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Beginner's guide to pearls--from one shopper to another

set2374

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 1, 2005
Messages
73
This is the first time I am posting in the Pearls section and the last time I posted in pricescope was a few years back when I was searching for the perfect engagement ring for my wife. I wanted to share with you my experience as a pearl newbie and what I have learned about the pearl business over the past few months (and since I am more obsessive over these things that most people, I thought I would let you benefit from my nuttiness). My wife has always dreamed of having a gorgeous set of pearls. She doesn't know a thing about pearls other than the fact that she loves them (akoyas in particular) and she knew (or had been told) that Mikimoto's were the best and I wanted to get her the best. However, a quick visit to the Mikimoto website and I quickly realized that Mikimoto means major money and, being a smart shopper, I assumed I could find the same quality for much less—which is fine for my wife and me since we appreciate quality but care little about brands and labels.

As an attorney, it's been my experience to be consistently successful, you need to own the subject matter and be the best prepared attorney in the room. When I go shopping for a major purchase (sometimes even not so major), I apply that same philosophy. I want to read everything I can and explore every option before I finally make my purchase. I started by reading the educational info on the Mikimoto website. I also scoured the forums and read the "Education" and Buying Guides provided by various online vendors—all of which need to be taken with a pound of salt. I found many of these so-called guides to be self-serving and of marginal value. I spoke to an appraiser that I had used in the past, and she recommended that I read Peals by Elisabeth Strack and Pearl Buying Guide by Renee Newman, both of which I purchased from the GIA website: http://store.gia.edu/Pearl_Buying_Guide_p/0205040.htm

Obviously, you can only learn so much from reading books and looking at photos and video. You need hands on experience. I have made multiple trips to Mikimoto and Tiffany's. I even made some purchases of strands from some online vendors to get a better understand of their pearls. If you want to buy Mikimoto quality pearls online for a fraction of the cost—this is definitely doable, but buyer beware. There's a lot of bad information and false advertising out there. Even the better vendors play games—so, you need to know what you're looking at to know if you're getting a good deal. The big game that almost all vendors play involves the use (or misuse) of their grading system. Almost all vendors with a few exceptions (like Blue Nile), use a grading system for Akoyas based on a scale of A-AAA, with A being of lower quality and lesser value than AAA. This is the source of a huge amount of confusion because it's very hard for consumers to comparson shop between Company 1's AA strand and company 2's AAA strand. These companies also frequently use special designations for their there best strands that indicates that they are finer quality than even the hypothetical top quality strands (Crown, Presidential, Hanadama, Collection etc.) [Hanadama requires separate discussion].

The Mikimoto Grading Standard

To understand online vendor's grades for pearls, it's important to understand the meaning of the grades used by Mikimoto—since all other akoya grading systems are based off the Mikimoto system (with each vendor applying it differently and to their own advantage). Here's a link to Miki's grading standard: http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/about-pearl-jewelry/how-to-buy-pearls/mikimoto-grading-system/. On Mikimoto's website, Miki claims to sell only pearls that fall within the top 5% of all pearls harvested in any given year. I'll assume that Mikimoto (with its laboratories, gemologists and legal counsel) wouldn't say that it sells only the top 5% of all pearls harvested unless it were true. These pearls from the top 5% are all relatively clean to the naked eye. They also appear to be perfectly round to the naked eye (deformed pearls and pearls with visible inclusions are culled before they are acquired or otherwise accepted by Mikimoto). There is no need to grade size—since that's easily quantified in millimeters. Of the elite top 5% of all pearls harvested, Mikimoto divides that top 5% into four groups based on the level of luster. Luster refers to the amount of light that is reflected from the surface of a pear. The more luster a pearl has, the more light is being reflected from that pearl (and the more valuable the pearl).

You can read the description of Miki's grades for yourself—but you have to visit a Mikimoto store and examine examples from each grade of pearls to appreciate the differences between A, A+, AA and AAA. Also, note that all of the pearls in these categories are eye clean with barely any visible flaws even upon close visual inspection. If a strand contains a pearl or two with an imperfection that is visible with the naked eye, that strand is considered blemished and less valuable. Miki identifies these blemished strands for its customers with the number "1" after the grade. So, a strand that is graded AA1 will be a strand that has all of the qualities of a AA strand (including its luster), but will have a visible surface flaw on a couple of pearls (usually you have to really examine the strand to find these blemishes). The "1" designation reduces the value of the strand significantly.

Even within the A, A+, AA and AAA grades, there is a range. All AA strands are not made equal. Some AA strands might be borderline AAA, but Mikimoto tends to err on the side of caution and downgrade the strand to AA. Grading is an art, not a science so it's very possible that some strands graded AA would be graded AAA by other Mikimoto gemologists on a different day. For the most part though, it seems Mikimoto is widely regarding as having a consistent grading system and you can rest assured that a AAA strand from Mikimoto will be among the very best that money can buy.

Standards of Grading by Other Vendors

If you're not buying from Mikimoto, how do you compare the pearls you are seeing from other vendors with pearls from Miki. Also, how do you compare AAA strands from company 1 with AAA strands from company 2 without having the ability to put them side by side. In short, you can't compare them at all. At best, a company's grades are only valuable to the extent that the company is using the grade to categorize its own inventory. Some companies may benchmark their grades to Mikimoto—so that their AA is roughly equivalent to a Mikimoto AA. Unless you have the strands in front of you though, it's really hard to tell which companies are benchmarking to Mikimoto and which are making up grades to suit themselves and produce sales to unwitting consumers and higher prices than they would other wise get in the market.

The lack of uniform and industry accepted grading system is a major burden on the pearl vendors and pearl consumers. They have a really hard time distinguishing their products from every other vendors since they are relying on consumers to trust them and buy their products site unseen. That is a big leap of faith we are being asked to take. To make consumers feel more comfortable with their purchase and to enhance the value of their products, over the past ten or so years—vendors have imported the "Hanadama" concept to the US and are using it as a grade, designation and brand to distinguish their pearls from others being sold.

What does "Hanadama" Mean and How does it Effect the Value of your Strand

Here's the Hanadama story in a nutshell. It seems that some time ago, Mikimoto himself used the adjective "Hanadama" to describe all of his pearls as the most beautiful in the world. He never used it as a grade or to quantify the value of his pearls. It's the same as you saying the roses you grow in your garden are the most beautiful in the world and represent the very best. It may or may not be true—but in Miki's opinion, his pearls were Hanadama and who among us could argue? Miki's marketers picked up on this and incorporated Hanadama into some of their marketing material. Since Miki claim in the same marketing material to only sells pearls from the Top 5% of the harvest—presto—competitors now have a sexy Japanese word they can use to quantify the top 5% of the harvest. So, they can claim that their pearls are Hanadama if they can prove their pearls are also in the top 5% of the harvest.

To back up vendor claims of "Hanadama", a cottage industry of labs sprung up in Japan that, for a modest fee, would issue a certificate to prove that the pearls being sold were Hamadana. Most of these certificates aren't worth the paper they are printed on. I haven't seen any of these "Hamadana" certificates in the U.S. yet. Most vendors here are using certificates issues by the Japan Pearl Science Laboratories (JPSL) —which seems to be among the more reputable labs. These certificates indicate the "lab's" opinion of the luster of the pearl and provides a measurement of the thickness of the pearl's nacre using an X-ray. Pearls with a nacre thickness of 0.4mm and no more than slight blemishing and spotting are designated Hanadama.


ON JPSL's website, it claims it's Hanadama designation represents the top 3% of pearls from the harvest. To receive the Hanadama designation, a pearl strand must have an average nacre thickness of 0.4mm measured from the radius as a minimum and no more than slight blemishing is permitted. A strand that meets JPSL's standard for "Hanadama" is a pretty darn impressive strand and may fall in the top 3% of the harvest. But these numbers have to be put in perspective. Japanese Akoya's produce today have an average nacre thickness of between .15 (very thin) and .5mm (thick to very thick)—the very best strands have average nacre thicknesses in excess of .5mm, with some even exceeding 1mm (which is extraordinarily rare and, when they are found, they are only in Koshimoto pearls that have been have been in optimal weather and ocean conditions for over two summers!!!). If you see a site that claims to be selling pearls with nacre thicknesses in excess of 1mm, you should assume that they are using the "total" nacre thickness which measure nacre thickness from both sides of the pearl. Divide that number in half and you can compare it to the pearls that have a measurement from JSPL.

How do JSPL's Hanadama certified pearls compare to Mikimoto? Miki doesn't use JPSL to do any grading and doesn't have a "Hanadama" grade. In fact, Miki removed any mention of the word Handama from its US and UK websites—so we can only speculate. A strand of pearls with an average nacre thickness of .8 measured from the radius is practically off the charts and assuming there are no other issues or blemishes could easily be a good Mikimoto AAA strand. Another "Hamadana" strand with a .4mm nacre thickness might only rate as an A+ or AA by Miki's gemologists. So, while all Mikimoto AAA would be certified as Hanadama by the JPSL standard (if submitted), not all JPSL certified Hanadama strands would be graded AAA by Mikimoto (far from it). With this knowledge, don't ever let anyone fool you into thinking that just because their top strands have Hanadama certificates attached, those strands are equivalent to a Miki AAA strand. That's just not the case Ask to see a copy of the Hanadama report before making your purchase or, at least, have the vendor guaranty that your Hanadama strand will have a minimum nacre thickness above 0.6 on a JPSL or GIA report if you are hoping to purchase the equivalent of a Miki AAA site unseen. There is nothing to stop you from setting a higher standard for your "Hanadama" strand higher than the one used by JPSL!!!

Happy pearl hunting!!!
 

PreBallAndChain

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
3
I know I'm bumping an old thread, but this was extremely helpful. I was shopping for a pearl necklace and earrings for a wedding gift for the bride-to-be and it's even more confusing than shopping for the engagement ring!
 

NacreLover

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Sep 10, 2011
Messages
1,941
PBAC, That thread is not what it seems. Look elsewhere for information than that thread.
What are you interested in buying. We can assist you.
 
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