Hi there! I was wondering if someone could help me... I want to start opening oysters live online for pearls and am looking on how to start. I've never bought vacuumed sealed oysters before and was wondering if there was a special company I had to sign up to (like you do with Avon) or do you just buy supplies from special websites and go from there? If someone could help me I'd really appreciate it.
New to pearls and need some help!
- Thread starter bianca
- Start date
Pearl Dreams
Pearl Enthusiast
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bianca,
There are many threads on this forum about these oyster-opening parties. If you take the time to read up on the subject, you will understand why we discourage people from getting involved in any way.
Here is what happens. Freshwater mussels that have freshwater pearls in them are opened at factories. The pearls, which are of relatively low quality, are removed. Some are left their natural colors-- shades of peach and lavender, for example. Many pearls are bleached white. Other pearls are dyed black, peacock, blue, green and other colors.
Then these freshwater pearls are inserted into baby akoya (saltwater) oysters, which have thin fragile shells. The oyster is killed by immersing it in a harsh solution that forces it to slam its shell shut before it dies. The baby oysters are sealed in plastic with a chemical solution to preserve it from decaying; tests have been done on the packing solutions and some contain formaldehyde, which is dangerous to be in contact with. These oysters are sold to unsuspecting people who then open them-- generally with bare hands and no goggles, and often with children around who should not be exposed to the chemicals. Buyers are led to believe they are getting valuable akoya pearls. In fact they are grossly overpriced freshwater pearls. They are often sold with junky silver plated findings.
Do you want to be the person buying and reselling these low quality pearls? I hope not.
There are many threads on this forum about these oyster-opening parties. If you take the time to read up on the subject, you will understand why we discourage people from getting involved in any way.
Here is what happens. Freshwater mussels that have freshwater pearls in them are opened at factories. The pearls, which are of relatively low quality, are removed. Some are left their natural colors-- shades of peach and lavender, for example. Many pearls are bleached white. Other pearls are dyed black, peacock, blue, green and other colors.
Then these freshwater pearls are inserted into baby akoya (saltwater) oysters, which have thin fragile shells. The oyster is killed by immersing it in a harsh solution that forces it to slam its shell shut before it dies. The baby oysters are sealed in plastic with a chemical solution to preserve it from decaying; tests have been done on the packing solutions and some contain formaldehyde, which is dangerous to be in contact with. These oysters are sold to unsuspecting people who then open them-- generally with bare hands and no goggles, and often with children around who should not be exposed to the chemicals. Buyers are led to believe they are getting valuable akoya pearls. In fact they are grossly overpriced freshwater pearls. They are often sold with junky silver plated findings.
Do you want to be the person buying and reselling these low quality pearls? I hope not.
Last edited:
Simply adorned
Well-known member
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Excellent explanation Pearl Dreams, can’t imagine anyone wanting to be involved.
lilliefuzzysocks
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- Dec 16, 2010
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Bianca, There seems to be a never ending group of people looking to cash in on this pearl party craze. I am sure you will find a group of buyer and sellers on facebook. As you will see there are so many doing this it has created a over abundance of sellers who have over saturated the market. They all sell the same things and the hucksters are fighting for a ever smaller pool of customers. The numbers on the lives are very telling, most shows have double digit viewers with a very few having a hundred or more. ( I see them as I scroll though my facebook news feed)
Daily I see people closing since they didn't become successful as they were led to believe when they started, they simply unload their stock to the next group of people starting parties...................
Daily I see people closing since they didn't become successful as they were led to believe when they started, they simply unload their stock to the next group of people starting parties...................
