Recent content by est190

It may be that the product was actually imported from and manufactured in China. For NAFTA to apply, the product needs to be assembled/manufactured in the US. For example, you may be subject to duties if you bought loose pearls from pearl paradise, sine the we're not produced or manufactured...

I am not sure how it works outside of the United States, but in the United States the duty is on the importer (buyer) to categorize and classify and item that is being imported, not the Chinese (or any other) exporter to classify, for purpose of calculating duties. An item can be classified a...

Hi Guys. I have been awol for a couple of days. I had a surprise meeting that I had to cover out of town yesterday. Anyway, I am back. I have some pictures from the birthday party that I'll upload later. Caitlin, nice selection from Jose's site. He had another round strand in they had in...

Moved LOVED the pearls!!! This is the first gift I have given here in years that she doesn't plan on returning. Here only complaint (Can you imagine?) was that the strand was a bit too long--it was 18" and she likes wearing 16" necklaces. I told her I would get her a shortening clasp so...

issac was an adorable baby!! Could have done Ferber commercials. Adeline, I would be tempted to keep them all, but my AmEX bill says otherwise. I am like the US government when it come to budgets. Everything ends up costing twice my budget. :-). I have seven hour to go until mom gets her...

There's a good chance there will be a fourth strand too. Finger's crossed. :-)

This strand is from American Pearl, the first two from pearl oasis. I got lucky on this strand because in nabbed it before it went online and it was the only near round AA (their grading system) they have had in while. The next closest strand in price was a quite a bit more, but also jumps to...

Hi guys, I still have the first strand, but I am going to be returning it. The first is a nice strand and a great value, but these are clearly finer pearls. They have a metallic silver appearance in person which doesn't well in the pictures. The overtones and orient are strong in person and...

That's a gorgeous necklace!!! It's Oscar night, red carpet necklace! Just like those oscar dresses, I wonder how comfortable it would be to wear a necklace like that for an entire evening out. Is it wrong to ask how much that cost? I am dying to know.

I still had mixed feeling about this baroque strand after more than a week. I bought another necklace which was a bit more expensive--but I think it was well worth the additional money. She's an 8.3mm x 9.7mm near round. It was described to me as lightly spotted and that's a very accurate...

Thanks for the tip. I never bought anything from them so I can't comment one way or the other. I know they have been around for a while and a few negative comments aside, I was told they sell nice quality gems but they charge for it. My post was just to provided an example and reference to a...

I believe I am one of them, but I don't recall questioning the quality or value of any specific pearls (Hanadama or otherwise)--my issue is with the certification process itself and what the certification is intended to signify. This has been addressed and debated elsewhere, so no need to get...

I have seen a sample GIA report for an akoya strand, but the report didn't explain GIA's evaluation standards. I wouldn't call the comments "grades" since that's not what GIA seems to provide. I don't know what objective standard GIA requires for a strand to achieve a good or excellent for...

I only know the diamond process, but nothing about their process for reviewing pearls. Anecdotally, I know of one instance of a diamond being graded twice and coming back with different results. It's rare but it does happen--when it does happen it's a big deal.

I am the farthest thing from a pearl professional and anyou can tell from my astute observations of the little strand, i would make an awful pearl grader. Fortunately, I don't need to be a pearl expert or even know much about pearls to understand a grading process and things like blind and...