eBay Auctions - are these real? Undrilled Pearls

[cfingram]

The seller is fairly new on eBay, so his auctions were not getting much attention and very many bids. The pearls I won are supposedly South Sea pearls but I know very little about pearls, I'm learning/read about them when I got a moment. Opinions on these would be great!




And he had more pearls that the seller is selling at a much higher price:

 

[pattye]

It would be helpful if you could just put up a link to the ebay stores. It's not possible to see the qualities of the pearls from the screen shots. Thanks!

 

[BWeaves]

I don't see anything in what you've uploaded that says South Sea pearls. I just see the word salt water, which could mean anything.

 

[cfingram]

Ha! Sorry my mistake on that. I will post links to the shop so you all can see the seller.

 

[cfingram]

Hope this link works...doing this from my smartphone and it's not very user friendly.

Here is a link to one of the listings http://www.ebay.com/itm/182439834166

 

[Pareltje]

Many of them are button shaped. They could be either nuked fwp or genuine ssp.

 

[cfingram]

Yes I noticed that as well, what seems to be one flat spot on one side, which makes them not perfectly round.. I don't mind one small flat spot, I can work with that for the purpose of making necklace single pearl pendants on sterling silver setting...but if the pearls are worth more, might be worth investing into gold instead.

 

[BWeaves]

OK, so the last link to the sold pearl is interesting. It's described as "round" when from the description it is not round, but button shaped. Round should be round from any direction, not just from above.

And here's their feedback section:

"Feedback Policy

Please do not leave the Negative feedback or Natural feedback before giving us a chance to resolve

your problems. Positive feedback will be automatic to leave for you when you give me

Positive feedback to us in 24 hour.

As per eBay policy we cannot leave any negative or neutral feedback. We respond to every email,

every problems and take it very seriously.

Please assured in my service we will give the best guardianship for you every times and Very happy

to service you in honest."

caveat emptor

 

[cfingram]

Hmmmm interesting! Arrggggg. I haven't paid them yet .... are the pearls at least worth the bidding price I have on them? Haha

 

[Pearl Dreams]

If you only spent $3.25 I wouldn't worry too much! Enjoy whatever it is.
This seller sells very few pearls-- mostly rough and low quality gemstones. One wonders if they even know much about pearls.

 

[BWeaves]

I agree. If you only spent $3, I wouldn't worry too much. But it's not going to be a very good pearl.

 

[pattye]

caveat emptor sez it all.

 

[BWeaves]

The "caveat emptor" was my comment on the previous bits between the quote marks. The seller did not say "caveat emptor."

 

[moneymeister]

The description says 11 x 11 South Sea pearl. For three dollars, I am a little skeptical.

 

[Katbran]

I wouldn't be expecting much for those prices. But you learned a lesson for only a few dollars. decent pearls will never be cheap ..you are never going to find any South Sea pearls for 3.00 ... barely for 30$ ...

 

[Karman]

Do I have a very skewed view of how much pearls should cost?
I just looked at all the expensive pearls he/she has left and I don't feel any of them are worth close to the asking price.
Yeah, they're big, but the lustre seems lacking and the bottom side of the pearl shows a circular area with no lustre whatsoever.

I would certainly NOT pay $86 for this:

 

[mrsadm]

Many of them are button shaped. They could be either nuked fwp or genuine ssp.

Sorry but, what do you mean by "nuked"? (Still learning)
Thx
Linda

 

[cfingram]

Oh I'm not expecting much but the seller is selling single pearls for much more than that... I know it's not possible to find South Sea pearls for $3 lol they go for soooooo much more. ..... but I was being hopeful since the seller is selling single pearls for BIN prices in the 50s 60s etc.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Sorry but, what do you mean by "nuked"? (Still learning)
Thx
Linda

Nuked = bead-nucleated, that is, a bead is placed inside the mollusk along with a piece of donor mantle tissue that stimulates the formation of the pearl sac.

It's only in recent years that some freshwater pearls have started being nucleated with beads. Edison pearls, ripple pearls, fireball/flameball pearls all are bead-nucleated. These tend to be quite large compared to the solid-nacre FW pearls that have been around longer.

 

[moneymeister]

That seller had 94% positive feedback. I would assume that there are issues. Many, many ebay sellers mismark their pearls, or flat out lie. Most people stick with known vendors on Ebay. Pearl Society is one that comes to mind, but there are more.

Are you looking for freshwater? What sort of pearls did you want to buy?