Hama beads pegboard issue

Alright, this thing is officially driving me crazy - so it's an issue, right?

I've been looking for 4 large interlocking midi hama beads pegboards for the past 3 months.

I ordered them from the only seller on Ebay who has them and ships to Italy: they never arrived. Order refunded after 1 month of useless waiting.

I searched for them high and low on the Net. I contacted hamabeads.com - they don't ship to Italy.

I looked for them on Amazon.co.uk AND THEY WANTED TO CHARGE ME 24.42 GBP DELIVERY FOR AN ITEM WORTH 4.60 GBP. I swear. I didn't want to believe it too, but unluckily it's true.

I searched for them everywhere over here too - I now know by heart all the craft shops and the toy shops in my town. Nothing.

I'm at the end of my tether. Is there anybody out there who knows where I could buy them online on a website that a) delivers to Italy and b) doesn't skin me with shipping fees?
Unluckily I can only buy online from EU sites, if I buy from the US customs is going to charge me at least 11 euros in taxes (more or less 15 dollars) and it wouldn't be worth it anyway.

Or, as a second option, is anybody willing to buy them and ship them to me? If you have PayPal I'll refund all your expenses - alternatively I'm willing to swap them with anything you like. The ideal would be finding someone longing for something you can only buy in Italy and organize a swap Happy

Please help!

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15 replies since 6th September 2011 • Last reply 6th September 2011

Reply #1:

Mary, I'll have a look around and see if I can purchase them here. I'm more than happy to ship them to you.
If Amazon UK still has the ones you saw, can you send me the link? Then I can buy them straight away!

If this is them :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hama-Beads-Large-Square-Pegboards/dp/B000AYHNME/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315325985&sr=8-1

I can purchase them, have them sent to me and then send them on to you for around £10! which is slightly more palatable than the £29 they quoted you Happy

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Reply #2:

That's precisely it. I tried to add it to my basket again and proceed to the checkout right now to see if they were having some kind of malfunction on the website when I tried, but there it is again: items, 4.60; postage and packing: 24.42 GBP. Is that even possible??? I mean, what's it wrapped in, gold foil??? And that's standard delivery! O_____O°°°

As you said yes, £10 is definitely more palatable. If you're available, I'd go for it. Do you have PayPal? Othewise it could get tricky for me to refund you.

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Reply #3:

Yup, it IS a bit OTT. I'm assuming the store sends it by courier rather than royal mail and thats why its so expensive.
I'll order it tonight, let you know when I receive it, then when I ship it out to you.
Paypal is fine, I'll send you the details once I've sent it (so I know how much the actual postage will be) It's £4.60 + £2.80 p&p to me, then around £2.50-£3 to you.


UPDATE: The deed is done!! should be with me in 3-5 working days Happy

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Reply #4:

i have some (4) if you want them, i dont use them as making something out of hama takes me several hours, first sorting out the colours then putting the beads on the board with pliers/tweesers.
I also have other shapes if you want them, bunny, egg, small square, hexagon, heart (small)

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Reply #5:

Yey for TeamWork!

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Reply #6:

Lmao @ Pammerz, the one woman cheering squad ;D
(Wonder if she made her own pompoms outta fused plastic bags???)

Something weird happened when I went to pay - Amazon took the money from my giftcard balance rather than my debit card....
As far as I knew, I had a zero balance on there Tongue
The only thing I can think of is that they've finally refunded the money for a CD that went missing after I ordered it last November for The Kids Christmas. It tracked as far as the nearest depot, but took 3 weeks to get there because of the snow isssues we had. Then it vanished.

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Reply #7:

@Bindiibabe: so basically you didn't pay for them?! Nice! Happy

@Nikki: I LOVE working with hama beads! My BF (always nice) says it's because I'm slightly autistic. I see it like a meditation exercise, it empties your head of everything else and the only thing you can think of is getting the right colours in the right places... which is awesome when you had a rough day at work and you're finding it hard to relax. So I suggest you keep your pegboards Nikki, you might end up needing them someday ;)

PS I even enjoy sorting out the colours (jepp, that's how sick I am) but if that's what wears you out have you ever tired buying the pre-sorted packages? Maybe that could get you back in the mood ^_____^

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Reply #8:

off topic...but what are these boards for? are they backing for hama pieces? in the link I see a horse, so do you use this backing to glue the beads down on to make the horse? Or are these used to make a larger piece?

i didn't even know what hama beads were...until Mary sent me one of my fav swap items. it is a hama bead rabbit fridge magnet. i just love it.

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Reply #9:

Lol. I DID pay for them, just last November...

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Reply #10:

well i bought several of the big boxes that came with different peg boards so i have multiples of them. also some beads are slightly different colours, sometimes I dont notice this until they have been ironed.

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Reply #11:

Corvus, its a flat board with lots of little "fingers", spaced so when you put your beads on they are evenly positioned and held in place until you iron over the top to fuse them together.
They come in various shapes and sizes.
Once you've fused the beads you slide your design off and your board is reuseable.

Nikki, the kids have amalgamated a few different boxes over the years, so I just pinch theirs now and again.
I remember one time when The Teen was just a kid and she and afriend managed to tip about 9,950 of a 10,000 bead set all over her floor. It started life as one of the flat boxes with all the separate colour sections .... it is no longer like that Happy

Mary, Got an email to say it had been dispatched Happy

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Reply #12:

@Bindiibabe: ^_____^

@Nikki: well, if you have multiple ones I'd be happy to swap your doubles. What would you like to swap them with? ^____^

@Corvus: I first learnt about hama beads from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m1UeKgMm5Q. I think it shows pretty much everything you need to know about them ^____^

(PS Perler Beads is just the US brand of it; Hama Beads is the European brand, they're made in Denmark. There's a Swedish brand called Pyssla that they sell at Ikea, but they're smaller and they just have six or seven colors).

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Reply #13:

ahhh thank you, Bindi. That makes sense.

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Reply #14:

I will hunt out my boards and let u know mary, I think i only need one type of each board.

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