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jshepherd
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They all appear to be Chinese freshwater pearls. The black pearls are dyed. They appear to be decent enough quality. Not fine jewelry quality, but decent enough. What are the clasps composed of? They appear to be a little flimsy, and if they are not gold that could lower the value quite a bit.
The value would really depend upon how and where you sell them. On eBay you would not get a lot, probably around $20 per strand. This is because there are a lot of pearls in that quality range available from the sellers out of China.
A fair retail price, I would say, would be in the range of $100 for each strand. Wholesale, without the clasps, would be in the range of $10-$20 per strand.
The value would really depend upon how and where you sell them. On eBay you would not get a lot, probably around $20 per strand. This is because there are a lot of pearls in that quality range available from the sellers out of China.
A fair retail price, I would say, would be in the range of $100 for each strand. Wholesale, without the clasps, would be in the range of $10-$20 per strand.
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deerhunter
Guest
thank you for your input. it appears i got taken then because i purchased these pearls in qatar and i was told they got them straight from the persian gulf. some of us were even offered to go with the guy who gets them on his boat. i paid anywhere from $120 for single strands to $180 for double strands. i even saw someone do a scratch test on one of the pearls and from what i was told it was authentic and had the characteristics of real pearls.
Pearls_by_Angela_Carol
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Also, the strand that is all black appears to have baraque pearls in it as well as the strand that has green. Am I correct? If is hard to tell.
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Rosomane
Guest
That is SO sad.
Jeremy what do you see in a photograph that indicates CFW?
As an aside, I had a chat with my SIL who got a degree in London in gemology and she told me she stays away from (cultured) pearls because you only have somebody's word as to how long they've been in the water. It's really disheartening for those of us who love pearls to learn of all the scams, smoke and mirrors involved among pearl peddlers. It almost reminds me of the massage industry - I used to work at one of the top day spas in the city and telling someone I was a massage therapist was almost like announcing I was a prostitute only because of all the hookers posing as massaseuses in bogus massage parlors. One can't be an expert in everything, I guess the only way to prevent rip-offs is to find an honest pearl source and stay with them. Sheesh, no wonder Zeide grows her own....
Jeremy what do you see in a photograph that indicates CFW?
As an aside, I had a chat with my SIL who got a degree in London in gemology and she told me she stays away from (cultured) pearls because you only have somebody's word as to how long they've been in the water. It's really disheartening for those of us who love pearls to learn of all the scams, smoke and mirrors involved among pearl peddlers. It almost reminds me of the massage industry - I used to work at one of the top day spas in the city and telling someone I was a massage therapist was almost like announcing I was a prostitute only because of all the hookers posing as massaseuses in bogus massage parlors. One can't be an expert in everything, I guess the only way to prevent rip-offs is to find an honest pearl source and stay with them. Sheesh, no wonder Zeide grows her own....
jshepherd
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The prices paid were a little steep if you plan to resell them, but if they are for personal use you did OK. I am sorry to hear the stories they told you, but really not surprised.
I was in Hong Kong this last weekend with Mia from my office. We arrived on Sunday for a morning meeting on Monday (yesterday) so we just walked around Tsimshatsui for several hours. There are a lot of shops that specialize in pearls (storefronts, not wholesale), and we were just looking through the windows at the mounds of hanks when one store owner came outside to try and sell us. He gave us this monologue about how the pearls were 100% Japanese and he imports them directly from a pearl farm, etc. etc... Get this, he was selling freshwater pearls!
Well, in my nice manner (nicer than I usually am here) I told him that the pearls were clearly Chinese freshwater, and I thought it was very dishonest of him to try to take advantage of what he assumed were tourists. His only response was that the pearls really were from Japanese rivers. Sad...
The pearls in the pictures have the classic look of medium-grade freshwater pearls. The shape, the luster, and even the pearl combinations are classic in China. They are sold as pictured to tourists at the Hongqiao market in Beijing in the $10 range. There are also a lot of foreigners that buy them as is for export and resale. That is likely how they wound up in the Middle East.
I was in Hong Kong this last weekend with Mia from my office. We arrived on Sunday for a morning meeting on Monday (yesterday) so we just walked around Tsimshatsui for several hours. There are a lot of shops that specialize in pearls (storefronts, not wholesale), and we were just looking through the windows at the mounds of hanks when one store owner came outside to try and sell us. He gave us this monologue about how the pearls were 100% Japanese and he imports them directly from a pearl farm, etc. etc... Get this, he was selling freshwater pearls!
Well, in my nice manner (nicer than I usually am here) I told him that the pearls were clearly Chinese freshwater, and I thought it was very dishonest of him to try to take advantage of what he assumed were tourists. His only response was that the pearls really were from Japanese rivers. Sad...
The pearls in the pictures have the classic look of medium-grade freshwater pearls. The shape, the luster, and even the pearl combinations are classic in China. They are sold as pictured to tourists at the Hongqiao market in Beijing in the $10 range. There are also a lot of foreigners that buy them as is for export and resale. That is likely how they wound up in the Middle East.
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Valeria101
Guest
deerhunter said:
Sorry to hear this... the pearls are definitely wearable and nice enough on their own. The misrepresentation is the only really bad part.
Funny, where and how it happened! I've heard a hundred times what seems to be a bit of folklore among jewelers (I am not one): that the close one gets to the mine, the more frequent and professional the fakes! You might find the same word of wisdom in some gemology books. It seems really popular, and really well founded, unfortunately
