Figurine site has crystal clear concept

Dennis and Marla Chorney have been collecting crystal figures for more than a decade. The Skokie, IL-based husband-and-wife team are sharing — and selling — their passion for crystal with the their new Website, CrystalFigurineShoppe.com.

Launched in January, the Website sells crystal merchandise ranging from gemstone birds, to crystal flowers, to collectible porcelain dolls. “Basically, this was just an idea we had for a business that we could run together,” Dennis Chorney explains.

“We’ve been collecting crystal figurines for about 12 years, and we really enjoy it, so we wanted to provide an opportunity for other people to collect as well.”

The site’s crystal figurine categories include animals, vehicles, musical instruments, and religious-themed figurines. It also includes a line of figurines made from Austrian Swarovski crystal. Prices range from $20 to about $200, with an average price point of around $45. The Chorneys say they plan to expand the line of merchandise considerably in the months to come.

CrystalFigurineShoppe.com works with multiple distributors to bring a wide selection of figurines to their customers. And the founders personally inspect the merchandise for quality and craftsmanship before including it on their site.

There is a lot of crystal in the marketplace that is inferior in quality — and sold for much more than it is worth, Dennis Chorney notes. He adds that their experience with crystal means they can select the best merchandise for their customers for the price.

Like many online merchants these days, the Chorneys have added a blog to their Website. The Web blog enables the company founders to introduce new merchandise as it becomes available, as well as to interact with their customers.

The blog not only gives customers the means to ask questions or make comments about the merchandise, it also enables them to make suggestions for new merchandise that might be worthwhile to feature on the site, notes Dennis Chorney.

“We want to hear what they have to say, because they can possibly put us on to things that we don’t know about.”