This is less of a "show" and more of a "tell." Since I shared links to my Pearl Trip with my handweaving guild, I had two people bring pearls to our guild meeting on Saturday for me to evaluate. One had several ropes and bracelets of very nice quality akoya pearls, all with 14K yellow gold clasps. She said she didn't wear pearls and didn't know what to do with them. This was said while wearing a gorgeous 3 strand akoya bracelet and nice ruby and diamond earrings, with shorts and a T shirt. I told her to just wear them, all the time. The box had a Mayors Jewelers label, so they were good quality, if that's the box that came with the pearls. Always a mistake to assume that, but in this case, I think at least one of the pieces came from Mayors.
The other lady had a brutalist looking sterling silver ring with a really nice quality South Sea pearl. No flaws. Beautiful satin luster, but a bit dull because it was dirty. She bought it for $20 and thought it was a fake pearl because the surface was so smooth. I told her to give it a wash, because it was a bit grimy, and be careful not to get silver polish on the pearl if she tries to clean up the metal. This is the same lady who thought cultured pearls were fake pearls. She thanked me for educating her on how pearls are cultured.
I couldn't really give either lady a price their pearls were worth, because of course they asked me. The lady with the ropes wanted to sell, so I told her to look at EBay and other websites where jewelry is sold and see what similar pieces were going for. She used to have an EBay shop selling books, so she know how it works. The other lady just wanted an idea of the value of her ring since she only paid $20 for it. I thought that since it's silver and not gold, it won't be worth as much, but she doesn't want to sell it. Just know if she got a good deal. She did. For resale, I thought the ring could go from $50 to $100.