[Valeria101]

Unforunately...

Have you heard this one before? It is new to me and sounds dangerously 'high tech'. Who says that hunting in the jungle was harder on the human ape than shopping on a free market (Ebay)?

To find the bit of creative writing in situ look for eBay Item number: 330072277002

In case someone takes care to remove the bit before its time, the text reads:

"...EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY SUSPENDED PLANTING PREMIUM JAPANESE CULTURED FRESHWATER PEARL STRAND [...]
Estimated retail value $ 27,000.

The word Suspended planting mean, this pearls has been grown (cultured) twice within an oysters (mollusks). 1st is the insertion of the mantel tissue & grown for 7-7-1/2 years before they are being harvest. As you may already know, fresh water pearls are better known as Non Nucleus pearls but hold on..this one are exceptional!! They have nucleus, Yes!! they do...just like salt water Akoya, Tahitian or the south sea pearls. And they have the most expensive nucleus as we will explain on the 2nd part how they do that.

2nd, the most roundness pearls being selected and re-inserted to another oysters (mollusks) than re-cultured them for the same length of time; Another good 7 years!! So instead of using Mother of Pearl beads as a nucleus, the finest smaller pearls from the early harvest are being used.

The result is astonishing!! Its a dream pearls...Fine lustrous pearls with exceptional thicker nacre; They may even better than the ordinary south sea pearls & that's when the word PREMIUM derives. Almost perfectly round in shape, in fact you will find some that are perfectly round in shape.

Very few unnoticeable light flaws/blemishes due to water environment. The body color is white with the most gorgeous light pink-tone over.

Large pearls with the diameter should be at least 8.6 mm - 9.6 mm"


Merlin Almighty knows what the heck those white balls are! If anything else is right in the description, the decade long culture time makes for a real' funky claim that brought the citation here. After all, the address of the add wants pearl 'lovers and collectors' to notice. Now, guessing the probable cost of small, flawed fwp, it doesn't sound so far fetched that some might be tumbled into round nuclei as the round Kasumiga pearls were reputed to have received. Possibility doesn't equal reality though: is this ever done to the nicer round FWS these days?

[Caitlin]

Hi Ana
That guy is famous around here already. I am searching for some other entries as I write, but I am pretty sure he has been commented on by Jeremy more than once.
This post. and this one.

I will not use their name because that is advertising them even more, but thay may take the prize for fabricated put-ons.....

[Caitlin]

Maybe I can save JS the trouble of answering this one. Here is a quote from last February

I only have a minute before I leave the office but this post caught my eye.

If you have not yet paid for the pearls DO NOT. This is pearl-society. The same company that claims to have those "suspended planting" pearls. Suspended planting and the entire process they describe is 100% a lie - it does not exist. I would not trust anything they tell you. Just looking at the auction you can see they are dishonest.
ie
untreated Akoya - a lie. All cultured Akoya pearls today are bleached and polished.
pearls from Japan - A lie. The seller is from Hong Kong, a trading hub for Chinese Akoya. Low-end 8mm strands can sell for under $100, and I am sure this is what you will get.
Pink pearls, but they are golden? A yellow coloration in Akoya is indicative of a low-value pearl.
Save your money! They will probably not leave you a bad feedback if you do not leave one for them. Point them to this post as the reason you do not want to pay. I would love to see them post here and try to explain their "suspended planting" to a group of pearl experts.
__________________
Jeremy Shepherd
President and Founder
www.pearlparadise.com

[Valeria101]

Aha! My bad for not running a search. Those fancy claims just stood so BOLD that the writing impulse got the better of me.

It looks like all roads go to Rome, or the same ol' blatant FleaBay banter... With all the 'evidence' at hand, I still can't (or don't want to?) believe pearls cold possibly be an 'indifferent' purchase for that many - it takes a wee but of reality check to at least doubt the bogus stuff if not prove it wrong (which admittedly, may not be free or straight forward).

Now, my clue to the wrongness of their claims was just a little bit of economics common sense (without the search of Pearl-Guide that I should have done but didn't do!). They might polish the text and make it even more 'believable' as a result and the catch game might go on until all that's left to read into is the price... It sounds like the only real clue one has without destroying pearls to find out is good old brand recognition though. Not that's very different from other precious stones, but pearls seem particularly inscrutable though as long as they're white, round and inconspicuously small. Without the ridiculous claim for culture time and better English, someone might give those folks the benefit of the doubt even with bona fide research ... lest of a long term, dedicated interest for pearl culture and identification.

[jshepherd]

After just doing a quick check on eBay, it seems the con artists are now feeding off each other.
pearl_society is the one to dream up that whole suspended planting thing. You have to admit that it is pretty creative. Now another FleaBayer (love that term) is using it as well - Es_Store.

One easy tell on that pearl_society piece... In the description the strand measures 8.6-9.6mm. This is the Fall/Winter harvest, 2006 new 'materials' standard. Standard strung hanks (without pointed direction) will all measure 8.6-9.6mm (a drop from 8.7-9.7 last year) if they are in the 9-10mm range.

Their 'suspended planted' pearls are straight out of just about any Zhuji, Suzhou, or Wenling factory. Their descriptions are absolute fairy tales - they are typical FleaBay pearl crooks.

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Ana,

Most people just compare the price to bricks-and-mortar retail and when they get the pearls, they compare the pearls to bricks-and-mortar price comparables. On that test, the "suspended planting" strands come out on top. And, for the price level asked any gemological testing would not be cost effective anyhow. Afterall, the process described would actually refer to a lower-value product than the ones cultured in one go. So, even if one were to invest into a gem identification, the result would only be better than the original product description.

Zeide

[jshepherd]

Zeide,

You are right, and that is funny. They make up this big story giving the impression that their pearls are more valuable than they are. But the truth of the matter is, if the pearls were described as they actually are, without the fantastic tale of suspended planting, their value would be higher.
Good point.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

They make up this big story giving the impression that their pearls are more valuable than they are. ...

What else is new... Lots and lots of words do the showing online (thinking of quarter carat diamonds with two lab reports in toe and the tremendous volume of glorified fakes adding up to large figures in FleaBay's jewelry area). Now when I hear that old word 'talk is cheap' (in game theory classes) it makes me laugh! It definitely ain't cheap anymore Online, everything is just words, words, words... the bolder, the bulkier, the better. Reality is so dull in comparison!