Comment on Looking at craft supplies on eBay, and one of my policies is that if they aren&#
naturemc@mastodon.online@mastodon.online 1 day ago
@kerravonsen And what about buying craft supplies directly from real suppliers, from small regional business?
In the European Union we have tough regulations about how to describe stuff we sell correctly. Customers have a place where they can make a protest against such fishy sellers or if they don't get the promised quality. Ebay, Alibaba & Co have too many trash shops ..
@NatureMC @crafters
Small regional businesses... if you mean brick-and-mortar face-to-face stores, I don't really have the means to find and visit them. I used to, but I don't have either the transport or the spoons to do so now. I don't even know if my favourite small craft stores even exist any more. The only places I can physically get to easily are "big box" stores like Lincraft or Spotlight or Riot. They are definitely not "small regional businesses", unfortunately.
If you mean online "small regional businesses"... well, some of them do actually sell on eBay, because that's an easy way for a small business to sell things. And you can tell which ones aren't dodgy, because they do have clear and understandable listings, and say more precisely where they are located. (On eBay, I generally sort by "distance, nearest", because then the most dodgy ones tend to get sorted last.)
But another aspect of this is that I refuse to pay highly inflated prices for things which were bought cheaply from China. I'd rather pay cheap prices from sellers who got them directly from China, rather than sellers who got them from a middle-man who got them from China. Which one would be the "real supplier" in that case?
@NatureMC @crafters
There *are* small online businesses that I do favour (that aren't on eBay). Some specific examples:
https://www.aussiemaille.com/
Local Australian chainmaille supplier. Some of their rings are imported, but others they make themselves. They are my go-to supplier for plain Aluminium rings, because they have better quality of those than anyone else, because they take the time to polish them.
https://basketbases.com.au/shop-timber-basket-bases/
Timber bases for crocheted baskets. Very high quality, not imported, and several different designs.
https://polymerclay.com.au/
Polymer Clay, Jewellery and Beading Supplies. Not a place to go to for beads (there are cheaper elsewhere) but has more obscure things like Kumihimo weights that I haven't found elsewhere.