I agree with you there.
So depending on the 1st tier vendor you would always have the right reference for wherever you buy them from.

My local shop now uses the Miyuki colour nos online which is great - thanks Lebeado - but not all seed beads are Miyuki, there's Matsuno, Toho then Czech ones and from my experience the colour names get more and more inventive in order to be different from each other!

It is also a minefield and very time consuming to come up with a comprehensive range of colours and sizes (I've watched Jo's staff tearing their hair out!) and then comprehensively label them so perhaps we should be a little more tolerant and push gently

What I find frustrating is how many different colours get lumped under 'turquoise' or 'aqua' for example - but I suppose that's a different rant

I also find it frustrating when I buy a bead mix and find a favourite colour I later want to buy as a single pack. The problem being that the colours included in the mix haven't been identified using the manufacturers references consequently they cannot easily be ordered as individual colours. Even quality bead mixes e.g. Toho/Miyuki seem to omit this information. I don't want to steal their recipes - from time to time I need the information to make an informed purchase.

The main manufacturers, Miyuki, Matsumo, Jablonex (Czech) etc all use colour code numbers.
Problems generally arises in one of two ways,

Either the seller does not label the beads with the code number or you buy a mix.
There is no real way to label a mix bag, too many colours.

A seller that uses a sales code instead of, or as well as, as we do, the colour code can easily find more of the correct colour and will order
accordingly.

What surprises us is that people still by from Hobby Lobby and stores like that, especially at the prices they charge.

Toho, Matsuno, Miyuki don't give their colours a name only a number, so I agree that the colour code number should be either on the item or on the website, or both preferably

They're terribly difficult little pesky things to photograph accurately, so you've really only got the colour code number to go by.

Mixes...well I buy in Toho and Miyuki mixes which arrive already in pre-bagged mixes, so I must say I wouldn't know all the colours involved, as each supplier has approx 1000 colours & finishes available in their charts.

Debbie

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When I was looking for specific Miyuki cube beads, I found it frustrating when retailers had some colours but didn't give the number. And I wasn't going to go looking minutely at each photo to find out if it was the colour I wanted or not- I just moved on. They lost out by not providing the detail. I'm not sure what they could lose by putting the numbers somewhere for buyers to use as a reference.

The mixes get all kinds of different names, but fortunately there aren't so many of those. I'm guessing that maybe it depends on the wholesaler as to what name the mix is given. I love the Japanese names of the Toho mixes- Sakura and Wasabi and so on

Without buying a colour card it's difficult to match beads, but Miyuki do have a listing of all their beads on their website, I think. However, I found it easier to use an American retail site as a reference because the pictures were bigger and they still had a big range of beads so there was a good chance of coming across the right one.

We use a direct e-link to Miyuki, think it's set for 150% so you get a real good idea of the colours.

Cards are a good idea but then why pay when you can download it free.

The main disadvantage with digital versions is that the colour reproduction might be completely off and the bead you thought was a really nice colour is in fact the wrong shade and won't work at all! It depends on how accurate you need it to be- but obviously the best way of knowing if it's the right colour is to have the beads themselves to see. There are so many factors involved- the camera used to take the photos, the monitor of the person preparing the images and your own monitor which you use to view them.

There's no guarantee that with printing the reproduction is good, though if the manufacturer is distributing a printed card then you would hope they'd got it fairly close. Of course, the bead colour could change from the dye lot too... though you'd hope it wouldn't be too much.

I do wonder occasionally how much care is taken with photos on bead selling websites... I'm sure most people do take care to get it right but I also know that on Jillybeads some of the purples (especially in the swaros) are really off for me, when they aren't on other sites