I'm very poor at bargaining, but yes, the prices are lower than last year. I tend to ask for a price, then just walk away if I don't want to pay. There are few cases where the bead or strand is something I want so badly that I can't leave it.

I think that 2008 was a peak year for the sellers at Tucson, and that makes sense since the economy was also peaking. In 2009, business was down, but in 2010, it was really, really bad. Sellers were probably wishing for a quick rebound in 2010, and when that didn't happen, they had to do something drastic. I went to Tucson last year, and did not find any bargains, so I did not buy much. I was also a fairly new collector and was thinking I could find the same beads elsewhere in the future, so I kept passing over nice items.

So this year, it seemed that the sellers realized they had to make sales "or else". Although, one seller that I asked a price from, gave me what I thought was "last year's" price, and since I didn't care about the strand that much, I did not return with a lower offer. For the condition of the beads, I thought he was overpriced by 100%. Another seller had a single bead overpriced by a factor of 3, so I assumed she did not actually want to sell it, and told her so. There does seem to be some showmanship going on there since many sellers are also serious collectors. But the other sellers gave me very good prices and I was very happy with what I came home with. I'll post photos as soon as I can get to it.

I also think that if you are buying a lot of items from one seller, you will be able to bargain for lower pricing.

At any rate, I found this year that going to Tucson was the best way to find specific beads that I was looking for. Possibly if I waited long enough, they would appear online, but this was much more fun and I got to see many more beads all in one place. And of course buy many other items that were not on my shopping list.

Final thought - I don't think prices have returned to the level that people remember from the 60's or 70's, and probably never will, unless there is a total collapse of the economy. So yes, you will need 1000's of dollars to replace any major amount of Venetian trade beads, but this year it looked to me that you would get about 30% more beads for your money than last year.