I don't really consider myself a bead collector, but Fred asked me to post so here goes. A friend gave me a Peking glass drop about 20+ years ago and I've been smitten by Peking glass drops and beads ever since. In the last 20+ years, I've acquired a few (a very few) beads of various types until I came across a lot of Peking glass drops at an estate sale in about 2013 and another lot of Peaking glass tabular beads at a later sale. I started reading about Mandarin Court Necklaces here and elsewhere (and was confounded by the fakes). Needing to iron out the inconsistencies in what I read and saw here (some early posts at BCN are misleading), I pressed Fred and he explained. I find their (MCN) beads compelling, but not generally in my price range of late. I love reading about collectible beads here, but my own "collection" (if I can call it that) falls far short of "collectible" and the collections I see discussed here.