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Cool thread and probably a good time for the holidays. Can you advise on buying pearls? I want to buy a couple of stud pearl earing for my girlfriend this christmas and would like some direction. I googled around learning about them some, but would like your expert opinion. I was looking at Australian south sea cultured pearls(7-7.5mm in size) - can't decide on golden or white yet. What's the market price and how can I smartly negotiate with a local jewelry store for them?
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Dec 5, 2010 00:16
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I wasn't expecting such a steep price. Why are the goldens double the price of the whites in general? Is it just the limited availability of the oyster? I know you said it wasn't your thing What's generally the best value pearls around? Akoya?
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Dec 5, 2010 02:59
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I'm googling around to find local jewelry stores to hunt down some pearl earring and was wondering if Jareds is lumped in with the mall stores(insane markup, charge for everything etc)?
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Dec 9, 2010 23:19
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I ran around some stand alone jewelry stores today looking for a pair of Akoya pearl earrings with a white gold back, 6.5-7.5mm in size. I got prices ranging from $70-250. The 250 was near a big mall. As I was getting farther away from the city I got a quote of $110(7.5mm Akoyas) and at an even smaller store $70. However at the smaller store they didn't know if the pearls were Akoya, just that they were salt water. Only the very expensive store seemed to know of a grading system. I read there are two grading system, Tahitian(A-D) and Akoya(A-AAA). Is what I read full of it and not really followed? Should a good, reputable salesman know grade and nacre thickness?
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Dec 11, 2010 23:59
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I went to another store(this one husband and wife owned) still shopping around for pearl earring and the lady told me that the earring they had for ~$100 were slightly not round, but the hardware was covering that part and if I wanted to go up to the perfectly spherical ones it add around $200. I appreciated the honesty. I called back one of the other stores and asked the saleswoman there if the earrings they were selling for around the same price($100) were spherical akoyas - she assured me they were and that they get "the best pearls" from Royal Pearl. This kinda sounded like a sales pitch to me. I googled around and apparently Royal Pearl is an importer out of chicago(assuming that's the one). Is the second store pulling my leg? Do either of you guys know of Royal Pearl?
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Dec 16, 2010 19:55
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