A Small World

Buying Online from India

There are parts of the world where skilled labor, especially in traditional crafts, is much less expensive than where I live. Thanks to the internet, people in those parts of the world are for some purposes as close to us as our neighbors. That ought to open up opportunities for exchange in our mutual benefit. Sometimes it does.

The obvious examples are EBay and Etsy, where many of the sellers are from third world countries, but I am interested in a more individual approach in order to take advantage of the opportunity for custom work, having something made just for you. I’ve tried it twice, once successfully, once unsuccessfully. Both attempts were related to my hobby of historical recreation in the SCA, the Society for Creative Anachronism.

My SCA persona is a medieval Muslim, a North African Berber from about 1100. I own an antique Persian Kard, a very pretty small knife with a blade of Damascus steel, just the thing to wear as a general purpose utility knife — my wife has long complained that the knives sold in the SCA are weapons, not tools. But it’s an antique and I don’t want to risk losing or damaging it.

I found an Indian seller on EBay who was offering Damascus steel knives based on traditional designs at an unreasonably low price, so I bought one — and found that it was well made and the blade was indeed Damascus. I corresponded with the seller about making a replica of my knife, sent him pictures and measurements, and he made it. It was a close copy, well made and inexpensive, so I ordered several more as gifts for friends who also had Islamic personae.

My second try was less successful. Someone else in the SCA came up with a conjectural design for a medieval pavilion, one which did not require external ropes, a significant advantage at an event, such as the annual Pennsic War, where tent space is limited. It was a much better design than the one I had come up with and made, so I made one for myself and my wife to use, later a smaller one for our daughter. We have been very happy with them — the larger is about 25 years old and, although it required some repairs after last Pennsic, still functional.

I wanted another small one, was a little reluctant to do the work of making it, so looked around to see if I could find someone who would make it to our design. Some friends who camp with us had a pavilion they had bought from India that appeared to be well made, although a design with external ropes. I found two Indian sellers, one on EBay, one on the web, and asked them if they could make a custom design. I got positive responses, sent more details of what I wanted — and got no response, in one case to multiple emails.

I ended up making it myself.

I have been told that one characteristic of Indian commercial culture is a reluctance to say “no,” to admit that they cannot get you something or make you something. Better to say you can and then not do it. I do not know if it is true — some of my readers may have more relevant experience — but it is at least consistent with what happened.

My third project is an idea that I do not expect to ever try but thought someone else might, inspired by one of my medieval hobbies. I have a large collection of pictures of historic jewels taken in museums, give a slide show on the subject at Pennsic, make pieces based on period jewels. I noticed long ago that inexpensive silver jewelry coming in from India and Bali, probably other places as well, had filigree work comparable in precision to historical jewels.

Suppose I knew a jeweler in one of the third world countries where the traditional craft still exists who was willing to do, or get others to do, custom work. I create a catalog with pictures of hundreds of historical pieces they can make and put it online. There is a price for the piece, a higher price for a guarantee that we will never make another copy of the same original.

Museum shops currently sell replicas of historical jewelry at high prices. Almost none are close copies with real gemstones in them. If I found the right people in India or Bali they could make accurate reproductions of the originals, pieces that might have been brought through a time machine, for less. The typical museum shop has only a few; I could offer a choice among hundreds, perhaps thousands. A few jewelers in the SCA make and sell period jewels but all of them, so far as I can tell, are made in the US at American costs and priced accordingly.¹

The Down Side

I don’t think I have ever been cheated by a seller in India. The closest was someone on Etsy who sold ruby rough of implausibly high quality for the price. On further inquiry it turned out that it was glass filled ruby, ruby rough whose cracks had been filled with glass, a recent technology which greatly improves the apparent quality of the rough. There is nothing wrong with selling it but it should have been properly labeled.

Some years ago I bought some medicine from an Indian firm. Ever since I have gotten phone calls from people who tell me that they are from that firm and try to sell me more of what I bought. I have repeatedly told them that I am not interested, repeatedly asked them to take me off their list, repeatedly been told they will do so. The next week another call. I conjecture that the callers are not actually employees of the firm, that the firm offers their list of phone numbers to anyone who wants it and pays them a commission if they make a sale. That would explain why the fact that I am not interested never gets transmitted back to the firm.

Some problems, but enough success that I will probably again try to find someone to make me something, perhaps a replacement for the large pavilion when it finally wears out.

It is nice living in a world so small that India is, for some purposes, next to California.

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1. The closest to an exception, in my experience, is one firm that makes simple but very nice period pieces, I presume in the US, at very affordable prices.