[Nicole]

Here is someone claiming to offer a "rare" strand of natural pearls. The picture isn't that great, and my eyesight isn't that great, but what it looks like to me are nasty old PPB's with most of the nacre peeled off. The string looks new, though.

Nicole

[Pearl_dreams]

It said not cultured-- they look like plain shell.

[Casey.R]

It looks like shells to me too. The item called an abalone pearl looks like freshwater pearls stuck together.

[jshepherd]

Nothing rare or natural about that strand of "pearls". It is a string of shell beads.

The seller is also selling natural "South Sea pearls" along with his "abalone." There is nothing legit going on there. Every pearl auction of this seller is a fraud. Based on his dishonest representation of pearls I would not trust a single item on his list.

[WeeGem]

Not only that but if that really was a strand of the 'oldest, vintage, rarest collected gems from royal indian families', I'd be expecting them to go for FAR more than $450!!

[Valeria101]

MOP? Old peely costume beads? No matter.

When the pedigree makes no sense and does not relate to the way the piece looks, I am not very motivated to look further into details... That listing is a typical case.

2c

[Slraep]

Wow, what a load of cr@p that seller is spewing! Unbeleivable! Those are either some not so lovely MOP beads or someone's really, really worn out akoyas. If you don't care for any of the two, you mostly bought some new string with a "fancy golden" closure. Notice it doesn't say "fancy gold closure". I wonder why?

Slraep

[silverseajewelry]

They really look like mother-of-pearl beads to me - which I guess is really shell pearls. I have used them before in very low cost designs. They have a quaint natural look, sometimes even spots of irridescence and usually have some brownish discoloration, which I think I see in the photo. They run less than $3 a strand wholesale.

[Valeria101]

Z shop? LOL!

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by Valeria101

Z shop? LOL!

Heehee, good one! He's trying to "pull a Zeide Esrkine".

Slraep

[Valeria101]

Speaking of BIG...

Something quite large by cultured pearl standards: 18 x16mm oval South Sea:

[airdancer]

Originally Posted by Valeria101

Speaking of BIG...

Something quite large by cultured pearl standards: 18 x16mm oval South Sea
<...image snipped>

I saw that on ebay and was much impressed. It would be great as a pendent

[smetzler]

Originally Posted by Slraep

Heehee, good one! He's trying to "pull a Zeide Esrkine".

This guy is too transparent, and we're all falling for it. I'm even tempted to say there's an element of integrity; let the buyer beware—with all the tools provided. I have no doubt that the object as imaged is exactly what would be shipped.

[smetzler]

Also, unfortunately, this illustrates the need for us to spend $1000 just to get the 12 strands of our natural Cook Islands poe pipi necklace certified by GIA ($75/strand last time I checked), despite its indisputible provenance. GIA and other such labs actually seem to benefit from the activity of sellers like this, assuming that the certification process is a source of profit.