Since the first of the year I've been hearing rumblings throughout the bead world about price increases. Precious metals prices have risen substantially and many wholesale suppliers of Bali and other silver beads have raised their prices or are putting a surcharge on silver or gold orders. I've also heard that many wholesalers of Swarovski either are already charging higher prices or will be in the near future - all because of the continuing weakness of our US dollar in many areas of the world, especially in the EU. And I received a notice from my largest Czech bead importer this morning that although they are trying to keep prices down, if the dollar doesn't rally soon they will also be raising prices by 10-20%. OUCH!!
Just a heads up for all of you - no matter who you buy from, it might be a good idea to stock up soon to avoid the coming increases if you can because I can't see any help coming from Washington any time soon. They're all still raking in enough money to line their own pockets and the h*ll with the rest of us.
Mj (who's mightily disgusted today with the sorry state of business in this country...)