buying pearls in china from topearl.com

[Esther Sonenblick]

I would like everyone to know to be careful by puchasing pearls in china from online, like Topearl.com because they aren't honest with they products the way they apper online and the way you will get them!
When i wanted to send them back to china they told me to write so & so on the packge, and they never recieved it because it got hold back at the china costom ( that i was told at the usps). So be carefull, don't let them get you.
The website is called topearl.com

[pearlescence]

I purchase pearls from China online all the time. I have some very good and honest suppliers. One way is to find someone with good ebay feedback, try a couple of purchases through ebay and paypal and then move to the supplier's website and buy direct.
It is a shame that you have been caught - but the website you give the link to seems to be all words and no sales.
cheers
wendy

[Caitlin]

Hi Esther, Welcome!

Thanks for your post. topearl has come to the attention of this forum before. Nothing good was ever said about them.

be careful of other names like aipearl- there are several that use a one or two letter preface to the word pearl. Not only are they out for a buck only and have dishonest descriptions and prices, they are terrible spammers and almost every day. they try for membership here! Businesses like that are why we have had to institute that letter I send out to new applications (Not in your case Esther. You emailed me and were obviously a person, so I put you through right away.)

[Esther Sonenblick]

Hi Caitlin,
I appriciate your support to my sittuation, and that's why this website is so impotant, that pear dealers should be able to share their infos.

[gemologist]

I don't know that I would throw topearl under the bus so quickly, I always have one rule when dealing with china, they are out to take your money. They generally don't care so much about honesty because for some reason it doesn't really seem to make a huge difference to their bottom line.

I generally deal with low end pearls, and I find that topearl is one of my favorite suppliers for my site, yes, they aren't quite as good quality as the pictures show, but that is normal in my dealings with china. when I make larger purchases, I make them take a picture of the actual lot that I am purchasing, that way I can see what I am getting, sadly, the thing I didn't like about topearl is that their customer service department does not do discounts when they mess up your order and their website is not programmed to limit orders to amount on hand, therefore when I wanted to get some akoya pearl necklaces at some sick price, it allowed me to pay for 50 of them, but they actually had less than half of that on hand. When I contacted them about this in response to their e-mail they didnt give me a discount despite my insistance upon it, but then they had already charged me.

I have dealt with all sorts of asian companies that offer the best prices for what they have, and generally I find that they all overstate the items and give you something just slightly less than what you thought you were getting, I then but a little mark-up on it and sell it as it is. I had great success with doing that with thaigem.com through a now defunct program called siammarts, which allowed you to put up thaigem's inventory on ebay with a markup. After getting some stones from them I realized why their feedback was so bad they oversold the products. I simply went in and listed exactly the same items accuratly and people bought and were very happy with me.

Honestly, I find the same thing from every asian country no matter the business, when it comes to lower end items. Remember, you get what you pay for.

So, in my experience, I rate them average, plus where else are you going to be able to get akoya pearl strands for less than $3?
(no, seriously, where? I'll buy some)

[Esther Sonenblick]

Thanks for your replying.
I had ordered A bunch of loose pearls for simple earrings, And at the end where the hole had to be, it was litterly cut off, so no earring cup would cover theh Pearl nicely.
Alot of them had terrible colors, just not to axept.

[Admin]

Hi Esther
That was a real gypping experience! YUCK. And you can't do anything about it!



Hi gemologist

So you are saying sites like topearl are out to get your money
Honesty is not a value because it raises the bottom line for them.
That they use misleading pictures. You don't get what you see-the sizes are smaller and the colors better than what you actually get.
Customer service sucks
They took your money and then told you they couldn't fill your order.

I think that is the perfect description of a website you should not buy from! (Unless you are very experienced and have money you can let be tied up for however long!)

And ultimately you get what you pay for. That kind of cheap Akoyas stay in the water about 3 months and will quickly peel and crack. aren't doing your customers a favor and ultimately your business will not get that many return customers after they have had cheap akoyas long enough for them to go bad.

[PearlPoor]

Does anyone have experience buying from BJPearl (DOT) c o m ???

They have lots of pretty fresh and seawater pearls with most strand prices lower are very low.

[PearlPoor]

On the Chinese pearl and bead website I mentioned in previous post (bjpearl dot com), there must be at least a thousand or ten thousand unbelievably cheap pearls, etc.

However, when i searched the site for seawater pearls (here) http://bjpearl.com/search.aspx?class=006&title=seawater

and up pops a Tahitian pearl strand necklace that is priced 300 times most of their merchandise, i.e., $1500 - - which is described as only one available. The strand is described as Tahitian Baroque SWP 11.5 to 13.3 mm, and the pearls look brownish. Photo below:


Do you think it's remotely possible it is the real deal? At least a grade A- and from Tahiti?



One more related question . . .
what are your opinions, experiences regarding coral beads, pieces, or jewelry from the China websites?

I guess what I'm asking is can you buy poor quality coral that falls apart . . or is coral simply coral and not graded. I'm looking at these coral beads (below) and assume they are true coral and as pretty as they are in the photo:



Pearl Poor

[Raisondetre]

In light of the fact that they might not be measuring the pearls correctly, i.e. perpendicular to the drill hole, and that most Chinese vendors downsize, I'm not sure what the benefits of buying from them are even if it is the "real deal". You can get that at most vendors here at the same (assuming the sizes are as stated) or lower pricing - most baroque strands ~10 mm would be around the $500-700 mark even for the top grade. Unless of course you really love that particular coloration. If it looks brown chances are it may be treated as well.

[jshepherd]

So, in my experience, I rate them average, plus where else are you going to be able to get akoya pearl strands for less than $3?
(no, seriously, where? I'll buy some)

Akoya strands are available in the Behai area for about the price of the beads (less than $1 per strand). But these are only sold locally, never exported. They are composed of micro-nacre to straight bead and have less luster than a stick of chalk. I would not really call them akoya pearls. I would also strongly recommend against importing/selling them. If a customer were every to buy one and show it to pearl-knowledgeable jeweler they would be told the pearls were of the lowest quality he/she had ever seen or even knew to exist. That would not be good for your business' reputation nor the reputation of akoya pearls.

Typically the cut-off point for low-grade akoya in China is in the $20 per strand range. The pearls are still, of course, short-culture and they surface and shape are extremely poor. But they sell, and sell by the thousands to customers who hawk them on things like TV Networks. I am not going to say which ones, but I will say that more than one factory I have visited has a quality range they refer to as "QVC". Maybe it just means "quality very cheap", or maybe they are referring to a shopping channel ... who knows.

Jewelry-grade akoya starts much, much higher. These strands do not go to Hongqiao and they are rarely seen at the shows. Most go directly to Japan or direct sale.

[pattye]

PearlPoor,

The item in the photo is probably not the item you would receive. Most of the coral available cheaply is dyed and not very pretty. It is unlikely you could get that company to send you a clear and large photo of the item you are interested in to evaluate the quality, even somewhat, that way. Your chances of getting nice merchandise is small, even if it is under $100.

I would only buy Tahitians from a known trusted seller. The grade should be stated or at very least, a good description and great photos. For $1500 you can get some gorgeous Tahitians, and have a choice!

Most of us have had disappointing experiences with "amazing bargain pearls, etc".
Likely the coral is dyed and that should be stated, and although it probably will not fall apart, it might not meet your expectations.

[jerin]

It also could be very possibly be not even real. I bought some jewelry with coral (from US, but probably a Chinese seller based over there) and needlessly to say that I paid a pretty penny, my jeweller tells me the coral is not real at all

I do know that coral is almost all the time heat treated but still I had hoped for the real thing - and in this case you coral necklace is so much cheaper..... so I don´t think you are getting good quality - it is quite true - you get what you pay for...

[Pearl Dreams]

Are there any Chinese sellers anyone would recommend? I'm thinking of eBay specifically.

[PearlPoor]

Thank you good information, esp. about dyed coral. I had no idea that was done.
Looking forward to responses to Pearl_dreams' question re: recommended sellers from China.

Pearl Poor