Fire Mountain Gems

After +/- half an hour looking at various beads, charms, etc & throwing a few different varieties in my cart to compare later, due to the somewhat higher price FMG was asking, I decided to do a bit of inventory of my shopping cart. I was pleased to find that not only do they tally up the items and the tax on the right of the webpage but that under "shipping" they state N/A which I always thought meant "Non-Applicable". This led me to go back and reexamine some other items that had caught my eye and spend a 10-20 minutes seeing what else they had to offer--marking down the item #'s on a sheet of paper for when I truly get the creative bug. Finally I decided that, for now, I'll just purchase 2 silver charms that I planned to inlay into a wood staff I had been working on. Clicked on Paypal. Unclicked their newsletter and catalogue. Confirmed my shipping address. Redirected to Paypal and signed in. Confirm order. Redirected BACK to FMB for "final confirmation". Nearly clicked on "finish order" when I noticed the $5.99 shipping charge (both charms were flat--not even an 1/8" thick. 2oz. Put 'em in their little zip baggies, staple 'em to a nice HD piece of cardboard and send them in a 1st Class standard envelope--$. 50, but that's not the point). Back to Paypal. Cancel. Back to FMB. Backspace. Back. Uncheck. Back. Delete... all because of their cheap shipping fee ploy--the Mire Fountain (strata)Gem.
I know what some of you might say, "FMG isn't for hobbyists, it's for professionals looking to buy wholesale!" Might I suggest then, that you try Pandahall, Alibaba, Indiamart, or Global Sources where they'll fill your order w/ a Scoop Shovel for half the price of these clowns! (And you STILL might be eligible for Free Shipping!)