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I did the same a few years ago...I've lost the photo from eBay but these were the sorry pearls which arrived, purporting to be AAA gold SS.

I strongly suspect every pearl in that shop is freshwater. Loved the square akoya! The gold are undoubtedly dyed Edisons or unbranded bead nuked (but let's be honest, Edison/Grace is churning out thousands of strands of dyed faked up south sea, tahitians and akoya)

The only photo not by me in my book is Steve's photo of this sumptuous necklace. It's so beautiful and I hate the thought of it -or any necklace - languishing in the dark in a vault, unadmired.

If the clasps are marked 10K that means they are not of UK origin. UK gold is 9ct, 12ct, 18ct

The risk with buying a Mikimoto 'brand' piece is that there is no guarantee that the pearls which are on that clasp and in that box started out with the clasp and box. Even if you go to Mikimoto to get them inspected they can only suck their teeth and say the pearls are the right quality etc for...

Two completely different species of mollusc.

Freshwater pearls dyed gold often have a brownish tinge to the gold when viewed en masse. Not so much when looking at one or two pearls.

If they were re-strung with a just off-white thread they would look whiter. That thread is wearing thin and looks yuck. Suspect they need a good wash too, as they are visibly more yellow than the two pearls on the (very nice) clasp.

I just re-read my post. We is we pearl sellers collectively. I'm over the sea, I'm not Pearl Paradise

Why not ask for comparison photos - Pearl Paradise has a great photo studio and can do stills and video. (pearls absorb more than water. They soak up perfumes. We still remember with horror a necklace which came back for re-stringing and reeked of a particularly pungent scent) Have a think...

I HATE making multi strand pieces so I am double impressed with the colour switch thrown casually in too.

Sorry. Your post read to me as a bit sneery. So I got defensive.. It was an amazing time. First pic is the remote Indonesian island pearl farm and second an akoya farm in vietnam - i'm harvesting pearls and assessing them for size and quality for selection as mantle graft material

Not funny at all. It is why I went. No better way to learn and understand how it all works. I didn't want simply to walk around like some royal visitor, nodding, smiling and waving.

Pearls are sold loose and undrilled at auction in lots of thousands at a time long before they drilled and made into strands.

Mikimoto is only recognising pearls which they might have sold. They are guessing, based on their initial buying criteria. Of course other brands can select ones of similar quality.

If the clasp is big and 18ct with diamonds that will be a chunk of the price.

Pearls are produced by living molluscs, often one per shell. At some time between the pearl farm and your ears a person has sat down with maybe a few hundred pearls of roughly the same size and tried to pick out ones of the same size, with the same surface quality, the same colour and overtones...

Pearl farms are working farms and usually not set up for casual visitors and retail sales (they simply don't drill etc for example) I've been very fortunate to visit a south sea and an akoya farm for several days each time, through the generosity of their owner, but both times I was put to work...

The thing is, far too many people ask for advice or an opinion, then pout when it isn't the advice or opinion they want.

They're all very design-y and not very wearable.