Is it just me, or are things slowing down? Has anyone else noticed their sales slowing ... or stopping? I was looking at the different Yahoo groups for beading... and the posts in the groups have been dwindling, especially this month. What's up? Has the beading craze peaked and on the downslide? I hate to be a party pooper, but the trends are alarming me.
One of my clients sells gift baskets and she called this week to see if there might be a problem with her online shopping cart - she hadn't had a sale since the 5th and that was very odd. There was nothing wrong with her cart, so I'm thinking it's the economy... and/or maybe other people are like me - I've not been spending as much because I've been really worried about all the bad stuff going on in the world - I'm worried about the future. When people are worried about the future, I think they tend not to spend on non-essentials.... I'm sure I could be completely wrong about that though.
I have had a very slow month. Right now I have a few bids but not across the board on all my auctions. embay is fickle and so is the internet. "Karleen/Vibrant Jewels" wrote in message news:Imgpc.6363$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Has the beading craze peaked and on the downslide? I hate to be a party pooper, but the trends are alarming me.
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summer slump once it warms up outdoors - people have more things to do - it's spring - the garden needs tended. people are going places and doing things... happens every year...
Cheryl DRAGON BEADS Flameworked beads and glass
I agree with Cheryl. I'm not noticing a difference here, but that's because I'm outside doing stuff and I'm not making as much. LOL!
Tink Rent-A-Tink Info via snipped-for-privacy@blackswampglassworks.com Latest Work is here:
I think the problem is that summer has hit here in the east and people are busy doing other things. It will pick up later on. Roxan "Karleen/Vibrant Jewels" wrote in message news:Imgpc.6363$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
I agree with everyone about summer slump, but oddly enough I've have better sales in the last few weeks than since Tucson! Go figure. I'm still baffled by the person (gender uncertain) from South Korea who bought a bunch from my store AND two auctions. Nice, but still surprising. I'll puzzle my way to the bank on that one.
KarenK (who thinks it sucks that the slump always happens just when my inspiration kicks in)
"Karleen/Vibrant Jewels" wrote in message news:Imgpc.6363$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
I think you all have overlooked the obvious. Your customers are saving their money for B & B! And those that aren't buying at B&B are busy getting ready to sell there!
I think the rest of the month will be slow for all of you.
Cheri (Bubbee to Emily and Nathan)
I concur!
Bead & Button show is next week...folks are all hoarding cash for a big spending spree. At least, that's my excuse. In the last couple of weeks I had to really hold myself back from buying.
Barbara
Yes BUT.... I realize part of it is seasonal, and I wasn't too alarmed about that. What did shock me though was when I was surfing thru the Yahoo beading groups and realized that IN EVERY CASE... at least the 20 or so high member groups that I checked, messages have dwindled from highs in the thousands two or three years ago to almost nothing now. If it were just one or two groups, I wouldn't have been too impressed, but every one was going downhill.... coupled with no sales/slow sales.... it made me wonder.
Here's the link if you want to check it out for yourself:
Don't be too surprised... to paraphrase one of my overseas customers in Asia, "you can't find anything but junk here". So they buy their good lampwork on eBay.
-Kalera
That is an excellent point!
I will cease my fretting.
-Kalera
I noticed after the last big show that a lot of people still had money to spend, and a better idea of what they wanted to spend it on, so my sales went up immediately after.
-Kalera
Beaders still represent a huge market, but these factors are having a large impact on smaller online sellers:
So, if you don't have the financial backing to have a complete online store offering everything from crimps to pearls at bargain basement prices OR you don't have a Brick & Mortar store for your main source of income, then you have to find something that really, really sets you apart from all the competition out there. It's always been a difficult market, but it's becoming harder and harder for small sellers to compete. And, just as the number of bead sellers has exploded on the web so have the number of bead related newsgroups and lists. I know I have list fatigue at the moment trying to keep up with the lists I subscribe to.
JMHO ~ YMMV
Mj
Gas prices are so damn high that my spending has come to a screeching halt (and we don't even drive that much). Prices everywhere are going up because of the trickle-down, though.
And it's the beginning of vacation season. People are starting to plan and make reservations, and to feel the pinch. I think spending is slowing everywhere as a result. ~~ Sooz
------- "Those in the cheaper seats clap. The rest of you rattle your jewelry." John Lennon (1940 - 1980) Royal Varieties Performance ~ Dr. Sooz's Bead Links
On Sat, 15 May 2004 12:22:36 -0400, Karleen/Vibrant Jewels wrote (in message ):
Because most beading compents are imported. The value of the dollar has dropped against the value of other currencies, making beads and such more expensive. All the vendors I use have been mailing messages, saying that they've eaten cost increases up until now, but are being forced to raise prices. Others have quietly shrunken their packages or raised "postage and handling" to cover the increases in cost.
I doubt it's saturated, because it seems that everybody and his brother is now adding or expanding a bead department, especially the big craft stores. They cannot be dismissed, as they are a huge part of the phenomenon you're seeing. Beading is still incredibly popular, and I suspect it will remain so for quite a while, or the major retailers would not have made the investment in inventory and store space.
That's part of what's biting you in the butt right now, too. The masses have discovered that one can make something darned attractive for a couple of bucks worth of beads from Michael's. Sure, it's nothing like what an experienced artisan could make, but it doesn't cost anything like that, either. For the $30 bucks or so outlay in start up supplies, a crafty person can make a couple of pretty things, and if she doesn't become addicted, she really hasn't lost a lot of money.
Of those that show further interest in beading, most will never go beyond the craft store for their supplies. Some of the ones who make it to a local bead store will experience sticker shock and go scampering right back to the craft store, because "those little bead stores are so overpriced."
When you're new at this, it's hard to tell quality at a glance. I barely have to blink before I turn my nose up at mass-produced lampwork, fake turquoise or gold plated brass that will turn green in a week, but that hasn't always been true, and the dregs of my bead boxes show that. I keep finding crappy stuff I bought when I was just starting out, and keep shipping it off with DD to school. It takes a long time, as well as trial and error to learn what works and what doesn't, and where you can cut corners on pricing.(essentially nowhere)
Then comes the fallout. That dream of working at home, making a few pieces here and there, and not having to go to a job evey day falls apart. The reality is that making handbeaded jewelry is a long, hard slog, and that very, very few people make decent money at it. If it were easy, the Big Boys would have done it long before you thought of it. (And they have - look at the crappy beaded stuff imported to your favorite discount store and sold for pennies)
So we have a whole bunch of people who try beading as a hobby with materials from the hobby store. A bunch of those people quit, and a smaller subset goes on with the hobby. Those people get their materials from a local bead shop, or if someone clues them in, a Fire Mountain Gems kind of place. They will never, ever make the minimum wholesale order for many suppliers, and they don't care. They're making a bracelet for Aunt Ellie and maybe they'll give those "barefoot sandals" a shot. If they buy even one issue of Beadwork or Bead and Button, they'll feel intimidated by most of the projects (which many of us dismiss as "too easy") and outraged at the prices - "My God! $20 for ONE BEAD!?!? What are they, insane?"
From the few remaining people, maybe two or three out of a thousand will have a real interest in the hobby, wanting to perfect her skills and make original items of true beauty. That's the very tiny target market that wants your beads, Karleen. They also want Tink beads, and Kalera beads, and... there is only so much money to go around.
God knows that a huge percentage of your customers are not reselling your beads. They'd never, ever get their money back, and they know it. They buy the beads because they love them and want them for themselves. A very small percentage sell to retail outlets, and the competition is fierce.
One of the beading
Of course there is a billion dollar market in beads, although I suspect whoever wrote that pulled the figure out of their ear. (Does it include imported jewelry? How about "handmade" beads from overseas?) Out of that billion, a huge portion goes for the kinds of supplies we see in craft stores, including all that nice overhead so that people can wear blue vests with smiley faces and the like. I'd be willing to say that once the big retailers and the few "direct to public" bead wholesalers (Fire Mountain, Shipwreck and the like) are taken out of the equation, 75% of that "billion dollar market" is gone.
Right this minute, beading is as fashionable as it was in the late 1960's and early 1970's. There are one heck of a lot of beaders out there at all skill levels. There are beads to be bought everywhere, and that's bad news for all of us. My heart aches for the artisans in Bali and Cambodia, knowing that their current popularity and flush economy is merely a bubble, and that their products will go out of fashion sooner, rather than later. I hope that there are other options for these people to adapt and make a living, because for the vast majority of them, the beadmaking won't last.
Right after a boom, there's invariably a crash. I suspect that we're starting to feel rumblings under the surface right now. I predict that in a year or two, the bead sections of all the big stores will be in the same place as the Pet Rock aisle and the "Granny Square Crocheted Poncho" aisle. It just won't be fashionable to string a few beads on memory wire and call it jewelry.
For those that survive the shakeout, it's good news. There will be a lot less competition for the bead-buying dollar. 99% of the people who bought a hundred dollar "learn lampwork in your kitchen" will have decided it's not worth it. What you'll have are a small core of fanatics, just like you do now, with fewer outlets to spend their money. As long as your work continues to evolve and improve, you should have no worry. However, this is definitely a situation where, if you aren't moving forward, you're sliding back.
Just my two cents, but a thoughtful two cents to be sure,
Kathy N-V
I regularly do a search, now, on Ebay with "highest price" as the filter to see what things are selling for. In Lampwork, it is surprising how few sets go over $100. Used to be lots of them did. This has been happening for several months now. There are always some who do (Corina, and others with high name recognition). Those here are lucky to have regular buyers. It is key to staying in business on the web, at least in my experience.
Becki "In between the moon and you, the angels have a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong and right." -- Counting Crows
One thing to keep in mind though, is that the popularity of sniping software has made it impossible to tell what ending prices are without searching a specific seller for items that have already ended. It's a completely different picture than what you get just searching by highest priced!
For example, nowadays I rarely have bids before the auction ends, even in good weeks. Nonetheless, they often get bid up fairly high because everybody's sniping software competes against each other, literally in the last second of the auction. You can't catch it live at all... you have to look at the item after it ends.
-Kalera
I have noticed a lot of beads being sold at lower prices, lately, but I had also noticed prices increasing over winter.
As for summer slump, I think there are people who do more beadwork in summer, and some that stop doing beadwork.
Perhaps there is a lessening of growth in the beading market, as well as a greater sense of making informed purchases, that changes dynamics, but I don't think beads are loosing popularity.
Tina
"Karleen/Vibrant Jewels" wrote in message news:Imgpc.6363$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
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