[pernula]

Hi,

I would like some help on the whole sale value of GSS. I went to the gem/mineral/fossil show in Denver today (it was so much fun, worth taking a day off for it! ). There was a graduated golden SS strand that surprisingly fit my skin tone well. It is kind of medium to slightly dark rose/gold. They are near-round. The graduation is from 8.67 to 11.2 mm. There are some blemishes and the store owners said they would put it at the second level after the best. I am guessing it is AA level blemishes by later looking at pictures of GSS of some of the online merchants. Decent to pretty good luster (not as good as the baroque Akoyas or baroque freshwater). The store owner first cited a price of $4900, which she said is whole sale price. She then said she can go down a little more.

Is this within range of golden SS whole sale? How important is the fact that it is near round rather than round? Would that make the value half of round ? Would baroque be 20 % of round? I am just randomly throwing in some numbers here as a guess. How to put value on the color? I did not take picture. I was not ready to commit close to 5K with a dealer I don't know much about. I just want to learn more about GSS because I was very surprised at how the color, the size, the graduation all came out very nice for me.

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Pernula

[jshepherd]

Golden South Sea pearls are really a fickle business. There are so many factors when determining value. The actual color is so important, but the problem is that most goldens are actually yellow, but they are referred to as gold. To get the value, you really need to have gold. A light yellow round or a creamy round could easily sell for less than a naturally golden drop.
The best thing you can do is research. Maybe even research the company selling the pearls. Definitely make your own decisions based on your own findings.
Calling the strand a 2nd level is a stretch, and there probably was not any reasoning behind it. But if the strand looks good on you, make an offer. The seller left the door open to you to negotiate, and if you are only buying one strand, there is a large gap between bottom wholesale and list. Often it can be more than 50% off their marked "wholesale". Granted, you are not likely to get close to that number for a single strand.

[knotty panda]

Pernula: Hi! This is a wholesaler who has something similar to what you are describing for $3750. Just for comparison's sake. http://www.stachurawholesalegemstones.com/view/12/332/

[Raisondetre]

Is that a light yellow rather than a golden? I'm partial to champagnes myself, having yellow undertones in the skin that would probably clash with true goldens, but I'm still interested in learning about the different shades. My bestie says I've trained her enough to differentiate freshwater and saltwater, and she finally concedes cultured are the same quality as natural, albeit with human intervention.

[pernula]

Thanks Jeremy and Knotty Panda .

Raisondetre: It is not light yellow, it is more like medium orange/gold with rose overtone sort of thing. But then it is not like peach color CFWP either, even though peach conjures the image of orange mixed with pink. They claimed it is GSS with no color enhancements.

They actually have several strands of pale/light yellow that were way bigger but priced about the same ($4800). I should have asked their price for the "Pelosi" necklace, which they have several, that would have given an indication of how good their prices are. They also have some big pearls. One of them they measured it with a caliper (to show another customer and me) at 19.5 mm. Is that common for SS pearls?

I think I won't pursue it. I have College Savings accounts that I need to contribute to. Plus now that I started researching I realize I can get baroque GSS for much better value and there is no rush to it.

Regards,
Pernula

[Casey.R]

I like the light yellows a lot too. But some of those saturated golds are amazing. I don't know much about pricing so I can't be of much help there. If you wind up with them make sure you post pics here and make sure they have a decent return policy, cause you never know.