Shopping for an abalone pearl

[azra]

Dear all,
For some time now I have I have been dreaming of an abalone pearl pendant, but most abalone pearls that I have seen (for example on Kojima's website) were very beautiful but very expensive. In the last couple of days I have noticed some way cheaper options on etsy, for example:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/594276...one-pearl-497ct-for-a?ref=shop_home_active_34

https://www.etsy.com/listing/789152...f=sr_gallery-1-1&organic_search_click=1&cns=1

Granted, they are not be as beautiful, but are they the real deal? To me they sure look real, but the price looks almost too good to be true. Some of them seem to be stabilised with resin - how bad is this? Curious to hear what you pearl experts think about this

 

[pattye]

Yes, I'd say these abalone pearls are the real deal. "The Pearl Collector" is an expert known to many of us here. Karen says she has a Graduate Gemologist degree. I'm not familiar with adding resin to these type pearls, but it's appropriate to disclose. Some appear to be quite small but lovely.

 

[jesskat]

I'd note that the first shop has very "retail" prices for other jewelry. (The prices for some of her loose moonstones have me completely shocked - there's no way a singular moonstone should cost in the high hundreds, let alone over a thousand dollars, which she "lowered the price drastically" on. Yikes!)

If the other shop is well-known to this group as an expert, I'd say you can trust them.

 

[azra]

Thanks for the replies! In the end I decided to go ahead - and order the left one it the picture Looking forward to see it in person