Dollar Bead Box Subscription Box Review – October 2016

Dollar Bead Box is a monthly delivery of beads and beading products. During a given month, reorder your favorite items from the Dollar Bead Box shop for just $1. (This deal is only available to subscribers.)

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is of the $19.50 a month, Dollar Bead Box. 

The Subscription Box: Dollar Bead Box

The Cost: $19.50 + $4.50 shipping for the Dollar Bead Box or $8 for the Dollar Bead Bag (4 strands of 3 mm Czech Fire Polish Beads and 4 strands of 4 mm Czech Fire Polish Beads in every bag); free shipping with 3- and 6-month subscriptions (plus get an additional discount on 6-month subscriptions)

The Products: Beads and beading-related items including but not limited to stringing materials, Swarovski crystals, vintage glass, freshwater pearls, buttons, and more.

Ships to: US ($4.50 on a month-to-month subscription, free with longer subscriptions)

Check out all of our Dollar Bead Box reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory! 

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

The box included a letter reminding us that subscribers can buy more of the box items for $1 online. The back of the letter included a list of items in the box.

A note on prices: Items like this can come from a variety of different suppliers at many price points depending on how many you buy, etc. I couldn’t find a lot of these exact beads from common sources (e.g., Fire Mountain Gems) and it’s of questionable value to pick something similar because a slight difference in grading or size or material and you are looking at half or double the price (or an even greater difference). Even different colors of the same size and shape of glass beads are priced differently due to materials needed to make the colors!

Triangle Beads, Opaque Red w/Aluminum Finish (2)

These are drilled along one of the long edges so I think I would probably want a few more of them before making a piece of jewelry out of them because this drilling direction seems more suited for a necklace (at least, to me).

Hand Painted Round Porcelain Bead (2)

These have sunflowers on them, if you look closely. (This is as good of an opportunity as any to say I love my new camera and that it can capture such details even though I am not really properly trained on how to use it.)

Tabular Rectangle Bead, Peacock (2)

I think these would go well with some of the 2-hole square beads pictured later on down. I also think they might make a nice necklace or bracelet if you bought a few more and strung them with metallic accents.

4mm Chinese Crystal Bicones, Crystal (84)

Clear beads will always be handy to have on hand. They look great in holiday and winter designs and they go with almost anything.

Czech Glass Corrugated Dagger, Crystal Beige Luster (24)

I think these are really interesting. I don’t have anything else like them in my collection. But now I feel challenged to come up with a good way to use them!

6 mm Large Hole Round Pewter Bead, Antique Brass (25)

I decided to make a necklace with some of the beads from this box and I was working with antique brass/bronze finish chain. My first idea didn’t really work out because the horizontal segments were too short (see below for reference), so I added these to the horizontal segments and they ended up being just right. Plus the finish matched!

Antique Copper Floral Ring

This looked familiar and I finally figured out it was because we received it in silver tone in August. One fun thing about this subscription is, if you like something, you are likely to see it in a different color in a later month. Anyway, I think I want to incorporate this into a seed bead piece.

9 x 6 Crystal Rondelle, Champagne (10)

Subscribers got an email early in the month that there had been a misprint on the information sheet and we were actually getting 10 of these instead of 20. I appreciate the communication! I used all of these in the necklace I made this month.

Czech Glass Dagger, Large, Jet (20)

These are cool. And they match really well with some spacer bars in the same color that I received in another bead box (cannot for the life of me remember which one).

Silver Plated Jump Ring (20)

These seem much higher-quality than the jump rings I usually buy.  I’ll save these for some time when I need large jump rings.

Antique Silver Chandelier Earrings (2)

I have some titanium hooks that match these well enough (you can never get quite where you want to with metal finishes when you are limited to hypoallergenic materials for the hooks). And lots of little crystals and fire polished drops. So I will make some nice earrings once I settle on a bead color.

Pewter Starburst Pendant (2)

These would be good on a charm bracelet or maybe on the ends of a memory wire bracelet. They’re a good size for me. (Sorry, I realize there is no size reference in the photo.)

Pewter Heart and Key Toggle

I like interesting clasps. This one is pretty cute. It’s a little on the small side but would work for a lightweight bracelet.

Czech Glass Drop, Jet Brown Luster (20)

These are nice drops for necklaces with warmer-toned metals. See how I used some of them below.

6 mm 2-Hole Square Bead, Matte Siam (24)

I love 2-hole squares, and I love red. Not quite sure what I’ll do with these yet, but I am happy with them!

6 mm 2-Hole Square Bead, Gray Opal Marea Peacock (24)

These are really interesting and I keep seeing something new every time I look at them. I think they would work well with the “peacock” rectangles from up above, too.

Here is a necklace I made with some of the beads from the box. I’m pretty proud of this one. I had kind of an idea in my mind, and the first few attempts didn’t work out, but I kept at it (for two whole hours!) and this is the result.

Verdict: I did not calculate a value for the October 2016 Dollar Bead Box, for reasons explained above.  This subscription cost plus shipping divided by the number of items works out to a little more than $1 per item, which I think is fair. If you sign up for a three-month subscription, you get charged monthly but you don’t pay shipping, so that is a good way to save a few bucks, as well. The items are a little bit of a mixed bag but where I am really seeing the value in this one is in a multi-month subscription – you can build quite a collection of basic glass beads and crystals over the course of a few months. And I think there was better coordination this month than usual, too!

Please note that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings.

What did you think of the October 2016 Dollar Bead Box? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?