Beads for Jewelry Making

You can find some pretty unique and competitively priced beads for jewelry making on eBay. If you spend a bit of time searching the eBay listings, you'll find some fantastic jewelry making supplies at excellent prices.

Why buy craft beads on eBay? The range of selection is absolutely fantastic. You'll find everything from seed beads in any size and shape you want, to Swarovski beads, to one of a kind beads hand made by artists around the world.

You'll also find fantastic prices and, often, very reasonable shipping fees from eBay sellers. Actually, you can often buy craft beads on eBay at or very close to wholesale prices.

For those of you who have wholesale accounts with major jewelry suppliers, take out your jewelry supply catalogs and compare them to the prices you can find on eBay. When I've done this, I've found plenty of eBay stores with prices that are very competitive with wholesale prices. Add to that the fact that eBay sellers don't impose large minimum purchase requirements that you often find with wholesalers, and you have some pretty compelling reasons for buying some of your beads and jewelry making supplies on eBay.

If you've never purchased beads online, getting the right size can be tricky. The online photos are typically zoomed in so you can see the details in the beads, so you'll need a way to estimate the actual size. Find the bead dimensions listed in the auction and take out a measuring tape (or a bead you already have that is the same size) to get a good idea of the size of the beads you are buying. Also, Stringing Magazine prints a bead sizing chart in every issue. If you're going to be buying a lot of beads online, you could pick up a copy of that magazine, cut out the bead size guide and tape it on or near your computer for quick reference.

Here are some more tips on finding cheap beading supplies as well as a few keywords you might try (you'll find them at the top right of the eBay searches below) for finding great beads for jewelry making on eBay along with samples of the kinds of results you'll find with those keywords:

Try using some keywords for interesting beads shapes. You can find some pretty great beads on eBay with these kinds of keywords. Here are a few keyword ideas to get you started:
fairy, mermaid, goddess, hummingbird, turtle, dragon, seahorse, fish, heart, elephant, monkey, carved, butterfly, flower, starfish.