[jshepherd]

Day 9

This morning was scheduled to start at another blue pearl store, but I skipped this stop and instead jumped ahead to the 2nd stop of the morning – the Eyris headquarters. There the pearls were sorted, graded, sold, and shipped. I wanted to have a chance to really learn and understand their grading system before the group arrived for the scheduled presentation.

The staff was very welcoming and spent about an hour with me going over each grading factor in detail. They also showed me some of their “special” pearls. The first was “Google Earth”, a 21 mm mabe with a wide color range, and a 15 mm mabe with intense luster and color. This was also a named pearl, tagged “Luscious”.


Luscious and Google Earth

What floored about these two mabes, however, were their asking prices. Google Earth was marked at $100,000, and Luscious at $15,000. The pearls were clearly marked to impress. I seriously doubted they ever hoped to sell them. Cultured mabe pearls, while nice, are still not pearls in the truest sense of the word – not even true cultured pearls. They should never, ever command a higher price than the best of the naturals on the market today. I actually chuckled about it with a staff member who rolled her eyes and laughed when she saw my astonishment.

The group eventually arrived and proceeded to watch a color and quality separation presentation. Roger then informed the group that he would allow the purchase of one pearl or set of pearls at wholesale. He could not allow regular wholesale purchases as he is in an exclusivity agreement with a US based wholesaler currently. Prices started in the $200 range for low-grade, and they progressed all the way to Google Earth ($100,000). Most members of the group purchased pearls in the $1000 range. But the show stopper came when Roger yelled out in laughter, “Luscious is sold!” One member of our group has just paid $15,000 for a loose cultured, blue mabe pearl. I am quite certain that a record was set, as well as a new benchmark for blue pearl valuation. Not a bad day for the Eyris group!



Walking back to the hotel we finally bid farewell to Roger and his wife and headed to the airport.

Our flight to Sydney was smooth with only a slight “hiccup” upon landing. The group was separated (once again), and one member of our group happened to take a wrong turn into a restricted area of the airport. Not the best move on this day, as President Bush was scheduled to arrive shortly for APEC, and security was tight. Akira was informed that “David has been arrested”. The arrest turned into a short detainment, and he quickly rejoined the group. He thought it was quite funny that everyone knew he had been detained except for him. He thought they were just asking him a few questions.

We boarded our final flight to Darwin, and arrived at midnight. The first Paspaley presentation was scheduled for 9:00 am the following morning.

Day 10

Paspaley senior adviser Richard McLean gave this morning's lecture. It focused on the history of the South Sea pearl industry, and what we could expect from our stay in Darwin.

During a break I introduced myself. He looked at me and said “Hey, you're that Pearl-Guide fellow”. It is nice to know that all the way down under, people are still keeping tabs on what happens here on P-G.

We chatted a bit about the industry & GIA’s new pearl’s course, specifically the new South Sea pearl assignment. I had just completed a review of it before leaving on this trip, and he was eager for a synopsis. I was actually a bit disappointed in the assignment and told him so. I felt the actual history of the true beginnings of the industry in Burma and on the Ryukyu Islands has been left out. Instead it was replaced by the shell industry's history of Australia. An important historic attribute of what lead to the SSP industry in Australia, but not of the actual industry of South Sea pearls. It just did not make sense to me...

The presentation was the only thing scheduled for the day, and we were now free to explore Darwin on our own. Several of the group went on a tour called “The Jumping Crocodiles”. I elected to walk around the city for most of the day just to take it all in. I returned to my room early to catch up on emails and this darn journal.

Later I met up with Akira for dinner, and we talked in length about the trip thus far.