BEWARE! THE DZI ANTIQUE BEAD SCAM

 According to Terapeak.com, over the past 3 months, 9,343 DZI beads were listed with a sell through rate of 35.37%, with the average price being $13.91 and the average shipping was $7.37. The total sales was $47,035! A few beads that were over $1000 appeared to be real antiques. There were a number of them in the hundreds listed as DZI beads that were not etched, and appear to be simply old agates with fortification that appeared like an eye, possible copies. At a show here in Bangkok, one Hong Kong company brought 1000s of Agate antique copies, all of which looked quite real till we examined them, not to mention they were not cheap! Even at the $100 price, not a single real DZI bead in sight. If you put in the words "old DZI bead" into the Terapeak 3 month search, you come up with 553 items with a 44.03% sell through, average price was $9.63 and average shipping was $9. Total sales here is $2,292! That means 238 customers got ripped off thinking they bought something old, not to mention the high shipping. There are no old $9 DZI beads. These beads are in such high demand, its not necessary to sell them on Ebay unless they are undesirable in some way, such as repairs, chips, undersize, or plain fakes. There is a huge demand for genuine DZI beads, not to mention the price can start already in the thousands of dollars. I have seen people state they are 100 years old or 300 years old. This is not possible. These beads were made around 1500-4500 years ago. Like one ad that said he was selling 5 beads he got form an old Tibetan dealer, selling for only $63! Pure rubbish, not to mention this person had the feedbacks to prove he was a reliable dealer. He said he did not know the age. The book, "The History of Beads" gives a timeline and samples of what these kinds of beads look like. He did not know the age because he was not selling real antiques, yet he was giving the idea he acquired them from and antique dealer. There are a lot of them like that, and $47,035 is a lot of money to be spent on beads that are no more than cheap antique copies with a high shipping. To be fair, there were a couple beads at the top with the correct price, that looked real from the photo.

Lets see what a real string of DZI beads might look like from a real Antique dealer.

Lets see what a string of real Chungzi beads might look like from a real Antique dealer.

 Now, check what you see here against what is selling on the internet. The DZI beads in the photo are quite expensive,and are rare. The Chungzi beads start at about $100 and a number of them are $500 or more. Some are quite rare. The string is typical of what such beads look like.

In general, people that sell antique beads know what they are selling. If you buy in Nepal, for example, you have to bargain over the price, often starting at a very high price. If you happen to buy a bead, and don't really know what it is worth or the age, there are plenty of experts to ask. You have to check the bead closely for repairs. Valuable beads are often repaired. Sometimes they even graft new material to the old material to try to make the bead look good. If you see a bead on Ebay that is very rough, it is probably cooked to look old and is fake. People have tried to reproduce the old etching techniques of the original beads, and the new ones just don't look the same, with the exception of a few that were made in Taiwan with special techniques. Some beads even stump the pros. You are unlikly to ever find a real antqiue DZI bead on Ebay at a low price, and you better be careful of ones you pay more for. The statistics show what is happening in this market. They are basically against you. Go further than checking the feedbacks, check reference books, websites, and friends if you have any friends that are beads collectors. And BEWARE what you buy! If you found my guide useful, please give me a positive checkmark below. Thanks!

Mygemgarden