Hello Everyone! Newbie here

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pearlmaid

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Mar 15, 2010
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HI.. This is a great forum! I am a newbie pearl fan and had a couple of questions for pearl experts.

Can pearls be considered a good investment, like gold or diamonds? Does the value of pearl appreciate? If so which ones do you think can be considered as an investment?

Thanks for your views in advance :)
 
Hi pearlmaid,

Welcome! Well, one can invest a lot of money in pearls, LOL.

Dr. Tom Stern feels certified natural pearls are a good investment, but for most of us that is out of the budget. He does deal in them. They would need to be stored properly, not in a safe deposit box. You can research more in the thread Natural Pearls.

Most knowledgeable people do not feel diamonds are a good investment at all.

Most of us love pearls for themselves, collect what we love at what we hope is a good value (NOT retail price) and wear them. Generally speaking, the value of pearls would not appreciate.

Keep reading------------!
 
Well, I did not know that, I just assumed that gemstones, including diamonds and pearls appreciated in value....Thanks for clearing that up.

I have recently bought an akoya pearl necklace.. would love to get your opinion on those.
 
I can't put it any better than Pattye!

If you dig around on the forum, there are some interesting discussions about value and appraisals that serve to illustrate what a complex topic "value" is. Generally, jewelry with provenance might appreciate but it's subject to the market and trends - both of which are quite unpredictable; gems and precious metals are similarly subject to market and trends. Along with those variables, the introduction of e-commerce and the changing marketplace globally has changed how values are considered by appraisers and insurers.

Please do post photos of your necklace and tell us what you know about it. We love to see people's collections around here.
 
Thanks Heidi,
Yes, I have been reading this forum for past couple of days. There is such wealth of knowledge here. I was thinking along the lines of how value of gold usually appreciates over time and was wanting to know if that was the case with pearls too.
 
I just posted pics of my pearls in the akoya forum. Let me know what you think!! Thanks Heidi, Caitlyn and Pattye!!
 
pearlmaid said:
Thanks Heidi,
I was thinking along the lines of how value of gold usually appreciates over time and was wanting to know if that was the case with pearls too.
Click to expand...

I think that is true of high quality natural pearls. There are not many being harvested any more.

barbie
 
The price of gold is high at present so if you bought gold a couple of years ago, you would be making a profit..possibly. But that is if you bought unworked gold. Most of the price of gold in a jewellers comes from the working of that gold and his profit, which you will not see again.
Buy a gold item in a jewellers and then immediately sell it again and you will get about half what you paid for it five minutes before.
Pearls are probably coming down in price generally as production becomes more sophisticated and quality soars especially for freshwaters.
the unusual pearls from small farms (Cortez, Kamoka, Kasumi etc etc) will probably hold their value more, but the value there is only for a small group of people who know and value their rarity
a price is only what someone else is willing to pay
 
All good advice. Buy jewelry because it's beautiful and it pleases you. If you do that, you'll get plenty of value in the joy of wearing it. The only "worthless" jewelry is the kind that spends its life in a vault, unseen. It may be treasured, but it can't be enjoyed. ;)
 
Lot's of good input above. Gold has an actual market that fluctuates and changes the price of jewelry made with it. Pearls, well I can tell you they are probably more stable than the stock market, easier to wear (and to sell these days) than real estate, and if you take care of them, something wonderful to pass along to other generations.
 
Ditto what everyone else said. Whenever I see diamond sites that claim diamonds are a good investment it makes me cringe. You have to ask yourself if they are such a good investment, then why are they selling them to me? If you think of the value of your jewelry more in terms of what it means to you or how it makes you feel, it will never lose its value. I hope you are enjoying your pearls because that is what it is all about!
 
Great input! I know there is a market for gold and that gold jewelry, by that I mean 22k, 24k type, are a good investment. I have a few. You can enjoy wearing them as well you have something which appreciates in value over time. I have no idea about diamonds though.
I am enjoying my pearls, in fact I definitely will be buying more :)
 
pearlescence said:
The price of gold is high at present so if you bought gold a couple of years ago, you would be making a profit..possibly. But that is if you bought unworked gold. Most of the price of gold in a jewellers comes from the working of that gold and his profit, which you will not see again.
Buy a gold item in a jewellers and then immediately sell it again and you will get about half what you paid for it five minutes before.
Pearls are probably coming down in price generally as production becomes more sophisticated and quality soars especially for freshwaters.
the unusual pearls from small farms (Cortez, Kamoka, Kasumi etc etc) will probably hold their value more, but the value there is only for a small group of people who know and value their rarity
a price is only what someone else is willing to pay
Click to expand...
Very well explained. Natural pearls are rare and there isn't a large source of them, as there is with cultured pearls. So they may appreciate in value, whereas the prices may fluctuate in the cultured pearl market according to weather, disease, technology, etc. There are a lot of factors that affect the market value of cultured pearls.
 
pearlmaid said:
Great input! I know there is a market for gold and that gold jewelry, by that I mean 22k, 24k type, are a good investment. I have a few. You can enjoy wearing them as well you have something which appreciates in value over time. I have no idea about diamonds though.
I am enjoying my pearls, in fact I definitely will be buying more :)
Click to expand...

In terms of investment purposes for the 'average' person, of course gold would have been the smart choice starting from about 25 years ago (for those old enough today for it to apply).

If you invested $3,600.00 per year in gold ounce bars from 1986 and sold in January 2012, you would have invested about $93,000.00, and then sold for about $357,500.00.

Investing that same amount of money over the same time period into wholesale Diamonds, you could have sold in January 2012 for about $171,100.00.

An RRSP with an average return of 4% over this same 25 year time period (and same investment amount), you would have around $156,400.00.
 
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