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Nice stringing job!

I found this in the "Pearls As One" course, but it isn't very specific: Akoyas are harvested in the coldest season. Tahitians are harvested between May and November.

If the swab was saturated it would have at least begun dissolving imitation pearl coating. If you are in doubt, be a bit more generous with the acetone and try again-- it won't hurt real pearls, just fake ones.

If you rubbed them after applying acetone and the coating wasn't dissolved, then they are not imitation.

Is it possible they are imitation pearls in terrible condition? Try wiping one the broken pearl (the obvious choice since it's already damaged) with a cloth or paper towel wet with nail polish remover or acetone. Fake pearl coating will dissolve when rubbed with these solvents, but it won't...

Well that's disappointing! :( Most imitation pearls that feel heavy like real pearls are glass. Very cheap lightweight ones are plastic. The clasp may not be real gold either.

Tahitians. The chocolate colored one may be color treated, although there are some pearls that are naturally that color.

Have you ever cleaned this strand? The luster isn't high but that could be a patina of accumulated skin oils etc. obscuring the luster. Do you own other pearls? You could repurpose the clasp when restringing your other strands. You can check for a metal mark. 14K, 10K, 585 etc. = gold.

What a nice gift for your granddaughter! That is a graduated strand of akoya pearls, sometimes called a "momme" or "3.5 momme" strand (momme being a unit of weight.) These necklaces were commonly bought during the WWII / Korean War era by military men working in the Far East, who then gave them...

Drill holes can provide these indications of whether pearls are real or fake. But this is mostly if the fake pearls are lower quality. 1. Real pearls tend to have smaller drill holes than fake pearls, because pearls are sold by weight-- so smaller hole means more weight is preserved. However...

I don't recommend rubbing pearls on teeth any more because teeth are harder than pearls and can scratch them. Instead I recommend rubbing one pearl against another pearl. Be gentle-- don't rub hard. Gritty means rough feeling. Scratchy. Also if you have a jeweler's loupe (this is a 10x...

There is such a thing as natural metallic luster in pearls. Probably those are freshwater pearls, but if you are in doubt, rub 2 of them together. Gritty feeling = real pearl, smooth feeling = imitation.

Now if tracking does NOT show delivery, then it's a different story. Then you can file a claim on the seller. Through eBay, if it's eBay.

If the tracking shows it to be delivered, the seller has no more responsibility for the item. That is just the way the system works here in the USA; I don't know about other countries. It is not the fault of the seller if someone steals the package from someone's front step or if the carrier...

I'm glad we could help. If it's any comfort, even experienced pearl shoppers sometimes have to return pearls that didn't look the way they thought they would. Even when buying from reputable vendors. It's nobody's fault-- pearls are hard to photograph accurately when the colors are complex...

I love that story! It's Maurice Shire's account in Antoinette Matlin's The Pearl Book: The Definitive Buying Guide. So many other great stories in that book. The one by Nicholas Paspaley about what happened to his father is especially amazing.

There are various threads on here about men and pearls! https://www.pearl-guide.com/search/522554/?q=men&c%5Btitle_only%5D=1&o=relevance I do think more men are wearing pearls nowadays and it seems to be more accepted, but apart from my husband, I have only ever seen one man in pearls: a...

I'm still getting a freshwater vibe from them. The size would also be on the high side for akoyas. Akoyas that size would be quite costly.

To me the first strand looks like FWP based on eggy shapes especially visible in the 3rd photo. The second strand, I think akoyas that have perhaps yellowed.

I also vote for fake. The surface looks like some imitation pearls I bought at T J Maxx some years ago. The brand was Lucoral and they were labeled freshwater pearls, but when I got them home and did a few simple tests on them, and examined them with a loupe, I realized they were fake and...