[thepearlsource]

I must admit that I do not follow these forums regularly, however I can state that what Mr. Shepard has stated is ABSOLUTELY FALSE. Every single one of our photos is genuine and authentic. We have 1,000+ original photos but we "steal" one photo from the pearl outlet? Are you kidding?

[jshepherd]

Hmmm, I think someone has a bit of an issue with the truth...

Here is the picture from your Site, Leon:
http://www.thepearlsource.com/freshwater-pearls.php

Here is the page from which you stole it:
http://www.thepearloutlet.com/servle...modityID=13087

"Close" would mean it is not the same. Exact match means you took it from another Site. If you check the multicolor pic pearl for pearl it is clear that the photo is exactly identical.
So how is my comment absolutely false?

EDIT
As of today, May 16th, the picture has been changed. It no longer is the same...

So yes, I stand behind what I say. Anyone who steals photos cannot be trusted.

And your A-AAAA? You compare people and prices yet you allow 35% blemishing (edit, I see your Site now says 25%) on your AAA? Come on, that is commercial quality...

[jshepherd]

Aside from the fact that pearl source is using a picture from The Pearl Outlet on their Site, here on this forum he has not been as appreciated. He came here with what many of us felt was a very arrogant and confrontational attitude a year ago, on the forum and via email. I believe that was around the time he launched his Website. This is a community and we enjoy each other’s company here. That sort of attitude does not illicit a very warm welcome.

The fact that his Website directly attacks me personally, with the mention of pictures and videos... well, I just do not like the guy. And people here can usually tell when I do not like someone.

I also do not trust the grading. Leon makes it a point, over and over again, in emails to customers (who have reported to me), and here on this forum, that his prices "destroy" everyone else. But he grades on A-AAAA! A scale accepted no where, and one that no one understands - it is eBay grading. His AAA grade does not even match AA+. How is that comparing apples to apples?

We also know he severely exaggerates. Here is a clear case in point.

On his Site he states:

We now directly import over 50,000 Tahitian, Golden, and Australian South Sea pearls every month

Now let's do the math!
In a generous estimate of how many pearls go into a strand (the number is substantially smaller in larger South Sea pearls, but we are being generous here), you will find an average of 40 pearls. This means that Pearl Source is producing 1250 strands per month, minimum. This also means that they are selling approximately 42 strands per day, 7 days per week.

With a low average price point (pulled from the Site) of $3500 per strand, this means they claim to sell an average of $147,000 worth of pearl per day.

Over the course of a year, do you realize how much this is? It comes out to nearly $54 million dollars. This would make them the largest retailer of South Sea pearls in the world (by an astronomical margin), yet they are a company that know one has heard of, apart from their eBay name.

I am sorry, but even if I did like them, I still would not trust them.

[Mandy]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

Here is the picture from your Site, Leon:
http://www.thepearlsource.com/freshwater-pearls.php

Here is the page from which you stole it:
http://www.thepearloutlet.com/servle...modityID=13087

Wow. Yeah...that pic = totally stolen. The pearls, lighting and curve of the pearls in both photos are identical.

I really don't think Jeremy is exaggerating when he's making his claim on not finding Leon and his website trustworthy; I wouldn't trust that either if I caught it myself. What I do know is that I trust this forum and its main members and I know that they won't swindle me or anyone else here with false facts and advertisements because they're honest people. I have yet to see Leon be as such due to the evidence brought within this thread.

[The Pearl Outlet]

It is a picture from our website, ThePearlOutlet.com. I am the one the actually found it several months ago. I was going to DMCA the Site immediately, but Jeremy actually suggested I contact them instead. A DMCA, copyright infringement complaint with Google and Yahoo would pull them from the search engines just as a VERO complaint does with eBay. We use VERO on a weekly basis as photo thieves are rampant there, and we always have to be on guard.

The fact of the matter is, Jeremy is the only reason the pearl source was not the target of a DMCA months ago. In reality Leon should be thanking them. A successful DMCA on a new website like Pearlsource would have been the end of them.

Well, I am sure the pictures will be changed shortly.

[Mandy]

If their business is so high quality and prosperous then why don't they show their actual merchandise? Save themselves some time? I also don't agree with your definition of what I meant by false advertisement either; if anything posted by the website/seller/whoever is false or fabricated as not their true product they offer a product to a buyer that is dishonest and therefore false. At least you seem to be satisfied with them, but I wonder what you've received at all is what they've truly advertised.

[jshepherd]

...and as of today, the picture from The Pearl Outlet has been pulled from pearlsource.

Edit: May, 2008

So I recently discovered that The Pearl Source found out who our IT provider/Web developers were and tried to hire them, asking them to keep it secret. Our IT providers (apparently not the sharpest tools in the shed) told me about it after they had already started doing some work for The Pearl Source. Needless to say their termination was immediate.

What bothered me the most about this situation is that they attempted to get our IN-HOUSE photographer to shoot photos for ThePearlSource.com from home.

My dislike for them has been upgraded from mild to medium.

[Caitlin]

HI All

It seems to me we have two conversations going in response to the original question.

One is from a happy customer who may not have ever noticed the copied photos or the differences in the grading system.

The other is from the pros who do not endorse their fellow pearlmonger as a businessman and cite their objections.

Then, to spice up the mix, we have the rude comments from the subject of the discussion. The subject accuses Jeremy (in capital letters) of lying and denies that he was busted with chocolate on his face, then he changes the offending website.

He should be apologizing -and instead of BS about "stock" photos, he should blame his cameraman or web designer for cheating- or any other excuse.....

The ethics of pulling that kind of stunt may not tell you about the quality of his pearls, but it certainly tells you about the quality of his ethics.

I would not bother to defend such a fellow and I would think twice about doing futher business with an unethical person, because you never know when they are going to have a lapse and you may be the dupe.

Therefore I do not recommend we add this site to our preferred sellers list.

[Caitlin]

My thoughts, an editorial, so to speak:

I think that with the info here, Luke (longone luke?) can decide for himself whether to buy from Leon. As I commented way back at the beginning, they do have a return policy which will allow one to see the strand, or compare and decide.

Actually, I am hoping that the peer pressure of a forum like this will raise the standards of other online pearl vendors and they will, for instance, state what kind of pearl grading system they use- like "Hong Kong" grading, which appears to be the most ubiquitous at the moment.

As we said before, Hong Kong grading goes frome A-AAA and is most likely the way that even Leon buys pearls. The ethics question comes in when you start using eBay grading which includes AAAA, AAAAA, and even AAAAAA!!! The minute you see AAAA, you SHOULD know that it is like saying 200% of the whole is better than 100%, when 200%, it is just a figure of speech, because there is no such thing as 200% of the whole.

If the vast majority of professional sellers off-eBay use AAA and someone comes along and uses AAAA, they are saying their AAAA is better than everyone elses AAA and that is not possible. Therefore, saying one's pearls are AAAA is a sales gimmick meant to entice the unschooled.

eBay sellers compete with each other to fool the unschooled, but Jeremy and many others on this forum are not in business to do that; they are in business to educate the consumer among other things such as providing the excellent customer service of a B&M store. Part of that education is consistent grading in the same style as the original source does. Until there is a universal standard (or even a GIA standard) nomenclature, A-AAA is the usual one we have to work with.

You can't say Leon is out to educate, because he is simply not in step with the vast majority of sellers, including the original Hong Kong venders.


Leon does not tell one that his AAAA is the equivalent of China's AAA, therefore, his AAAA beads look better to the unschooled then say, Jeremy's AAA, if they are selling at a like price. If I were unschooled, I would think the AAAA was a better deal, wouldn't you?

That, in a nutshell, is competing unfairly to take advantage of the public's lack of education about pearls. That, in a nutshell, tells you Leon is willing to resort to cheap tactics to gain a competitive edge. I guess he thinks this is a dog eat dog world and therefore he is justified in cheating his grading standard.

Well, in spite of some satisafied customers, he is not gaining friends among peers, people in the real, actual, professional pearl circles. He seems to be busy living in an insular little pearl world of his own creation. When a person does this, he will never gain acceptance aong his peers and they won't recommend him to others; he stays at the selling level of a booth on the side of Highway I-40, trying to attract tourists with its big "dinosaurs R here" signs hoping you will buy their overpriced gas or soft drinks while you are there........ (some of them actually make a lot of money)