Prices are up, selection is down...This year at Tucson there was much less variety of unique trade beads, and more and more new material to fill the tables.

The demand in China for the ancient "Mali dig" agate and carnelian has the more successful African traders bringing a lot of that material, along with the better old coral out of Nigeria, straight to Hong Kong.For example, the long faceted carnelian beads made in Idar Oberstein of material from Brazil that I used to get for 10.00 - 12.00 a strand 15 years ago were 150.00 a strand direct from a trader in L.A. just before the Tucson shows. I saw none at Tucson, and have seen none for a few years. The demand in China for these drives that price, as they are being brought directly there for use as blanks for making the new "dzi" - confirmed by our favorite African trader who has brought them there by the flight bag full. Some American collectors have sold their stashes of these back to the Africans at a handsome profit.

Prices on the eBay market for some certain beads haven't changed too much - 25.00 for a "pink pineapple" is still a price frequently seen, the "Baule Face" bead may have gone down just a little. Prices for nice 6-layer chevrons from the Africans have risen, but the price customers are willing to pay seems to have gone down a bit, probably due to the influx of the Chinese chevrons resembling the "African Trade" Venetian ones that came on the market 2006 - 2008.

Overall, the prices for nice strands of trade beads has gone up, perhaps 3 or 4 times in the last 15 years. Everyone is going to be able to give specific examples from their own experience, I hope others will share here.

For wonderful visual document of beads from the African trade, the Picard series, vol. 3 - 7 is still the best. From the Picard Trade Bead Museum in Carmel Valley, CA