I have a clam Pearl..how do i find a buyer??

E

Eismail5

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Dec 2, 2016
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Hello forum
I am hoping this is the correct area for this post.. I apologize to the mods if it isn't!

So, my family had a giant clam Pearl that was found in the Philippines and now it is mine. I am trying to find how I can find a private seller, I do not want to do auctions at all

The Pearl is 17kilo , I don't have the length in front of me now but I have it.
It was tested in a lab in 2014 and I have the documents and I assume if I find a potential buyer they will want to get their own lab tests done.

I am in the USA and so is the Pearl (tri state area) .. I do not have the shell because it was way to big to travel with but I do have pictures of the Pearl and the shell.

I am not in this field and I don't know where to look for a buyer .. Would schools be interested? Are their institutions anyone knows of that purchases or may be interested in something like this?

If any one has any ideas where i should look it would help me so much .. I would like to sell it and since I am not in this field I do not have connections or guidelines where to find a buyer and I think it is something that someone or someplace would value..

Thank you
 

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First, Pearl Guide is not a selling site. Second, isn't it illegal to take it out of the Philippines? You might be lucky it wasn't confiscated. :)

As for selling, it would be easier to sell if it was still attached to the shell as it would have more value as a natural specimen that way. Even with polishing, they are not attractive enough to merit the attention of most natural pearl collectors. The owners of the "Pearl of Allah" are still trying to sell it to this day.

I suggest you give up your fear of auctions, post it on eBay and see if someone will meet your price. Then repost with a lower price until it does sell. You may not sell it here.

Good Luck!
 
1- IUCN Red List of Endangered Animals
2- CITES Accepted as Endangered Species
3- Endangered Species Act. Illegal to import and/or offer for trade in the United States without certification of having been harvested in a sustainable manner from the country of orgin.

Even if it were authentic or legal, it has no gemological value nor scientific value once removed from the tissues.

Every month or so (more often lately) I get an email with a monstrosity hacked from a shell accompanied by some wild tale of how a fisherman found and hid it many years ago. I don't bother to reply.
 
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1- The umbo of T. gigas appears like the clenched fist of a five fingered hand.
2- There are visible bisected concentric lines.
3- There is complete absence of visible growth fronts.

Not a pearl, but carved shell.
 
I am not looking to sell it on this site I never said that I asked where can I try.

I read the other threads and they're mostly people saying that the op has a fake Pearl and continues on for paragraphs about the Pearl of allay and so on , I read them all before i posted


Customs didn't confiscate it there for I am assuming they were not seeing it as a threat, we brought it on airplane and luggage was checked, it wasn't brought through mail.

I am attaching an image of the the Pearl and the shell .. Also, as I said it was tested in a lab , wouldn't the results have said otherwise if it were not real?
 

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Lagoon Island Pearls said:
1- The umbo of T. gigas appears like the clenched fist of a five fingered hand.
2- There are visible bisected concentric lines.
3- There is complete absence of visible growth fronts.

Not a pearl, but carved shell.
Click to expand...

I do not know what these words mean ..I am feeling like because some of you have so many fishermen or people saying they have some thing when they don't you are completely overlooking that it was lab tested , so this means nothing? Really I don't know and some of you are replying as if I should know what you are talking about .. So the lab test can't tell you if it's a shell or a Pearl ??? Because I thought that was the point.. My family brought it from Philippines to another country (where they were living)?and then USA..all by airplane.


Please try to understand not everyone is educated on such things and they come to a forum to ask for guidance. Please try to have some understanding towards that. Thanks
 
You asked what this means... Dave was telling you the reasons why the photo makes him conclude that it is "not a pearl, but a carved shell."

Lagoon Island Pearls said:
1- The umbo of T. gigas appears like the clenched fist of a five fingered hand.
2- There are visible bisected concentric lines.
3- There is complete absence of visible growth fronts.

Not a pearl, but carved shell.
Click to expand...

U.S. Customs not seeing the item as a threat does not mean it could be legally exported from the Philippines.

What lab evaluated it-- GIA? What tests were done? Nacre is nacre-- the inside of a shell is made of the same substance as a pearl. Maybe you could post the certificate?

The advice to try selling it on eBay is good advice IMO. It will get more views there than anywhere else. There may be a collector who likes it, who knows?

Also, to me the photo in your first post doesn't really look like the last photo. :confused:

Edit: In light of the posts below it probably is not a good idea to list on eBay after all.
 
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Eismail5 said:
IPlease try to understand not everyone is educated on such things and they come to a forum to ask for guidance. Please try to have some understanding towards that. Thanks
Click to expand...

That door swings both ways. When advice is given, dismissing it does not help your case.

I work with natural pearls every day. I know what's real and what is not real. It is cut from a shell. The second photo submitted alludes to this.

I also know the law. Trade in Tridacna gigas without CITES certification and an import permit from U. S. Fish and Wildlife is illegal.

Even the act of attempting to sell it is illegal.

It's like elephant ivory. If you owned it previously to the laws prohibiting trade, it's legal to retain, but not sell.

Therefore, I stand by my initial assessment. This has no value because it cannot be offered for sale, legally. No less having no gemological or scientific value.
 
Dave is right. Trying to sell it publicly may cause you problems. After seeing your photo on the shell, cutting the growth off only results in a slab that had to be reshaped. This amount of working makes it hardly more valuable than a carved piece of shell. Sorry to be so negative, but we get a lot of inquiries that come to nothing and I would not want to mislead you.
 
I also have this kind of pearl and even have it authenticated by level 9 gemologist. I learned that it is non nacreous therefore very different in content than those of coming from oysters. Though its not illegal to trade pearl from where it came from but im not gonna sell it either. Id like to show pictures but dont know how 😐
 
To post a photo, you need to use the desktop version of Pearl-Guide, even if using a smartphone.

Look at the toolbar above the reply box...see the smiley face? To the right of that there is a row of icons. The square icon with a tiny picture of a tree inside is the icon for adding a photo. Click on that.
A small window opens -- "Insert Image" from computer or from a photo hosting site.
Click on "choose file" to choose the photo from your computer.
Then click on "upload file(s)."

This will add a photo to your post. Repeat the process to add more photos.

There is another way to add photos but this is the easier way.
 
hello my son also has a pearl. can u tell us it its a pearl or not..
 
Apparently, a chemist in Manila did a TV show about these concretions, claiming they were pearls and that they were very valuable. There is no stopping the mayhem. Sigh.

Worth mentioning to all PG people: please don't recommend anyone online when someone asks for help with clam pearls. We know that the natural pearl dealers will not want these items and must be overloaded with requests.
 
GemGeek said:
Apparently, a chemist in Manila did a TV show about these concretions, claiming they were pearls and that they were very valuable. There is no stopping the mayhem. Sigh.
Click to expand...

Is that what happened? I've even had several people send supposed lab reports showing the chemical composition of their "pearls." Apparently the labs don't realize that shell and pearls are composed of the same thing.
 
The thing that boggles my mind is why anyone would think they could sell chunks of shell overgrowth. What conceivable value could they have in anyone's eyes? Saltwater doorstops?!!
 
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