16 December 2010- Precious metals are costly and when you want to buy precious metal beads for jewelry making, you have to be alert and know the exact rules for buying them. You cannot obviously spend your hard earned money on buying fake precious metal beads! So, what things to keep in mind while buying precious metal beads like gold beads, silver beads or sterling silver beads etc? What type of precious metal beads are, in fact, suitable for which type of jewelry- daily wear jewelry or special occasion jewelry? How to identify whether the precious metal beads you are about to buy are actually made of precious metals only and not with some other sub standard metals? This article will provide answers to these questions in the form of helpful tips on how to buy precious metal beads for jewelry!

Identify Then Buy Handmade or Machine Made Precious Metal Beads

You might want to make a tribal jewelry set with precious metal beads, for example silver beads. So, you will most likely want to buy handmade beads for such silver jewelry. However, if you are making jewelry with a contemporary touch, you will need precious metal beads which are all similar and perfectly in standard shapes and sizes. For example, you might require similar types of spacer beads for a gold bead necklace! So, for such jewelry, you'll need machine made precious metal beads. Now, how to know the difference between handmade and machine made precious metal beads?

Look at the beads closely. If you see that all beads are different from each other- they are handmade precious metal beads because two handmade beads can never be alike. On the other hand, machine made beads are all alike in size, shape and designs because they are made in batches in machines! Also, handmade precious metal beads will be expensive than the machine made beads because more labor, time and skill has gone into making them. However, you can even find some cheaper handmade beads made in countries like India and China where labor is cheap. Quality handmade precious metal beads generally have specific names, like Bali silver, Hill tribe silver beads.

Differentiate Between Original and Look Alike Precious Metal Beads

When talking about specific names of popular precious metal beads, you must also learn to differentiate between the original precious metal beads made in a particular area and the look alike metal beads made somewhere else. If you read Bali silver beads or Hill tribe silver beads, they are the original ones made in Bali and Thailand. However, if you read Bali-style silver beads or Hill tribe-style silver beads, they are probably not from the original place. They are not fake either but they are not the real Bali or Hill tribes silver beads. They are often look-alike beads made in countries with cheap labor so they can be Indian beads or Chinese beads. They may not be as pure as the real Bali silver or Hill tribe silver which are made with 97-99% silver, and are purer than sterling silver. The look alike beads are usually made of alloys with less silver. Some of them even do not contain silver at all.

Check Purity of Gold, Silver or Other Precious Metal Beads

Sometimes, when you buy precious metal beads, they are not wholly made of precious metals. They may be beads plated with precious metals like gold or silver. This means that the base metal or the actual metal with which bead is made is a cheaper metal- often copper or brass. These metal beads are then plated or have a coating of precious metals on top to make them look like silver, gold or other precious metal beads. Although it is not wrong to buy these plated precious metal beads but you must make a known choice- if you are out to buy solid gold beads, you must end up buying such beads only and not gold plated beads! How to know whether the precious metal beads are made up of pure precious metals only?

Real silver may be labeled as 925 silver and gold may be labeled with the karat, like 24 karat or 18 karat or 14 carat gold beads. If it is plated or filled gold beads, it should be stated in the description of the bead. Most of the precious metal beads manufacturers and exporters do explain what the metal beads are really made of. If you are buying precious metal beads online, remember to read all details by clicking the inside pages also and not just the description under the images of the beads.

Tips to Buy Precious Metal Beads Online

It is not very difficult to buy precious metal beads online with the online beads stores and auction and e-commerce websites laying down stricter policies for sellers. In fact, one of the very efficient ways of determining genuine product is to go through the policy overview of the auction sites meant for sellers. If it instructs the sellers to provide clear and accurate information in the item description and also says that misrepresented items would be removed from their list of products, you can be assured about the precious metal beads too being sold there. If you buy precious metal beads directly from some beads store with online buying option, you must check the suppliers return policy. If it has a good return policy, it shows how serious the store is about what they sell. If not, don't buy from there. Find a serious precious metal beads dealer with good descriptions of products and a good return policy.