A friend had asked me if I had ever tried buying online from XAXE.com. I told her about my "horror" story re:AY Pearl and that I'd personally stay away from overseas/Chinese online merchants claiming to be reputable pearl wholesalers.

Has anyone done online business with XAXE.com? How would you rate them and their wares?

Thanks for sharing...I'll pass it on.

[Pearls_by_Angela_Carol]

I have no personal dealing with them, but in looking quickly through the website I see things like a "$6000 AAA 6.5-7MM WHITE SEA PEARL 14K" necklace for $399. Since it is labeled a "sea pearl" I can only assume they mean a saltwater pearl - thus Akoya. This is more than what we sell a 6.5mm Akoya necklace for.

Plus the fact that they sell "seashell" pearls in the same category as Freshwater and "sea" pearls makes me suspect. I personally do not think that manmade, imitation pearls belong in the same clasification.

Thank you for your response. I myself went to their website and asked for a detailed description of "seashell pearl" becuse in the picture, they looked so perfectly round, (whether these are like Tahitian, Akoya etc..). The response was: "seashell pearls are manufactured, i.e., as opposed to cultured, and they are made out of the ground organic insides of a sea shell/oyster and that they are not fake, but real".. I don't know much about pearls myself and am just now starting to pick up bits and pieces of incredibly valuable and educational information from this forum from pearl experts who are so generous and willing to share their expertise and knowledge about pearls.

What are sea shell pearls really, anyone???

[Pearls_by_Angela_Carol]

Originally Posted by star47

Thank you for your response. I myself went to their website and asked for a detailed description of "seashell pearl" becuse in the picture, they looked so perfectly round, (whether these are like Tahitian, Akoya etc..). The response was: "seashell pearls are manufactured, i.e., as opposed to cultured, and they are made out of the ground organic insides of a sea shell/oyster and that they are not fake, but real".. I don't know much about pearls myself and am just now starting to pick up bits and pieces of incredibly valuable and educational information from this forum from pearl experts who are so generous and willing to share their expertise and knowledge about pearls.

What are sea shell pearls really, anyone???

They are correct in stating that seashell pearls are manufactured but they are incorrect in stating that they are real.

The short description is that seashell pearls are man-made from the ground up mother-of-pearl from the inside of the mollusk shell.

"Real" pearls, whether cultured or natural are made by the mollusk itself by depositing nacre (calcium carbonate crystals) around a foreign object.

[purepearls]

The actual term often used with these is "shell" pearls. Shell pearls are faux pearls, not real.