Vendor Auction Pearls and 5mm golden Akoyas

[cyndayco]

Hello, everyone.

The vendor claims they're really golden and not just champagne in color. Of course, 5-5.5mm is tiny, but at 33", you can layer them at matinee or choker length. Does this seem like a good buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=301086539468

PS. The vendor agreed to send more photos of the necklace. Will post them as soon as I get them.

 

[KarinK]

I've heard the name of this seller as being okay. The price seems very low. I'm guessing the pearls are good but also guessing the layer of nacre is very thin. If they were top quality pearls they could and would be sold for a lot more. So it depends on what you want them for and what you expect of them.

I bought a strand of baroque akaoya pearls this fall for $50. There are whole areas of no nacre but I've strung them so it isn't noticeable and the luster is pretty because they were too low in quality to even be bleached and dyed. I use them for when I feel like a plain strand of pearls and will keep them until I am able to get some good golden ones.

- Karin

 

[pearlescence]

The question to ask is depth of nacre. There are lots of blinking or near to blinking akoya going cheap around at the moment. They may well have great lustre and colour but will have only been in the water for a few months
As KarinK says, if you get them, do not expect durability.
Of course this is an auction so the seller may be expecting the price to run to a sensible level for quality pearls.

 

[jshepherd]

The price does not match the description. It isn't possible to get two strands of AAA quality golden akoya pearls from Japan for under $90 per strand. Add to that a 14 karat clasp, what you have is a commercial grade strand that is almost certainly going to be light yellow (not gold) with thin nacre and off round.

 

[cyndayco]

Thanks for the helpful advice, certainly food for thought for the next purchase. But as it turns out, I won't be buying this strand after all.

See this post for more: https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8621

 

[cyndayco]

FWIW, the vendor sent these photos. They don't seem to be the blinking variety. Then again, he did not send photos of every pearl.

Compared to my new gSS, they appear lighter and closer to a champagne color.





For comparison, here is what may be a mixed FW/saltwater strand of 7mm pale pink/mauve/peach pearls. While they were sold to me as FW pearls, one out of three seems to hide a dark core (even when examined in daylight).

Jeremy, is that an example of thin nacre?

 

[GemGeek]

The freshwaters are freshwaters and are solid nacre. What appears as a solid dark core is probably initial layers of conchiolin, a dark proteinaceous layer that usually comes before the pearly, or nacreous layers are laid down.

Blinking happens when you see the bead "blinking" through the nacre as the pearl moves. The bead has banding that shows up as dark flashes as the strand is rolled. This is usually only seen in akoya pearls that do not have enough nacre covering the bead to block out the banding.

I hope this helps.

 

[pearlescence]

What GemGeek said plus...
blinking is when you can see the nucleus through very thin or absent nacre when you roll the pearls on a surface - the pearls do look as if they are blinking at you.
The nacre may be mirror metallic but it is probably as thick as..well it isn't thick. it's a thin smear. Like the plating on cheap plated findings which wears off within a few weeks. Blinking is not a specific variety of pearl.
Those pearls all look like freshwaters to me.
With pearls you really do get what you pay for. You may well think to yourself that as a vendor I will say that, but it is true none the less. Certain products of a certain quality have a certain price level. There may be minor fluctuations but gold costs what gold costs and, as Jeremy says. Akoya pearls cost what they cost if you want decent ones.
That isn't vendors artificially keeping prices up, it is a function of the costs incurred by the farm in growing the pearls for long enough so they have a decent thickness of nacre, in the matching and drilling and then in the overheads of the wholesalers and then our costs. When you see something massively different in akoya pearls the only real slippages in the length of time in the water. Or they are freshwaters with a false moustache on.

 

[Katbran]

They do look as if they are going to be quite pale ..

 

[cyndayco]

Thanks, GemGeek, for the clarification. I thought "blinking" was the occasional bald patch of nacre on some of the baroque and larger freshwaters.

Indeed, Katbran, I decided to get myself a rope of 7mm dyed freshwaters in medium gold (I can already feel Cees glaring at me ) in Greenhills, for a fraction of the cost of Auction Pearls' item.

But someday, I will get myself a strand of decent Akoyas--just not here. Do you know that Akoya pearls are no longer sold in Manila? We're not the right market, I suppose.