Pearl Paradise Baroque Silver Blue Akoya - Speechless

[chere]

These are 8.0-8.5mm AA+ Baroque Silver Blue Akoyas from Pearl Paradise that were exchanged/repaired and resent to me.

 

[pearlsngems]

Obviously something is very wrong there.

Did you address this with PP? They have excellent customer service.

 

[chere]

I just received their response on what happened with the replacement strand. "We replaced the pearls, as many as we could, but we do not have any other loose pearls available to make more replacements."

They told me they would exchange the first strand for a different one when I agreed to the exchange. I thought this would be fine since I had selected from 2 strands and their website shows it in stock. Instead, they decided to replace some of the pearls on the first strand when they received it. I wasn't made aware that they couldn't replace all of the pearls I had issues with before they sent it back to me. I would have asked for a straight refund if they were upfront about it and left it at that.

I wanted to share what they sent to me twice.

 

[pearlsngems]

I would send it back for a refund.
Frankly I'm surprised they are selling that low quality. I get that the silver blue baroque akoyas are few and far between, but the quality just doesn't track with what PP usually sells.

When I bought my (white) baroque akoyas from PP in 2015, they were amazing-- thick nacre, just gorgeous. The silver blue ones were a bit more baroque in shape. But better quality than those you received.

Just curious, what grade were they given, if any?
Akoyas are in short supply these days (I mean that vendors are having a harder time getting them due to supply and demand issues in Asia, baby akoyas dying from virus etc.)

 

[lovedogs]

This is bizarre! I would ask for a refund

 

[chere]

These were AA+.

I'm sending these back. It's been a huge waste of time. I now need to apply for a customs refund...

 

[pearlsngems]

I am shocked at that grade. I would not expect anything graded AA+ to look like that, not from PP which is usually conservative in its grading.

 

[ItsMainelyYou]

I'm honestly shocked as well.
The quality is absolutely terrible on the pearls you've shown. The nacre looks like it was eaten around the drills. I don't know enough about pearls to even guess how that happens.
Definite return, and I'm sorry you'll also have to go through customs on top. I'm hoping that it's resolved quickly.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

Ummm, yikes.

cheers--Sharon

 

[dk168]

Also shocked to see such low grade pearls being stocked and sold by PP - they are more like the cheapies one could find listed in WenPearls on Etsy!!!

DK

 

[SparklieBug]

These were AA+.

I'm sending these back. It's been a huge waste of time. I now need to apply for a customs refund...

So sorry to see the (lack of) quality in the strands. Most disappointing.

Slightly off topic, have you had success with refunds from Customs?

 

[chere]

So sorry to see the (lack of) quality in the strands. Most disappointing.

Slightly off topic, have you had success with refunds from Customs?

No. The amounts were small on my other purchases and I didn’t bother sending them the documents they wanted by email.

I think it was the return tracking label number, proof of the purchase and refund and credit card statements.

Also shocked to see such low grade pearls being stocked and sold by PP - they are more like the cheapies one could find listed in WenPearls on Etsy!!!

DK

Thanks for the reminder DK! One of the Esty sellers I was eyeing has new inventory. It looks promising!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

when i first looked at the pictures i thought i was looking at an old beaten up strand

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Oof. Terrible lack of transparency on their part which I find more upsetting the pearls!

 

[MakingTheGrade]

I would send it back for a refund.
Frankly I'm surprised they are selling that low quality. I get that the silver blue baroque akoyas are few and far between, but the quality just doesn't track with what PP usually sells.

When I bought my (white) baroque akoyas from PP in 2015, they were amazing-- thick nacre, just gorgeous. The silver blue ones were a bit more baroque in shape. But better quality than those you received.

Just curious, what grade were they given, if any?
Akoyas are in short supply these days (I mean that vendors are having a harder time getting them due to supply and demand issues in Asia, baby akoyas dying from virus etc.)

Is the virus still causing problems this year?

 

[pearlsngems]

Is the virus still causing problems this year?

Unsure if the virus was very active this past summer. I will ask about that in the thread on the other pearl forum called "Japanese Akoya Mortality".
In the following 2021 article about experiments run on the pathogens causing "summer atrophy" of oysters, I thought the following was interesting, as it points to one of the dangers of warming oceans (which are not getting any cooler!):

Source: "Mass mortality of pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata (Gould)) in Japan in 2019 and 2020 is caused by an unidentified infectious agent"

"In addition, the optimal temperature for the propagation of the pathogen might be around 25 °C or more, since the disease was not clearly reproduced by cohabitation at 22–23 °C in this study. This is supported by the fact that the spontaneous disease outbreaks occur during summer as stated before."

Also this excerpt from March 2023 article by Jennifer Heebner: Buckle Up—Japanese Akoya Pearl Prices Have Skyrocketed 80% with No End in Sight

"After Asian demand, there’s Japanese Akoya pearl mortality and fewer growers to consider.

Yuichi Nakamura of PJ Nakamura International, a Pearl wholesaler in Japan who is in frequent contact with many farmers, recently confided to AGTA about prices and problems.

“First-class quality Japanese Akoya Pearl prices are up 80% year over year, while second-class quality is up 60% over last year,” he says. “Farmers are struggling with the high mortality rate of baby Akoya oysters—since 2019, a virus has been killing them. Many countermeasures have been conducted, but still one thing is for sure—no increase in pearl production is predicted. In 1990, there were over 2,000 farmers in Japan, but a price drop for the product made this number decline to 600 growers in 30 years.”

For sure, diminished production is affecting prices. According to Nakamura, Japanese Akoya Pearl production in 1990 totaled 67 tons; last year there were only 9.5 tons. Less product on the market naturally means higher prices, which started escalating two years ago.

“Japanese Akoya prices have tripled in two years—isn’t that crazy?” he observes. “But from the farmer’s point of view, the prices of Akoyas were undervalued for the past 30 years.”

Of course the die-off of oysters causes multi-year consequences. Not only are there fewer pearls the following 1-2 years due to oysters being fewer, but also farmers are more likely to harvest earlier down the road so as to get something to market. I could see that causing more thin-nacre akoya pearls reaching the market, as they have in the past, and I wonder if this is already happening. In the case of SSP and Tahitians, earlier harvesting can also lead to fewer large pearls being available.

 

[pearlsngems]

Is the virus still causing problems this year?

Jeremy asked his friend in Japan and was told that yes, the virus is continuing to kill the baby oysters. So supply will be impacted for at least the next 2 years. He was told that production is currently about half of normal.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Oh no! I was hoping we’d be in recovery and we’d back to normal stock in 5 years or so

 

[pearlsngems]

Not only that but prices are out of sight. His friend said that in the past 2 years pearl auction prices have increased by a total of about 3.75x of what they were. In other words, nearly quadrupled.

Quoting Jeremy, "He also said pearls are selling so well, both Mikimoto and Tasaki are out of strands and only allowing purchase of one item per customer at their retail shops."

 

[yssie]

"He also said pearls are selling so well, both Mikimoto and Tasaki are out of strands and only allowing purchase of one item per customer at their retail shops."

This might be geographic, not the case right now in NY USA, but I could see them moving to this model or similar. NY store is currently willing to take orders for strands but in-store/pullable inventory is low.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Oof. Well guess I’ll just clutch the pearls I already have and hope the akoyas recover soon, seems like availability is taking a double hit between decreased supply and increased demand.

Possible silver lining is maybe with prices getting so high consumers will demand more consistent and transparent quality grading?

 

[Pearlescence]

I've scratched my head for years about grading and assessing. But there's no getting away from it being completely subjective, rather than objective.

 

[katbran]

This is not unusual in the lower grade strands , I’m surprised that these slipped by in a AA+ lot. But the broken nacre is not uncommon in these baroque as there can be air under the .pointy. Rippled ends that breaks during drilling. Also it’s common to get lots of ‘beige’ mottled pearls. This is a reason that many are dyed or irradiated to enhance or even out the colour.
very disappointing but returning for a refund was the only way to go in the end.