Hi All,

I have a question for you. I teach a class at a well-know fine arts center in the Chicago area. I put together kits for my students and would really like a GOOD wholesale source for tools, beads and findings. I've gone down so many dead ends, does anyone have a GOOD wholesale source. I have a business license, now all I need is the business connections! Where, oh where are the reasonable wholesalers? When I find one, I'm sometimes able to get the product cheaper via retail, so that's not good.

I'm also contemplating selling supplies in class to my students, as they have requested. Any ideas on what my "starting line-up" should include?

Finally, I am expanding my teaching to a local college, and I must say I can't believe how popular beading is! Great hobby! Hope someone can help me out:-)

There is no ONE best wholesaler for most beaders. Most of us vendors specialize in certain things and have the best quantity prices on those. At Rings & Things we import a lot of our findings, gemstone beads and Bali Silver. When we directly import our prices are very good. But some items don't sell well enough so we buy from another importer. On those items our prices are higher than a direct importer.

Some smalll retail bead stores directly import some things and may have really great prices on them.

We DO sell to a lot to teachers and bead stores. Take a look at our on line catalog and see if we can be of help. If you want to resell tools to your classes consider EuroTool or possibly Helby. Both require proof of being in the bead or jewelry business.

MaryBGold,

Over the years I have done a lot of research on the internet, traveling to shows, etc and compared prices. Some say they have wholesale pricing but you only get it by buying large volume. What is your email address, I can email you a list of some of my suppliers. The is not 1 that has the best price on everything. But I will try to give you some leads if you tell me what you are looking for.

Thanks for spreading your love of beading to others!

I have made my best wholesale contacts via beadshows and internet combing. The benefit of a beadshow contact is that you can see the quality of the product and develop a relationship with the vendor that will really be helpful over time when you have urgent or special needs. The volume purchasing is key, however, and if you co-op your purchasing by taking advance orders from students (with at least 50% prepayment) you can reduce the agonies of an initial start-up outlay. Good Luck. I love my little teaching/beadsupply business. Reikini

Mary, Tevel Hermanson of Allcraft Tools will put together tool packets for teachers. You can email him at www. allcrafttools.com
RioGrande doesn't necessarily sell wholesale, but if you order multiples, the price goes down. If you order 20 of something, its worth giving them a call and they will give you a discounted price.

Mary
Send me your e mail and I can send you the wholesale prices for my beads. I sell only Czech glass beads. Russ is correct in that lots of us specialize in a certain area. I also have some nice bead kits that are quite reasonable.

Mary, also realize that jewelers usually don't buy tools "wholesale". We cas get beads or Primo or stuff like that wholesale, but we can't buy silver wholesale unless we are a bigger company. As someone who was used to buying at "Maket" in Dallas because of my family's business, the idea that I couldn' t buy all my stuff wholesale was a huge shock to me! Some things have quanity discounts, like others here have spoken of, but buing for 50% off usually doesn't happen with everything.

Mary;
Did you ever find what you were looking for?

Still digging through all the sites;-)

Mary,
I am in a similar situation. Please email me. Maybe we can help each other out.
Lin

Mary...I too am in sort of the same situation...the girls all want me to start classes at the union hall at work , I am bogged down with orders for jewelry from the ones whom do not want classes and it's getting to me (know what i mean?) if i could get wholesale pricing maybe i could just do classes (some i've already taught one on one) but i need wholesale pricing..the local bead store and some places I've tried on the net are retail...but recently firemountain gems has changed their pricing(which is some light on our subject) they use to have just assortable pricing on certain items but now the whole place is assortable ...you need to get their catalog and find out for yourself...this has helped me some.....Art beads is also great for earring coponets and silver/goldfilled findings. I hoped i've helped you some...god luck and if you find anything better please let me know...

malibu
Please email me so I can help you out. I have thousands of czech beads that can use a home. Positively whole sale prices.