Trollbeads glass for Pandora?

This is sad that Troll feels the need to expand in this manner. I love the unique quality of Troll and their product is wonderful. It is sad to think they are going to now start to blend in with all the rest. I think they had a stunnig and superior quality and line of product.
I am most concerned with the constant price increase also, since 2009 when I started the silver beads are way over priced now and seem to feel lighter. As for the glass they are still the best on the market, I think, even with the consideration of the work need to make each individual bead far too expensive too! They are still just glass!!!!

From all the TB advertising I got the impression that they were only doing some "Uniques " with bigger core. Seeing these production glass or even retired glass now with big cores makes me hopping mad

If TB wants to change the image to mainstream, no porblem. But they better not believe that we collectors will be back supporting them when they have fallen flat on their face !

ZAKLINZ couldn't have said it better.
As I was reading this I was just wondering, if any one knows if there
are Pandora forums. Also wondering if there are, are they as " hard core"as Trollbead forums?
The people I know who wear Pandora, don't really seem to know much about them. I don't see the people I know being crazy about them in years to come and or being Pandora collectors.

Trolls I thought I would die laughing when I read Pandora will void warranty if other beads are worn. I am imagining the Pandora Police walking around checking collectors arms. If that isn't a turn off I don't know what is.
I also was under the impression that it was only OOKs (Uniques) or what ever they are calling them now, that were going to have big cores. I must say that the UUs I have purchased so far are very nice.
I love that they are making scales again, and in truth I don't care it the
cores are larger.

zuzu's petals wrote:
Trolls I thought I would die laughing when I read Pandora will void warranty if other beads are worn. I am imagining the Pandora Police walking around checking collectors arms. If that isn't a turn off I don't know what is.

That isn't really as mad as it seems. I presume that it is because you could damage the screws on the Pandora bracelet if you tried to force tight beads from other brands or beads with different screw threads over them.

I just came across that old Pandora catalogue dating back to 2009/2010.
The glass beads (except the ones with gold cores) were priced at 39 €.
So, for a marketing strategie one may say "If Pandora collectors are used to pay that amount, why not selling the UU for 39€, oh, and maybe TB collectors are willing to pay the same for small cored ooaks?"
For me as a collector, I don't see, why the same style of ooaks are now much more expensive. Just because it's possible?

When I was new to charm beads I discovered Pandora first...I must admit that I do love the pandora disks on the glass and if I was collecting Pandora, I wouldn't mix with non pandora...In fact, I don't like to mix my glass beads (even on Troll UNLESS the cores match), silvers I am less brand fussy as long as they go well with the other beads....that said, I do have a penchant for same brands and will always opt for same brand where possible (OCD LOL).

When I first discovered Troll, inititially I was drawn to the bracelet and lock and planned to put other beads on the chain but then I decided to take a look at the beads too and was very taken by their design/detail and quality.

Increasingly though I have found the quality deteriorating with lots of loose cores, chips and imperfections - BRAND NEW FROM THE STORE!

Back to the Pandora/Troll issue, I doubt the crossover will be successful if that is the intention as I know LOTS of people who wear Pandora - most of them couldn't even tell you much about the beads on their wrist as long as they are small, blingy and shiny (not a Troll quality). Also noticed very few glass are worn (if any).

Pandora has successfully cornered the "designer fashion" market and what I partoicularly like(d) about Troll is the fact that it is not as mainstream and therefore more unique....if that changes, I will no doubt find a new less "popular" obsession.

And what with all the price increases, I am beginning to feel like a complete mug paying so much for these beads so I will no longer pay retail price on a regular basis, it is just crazy!

zuzu's petals wrote:ZAKLINZ couldn't have said it better. As I was reading this I was just wondering, if any one knows if there are Pandora forums. Also wondering if there are, are they as " hard core" as Trollbead forums? The people I know who wear Pandora, don't really seem to know much about them. I don't see the people I know being crazy about them in years to come and or being Pandora collectors.

The word in the market is that Pandora is referred to when mentioning 'bead charms bracelet' but Trollbeads is 'cult'.

No other bead charms brand has such devoted customers/collectors. So in my opinion instead of trying to win over non-Trollies by supplying large cored glass beads or offering other cross-over products, Trollbeads should focus their designs on being Trollish again and finally spend a bit on regional/national marketing.

In some markets there's no need for concept stores. These cost too much and are not the means to draw in new customers. Just more advertising back up for retailers will work like a charm... imo.

So far only/mainly retailers were advertising locally, but a few well designed billboard and well placed magazine ads are necessary to highlight the uniqueness of (most of) the designs and the brand. Not?

If Trollbeads heads the other way, towards more common designs and concepts, the brand will loose its attractiveness rapidly and its loyal customers. Just my two cents...

Pandora's efforts to gain customers seems to be more effective than Trollbeads (at least in the UK). They take out impressive full page colour adverts in aspirational fashion magazines. They frequently offer a free bracelet (+ champagne and chocolates) for spending a certain amount on beads. Trollbeads has never bothered to try to tempt me at all. Any incentives that I have been offered were forbidden ones done locally and in secret by individual shops.

Brightonbelle wrote:Pandora's efforts to gain customers seems to be more effective than Trollbeads (at least in the UK). They take out impressive full page colour adverts in aspirational fashion magazines. They frequently offer a free bracelet (+ champagne and chocolates) for spending a certain amount on beads. Trollbeads has never bothered to try to tempt me at all. Any incentives that I have been offered were forbidden ones done locally and in secret by individual shops.

This is very true!

I have bought some Pandora in USA and they often have fab incentives - free jewellery boxes/roll/ jewellery holders, bracelets etc.

It is nice to be rewarded for spending so much in a store, even if it is a small gesture. Some stores did the free bead after buying 6 (trollbeads) but now that has been increased to 8, it's a joke when they charge so much as it is!

I'm increasingly seeing Pandora advertising here in Scotland - they are even on our buses at the moment.

A Pandora concept store was opened in Edinburgh about 18 months ago in an upmarket retail area - near Harvey Nicks. Seems to do good business. More stores have been opened since then but the number of "good" TB retailers has fallen as many have left the brand.
In this area it is now mostly chain jewellers with a small stock and whose staff don't have a clue. I was in Beaverbrooks recently when they had their sale on. First time they were adamant TB weren't included in the sale then when I went back days later they insisted I pick the beads I wanted to look at because they weren't allowed to take the stand or even a rod from the window for security reasons. Not an enjoyable experience

There are Pandora and Trollbeads stores in my local mall. Pandora is a large well lit and well stocked store. Trollbeads is a very nice booth toward the center "crossroads" of the mall. It's also well lit, attractive and they stock everything. The only thing I ever wanted that I had to wait for was the Graduation bead during graduation season. They also have huge signs all over the mall so you can't miss them.

To my knowledge, Pandora hasn't given away anything promotionally. I did, however buy a very nice little box for storing a couple bracelets and an inventory of beads, charms and locks. Great size for traveling!
Trollbeads, OTOH, gives sterling bracelets with any lock. And they've continued that promotion for at least a year.

The local Trollbeads also has lovely boxes that haven't seen anywhere else. They have small ones big enough for just one bead. They have larger ones that are bracelet size and ones that are a combo that hold a pair of earrings and possibly a few elements or beads. They are strong and quite elegant with magnetic closures. I'll try to take some pix when my grandson isn't keeping me on my toes.

There are a couple of independent shops that also carry Trollbeads. They also have the bracelet promotion but don't have the neat boxes.

I'm not aware of any independent shops that carry Pandora.

That's what's happening in the Los Angeles environs.

Interesting. I am not fond of the large cores and would definitely not be happy if production beads went that way. We don't really get uniques/OOAKs in Australia anyway, and I don't know if we will see the new UU. The Australian distributorship was changed fairly recently and I understand the new distributor intends to target jewellery stores as retailers. I think every mid and low-end jeweller already sells Pandora and/or Chamilia, Lovelinks, and the other wannabeads. At the moment Trollbeads are mainly sold in independent gift stores. Pandora is completely dominant as far as advertising, brand recognition and retail space. As elsewhere, most Pandora wearers seem to wear little if any glass. Assuming we do get UUs in Australia, I think the UU concept would only work as a strategy to entice Pandora wearers to 'switch' if the LD carries both, which is extremely rare. The Pandora distributor virtually 'de-lists' retailers who carry other brands, and the former Trollbeads distributor wasn't much better: only a brave retailer can do this. Without that, Pandora wearers won't even know Trollbeads exist - there is no advertising at all except small placement ads by individual retailers in local free papers and the like.

Here is a response to the question that I asked trollbeads re: the large core beads.
Thank you for your mail

The only beads we have with large cores are the special made Universal Uniques.

In regards to our design and production, I can inform you that our beads are mainly designed in Denmark but we always have guest designers from all over the world for inspiration and diversity in our beads.
As for production, please be informed that our beads are handmade in several places. China is one of them, as are Denmark, Lithuania, Germany and India.

I hope the above gives you the answers you were looking for.

So I would say (based on the above answer) that if someone or some shops are getting large core production beads ... they must be fakes or Uniques

Re: the advertising of beads ... I was told by our LD that they are offered an advertising incentive (this is probably up to the areas distributor) she said the incentive wasn't all that appealing though. I also remember that trollbeads was shown in the Oprah magazine a few times ... but other than that the only way I hear of any trollbead news is mainly thru the forums (so the customers) ... I think we have done some amazing free advertising for troll!

Re: Pandora glass ... Aagaards were the designers of all the Pandora glass ... I am not sure when Pandora breached their contract with Aagaards and started hiring other glass designers ... but may be that is the reason that the glass designs aren't up to troll standards ... likely why Pandora is more concerned with the silver designs and sales ... "it is what their clients want to wear" Maybe troll could take a lesson in "what their clients want to wear"

It seems that different countries have different promotions, we don't see the free bracelet with a lock in the UK, but we do have Debut Bracelets which amount to a saving of £20 or thereabouts on a combination of bracelet, lock and two glass beads. Any other promotions and deals I have received have been at the discretion of LDs.

I am relieved that it is confirmed that large cores are specific to UU only, I don't care for them much, but they aren't as bad as the wide flange on the Pandora beads with Pandora inscribed on them, it's a bit "label on the outside" for my taste.

The TB situation in Scotland is getting dire, neither Glasgow nor Edinburgh have decent independent LDs, the one in Stirling is gone, soon we will only be left with HHB's LD in Lerwick!!

I don't have any Pandora. I've looked in the store and have the catalogue but they just have't appealed to me. ...except the earrings. I really like the elements of their earrings.

I think part of the aversion has to do with the wide flange (thank you for that word) too. And it is more than a little tacky to have the name so prominently stamped on everything.

I love the decorative flange on Christa's beads ... I would likely do my entire combo with beads that had the decorative flange or maybe mix it up with pearls ... I have never seen the two core styles mixed so would have to reserve my judgement until I do

I agree about the Pdora flanges though (Ugly)

Very informative thread, thanks all. I would like to share what I learned from my very small LD this past weekend. They had just received their first batch of UUs the day I was there. They had to purchase them in lots of 6 but can sell them individually. They asked the rep. if all TB glass might be made with the larger core in the future and the answer was no, only the UUs will have the larger core and they will remain separate from the regular line, ie not pictured/featured in storybooks, etc. The rep also said that it is more expensive to produce the UUs, thus the higher price (and presumably part of the reason for not switching to all larger core beads). I am not sure why it would cost more, other than due to using more materials (glass and silver) because of the larger size, any thoughts about that? Are larger glass beads more difficult to produce for some reason, and thus more expensive?

I am not happy to have read in this thread that regular production beads are now being reproduced as UU's, I would much prefer that only new designs be offered, rather than re-makes of existing designs. I worry that the next step on this path would be to reintroduce retired glass as UUs, and that is a very scary thought...

I prefer the smaller beads and cores and probably will not purchase the UUs unless I stumble across one that is just too amazing to pass on. The price is just too high, imho...I would rather spend my money on retireds, either silver or glass.

My friend's husband has been making a few glass beads. He says it is more difficult to make beads with the larger cores. There is probably some price difference for the silver tubing for the larger cores as well.

Hope Troll sticks with the smaller cores.

In terms of LDs, I had heard a rumour that ours (which stock both Troll and Pandora) would stop selling Troll. I went in to ask (as I was panicking) and they said if anything, Pandora would be the ones to go as it was no where near as popular!
Pandora shops look very nice, but with them popping up in all large cities, they are taking business away from the LDs that support them. Whilst I would be interested to see a Trollbead concept store (dont think there are any in the UK?) I'm glad they're not popping up everywhere as I think it'll be the death of the brand. Once the current fashion for charm bracelets has passed, the brands will still need loyal collectors. Whilst I haven't been too bothered by the UU's slight change in cores (as long as the quality stays), most of you seem very upset by it. I hope for Troll's sake that they limit this to the UU's.

I just spoke with a pandora fan who prefers TB so, the tide of appreciation for these bigger cores may be short lived. As long as TB stays true to their attention to detail, quality and uniqueness, they'll have fans and supporters for life, myself included. Sometimes bigger is not better. I understand the need to be competitive and am hoping that all the qualities I love stay put. I've said it before and I'll say it again. If they lose sight of who and what they are, TBs will see a bump in retired sales and a slump in sales of the current line offerings. I have been sorely disappointed in the latest TB offerings, namely the 35 annv. Bracelet and the current USA WT beads. As the bigger core beads aren't for me, I really haven't paid all that much attention. But from what I have seen, I do not like. I'm hopeful for a return to greatness sooner than later! So, here's to hoping!!!

Mouseoncheese wrote:It seems that different countries have different promotions, we don't see the free bracelet with a lock in the UK, but we do have Debut Bracelets which amount to a saving of £20 or thereabouts on a combination of bracelet, lock and two glass beads. Any other promotions and deals I have received have been at the discretion of LDs.

I am relieved that it is confirmed that large cores are specific to UU only, I don't care for them much, but they aren't as bad as the wide flange on the Pandora beads with Pandora inscribed on them, it's a bit "label on the outside" for my taste.

The TB situation in Scotland is getting dire, neither Glasgow nor Edinburgh have decent independent LDs, the one in Stirling is gone, soon we will only be left with HHB's LD in Lerwick!!

I quite agree, all that seems to be left are "chain" jewellery shops with a very limited range.

There is a newish stockist in Perth that I visited a few weeks ago. Not a jeweller, more of a gift shop. They did have a decent range of beads but only one of each. Don't know what their service is like as I didn't ask to see any. However they are a Pandora stockist too and have huge range of them.

I know I have cut back on my buying of TB and now I concentrate on finishing up bracelets that I have the beads for.... After I get this accomplished I will think about staying with TB or collecting something else. TB have been much of my social life for a few years now... live in my RV and travel and have personally met some great people around the states with this collecting... I just do not know what to think... but when you have the price point that TB have I really wanted them to stay just the way they were, more exclusive was the way I thought they were ... but on the other hand I am self employed and can see why TB made the decisions they have made. Time will tell for me which way I will go... again, right this moment I just have not made a decision one way or another...

As Baden-baden received those beads pictured as UU I have to ask why Trollbeads did not produce some of the more pretty production beads to remake.
I had one UU but I sent it back it was to wobbly so I will now stay with old retired beads and not buy many more new ones.
When will Trollbeads be making a bracelet to fit the UU beads?

UUs don't seem to be selling very well in the UK at all. I have 3 which I bought from 3 different sellers, who each only had 6 beads. Several weeks later they still have:

4/6
5/6
5/6

They have had 1 other customer who bought 1 UU.

Oh my...I am certainly loving this thread! Especially in light of Trollbeads just recently accusing me of Trademark infringement and selling fake beads.......That's another topic entirely and I will post in another thread and explain everything......Until then, suffice to say that I am ready to "rock & roll" and I do not succumb to intimidation by anyone, no matter how much money they have........Keep check with your newspapers...you are likely to see me there before long...LOL LOL LOL

One question...IF the larger cored regular line of beads are fake, and the LDs get their stock from the distributor, how would the distributor get "fake" trollbeads - IF they buy their stock to distribute from TBs? Hmmmmmmm.............the saga continues.....