Natural South Sea pearl found

[kenneth.thorman]

Just to keep you updated.

One of the 3 companies I have contacted has just replied back indicating that around ? of the suggested selling price would be more common in trading, meaning somewhere between 80.000$-100.000$ and that 200.000 probably is too high. I personally consider that a high price indeed but it is not what the Thai owner hoped for. I guess I will have to contact him/them and see if they are interested in a somewhat lower price.

There seem to be very different opinions about what a pearl like this "normally" costs. Some have indicated that 200.000 is like 10 times the "normal" price.

So the price range seems to be from 20.000$ - 100.000$ which is not bad at all. This just confirms what some allready have posted here. There is no real standard price for a pearl like this.

Regards
Ken

 

[jshepherd]

There are so many factors that go into it. The size and quality are important, of course. But the fact that it is in Thailand ads another difficult element. In order to get someone over there for a single piece, it really has to be tempting. It is just too risky and difficult. The size is not "huge" although it is a big pearl. It appears to have flame in the photo, but I cannot tell how intense it is.

Regarding the price in "trading", this would still be a lot more than the seller in Thailand could hope to achieve, even if the value were there. Trading prices between dealers and the actual source cost is different. He would really need to be over here shopping it around, or get lucky with a trader already over there.

 

[kenneth.thorman]

Hi all.

Here is a little update.

I had for a long time completely forgotten about the pearl, until a few weeks ago when I was contacted on Skype (unsure of how they got the Skype address, but a bit of Googling can find the most amazing things today) by someone that apparently had read this forum. They were interested in the current price and also in knowing if the pearl was sold. So I did contact my sister in law. It ended up just being an inquiry.

Update on the past story:

We did approach the auction houses trying to the get the pearl auctioned.
Both Christies and Sothesby was interested in the pearl, but eventually it ended being quite complicated with the owner not wanting to part with the pearl. Not having a passport (quite normal in Thailand for rural people), not speaking English ...

I guess the easy way would have been for me to purchase the pearl and then try to auction it. There are 3 problems with this approach.

1. Not having the cash.
2. Being rather time consuming affair
3. Getting involved in the actual sale which I from the start have told the Thai family that I was not interested in, due to the potential conflicts in doing this.


So this is where we are now with my sister in law contacting me today asking if there was any interest. So I thought I would update the thread with the current price (I guess if time enough goes by this will drop further).

The current price is 2.000.000 THB or roughly 57.000 USD.

Kenneth

 

[Valeria101]

Since not long ago, there is one more place on the Net showing Melo pearls - and a surprisingly large collection of fine ones at that! Perhaps you may find it of interest:

CLICH for the Melo pearls of Federico Barlocher at Farlang

My guess is, that collections make the price of such stones - simply by holding a reasonably representative surce of reference, no news in that....

Also no secret that auction prices have suffered some dramatic correction since your inquiries last year. There simply have not been many larger international jewelry auctions since the beginning of the year, but the 'move' is already documented for art auctions (for which results are 'in') and the estimates for upcoming jewelry auctions appear to follow the down-and-up-again pattern with interesting play between revised estimates, sale conditions, and prices realized... All this is public information. It should be interesting to see what happens with the following jewelry auctions that also enlist natural pearls. In fact, it was a survey of (relatively favorable!) pearl estimates that brought me back reading this forum after quite a while.

Good luck with the sale!

 

[knotty panda]

Nice to see you again, Valeria. Your excusions on to other sites among other talents have been missed!

 

[Valeria101]

Thanks! I have drifted away from pearl interests for a while, but the subject is never far from view... Quite fun!