[PearlBirthstone]

I recently sent a question into a well known internet site that sells pearls and is even a member in this forum to ask a question pertaining to size differences between 7.5mm and 8mm. I felt the question pertaining to that was answered okay but it was when I stated that all the pictures of the Akoya necklaces they have on line are generic, they gave me the same answer as last time. Basically go to this pearl quality description and that should help me. Well, I am not impressed and actually felt "blown" off because I did state 8mm 18inch AAA quality necklace was a little out of my budget range but could probably swing 7.5mm with the same specs in rose tone. I guess I felt that my original request to see if they had better pictures was not very customer friendly. Maybe I am just being concerned a little too much over the incident today, but it is a huge investment for me on a military budget to make this purchase. Thanks. And I really love this site! Should of stated that first..

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi June-Person,

Maybe you should put the question out on the open forum, e.g. in the Q&A section, that you are looking for pictures of their AAA grades and could the sellers on this forum, pretty please, put up a good photograph of their AAA grades in 7.5mm and 8mm showing them in the same picture side by side on a white background. Maybe they will also be so nice to give shots of their AA+ and AAA of the same size side by side in the same picture on the same background. If they are really nice, they will give you exactly the one pictured that you decided to pick. Or show you a quality progression in the same size and a size progression in the same quality. That'll be nice.

Zeide

[PearlBirthstone]

Thank you for the excellent advice. After writing my message out I realized the wording conveying my concerns was probably stated too strongly. I just would like to see what the difference would be. It is really hard over the internet to see the product and you certainly cannot touch it or try it on. Would be nice though... Again thank you for the wonderful advice and I will start a thread pertaining to size differences and maybe get fortunate enough to have one of our pearl experts be able to even show pictures.

[Kevin Canning]

I hate to hear stories of bad customer service like that. I would encourage you to contact a few other the dealers on the forum and I'm sure you'll find someone that is willing to take the time to help you with your purchase.

I am going to ask that you don't ask for dealers to post pictures as I would hate to see this forum move in a commercial direction. Once we start doing that, the next person will come along and ask us to post prices and I think that would damage the integrity of the site.

As for the necklace you are looking for, I would suggest the 7.5mm as they are a very popular size and typicallya much better value then anything 8.0mm and up.

[PearlBirthstone]

Hello Kevin,

You are right. I did not think of that and did not have any intention of ruining the integrity of the site. I apologize if I came across that way and will be very careful in all future postings. I am learning one baby-step at a time. This forum is awesome and I sure have gained a great deal of information that I will use when the time has come to purchase pearl jewelry in the future. Thank you so much everyone for all of your insight!

[Pearls_by_Angela_Carol]

You are correct - it is difficult to show exactly what a necklace is going to look like through a picture on the Internet. The biggest factor there is the difference between peoples computer screen.

I can take a photo of an Akoya necklace, and make sure that the color is accurate (to me) by holding it up against my computer monitor and in my mind get it as accurate as possible. Then when you, or some other customer, looks at that same picture, it will look different. They most likely will not have their monitor color calibrated, there will be differences in everything from gray tones to yellows from monitor manufacturer to manufacturer. A good example is two separate LCD panels that I own from the same "big name brand" manufacturer. One will not produce an accurate gradient from black to white. It moves through browns instead of grays. There is nothing that I can do to adjust this either. So pictures on this monitor will always have more brown or yellow in them.

So, one single picture will look different on every ones monitor.

Given that, the things that you should look for when choosing a necklace online are:

1) Do take a look at the pictures. Generally you can tell if they are of a real necklace or not. There is one Internet site (that I will not name at this time) that has pictures that look like they are "painted". And there is also not really any difference between their lowest grade and their highest grade in the way the pictures look.

2) Make sure that the company has a good refund policy and that it is stated clearly up front. If you do not like the pearls, you should be able to send them back with no hassle.

3) Take the knowledge that you have gained here and match it against the information on the companies web site. For instance, if a company tells you (or leads you to believe) that they sell only Japanese Akoya, they are not telling you the truth.

4) Make sure that the company has a clear grading scale for their pearls and that it is prominently posted. A reputable company will want you to know exactly what it is that you are buying. Also, make sure that this grading scale is in line with what would be considered "industry accepted". There are some companies that will grade their top pearls as AAA+, AAA++ or even AAAA. Be very wary of these companies.

Actually when reading back through these things, you are in essence choosing a company, not a necklace. It is easier to decide between the necklaces. An 8.0mm Akoya will be around twice the price of a 7.5mm Akoya necklace but there will only be a count difference of a few pearls on an 18 inch necklace. I would have to agree with Kevin, the 7.5mm is a very good value for the price and is very versatile. That is why it is one of our best selling sizes.

[Kevin Canning]

I did not think of that and did not have any intention of ruining the integrity of the site.

I know this wasn't the case, my post was just meant to be a friendly reminder that we need to keep the focus of this site informational and not commercial.

[PearlBirthstone]

Oops, there I go again, stating things to strongly. I know you gave excellent advice PealsofJoy and I goofed.. Thanks again for your great advice. You too Pearls by Angela Carol!

[The Pearl Outlet]

I hate to hear stories of bad customer service like that.

Let me add a little more insight here. Most jewelry companies don't take their own pictures, though there are exceptions. I have resellers who struggle for months to try to take their own pictures, and still fail to capture the luster and beauty of pearls in a photograph.

To adequately photograph a pearl necklace, it takes a great deal of skill. Thus, many companies hire independent photographers and it can cost in excess of $100 per photograph. In this case, a company isn't going to take a picture of the exact necklace just to close a sale like this. I wouldn't call this bad customer service, and I haven't seen anyone here yet offer to do this yet. (Though this may change now that I've posted)

[Caitlin]

Let me ditto the difficulty of photographing pearls and pearl jewelry. I having been trying for a year. Even upgraded my camera. Several people here have offered me help- Thanks mikeh & jshepherd esp., and my photos are still terrible. If I wanted someone here to buy from me and I posted some of my photos, I would probably lose the sale through the poor quality of my photos.

BTW
for friends on this forum-
I did get a good photo yesterday of a 10mm peacok cfwp necklace and earring set I made for a birthday present for a friend and I was astounded! My hubby even said it was a good photo! But it still doesn't look professional.

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

I once had a strange experience when my husband photographed (35mm) part of my black pearl collection and the pictures turned out to show such unearthly beauty that I was wondering where that was coming from. He shot the pictures on our patio at late morning in indirect sunlight. The pearls looked almost like mardigras beads in the prints.

Zeide

[Pearls_by_Angela_Carol]

Since we are on the topic of photos - I have been experimenting with different lighting. The most interesting thing that I have done so far is to shoot a black Freshwater necklace in natural sunlight (outside). Inside I have used every type of lighting I could find - incandescent, fluorescent, halogen... but the colors that popped out when the sunlight hit it were incredible!

I intend on continuing shooting different types and colors in natural sunlight just to look at the contrast between that and studio lighting. The only thing that has continued to elude me is shooting a white necklace on a white background.

[jshepherd]

It is possible to do (white on white) and possible to do without Photoshop (believe it or not).
I do not do the photography in our office (one of our office suites is now a studio), but I was involved in the development of our newest formula. The equipment is quite expensive, around $4k before the camera, but the results are amazing. Some of the integral pieces are the strobe flash and canopy, and a device that measures the light 'heat' on the background and on the actual pearls. The distance is also measured with an invisible 9-point grid surrounding the pearls. It takes a lot of set-up, and you really do need a professional photographer to get it right, but the results are pictures that do not need to be touched up, and the look is exactly like the pearls actually appear. No more over-bearing overtones, or over-contrasted edges.

Black pearls, on the other hand, are the easiest to shoot. The aforementioned method works best for white pearls and light color pearls. With black pearls I still prefer the look from the light-box.

It is a big job to re-shoot everything, but we are doing it now as we are preparing new pieces. We have needed to do it for quite a while after the Internet’s most notorious pearl-site copycat (I know you are reading this and you know who you are P.) decided to try and shoot his pictures in the exact same format as ours more than a year ago – not very original.

[Kevin Canning]

well issue is not that the company didn't want to shoot a picture just for one customer the issue is that this customer walked away feeling "blown off". If the picture is too difficult or time consuming the the customer service rep should have explained that and helped them choose a strand based on their needs and wants.

Its about building relationships, sure they might just be buying a $300 necklace now, but if you treat them right you'll have a customer for life and you can't put a price tag on that loyalty.

[The Pearl Outlet]

Good point Kevin and I heartily agree. I just was trying to make sure the readers of this forum don't expect a custom picture from every dealer. That just won't happen. But you are correct that the customer should not have been "blown off" by whatever company they called.