Pearl Scam - or is it?

[fathom]

Excerpt:
QUOTE
Special Report: Beware jewelers peddling AAAA cultured pearls!

this reference seems to have disappearred

One of the biggest jewelry scams today is retailers selling AAAA or AAA+ pearls. If the seller is offering pearls above AAA quality, it means that their AAA pearls aren’t as high-quality as other retailers, and they often are trying to sell them for the same amount!

UNQUOTE

While I am not a professional of this industry I do conduct research and marketing for such companies and firmly believe this deceptive language is both harmful to the industry and consumers, and is further an unfair explanation as to the difference between competitive pricing, quality, and consumer value.

Any thoughts?

 

[valeria101]

Scam or not... these "instore" grading systems are at most good to compare items from the same store. It definitely doesn't pay to compare merchandise between stores, as long as both sellers do not use the same grading system and can prove it. Is this the case you are describing ?

As far as I know, there is NO universally accepted grading sustem for pearls. It may be that quite a few sellers call their quality grades "A", "A+", "AA" and so forth, but one seller's "A" is not the same as the others'. It definitely dosn't help that the few industry leaders use the same darn letters: Mikimoto's "AAA" is not the same as anybody else's (be it Paspaley or some bead shop).

Most websites explain what their quality grades stand for and sellers usually provide the same kind of information if asked - although I think asking about these is not always taken lightly...

I am not familiar with what lab reports for pearls report beyond identification.

 

[fathom]

Thanks!

I did some searching around FTC - and there doesn't seem to be any reference to pearl grading... the only thing I could find was referencing "natural" or "cultured".

 

[katbadness]

I could be wrong in this, but the only type of pearl whose grading is somewhat standardized is the Tahitian pearls.

I read sometime ago that the pearl industry of Tahiti was working with its government to try to prevent the abundance of poor quality pearls in the market hence lowering the 'Tahitian pearl' brand.

And in order to do this, the people in the industry has to come up with a standardized grading system.

(I'll post the article/news release if I can find it again.

)

Unfortunately, I'd think that this is not a grading system that is 100% adopted by everybody in the industry. However, I'd say that the grading system for pearls everywhere is probably similar if not close.