Ad: Sales on Ebay and Just beads

I'd like to make a suggestion. Under "New Designer Sets now available! Take a Peek!" you write:

"See our newest styles now up for sale! You won't be dissappointed! Contemporary ideas, always the highest quality."

I'd eliminate "You won't be disappointed!" It sounds too canned. And it suggests they might be disappointed, maybe. I'd get rid of that line. ~~ Sooz

On the 30 Bead Sale Set, you write: "These are a lot of my trial beads, some are not perfect, but still pretty. Others I just didn't like the color combination." ----Don't *ever* tell your potential customers you don't like your own work! It's not necessary -- it's not a flaw disclosure they need to know, it's your subjective, personal feeling. It's a negative.

You tell your beads' measurements by how long the strand is in inches. This isn't enough information. We want to know the mm. of the smallest bead, and the mm. of the largest bead. (You do give the size of some individual beads, but you use inches instead of mm.)

There are lots of buyers who will move on if they don't get this info. If you need a bead size chart, email me with your snail address and I'll send you one free! divaocean AT aol DOT com

Photo information -- how to photograph your beads:

The Links List has an entire category for PHOTOGRAPHY:

Bead Notes: scroll down to PHOTO. ~~ Sooz

Actually, I'd also say, don't sell imperfect or practice beads on eBay at all. To me it says you don't feel you need to give your customers your best effort.

If Tink or Kandace sell an imperfect bead, it's going to be a great bead with a flaw. And I bought a set of orphans from Michelle Eilts and also one from Mary Ann Williams. In both cases the beads were small accent beads that didn't work well in a set -- different spacing or a different size. But the beads themselves were perfect. I also buy free-style and irregularly shaped beads.

But trial beads or practice beads? If you're selling beads, you should be a professional. You should only sell as professional a product as you can make to the public. And sell wonkies only to friends who know what they're getting. When I buy beads I don't want a practice bead or a first clumsy effort. I want a bead that is within your level of competence.

I am not picking on you or aiming this at you or anyone else specifically. I just feel used when someone uses me to pay for their education, instead of the result of their education (at whatever level of competence they have reached).

Tina

"Dr. Sooz" wrote...

Actually, I agree with you completely, Tina. I bought some half-assed beads from a lampworker once, on eBay....she was selling her leftovers from that year's shows.

I thought, "Well, they're leftovers from shows.....She's a reputable lampworker. They have to be pretty decent." (It was hard to tell from the photos.) I won the auction.

Upon receipt of delivery, I was stunned. If I'd been the beadmaker, I'd have thrown 90% of these beads in the trash! It was *embarrassing*. How she got the balls to put these out at bead shows!!! ---- I have NO idea. Horrible.

She lost a customer -- I totally lost my taste for her work. I won't even give most of these away to beginning beaders....they are fit only for tiny children (over the age of 4, who won't swallow them). And, I admit, I want to throw some of them away!

Some would say you can't pay for someone else's education without your own compliance, but I gotta tell you -- you can't always tell they're wonkies from photos on eBay. I'm living proof. Sometimes they look cool in the photo, and as we all know, most lampwork photographs less-pretty than it is IRL. So it's a rude shock to see the beads looking WORSE than they did in the auction!

Keep your wonkies, don't SELL them. Make a mosaic with them, scatter them in the garden, whatever. Good grief, I'd **never** sell my wonky jewelry! I wouldn't even give it to friends. I don't want it out there, speaking as my ambassadors.....It's so unprofessional.

~~ Sooz