Too Good To Be True???

[Tamarinda]

Hi All!

So I came across a listing on Etsy for 14mm White South Sea pearl earrings for $30. Like... whut???

Do I smell a rat or are these legit? I've never handled WSSPs before so I have no metric, but if you ask me, they look like Swarovskis. Anyone care to school me and tell me what I'm looking at?

Thanks!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/8580441...search_click=1

[Marianne]

Not necessarily a rat but definitely fishy. They also have "mislabeled" some round objects as Natural Tahitian Pearls... Hope it is just ignorance and not deliberate.

[BWeaves]

The Etsy store also has glass labeled as "natural."

[Pearl Dreams]

Fake pearls for sure.

[pattye]

Well, Tamarinda, I agree, you are correct; these are some kind of imitation pearl. Lots of "South Sea Shell Pearl" sold on ebay. Or could be Swarovski. They could be a fun earring to see if you like 14mm pearls.
Tahitian mother of pearl earrings are mislabeled as abalone. Dyed freshwater pearls mislabeled as Tahitian.

I'm late to the pearl police party, lol!

[Tamarinda]

Thanks all! Glad to know my eyes work. That's pretty wild that they're labeling glass as "natural," BWeaves. I didn't go digging into the shop. That listing alone stopped me in my tracks, lol.

I max out at 12mm Pattye, but now I think I want to make hair ties with 14mm Swarovskis. That would be fun

[Bernadette]

Well spotted Tamarinda

After looking at the number of titles featuring real natural -
I feel that the real natural use of language featuring the real natural insertion of the phrase real natural,
has caused a real natural outbreak of real natural scepticism, that real and natural, as used so really naturally
in the titles, does not really naturally apply to the not really natural materials featured in the items.

And so say all of us :-)

[Pearl Dreams]

Ha ha! Well done.

[Charlotta]

Aren't most material natural if found on this earth...does unnatural material indicates material from some other part of the universe or might it be more metafysical from some spirit world or some such...
I however think that these earrings are fake

[pattye]

I max out at 12mm Pattye, but now I think I want to make hair ties with 14mm Swarovskis. That would be fun!

If you make hair ties, Tamarinda, we definitely want to see them!

[CathyKeshi]

Tamarinda, thanks for giving our experts a place to play today . Now I'm SO hoping that when the spaceships arrive some day, they bring Pearls along, Charlotta

[Charlotta]

Yes CathyKeshi, we need alien pearls

[Tamarinda]

OMG Bernadette you have me really, naturally laughing out loud in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping :'-D I mean, gallstones are natural but you wouldn't want to set them LOL!

Pattye, I'm prototyping hair ties with some fully drilled wooden and glass beads to see how it goes. I've been sitting on trying to make my own hair ties for a while, but now that my hair is getting long again, I really need to just do it.

[Katbran]

It's so common on eBay and Etsy to see South Sea pearl earrings listed for 15$-40$ when they are simply not SS . It's frustrating as the store owners don't care.

[Pearling Technologies]

I wonder how many on-line vendors buy finished pieces ex China (which are sold to them as SSP's or Tahitians) but really don't understand what they're buying or how to distinguish from the real deal. So they source what they think are genuine but really don't know?