It is always possible to be asked to pay too much for beads. And it is sometimes possible to get a great deal. Both are usually based on ignorance. One person thinks his stuff is "a rare prize." The other thinks it's junk. And often enough it's somewhere in the middle. Mistaken identity is RAMPANT at cyber auctions. I don't "hang out" at Etsy much, but I see a lot of misidentified and overpriced stuff there too. And I see a lot of crap being offered as though it were "art."

I am an educator and consumer advocate. Since 1998 I have been writing to people at eBay, giving them correct information, and advice on pricing structures. Sometimes I have contacted over ten people a day. In the early days of eBay, one could contact potential buyers, and warn them that they were bidding on a pig-in-a-poke. (Sometimes they didn't care!) I have received a lot of static and hostility in-reply. Also some sincere thanks for the assist. This still happens—though I contact people with much less frequency. And I know my efforts are essentially a waste of time, except sometimes interpersonally.

There are some discussions here about pricing and value. They sometimes result in drama and disagreements—so I try to stay out of pricing arguments. But I think it is a truism that everything is more expensive now than it used to be. And a lot of this escalation is based on misinformation and graft. And many people exploit this, and play-into it.

Beads have become "big business" compared to when I started out in the '60s.