In 2000 I met online a marvelous guy, known by many here as Terry from Iowa, who became a very dear friend. His lament then to a Murano Glass group was that the bottom seemed to have dropped out of the Murano market. He was at that time a glass dealer of some 10+ years standing. Plus ca change
Fortunately glass was not his main source of income and eventually he explained to me that when the market was down he would buy buy buy ready for the upturn. It's a very sound business strategy equally effective in the investment industry, in which I used to work. Buffett, Soros and arbitrageurs of all sorts use it still.
I used to buy fairly frequently from the US and sell about a third of my offerings there. These days I sell more to Europe, Canada, Australia etc. I assumed that was because the US market was so depressed from the recession.
As for buying ...zero, zilch, nada since USPS hiked those postage rates. I just cannot bring myself to pay them even if the deal as a whole stacks up. Probably just as well as I have way too much glass anyway. At least I do now understand why sellers insist on the much more expensive priority service.
We used to exchange small to medium sized glass items for fun using the old surface mail rate (which the UK still has). I occasionally come across a box he used to send something to me with a stamp of between $5 to $12 only !!
Terry unexpectedly passed away in Sept 07. I still miss our long skype conversations about glass.
As for Murano or indeed any type of glass, quality will always sell ....eventually....and indeed will probably lead the way in rises when the recovery comes. We have yet to see any green shoots here in UK.
good luck to all
Peter