Would this have been a good buy?

[davi_el_mejor]

Unfortunately I lost the auction for this pearl, but I thought it was great looking, now I'm looking at others and want to know if I'm off base on what a "good" pearl is.

Hopefully it was a PS'er who won the auction 'Cuz I'd love to see pictures

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...nvlVp80%3D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEDWX:IT

 

[that_someone_special]

I'm only looking at this on my phone but that says "freshwater" to me. It's VERY small for a south sea (8mmx6mm) and I doubt that it's real....

 

[that_someone_special]

Read more about ss here http://www.pearlparadise.com/education-golden-south-sea.aspx

Also... The shape is weird for a ss too

 

[ForteKitty]

Davi- Threadjack! are you still looking for chrysophrase earrings for your mom? i couldn't find that tiffanys thread.

i may have found something...

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Davi- Threadjack! are you still looking for chrysophrase earrings for your mom? i couldn't find that tiffanys thread.

i may have found something...

That was Danny, it's in jewelry peices

 

[ForteKitty]

haha OOPS!! i just remember a guy's name that starts w/ "D"... haha...

 

[davi_el_mejor]

Read more about ss here http://www.pearlparadise.com/education-golden-south-sea.aspx

Also... The shape is weird for a ss too

Thanks Bean. Maybe I was deceived by the vendors description. It says that it's a keshi, which could explain the small size? And I absolutely love the egg shape of it, i prefer that over the round ones.

 

[that_someone_special]

Except, I believe, that keshis are usually irregular in shape as they are all nacre.. Plus they are not symmetrical..

See this pic..http://www.pearlparadise.com/AltView2.aspx?id=2341&LargeWidth=709

Ultimately I'm not sure but the listing is shady and I don't trust it.

 

[that_someone_special]

I think akoyas can have keshis.... If anything I would think akoya keshi before anything else.

What type of pearl are you looking for? Maybe some of use can help?

 

[RockHugger]

Read more about ss here http://www.pearlparadise.com/education-golden-south-sea.aspx

Also... The shape is weird for a ss too

I have a few agustus pearls and they call came back as real/ as described. I trust them.

 

[whitehotblank]

Yeah, I'm going to agree with Rockhugger - this seller is trustworthy, imo. I was eyeballing that pearl but ended up bidding on and winning this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=380292040285&si=g%252F1DYNF6vqXal66KKpmHznUHNt0%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT (also a SS keshi, went for $91)

Agustus Collection sells a lot of SS keshis - I would say 90% of my SS keshis come from them and they check out. That pearl you were bidding on, imo, went for a fair price. It's a deep colour and is very smooth. It caught my eye, too.

 

[iLander]

I think it would have been a good buy.

Augustus collection is legitimate, and has been mentioned on this and other forums.

I've seen quite a few symmetrical keshi pearls, but I do think most of them have been Tahitian or South Seas. Freshwater keshi seem to be more wacky and often less symmetrical.

Sarah also has a selection of loose pearls, if you're looking. It's worth emailing her (though she is currently at a trade show, she told me in an email) as she, like the colored stone vendors, has a lot of goodies that are not on her website:

http://shop.kojimapearl.com/collections/loose-pearls

She has this one, which is similar to the one you were looking at, but it is HUGE:

http://shop.kojimapearl.com/products/creamy-gold-south-sea-pearl

If I had some budget, I would have her make me some earrings out of these beauties:

http://shop.kojimapearl.com/products/japan-kasumi-glowing-purple-pair

But that is my particular taste. I like the wabi-sabi of the pair.

 

[that_someone_special]

I don't know... still looks weird to me. I think it's hard to really know what you are getting from ebay pearl sellers though for many reasons.

 

[iLander]

I don't know, I usually feel pretty good about an ebay seller if they have 100% positive ratings, and over 5,000 transactions.

There are actually a few good ebay pearl sellers (according to the experiences of members of this forum), and I buy quite a bit on ebay, and sell there as well (not jewelry).

But I have to admit, that when push comes to shove, I like to be able to send a return without worrying about the package going astray. I tend to stick to countries with reliable postal and customs systems (Hong Kong, some parts of China, Japan, UK, Australia). But there are plenty of people in colored stones (my original home base) who send jewelry off to Vietnam to be set, and return stones to Thailand. So, I say, stick to your preferences.

But then again, I just read this post on Bali (where Augustus collection is based) so maybe I'm behind the times:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bali-anyone-been.153036/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bali-anyone-been.153036/[/URL]

Free Wi-fi everywhere? On Bali? So Weird.

But back to the OP: I think it was nice, but a little smallish for my personal taste. Just like colored stones, every millimeter makes a difference in pearls (that's what the neck shots thread is for; scale ).