Yes, slight imperfections are fine. If he can carve them down to 7 milimeter, I think around 30 beads should be more than enough. Let me know if you're able to find out what the more expensive wood is and also if it's possible to get a picture of what it looks like. Thank you.
The 4000-riel beads (4000 riel = $1) are made from Rosewood. It is more rare and stronger than the 3000-riel variety. Our man doesn't have any samples at the moment for pictures, but a google search turned up a lot. Again, since these are hand-carved you can expect the outcome to be not as clean as the google pictures but more in line with the pictures we sent.
The 3000-riel beads (from the picture I sent) are made from what the locals call "Chinese wood," so I can't confirm yet if we are talking about agarwood or not, but I suspect not.
The price stays the same for each no matter what diameter beads you order. You will need to let me know how you want them strung; ie: in a bracelet, in 2 bracelets, as loose beads, etc. The stringing is free.
Shipping from Cambodia will be at least $35 and should take less than 2 weeks. We've shipped light packages for that price to the US (1 week) so I'm estimating a package this weight could cost up to $50. We will ask around about shipping and send a copy of the receipt with tracking info.
We will make a listing for you on Cryptothrift.com and use their escrow service, unless you have a better idea. Our fee will be $15 above the estimated total. We will provide receipts demonstrating the exact amount we paid and any overpayment on your part will be returned. Since this would be our first sale on the forums I'm more interested in things going smoothly than making money, so I'm hopeful you will decide to move forward. Let me know your thoughts.
I appreciate you taking time to look for the items. However, the shipping seems to be very high, it would cost more than the actual beads themselves. Also, it seems like you can get Rosewood beads rather cheap, around $10 for more than 108 beads as you can see here:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=ROSEWOOD+MALA+108+BEADS+MEDITATION+5MMIs there a particular reason why your vendor charges such a higher price?
