Sounds right...
At least in my shopping experience, it often happens to hear only about 'flaws' (dings, dimples, marks on the surface in general) and shape as quality and price factors because of all that makes a pearl's sum total grade, those two qualities (roundness and lack of blemishes) appear to be the easiest to achieve ... well, at the expense of the other quality aspects that don't get mentioned! Clearly, these are good things, but it feels silly not to acknowledge the look of the pearl that depends on all grading factors taken together, not just those two.
Mirror and orient are almost never mentioned - not just because those are more difficult to communicate: why talk about what isn't there on a good number of the large 'flawless' pearls! With incomplete information like that, it is less apparent that 'flawless' applies to one quality factor only (surface), leaving everything else to be questioned.
Most of the time the price is revealing, but...high price is relied on to bestow 'credibility' and if anywhere that might work to the fullest, Ebay's the place. I am fascinated by the attempts to enable 'reputation' online - feedback system, forums... ya' know - but it doesn't look like any works as well as real-time dialogue with the sellers: forums like this one feel much like an open house to a jeweler's back room (coffee and black velvet table aside...). Electronic feedback systems (like Ebay's) - more like some Orwellian bad joke ! Perhaps one day there will be a way of 'automated credibility', but until then ... Obviously, I am a bit of a jewelry forum fan
