Seller: chris7xx
Name: Chris

Chris7xx, who prefers to be known by her online user name, came to bidorbuy after trying flea markets, craft stores and recruiting family and friends to peddle her items at their places of work

I started out selling gift boxes, bags, glass beads and beaded jewellery at flea markets in Pretoria and Centurion. I made the corrugated gift bags, boxes and beaded jewellery myself. However I noticed that customers at flea markets were requesting more bead related items, for example findings, wooden and acrylic beads, etc.

Some of my friends and family who were working in large office blocks sold my beaded jewellery to their co-workers.

I also rented shelves at craft stores in Pretoria and Johannesburg. I soon learnt that this was a rather expensive and time consuming way to sell my products. Shelf rentals started from R250 per square metre and could be as high as R1000 per square metre. On top of that, the exhibitor had to pay a 25 percent commission.

After 18 months, the shelf rentals at the Craft Stores became too expensive and the theft rate had gone up. I had to cancel them, either due to the store closing or the rental prices rising. At the end of the day I found myself having a spare room almost full of beads and other items – and no customers to sell it to. Luckily I found BOB a few months later.

My experience at BOB has been wonderfully pleasant. When I first joined BOB, I was delighted to find that even though I had no ratings, there were a few customers who were willing to order items from me. It was smooth sailing for a while. However, after some time I did encounter one or two misunderstandings. Once it was sorted out all was smooth sailing again. I must admit that the majority of the BOB customers that I have encountered are friendly and an absolute pleasure to do business with.

I have a “day job”: I work half day for a small company doing admin and finance. Fortunately, this allows enough time for BOB, for listing items and completing orders I received.

My products have expanded somewhat since I have joined BOB. I sell a variety of findings, glass beads, acrylic beads, seed beads, shells, threading materials and beading accessories on BOB. The findings include: ear ring hooks, jump and split rings, eye and head pins, charms, pendants, chains, connectors, spacers, toggle and lobster clasps, filigree items, crimp beads and bead caps. The glass beads include: bicones (normal and fire polished), clear, and crackle, cat’s eye, foil, Venetian, triangle and miracle beads. Threading materials include: tiger tail, elastic, cord, craft wire and synthetic leather strips.

I always look forward to meeting new customers and hearing from customers who have supported me previously. Thank you to the BOB team and customers for making this such a wonderful experience!