Occassionally you may receive or catch a broken Mardi Gras bead. Beads are usually manufactured to be thrown at parades but they also have to be made so that they are not so strong as to strangle you either. So, they will pop or come undone at times, even during transit.  Mardi Gras beads are a fun, carnival favor, plastic, and not fine, costume or "beading" type jewelry.

Sometimes they will be found in case or gross assortments that the seller has shipped new and unopened. I would think most sellers would not sell you a broken bead. I actually save mine and sell them as "craft beads" once I get a big amount since I had so many people looking for deals on the broken ones! 

Don't be alarmed! They are pretty easy to fix!

If they were originally connected with a metal wire, try to put the wire back in the hole, if it holds, great. If not, get a little super glue, put on the end and put back in the hole, that should hold it forever.  If the wire will not go back into the hole, see below.

If they were originally glued or melted together, the best way and fastest way is to simply re-twist the last two beads on the strand until they are tight.   Also, you can use a plastic glue to glue the two beads together.  Some older beads can be melted together - not the metallic ones. If the fastener breaks you could either glue, melt or better would be to restring to another pair and make a longer bead.

Loose, Hand Strung Beads that pop: just get some thin string, thread or necklace crafting wire/string and have fun re-beading them!

Most throw beads will not break in transit, however, most specialty beads are made of resin or ceramic or light breakable plastic. I would recommend insurance for the specialty beads, since the likely thing to break would be the medallion and that is probably the part you are buying them for. If the bead breaks on the medallion, it can usually just be fixed in one of the ways above.  Some of the special beads are put together with heavy wire, if this is the case, you can usually just re-connect/twist the metal with a needle nose pliers back into shape.

I hope you will find this guide helpful and informative should you encounter a problem!  Please take a moment to vote YES if you feel this guide was informative or helpful to you, if it wasn't please let me know and perhaps I can revise with better information.