Post #277109 by Bay Park Buzzy on Sat, Jan 6, 2007 10:37 AM

I was going to buy a pendant, but this mask looks to be a better carving and is much more reasonably priced...

I'll bet the two of this design he is selling are only the samples sent back to him for quality control and final inspection before ordering an entire container of them. Usually when you order "original" pieces to be manufactured overseas, they send a couple of samples in different sizes and finishes for you to check out to make sure they are correct before mass production.What usually takes place is that the manufacturer will produce these samples to make sure the carving is faithful to the original design and most importantly, be designed to be made quickly and cheaply. After viewing these original samples, the manufacturer and "designer" negotiate a bulk price and discus what can be altered or changed to maximize the profits. They even change the design on some masks to make it so you can ship more per square inch by making them flatter or thinner. It would seem strange to order and produce only one mask overseas. I bet there are many, many more on the way already.
He could have done one of two things:

#1 Received the sample, saw it would be too expensive to mass produce, and sold the one off on ebay.

or

#2 Received the sample, ordered 1000+ more units, and sold the sample on ebay as a preview of things to come.

My money is on #2

On second thought, I'll just buy mine at the swap meet next summer when that design is played out, and super cheap!

Buzzy out!