| There is one ebay seller I frequently look at, known as wildflower_hill, which is a store managed by a woman named Cindy. She sells a variety of beads as well as plenty of freshwater strands which, from my experience, are attractive and pretty for beading. A lot of what she sells are dyed but I do believe she has carried some natural colored strands but usually her freshwater products have a lot of variety for color and size.
DruzyDesigns really has a lot of what appears to be great stuff! Certainly it's a bit on the pricy size but from what I gather on the forums her merchandise isn't cheap in quality.
I also caught one seller before (name is hugepearls) and for the most part they sell undrilled or pendants of south sea pearls. A lot of their products aren't round and show a number of the blemishes on the surface, but I believe the seller is honest in showing numerous photos of the merchandise as well as all the markings found on the pearl surface. Their pearls do look nice though and are posted with reasonable prices.
Ebay had the potential to be great; the premise to purchase things online via auction isn't a new idea anymore but like everything on the internet the possibilties are endless, in a way. Too bad it's bogged down with fakes and deceitful merchants
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~Mandy
A semi-serious beader with a newfound love for pearls |