone/beadnet.html) will get you started, with its list of links to bead sites. Webhelp.com will answer specific questions you may have. If your interest is not simply in buying beads, there are several bead newsletters and at least 40 chat groups and/or bead discussion lists for sharing information and to function as support groups. If you don't belong to a bead society, these groups of like-minded individuals can be especially helpful. Seasoned veterans share experiences with novices on a variety of topics, such as, “What exactly does 'vintage' mean?” and “How do you get seed beads out of your keyboard?” Most groups have a specific focus (Tradebeads@egroups.com, for example) or are strictly for bead makers, wholesale buyers, or bead sellers, but others are more general. There are some with only five participants and others with close to 100, so you can choose one that's your speed. One lampworker, Melissa Perry (www.melissaperry.com), has been hosting a live bead chat Tuesday nights at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Dealers sometimes send out mass e-mailings alerting previous customers to new items they have just put up for sale. Sometimes these mailings are very chatty and filled with personal, friendly news, like The News from Three Beads. Three Beads (www.threebeads.com) is the successful offspring of Jan and Robert Stover, a very thoughtful, resourceful couple for whom the Internet has proved to be a blessing. Their newsletter very generously showcases the Web sites and work of many bead artists, a few with each e-mail. bead by Kim Miles If you are ready to buy beads, your search should steer you toward the Web sites of many dealers, some of whom may also sell their wares by catalog, at bead stores, or at shows. The sites will have pictures and descriptions. You can ask questions via e-mail or phone, and most will take credit cards for payment. In this age of instant gratification, payment by check is becoming a thing of the past, and standing in line for a money order is looking downright quaint. You can give your credit card number via a “secure server” function designed to protect your number from being accessed by cyber-thieves. Many credit card companies are issuing cards that are specifically promoted for secure use on the Internet. If you still feel uncomfortable - and, don't feel bad, you're not alone - you may do the transaction by phone or make some other arrangement with the vendor. E-commerce is constantly on the move, constantly evolving. A more recent development, PayPal, is a free account by which you may use your credit card to pay dealers for items on the Web. This is a great convenience and they are quickly ironing out the kinks in their fledgling venture. By the time you read this, no doubt there will be other innovations by which, conveniently and relatively painlessly, your salary may be sucked from your paycheck in a matter of nanoseconds. AUCTIONS ONLINE. Then there is the excitement of auction sites. Auctions are, without a doubt, the most fun method of acquiring beads, but also the most addictive and potentially risky, unless you take precautions. There are lots of auction sites selling beads - Boxlot, Yahoo, Kaleidoscope - and new ones are springing up all the time. Each has its own advantages. The most well known, eBay (www.ebay.com), has the most extensive listing of beads, thousands compared to relatively few on some other auction sites. The constant improvements to the eBay site occasionally cause disasters, sending the stock market plummeting and causing buyers and sellers to riot. Amazon (www.amazon.com/auctions) allows you to know the amount you are bidding against and, just as in a real auction, if someone outbids you at the last moment, the auction continues until someone just quits. There is even an auction site exclusively for beads (Justbeads.com), which has updates about bead-related conferences and has added “tips for beading,” a chat forum, and a featured artist of the month. bead by Chuck & Carolyn Driver In August 1999, I began poring through the entire listing of beads on eBay. It took a while, but it was manageable, and I learned a lot. By November, it became physically impossible to thoroughly scan the full listing of beads. The number of beads being sold had increased to such an extent that it became necessary to split them into more and more specific categories in order to navigate the listings. This problem was further alleviated with the addition of a picture gallery for browsing. Although the gallery shows only some of the beads for sale, after a long day at the computer, it's the only way old, tired eyes like mine can manage to view beads up for grabs. The mechanics of using the auction sites are not complicated, even for a beginner. Sign up to be a bidder, then select a category and follow the instructions to place a bid on a listed item; directions are given clearly. Without going into snooze-inducing detail about bidding procedures, here are some bidding strategies, most of which were suggested by Mike Potter, whose company, Envision Software, Inc., has devised a program, Auction Tamer (www.auctiontamer.com), which simplifies things. I've also added some personal suggestions. 1. Keep your cool. Don't get caught up in the excitement. Know your limits. It's easy to get into a bidding war and end up paying more than an item is worth to you just to win. 2. Make sure that the item you are bidding for is what you want. Always be sure you know the size of the item. Me, I keep a chart torn from a bead catalog near my computer showing the size in millimeters of various beads; I also have a ruler and a group of coins on hand for reference purposes. Seasoned sellers will include size data; if they don't, ask. One of my cyberbuddies (who I “met” via e-mail during auction transactions) agrees: “Dealers sometimes forget they have the items in front of them and we only have a small image to go by. It's particularly infuriating when the picture is enlarged, one assumes it is a certain size, then it arrives in the mail and the 'necklace' is suddenly a bracelet for a cat.” We can only know items from the descriptions the dealers give - but don't take the descriptions at face value. You'd be surprised how often an item is listed with statements such as, “This fabulous bead is so hard to describe. The picture speaks for itself!” Nothing on eBay is considered to be commonplace by the sellers. “Gorgeous” and “exquisite” items abound. And of course, every other item is “unique.” Just try entering the word “unique” in the search box - its overuse effectively reduces it to meaninglessness. Another potential pitfall lies with dealers who don't know the product they're selling. Misinformation runs amok on the Internet. More people misrepresent their items out of ignorance than by deceit, but it helps to know something yourself and not just trust without question. Yesterday I saw a “rare old Persian pendant” that I know is being manufactured in quantity in New Delhi. It is not old, rare, or Persian. There are some dealers who aren't informed, and who don't want to be. One vendor I ran across was selling something from Bhutan, and she had written, “I don't know where that is, but it's somewhere in Indonesia.” I e-mailed her and told her that Bhutan is in the Himalayas; she had a fit at how rude it is to correct someone. Occasionally, if you have time to do a little research, this can work to your advantage. I was able to buy a magnificent silver Thai tribal necklace that a dealer was selling as “African.” I told him what it was and I even sent him a picture of an almost identical piece clipped from an issue of National Geographic. No one else bid on it and I was able to buy it for what a Thai friend who sells this sort of jewelry later verified was a small fraction of its worth. bead by Mike Mangiafico 3. Comparison shop. Search the Web; look for similar items, and determine what is a fair price for the item. 4. See if there's a “real” price for the item; sometimes dealers will have the same items on their Web sites for less than you'd pay if you were competing with another bidder. 5. Check what other buyers have said about the seller. Auction sites have “feedback files” for bidders as well as vendors where the experience may be rated. Examine any negative comments. If there are unhappy customers, or if the seller presents a nasty defense, be wary. 6. Look at other auctions where the same seller has offerings. Sometimes he/she is offering similar items for which there is less competition. 7. Search other auction sites or different sellers to see if you can get a better deal. 8. Keep track of many like items before placing your bid, even over different auction sites. 9. Don't bid until the auction has almost ended, if possible. Invariably, people like to outbid each other in the final moments. This is referred to as “sniping,” although it is perfectly legitimate. It's very frustrating to have someone “steal” the item out from under you in the final moments, but it's not really stealing, the item wasn't yours, so think of it as money saved. Unless you have the time to monitor the close of every auction in which you have a bid at risk, this will happen. If you are really lusting after a particular item, sometimes you can special-order something similar from the bead maker or seller after the auction closes. Now, Potter tells me, there's something called “esnipe” (www.esnipe.com) to enable you to outbid someone at the last minute. That might at least eliminate the exasperating part. Now enter guilt. Cyber-pal Dianne Johnson confides, “I feel so guilty when I bid against someone I like. I try not to do it at the last minute, so that you have time to get your last licks in. I have a couple of people who seem to stalk my list and swipe 'my' beads away by outbidding me at the last second, leaving me no time to counterbid. It's very frustrating. They're merciless. Somehow, they seem to covet every bead I'm after.” I know what she means. One person outbid me over 52 times in one month!! (Isn't that one of the Ten Commandments: Do not covet thy neighbor's bead? It's not? Well, it should be.) It discouraged me from bidding for a few months. But by now I have so many beads and so little time to do anything with them due to all the buying I've done, that I'm almost relieved when I'm outbid. bead by Heidi Brodersen 10. Make sure dealers accept returns. You should be free to return items that don't live up to their promises, or match their description, either in size, color, or material. One dealer gave me a difficult time over the return of a bracelet with a sharp inner edge that could cut someone's wrist. He thought the very nature of an auction meant one could not return something; I told him that was not my understanding, nor did he indicate anywhere in his listing that he would not accept returns. Reluctantly, he gave me a refund, less his cost for listing and relisting the item. Sometimes the cost of postage alone is not worth attempting to return the item. There are some dealers who don't accept returns, but they have to realize you're buying from a small picture of a one-of-a-kind item. If you buy a computer, a pair of socks, or even a car on the Web, you probably have a good idea of what you're looking at. Not so with beads, usually. Buying online can be very much like a catalog sale, and I don't know any catalog vendor who doesn't accept returns for items that don't fit or are otherwise unsatisfactory. Even in a store, where you can see, touch, and try on an item, sellers expect some items to come back. It is a hassle for them, but it's not something a buyer wants to do, either. I refuse to buy from sellers who don't care about customer satisfaction. I admit, though, that I am reluctant to return a disappointing bead to a bead maker, even when they make it clear that they'll take the bead back if I am not happy. It's always hard to tell an artist that you are less than thrilled with his or her creation. So I occasionally end up with beads that I wouldn't have bought at a show or in a store. If I have a longstanding relationship with the artist, I feel more comfortable because they know that I appreciate their work - it just didn't do it for me this time. Still, it's not something I do easily. As for Auction Tamer, they claim to have 7,000 members using their services for eBay auctions and that they plan to work on Yahoo and Amazon auctions soon. Although it does make things easier, I'm not sure if the service wouldn't take the fun out of auction bidding. Bronwein Heilman, of Ghost Cow Glassworks created this pendant using her own lampworked beads. AUCTION ETIQUETTE. Okay, now the dealers weigh in with their tips. There are some things you can do to make things easier for the vendors and foster a good relationship. When you've won an item, the dealer will e-mail you listing the item number; always enclose a copy of this e-mail along with your mailing address and payment so they don't have to guess which bead goes to whom. Always send payment as quickly as possible. If you have not dealt with the seller before, you may have to wait for your check to clear (usually 10 days) before the dealer sends the item out. (I've had some items arrive a month after the auction closed!) In order to have a resale license, sellers in most states have to collect sales tax. They don't get a commission on this, and have to pay penalties and interest if they make a mistake in collecting or accounting for the taxes. They're not thrilled about it, but that's the law. So don't ignore or evade paying shipping charges or taxes. Some dealers have many auctions going on at once and it takes them a few days to contact all their buyers. Unreasonable e-mails demanding a total just slows down the process and can spoil their day. So if you see that a seller has a lot of auctions, either give him enough time to do his job or deal only with sellers who have just a few items to sell. Most of all, be reasonable and sensible! Sure, all sellers want their auctions to close high, but many feel they'll fare better if they have a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with a client rather than a few unrealistically high bids. When an auction item closes at five times the original asking price, dealers have often told me they are embarrassed and sometimes feel uncomfortable in completing the sale. Sometimes people have rules even Emily Post might flub. The other day I was chastised by a dealer for sending her an e-mail written in capital letters. Using all caps online is “shouting,” and she resented being yelled at. You might be surprised that there's such a thing as etiquette anywhere these days, but it's alive and well on the Internet. Mavis Smith's folk- and fairytale- inspired beads, such as this Lady Godiva bead, are displayed online. SHIPPING OUT. Shipping seems to elicit its own set of problems for both buyer and seller. Be sure to check the dealer's shipping policy before bidding on an auction item or buying from a Web site, just as you would do by mail-order catalog; charges can add up. For some dealers, though, shipping isn't a big deal. Dealer Chris Gries e-mailed me: “Shipping? Come on! $3.25 for a few beads that don't come priority or insured? I try to charge as close to postage rates as possible, working the packaging costs into the cost of the beads instead of charging handling. After all, I am not L.L. Bean. And what are those 'handling charges' for anyway?” One dealer stated, “The biggest disadvantage to dealing online seems to be the United States Postal Service, which has managed to lose or damage four of my orders in the last year. Postal insurance is a joke in that it takes up to six months to collect - we haven't seen cent one yet on our lost orders and we're no longer holding our breath - we'd be long dead by now.” I've had a few insured items get lost or broken and have had similar problems collecting. Another complaint I've heard from both buyers and sellers is unresponsiveness on the part of some of the auction organizations if a participant is unreliable, disagreeable, or downright dishonest. But I'm not sure how much they can do. The offender very often assumes a new name and resumes selling or buying after a complaint has been lodged. The Internet also brings out a grumpy English teacher from somewhere inside me. The number of dealers selling “necklesses,” (especially “chockers”) “braselettes,” “earings,” “pendents,” “cabashons,” and “broaches” drives me nuts. People go out of their way to have special graphics, music, and “wallpaper” on their sites and auction listings, but somehow forget to use their spell-check function or a dictionary, or simply have someone proofread their pages. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. Watch out for hyperbole. Your best safeguard is in being an educated consumer. Dealers who wouldn't be able to pull in the excessive rates they get for some of their items if they had a shop where it's one price for everyone don't feel shy about gouging naive bidders. (I think that's what eBay means when they post their “caveat emptor” notice at the bottom of the pages.) Kate Drew Wilkinson, who created this bead has sold her work through auction sites and her own web page. I'd been buying strands of a certain bead sold as chalcedony whenever I saw them for sale, paying between $49 and $77 per strand. Last week a bidding war ensued and someone paid $471; the subsequent strands have sold for equally exorbitant prices. I e-mailed the seller and said, “Now you can buy that yacht you've been wanting.” He e-mailed back, “Ain't America grand?” I was told by a second dealer that true, fine-quality blue chalcedony should be well over $1,000 per strand and that these beads are most likely an inferior blue agate for which the dealer probably paid closer to his opening price of $12 per strand. When I asked the first dealer about this, I received no response. Also, I was able to buy similar-looking beads listed as “glass” for a mere $1 apiece from a third seller. A reminder that there are many levels of quality in beads, particularly in lapidary and gemstone materials. There are emeralds and there are Emeralds. (Read your Lapidary Journal, folks!) On the other hand, speaking of emeralds, I had an Internet buddy e-mail me this experience with a truly virtuous dealer: “You are not going to believe this! In a moment of madness the other night (yes, another one) I bid $2,700 (!!!!) for an emerald ring . . . and I won. Now get this! I just got an e-mail from the seller saying it was only worth $500 and that is what he was going to charge! I am completely dumbfounded by such honesty, not to mention eternally grateful.” The other side of the “buyer beware” coin are the people out there who, rather than being shady, you might suspect have spent just a little too long in the sun. One of my online friends shared this story with me. “I won a collectible for my daughter and never heard from the seller. I e-mailed many times, and when she finally gets back to me, says congrats, I have won multiple items???? (no numbers, descriptions, or anything) and to send a check, ending with, 'God Bless' - no amount, no address. After many days of fruitless e-mails she finally responds, but I get the idea she doesn't have a clue about anything and I start to feel a little sorry. Long story short, she sent it to the wrong address and we had to track it through UPS (it wasn't supposed to come that way) and go pick it up. This was with the help of my local post office. So, I get the package. It's nice. There's an extra piece of junk I don't want, with a piece of binder paper upon which is written, 'Please leave me feedback and I will leave you some too.' Again, no item # or anything. I left her a 'neutral' rating because I thought she was very unprofessional and lacking in certain skills. She blasted me with negative and neutral ratings, saying how awful I was and a bad buyer and part of a gang that was stalking her and leaving her death threats on her answering machine.” I had my own auction episode when I tried to return a pair of truly hideous earrings that had been listed as “rare,” “signed,” and “silver,” with a tiny picture, for which I had paid $76. When I received them, I saw that they were cheap trash. Even $2 would have been too much to pay. I asked if I might return them for a refund. I didn't want to hurt the seller's feelings by telling her how awful these were, because I've found that many dealers don't intentionally misrepresent what they are selling. (And that's not peculiar to Internet trade, either.) Items are called “ancient” when they are cheap tourist junk stamped out last week, items are labeled “rare,” when they are glutting the market, etc. Anyway, she had a fit when she received them. Although I returned them immediately in the same packaging she'd used to send them to me, she claimed I'd worn them, that they had layers of pancake makeup on them (I don't wear makeup, or eat pancakes), and that there was blood in the package (vampires in my kitchen again?), so she had been subjected to all my dangerous “pathegons.” [sic] She called me “evil” and “a curse to eBay sellers” and posted that on my feedback file. She kept $26 of my money, which she claimed was for cleaning products, sterilizing equipment, labor, postage, and mileage. Conclusion: The Internet, as everywhere else in the world, has its share of people from the planet Bizarro. Ilene Sternberg is a writer based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with a special interest in ethnic jewelry and beads. CONNECTIONS. From a buyer's point of view, there's nothing as wonderful as buying beads at a show. You can see them, touch them, taste them, talk to them, and compare them to the smorgasbord of other beads on sale. But it's a long time between shows for the bead addict, and bead stores are not as ubiquitous as video stores or pizzerias. Buying beads online is fun, although burdened with some risk, maybe even a bit more than buying from a printed catalog. But I have found bead makers and dealers through my computer whom I may never have encountered elsewhere, some of them relatively undiscovered and extremely talented. And each month a whole new slew of accomplished artists appear in the “lampwork bead” category. I find I get to know these people on a personal level that we wouldn't be able to reach in a brief encounter at a bead show where my eyes are popping, my saliva gets in the way of my asking questions, and my insatiable bead greed sweeps me along quickly to the next booth. I've met bead people from Alaska, Hawaii, Venice, Germany - even Greenland. One such cyber-connection is David Jurgens, of L and S Arts, and his wife, Rebecca, who make fabulous aquarium and animal lampworked beads and sell them on their own site and on several auction sites. Like so many other vendors, he is a buyer as well. Jurgens says, “I think the largest advantage for the online buyers is the incredible selection currently available and still growing. You wouldn't believe the customers we come across that live in small communities where the only bead shop is 50 miles away and at that, it's a 'hole in the wall' offering only the latest colors in plastic crow beads, etc. The Net allows the average collector to see what's really available. However, one has to be careful, too . . . I try to always check feedback on someone before I buy, and do a bit of research.” If it weren't for the Internet, I may never have seen beads by David and Rebecca, two people who don't do shows, who recently moved from Alaska to Hawaii, two places I don't frequent. Nor, in all probability, would I have seen the clever human lampwork figures by Mavis Smith, or Diane Roether's (www.diannesbeadscapes.com) beautiful floral beads, or Carolyn Driver's celestial wonders. Pat Hoyt (http://www.mcn.net/~tlh/PATPLACE.html.), whose exceptional beads showed up as “Roy's Motel” on my credit card (some wives might have some 'splainin' to do about what they were doing at a motel in Montana one expensive night) is another lampworker I discovered on eBay. I'd love to mention them all. Hmmmm . . . I wonder if the Internal Revenue Service will allow the thousands of beads I've amassed buying online just to gain experience to write this article as “necessary work-related research materials.” I'll have to look into that. RELATED LINKS: QUIZ: Are you a bead addict? Take our quiz & find out! BEAD LINKS: links to artists and bead sites mentioned in this article. BEAD ROLL CALL: Bead societies & clubs in the US and Great Britain

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