We lately received this interesting link to a post in the BaCoN Hobbyland Chat Room:

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi/openforum?cmd=get&cG=4373234323...=

Totally disturbing!  Let me translate and condense this allegory, for indeed, the central message is probably lost in the heartfelt Teutonic expression.

"Deep down inside, the bead world is shallow."  [Now which comedian first said that?]  Beads are gathered from remote and romantic spots around the world, and although they're just beads, they're elevated to some high philosophical pedestal, as if they're some embodiment of meaning and truth.  Yet, they're just beads, made for ornamentation, and, in particular, when they're "off the string", so to speak, they're truly nothing but beads, having lost any ethnographic value and meaning they might have had.

Long Nose smells the superficiality displayed by most participants in the bead forum.  All beads shown are beautiful, heart-stopping, fabulous, great, or etc.  Nothing is trash if it makes the forum and nothing is what it is until Ralph Beader sprinkles the Research Results [read Holy Water].  When everything is "great", nothing is.  If there were a genuine comprehensive catalog of beads (as there is for many other "developed" hobbies), we wouldn't need this forum at all.  What's even worse, the handful of participants playing "Show-and-Pretend-I-Have-Something" don't even bother to label the specimens shown, so we're left with 10,000 images of "great" beads, a worthless mishmash of photos of no lasting utility. 

It's a fun place!  Controversy is not tolerated and, by all means, don't challenge Ralph Beader.  Show those arty shots, use amateur thoughtless terminology, pretend beads have meanings, get duped by phony lying folklore, kowtow to the criminal eBay collaborators, pretend to do "research".  That's what Long Nose wants to say.  Ban this guy!  He's upsetting the puppies!

They won't go for war no more; great Midwestern hardware store; philosophy that turns away; from those who aren't afraid to say; what's on their minds; the left-behinds; of The Great Society; do do do do do!  [Thanks, Frank!]

Top of the list:  guitarfly777, with a silver cross as genuine as his "Old period Hudson Bay "White Heart" Glass Trade Bead Necklace."

http://cgi.ebay.com/MUSEUM-ca-1800-INDIAN-LG-SILVER-FUR-TRADE-CROSS_W0QQitemZ140060407439QQihZ004QQcategoryZ715QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Note the blurry lack-of-contrast photo, typical of con artists.

ironviking67:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Fur-Trade-Era-Glass-Beads-1700-1800-s_W0QQitemZ190059084159QQihZ009QQcategoryZ715QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Note the long list of spam search words at the bottom of the description:

Ebay search words: fur trade, trade beads , Indian trade, glass trade beads , Dutch trade beads, French trade beads, HBC, Hudson Bay Company, Venetian glass beads, arrowhead, stone axe, skinning stone, stone celt:fur trade, trade beads , Indian trade, glass trade beads , Dutch trade beads, French trade beads, HBC, Hudson Bay Company, Venetian glass beads, Iroquois beads,: fur trade, trade beads , Indian trade, glass trade beads , Dutch trade beads, French trade beads, HBC, Hudson Bay Company, Venetian glass beads, Iroquois beads , fur trade, trade beads , Indian trade, glass trade beads , Dutch trade beads, French trade beads, HBC, Hudson Bay Company, Venetian glass beads 4 layer Chevron , Nueva Cadiz Beads .African trade beads

This is an eBay violation, but who's enforcing any of the rules.  "We'd rather take his listing fees that knock him out for violations."

bugzart:  http://cgi.ebay.com/TRADE-BEADS-ANTIQUE-UNUSUAL-ORANGE-WHITE-HEARTS_W0QQitemZ...

We doubt it, africadirect, these are recent!  http://cgi.ebay.com/Fulani-Necklace-102-Strands-Old-Trade-Beads_W0QQitemZ3200...

terrisbooks (more than one), of course:  http://cgi.ebay.com/OLD-TRADE-BEADS-WHITEHEARTS-Red-Strand-INDIAN-Necklace_W0...

A lot of these auctions have nothing to do with "whiteheart" beads.  We think there's spamming going on.

Our old friend cherokee-scumerlin:  http://cgi.ebay.com/CORNALINE-d-ALEPPO-trade-beads_W0QQitemZ110061600557QQihZ...

Another scumerlin:  You'd think a string with a couple older beads would fetch more; not so far:  http://cgi.ebay.com/HUDSON-BAY-WHITE-HEART-trade-beads_W0QQitemZ110061604500Q...

ms.azurite-eye; why are we wasting our time?  http://cgi.ebay.com/OLD-Trade-Beads-NATIVE-AMERICAN-INDIAN-Blue-Padre-CHIEF_W...

africadirect again -- can you say BADD?  http://cgi.ebay.com/White-Heart-Trade-Beads-COBALT-BLUE-Small_W0QQitemZ320058...

Now you get the idea.  We haven't yet found a genuine "old" ones.  Maybe you can.

Thanks eBay for allowing ignoramuses and scammers to ruin this category!

We searched eBay for "whiteheart trade beads" in titles and descriptions and found the following auction listings.  There's one other regular auction where the suspicious misrepresented beads are too blurry to make out (a fake Nat Am leather piece).  Otherwise, there are 26 BINs in stores.  You're invited to find any accurate representation in any of these auctions.

grubboxx:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Hudson-Bay-Whiteheart-trade-beads-Native-American_W0QQitemZ140063255043QQihZ004QQcategoryZ34069QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hudson-Bay-Yellow-Whiteheart-trade-beads_W0QQitemZ140063255026QQihZ004QQcategoryZ34069QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/large-Hudson-Bay-Green-Whiteheart-trade-beads_W0QQitemZ140063520835QQihZ004QQcategoryZ34069QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hudson-Bay-Whiteheart-trade-beads-Native-American_W0QQitemZ140063635814QQihZ004QQcategoryZ34069QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

"Hudson Bay trade beads were traded up through Alaska and the northwest as currency in the 1700’s."

barkrock:  http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-Red-Whiteheart-Trade-Beads_W0QQitemZ170058468446QQihZ007QQcategoryZ3811QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The category is dead.  Let's here it for the greedy, lazy, hypocrites at eBay!

Here's an interesting auction violating eBay policy:  You're supposed to sell what's in the picture, not the seller's choice from what's in the picture:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Circa-1650-1750-Dutch-Glass-Trade-Beads-10-Feet-X-5ft_W0QQitemZ190058228028QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3811QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Meanwhile,

YOU ARE BIDDING ON 10 FEET CUT FROM THIS MUCH LONGER STRAND OF  BEADS. THESE BEADS ARE 2MM-5MM WIDE AND ARE GUARANTEED ORIGINAL AND GENUINE 1650'S-1750'S DRAWN GLASS DUTCH TRADE BEADS TRADED UP AND DOWN THE AMERICAS.

THESE ARE FOUND ON AN ISLAND OUTSIDE OF THE RUINS OF AN OLD DUTCH FORT IN SOUTH AMERICA.  [Which island in South America?] FAMILIES SIFT THE SANDY SOIL DURING THE DRY SEASON TO SUPPLEMENT THEIR MODEST INCOME AS FISHERMEN. THE DUTCH OCCUPIED THIS ISLAND FOR QUITE A NUMBER OF YEARS AND THEY USED THESE BEADS AS PAYMENT FOR THEIR NEEDS SUCH AS FRESH FISH AND GAME, FRUIT AND VEGETABLES AS WELL AS MANUAL LABOR.  [Any serious references to support these claims?]

Meanwhile, the beads here look a lot like other piffle-driven BS auctions preying on buyers' weakness for stories.  Look at this auction for comparison:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Authentic-old-trade-beads-arrowheads-relics-artifacts_W0QQitemZ140058898479QQihZ004QQcategoryZ715QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

These are obviously crap auctions.  We'll bet both sellers get the same modern beads from the same Gambians.  If these beads were from the ground, they would show some decomposition, now wouldn't they?

The second seller, in particular, has profited handsomely with this fraud for a long time.