Are these really South Sea Baroques?

[Ramona]

I buy most of my pearls on ebay from reputable sellers and recently got these recommended to me by ebay in their automated "suggestion list":

http://cgi.ebay.com/GRAND-94-1-SOUT...yZ110494QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I was curious and checked the seller out. Claims to sell items from a movie production company. Sells a number of items that way, all very expensive. However the pearls look more like FW baroques to me. Am I wrong?

I would appreciate your opinion, since my knowledge of pearls is still limited.

 

[pearlescence]

They look like not very good freshwater baroques to me. There are clear flat sides. May be a couple of years old, the baroques I am now getting into stock are much better quality, very lustrous and rounded with no flat sides.
The grammar in the description is also poor - not the work of the high powered exec...?

 

[dkan 168]

Concur with Wendy that they look more like very good Freshwater Baroques, have a look at this strand and you'd know what I mean:

Pillow Freshwaters

DK

 

[pearlescence]

I would not say they were even very good - they have clear flats and very irregular shapes. I have some like those greys in stock - I must upload them sometime this year

 

[Amrita]

I agree those are definitely freshwater baroques, Ramona.

 

[Sueki]

Hi Ramona,
Welcome to the forum.
I agree with the others - those pearls are freshwaters.

 

[The Pearl Outlet]

Definately freshwater baroques. They are NOT South Sea pearls.

 

[pattye]

OK, Pearl Police, you know what to do! I just emailed the seller, and also filed ebay complaint.

 

[Ramona]

Thanks to all of you for your opinion. I have reported the seller as well. Probably nothing will happen. What worries me this is a seller with >250 sales and 100% feedback and his stuff is all super expensive. I assume since the pearls are so obviously a fraud, so is probably the rest. I cannot believe people buy this stuff.

PS: This is a great site. I am glad I found it.

 

[pattye]

Now they have another listing using the same photo. Filed another report.

p.s. Welcome Ramona!

 

[waimeamomi]

Good job pearl police! I see they have 2 listings for similar strands and that they are only guaranteeing that they are "genuine baroque pearls." Well, duh. Here's a link to some similar pearls I got directly from China same shapes and flat backs. https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/freshwater-pearls/2911-my-father-went-china-brought-me-pearls.html

 

[MWP]

Baroque South Seas look more like the attached photo. The pics from the eBay listing definitely appear to be freshwater. Notice the difference between the eBay pics and the one I attached. I also noticed they removed the "South Sea" portion on the eBay listing.

 

[Slraep]

100% Chinese cultured freshwater pearls.

The vendor's description is quite funny and far fetched but this particular part is hilarious: ( For the sake of comparison, think of what it would cost to just buy 173 Huge Premium Oysters - without any Huge Baroque Pearls in them!)

Slraep

 

[pearlescence]

They've now got two of these items...identical, according to the photo..

 

[Raisondetre]

Well, premium oysters wouldn't cost that much ... and you get to eat them too!

 

[Ramona]

Yes! They really took the south Sea out quickly. So, the seller is into fake stuff. Wish I knew more about real Tiffany and Baccarat items.

Thanks for working on him.

MWP: These pearls look gorgeous. I love baroques.

 

[pattye]

The problem is with some of the other kinds of items, one would really need to examine them in person to be sure they are fake.

 

[MWP]

MWP: These pearls look gorgeous. I love baroques.

Thank you Ramona. You can definitely see the difference right?

The South Sea baroques are quite fascinating and the South Seas in the photo I posted are particularly large as well (up to 16mm in the center). We don't specifically carry the baroque South Seas in our online store (other than Tahitians of course), they are more of a "special request" type of item.

 

[Casey.R]

They look like freshwater pearls at least in that photo. I can't believe how much they want for them. Yeesh!

 

[Slraep]

They look like freshwater pearls at least in that photo. I can't believe how much they want for them. Yeesh!

Did you notice there is also no clasp. Not even one of those ubiquitous cheap Indian stamped-gold jobs.

Slraep