Sold Out!!

Yesterday, I received an email from one of my favorite seed bead suppliers to remind me of the “Final 3 days of the 30% off wholesale prices” sale (Thank you, dear bead supplier for that necessary reminder!). This sale is way too good to pass up. I was happy for the reminder (my creditors and bank are not). Time to shop for Toho seed beads and Aiko beads. Yes, especially the pricey little Aiko beads in those yummy colors that the Delica beads do not come in! Oh be still my heart! A whopping 30 % off!!!!!

So just moments ago, I brought out my inventory list so that I would not order wholesale quantities of beads I already have enough of (like that has never happened before!). My mission is to build up my color inventory of Aikos (and maybe some cubes, and 11’s, and……).

Going through my Aiko sample card, I cross-referenced my print out of the list of Aikos and checked on line and started clicking the “add to basket” button. Then, since it was easier, I just began to just look on line first to find colors I wanted.

OH NO!!! I saw an absolutely lovely shade of jade green that would be perfect for the Asian inspired design I wanted to work up. THEY WERE SOLD OUT!!! Horrors of all Horrors!! How can this be?? Then the next best color choice was also “SOLD OUT”.

Ok. Fine. Maybe that project will have to wait. I will buy that color later, on sale or not once it is restocked. Scrolling down through more beads, I really began noticing all of those colors that were sold out. Suddenly, I needed those colors too. Now I became absolutely fixated on the beads that were sold out. I wanted them most of all, darn it! Why do they have to be out of the colors I wanted “most of all”? Those words “SOLD OUT” in bright neon red, are just calling my attention to the beads I cannot have. You just know they were the prettiest simply because they are “SOLD OUT”. See, everyone else thought so too. The customers didn’t buy up all the stock of those other colors, right? Sure they are pretty too, but not AS pretty. That’s why they still have some left of those not-as-pretty colors.

Maybe that’s why those beads are on sale. Maybe they just want to get rid of these not-as-pretty colors that are not “SOLD OUT”. Maybe I will have to settle for the colors that everyone else just didn’t care to order as much of because they are not-as-pretty as the sold out ones. Why didn’t I order sooner before everyone snapped up those pretty beads like free food at a buffet at a fat farm? Darn it! I should have ordered sooner.

Does this ever happen to you?

And why does it seem that the items I want most are always sold out? Or is it that I only want those items because they are sold out. Is it the wanting of something I can’t have? Or the wanting of something because I think everyone else has it?

No, I am not a follower. I have never felt the need to have something, or do something because “everyone else” seems to be doing it. I do not stalk my favorite artist at bead shows to buy exactly the same beads as she does. I do not follow fashion trends, even in beadwork, because it is “popular”. I have always done what I wanted to do, with no need to be with the masses who need to have assurance that what they do is acceptable.

Still, I hate to admit, that those “sold out” beads are making me feel like I am missing something. I should have those beads, because everyone else has them! How will my work ever be up to par with everyone else’s if I am not using what everyone else is using?

What a silly thought!! How silly of me! I should think of myself as being a trendsetter, even if no one follows me, (what do those non-followers know anyways?). I will go and snap up the other available beads. Maybe if I order enough, those beads will be sold out too, and everyone else can wish that they ordered what I did! Everyone else can wish that they did follow me!

Off I go to finish ordering and become a trendsetter….I wonder how close I am to my credit card limit?