126 carat Conch pearl currently on eBay - opinions please!

[RoseHillFarm]

Hello - I'd really LOVE to hear opinions from the experts on the 126 carat Conch pearl currently listed on eBay - starting at $352,000 with the "buy it now" price of $750,000. There are currently 2 bids on it. The item number is 150015838637 and will end in 8 days. Jeremy - I'd love to get your take on this! Thank so much for a wonderfully informative forum!

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi,

That thing is a blister or half pearl. It furthermore has some mottling but no discernible flaming. Anybody bidding on this thing must have a pearl half-education or be out of their minds. Blister half concretions in conchs are about as rare as dandelion.

Zeide

[Kevin Canning]

If anybody is having trouble finding you action you can follow the link below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Worlds-Largest-Q...ayphotohosting


Also can any confirm what the seller wrote 70 carat conch pearl going for $10 million?

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Kevin,

10 million? Sure. I just cannot remember whether that was 10 million Rupiahs, rubles, or fake pieces of eight. Anyway, 10 million of anything even toasted ants is a lot of it. I doubt that anybody ever paid 10 million toasted ants for a blister conch. At leat no sane person.

Zeide

[pearltime]

and these questions and answers,

: Hello, do you have a GIA certificate or equivalent lab of gemmology certifying it is a true natural one, not drilled from the shell ?Does it show traditionnal...more
Jul-27-06
A: Thank you, I do not have any certified papers at this time. It is 100% guaranteed natural pearl not cut from the shell. It does not have a flame pattern...more


Q: I will give you 150k for this today!
Jul-26-06
A: Thank you for your offer, Please email me your Ph# and address. I can be reached at 612 747-6999 8:00am central time

Q: Hello gameboyboy, I would prefer to have an associate pick this up if this is acceptable. regards, Timmy B,
Jul-26-06
A: Thank you for interest, Please use ebay guidelines and bid through ebay. Too many false buyery out there.

[Satine De La Courcel]

Sounds like they think sucker is stamped on peoples forheads Does that old junker car they want to sell you come with a discount too???? Sheesh...


Ash

[TraciB]

Hi, y'all! I happened on this site while searching for a source for quahog beads and pendants, and I've enjoyed reading the posts in another thread (quahog pearls) and this one.

Your comments piqued my curiosity, so I went to the auction in question and looked at the seller's feedback. If you only look at the 100% positive feedback, you may think he's trustworthy and the pearl is worth a bid. However, if you look further, you discover that his 30 positive comments are all on his record as a buyer. He hasn't sold anything at all on eBay until now.

Even if he had some sort of certificate of authenticity for this thing, I wouldn't trust it. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I can't help but wonder if he didn't buy those other items specifically to build up a good feedback record so that when he got ready to auction this pearl, people would trust him without looking too closely. Just a thought...

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Bruno,

I think the second conch pearl in raspberry pink is worth the money and even a good deal. The first one, however, is simply not pretty enough for this kind of asking price.

Zeide

[TraciB]

I'll leave the pearl appraisals to Zeide, since I'm definitely not an expert. I will say this about the auctions, though: Both pearls are being auctioned by the same eBayer, who has (0) after the user id. That means this person is brand-new (in this id, at least) to eBay. I'd be concerned about bidding on such a high-ticket item from a seller with no feedback whatsoever.

Feedback is a good way for buyers to gauge a seller's integrity as well as his/her speediness and friendliness in finalizing a transaction. To start selling with an expensive item and no feedback to prove your reliability is not a smart strategy for the seller, in my opinion. I wouldn't bid on either of these pearls for that reason alone, even if I had the money to spend.

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Tracy,

That is a good strategy especially if one reads feedback carefully. With items that expensive, one can actually figure in a trip to look at the actual thing in person. In general, I would not recommend buying big ticket items on eBay. Everybody has their own comfort zone about how much money they are willing to lose. One may safely figure that for every piece that turns out to be a true bargain there will be about 2 dozen misrepresented duds. One has to figure in all the money and time lost on shipping back and forth and going through the reimbursement processes for the duds into how much of a bargain that one thing really was.

In short, eBaying is just like like gambling only with somewhat better odds. Being an informed buyer, however, is like being a card counter in Black Jack. While card counting is strictly prohibited in casinos, being a smart shopper is still allowed on eBay. You can get good deals, but it remains a gamble and a hassle to get your money back for misrepresented items.

Zeide

[pearltime]

The cost to ship it is $900.00. This guy must be playing a joke.

[suigenaro]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Exquisite-rare-p...QQcmdZViewItem

they must've trained their conchs or fishermen well.

and for $0.99!!!!!! from a 100% positive seller with 33 sales

[jshepherd]

Wow!!!
A freshwater conch pearl - and a whole strand of them. A necklace that would cost $1000000000000000000000000000 (not enough room for the zeros as they would go on forever), and only on eBay for 99 cents! Pretty amazing!


Shipping must be a couple of billion dollars.

[Satine De La Courcel]

Wow!!!
A freshwater conch pearl - and a whole strand of them. A necklace that would cost $1000000000000000000000000000 (not enough room for the zeros as they would go on forever), and only on eBay for 99 cents! Pretty amazing!

Shipping must be a couple of billion dollars.

ROFL!!!!!!! I am getting dizzy from all the zeros Jeremy!

The Wonder that is E-bay!!!!!! :cool

Cheers
ASh

[jshepherd]

Then again, there appears to be 2 real conch pearls on auction (out of 105 conch pearl pieces on offer) that appear to be real conch if you do a search for conch pearls. That is almost 2%!!!
http://search.ebay.com/search/search...le=conch+pearl

For eBay, that is almost a record! But then again, if you seach for conch pearl necklace it does drop back down to zero.