Making women happy for best $ aka Best prices on top quality true pearl necklaces

[profnot]

Pearl Akoya necklaces at best price
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What to give the lady in your life for the Holidays

(I couldn't decide whether to post here or in Frugality so I posted in both.)

Akoya pearls are highest quality cultured pearls in the world. "Cultured" means that an irritant (like a grain of sand) is placed in the oyster or mussel by a "farmer." The sea creature does the rest of the work. Farmers harvest the pearl.

Wild pearls or natural pearls are so rare that it is nearly impossible to buy them. Wild pearl beds are almost gone due to environmental and overuse problems. Only 1 in 10K wild oysters ever produces a pearl. A small necklace would be at least 6 figures if not more. Virtully all wild pearl necklaces today are antique and inherited.

Salt water pearls are round. Fresh (or sweet) water pearls usually have bumps and can be round or long. If your woman loves pearls (and what woman does not?), these necklaces look cheap and you will be in trouble for being a cheapskate when buying a present for the love of your life or your mother, sister, etc.)

Teens usually think pearls are old fashioned so save your money unless your girl has already fallen in love with pearls. Her first real pearl stud earrings could thrill such a girl. Get size 5mm-5.5m on gold posts. No bigger, no smaller. They look tiny but that's what women of all ages like and consider 5-5.5mm to be the classic size. Your girl might want bigger ones so ask her mum or grandmama to discreetly ask for the girl's opinion. Even so, I wouldn't risk over 7mm.

I searched many websites to help a client choose a necklace for his wife. He doesn't know much about pearls and I happen to know lots as I have loved them for decades.

I found one website that offers top quality Akoya necklaces for amazing prices.
Plus it provides great information on a different page.
http://www.PurePearls.com/akoya-pearl-necklace-6-0-6-5-mm-white.html

AA High quality
White with cream overtone (classic color) gold or silver clasp (gold most popular)
Princess length (most popular) 18" $266
Matinee length 22" $325

AAA Highest quality
*White with cream overtone (classic color), gold or silver clasp (gold most popular)
*Princess length 18" $430
*Matinee length 22" $526

Princess length 18"
Most classic and popular and best for short women

Matinee length 22"
My fav and better for tall women and/or women with shoulders a bit wide like me

Don't get choker length 16". Looks terrible on everyone except young Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.


Price comparisons for same Akoya necklaces (or similar) at popular websites
(Check for yourself!)

American Pearl
18" $957
White with silver overtone - less popular, less classic. Silver clasp - cheap.
http://www.americanpearl.com/6-5-7-0mm-japanese-akoya-white-pearl-necklace-aaa-quality.html

Mikimoto
18" $1,300
This strand is the closest I could find to the classic strand of pearls ll the same size. I don't like it. The small 5mm pearls make it look cheap.
http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/categories/necklaces/station-necklace-18-1
Mikimoto is considered the top quality company by middle class women. It isn't. AAA Akoya is tops, no matter which company sells it.

Tiffany.com
18" $2,100.
Tiny clasp is platinum or white gold and who cares?
http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=33477309&mcat=148204&cid=287465&search_params=p+1-n+10000-c+287465-s+5-r+101323352-t+-ni+1-x+-lr+0-hr+-ri+-mi+-pp+850+6&search=0&origin=browse&searchkeyword=

Shipping cost
Everyone seems to ship FedEx so expect US shipping to cost $40 and up.
All companies have nice boxes.
Do NOT substitute a Tiffany box if you buy from another company, If you are caught, you will be a rat fink and cheater.


btw - no hidden cookie nonsense in links. I get zip for this post except the satisfaction of helping the husband, mum, et al, make the gal in his life very happy.


I have just solved the question of what to give your lady love or relative. Thank me but don't buy me pearls. I already have two necklaces I adore.
:cool:

[iris lilies]

I think that pearls in our culture are interesting. My guess, without Googling it, is that pearls have dropped dramatically in popularity over the past 2 generations. I think of them as being so 1950's. I've never had "real" aka cultured pearls.

I would not want DH to go out and spend the kind of money you detail above on pearls or on any jewelry. But he knows that.

Do you like pearls, OP? and why?

[Blackdog Lin]

I love pearl jewelry. I have a couple of nice pieces (well, nice to me) from 20-30 years ago. Pearls were always one of my favorite beautiful things.

But fine jewelry is just so.....removed, you know.....from what I consider important - or worth spending our limited funds on - today.

(No judgements profnot. We're all different and that's a wonderful thing. I'm just chiming in with my little simple-living stance.)

[JaneV2.0]

I have pearls--mostly dyed--ring pearls, keshi, some baroque. I sometimes remake them into bracelets and the like. I'm not so much a fan of the classic white pearl necklace, which is filed away in my mind with white gloves and pillbox hats. I wouldn't have something in my house so valuable that I'd have to worry about it--not that I can begin to afford natural pearls.

[pony mom]

I prefer the freshwater, longer bumpy pearls (sometimes called seed pearls). They look a bit more casual and delicate.

[awakenedsoul]

I have a string if pearls that belonged to a close friend of my grandmother's. She didn't have any children. They are from the 1920's. She kept them in a safe deposit box. I wear them with my hand knit sweaters. I like the vintage look. Sometimes I wear them for auditions, too. They work if it's a period show.

To me, they fit in with simple living because I didn't pay for them. I appreciate my mom giving them to me, so I wear them. I like taking care of things like that and then passing them on to the next generation.

[lessisbest]

When I think of a pearl necklace I think of June Clever (Leave it to Beaver), Barbara Bush, and Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) from the British sit com "Keeping Up Appearances". Enough said....

[Float On]

I had a simple pearl under a diamond drop necklace from my first fiancé. Loved the look of it but gave it away at some point in time. I do have a freshwater pearl ring and bracelet but can't remember the last time I wore them or even if I still have them. Have no desire for a string of pearls necklace. Seems very old southern to me because I do see a lot of pearl necklaces when we visit my husband's family in SC. His hometown is full of plantation style homes and was/is a "winter colony" town.

[catherine]

When I think of a pearl necklace I think of June Clever (Leave it to Beaver), Barbara Bush, and Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) from the British sit com "Keeping Up Appearances". Enough said....

I've seen pearl necklaces worn by younger women, and I see them as a classic piece of jewelry. I happen to have two strings of pearls--one handed down to me and one given to me by my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. Because I never, ever think of buying jewelry, I enjoy these and wear them often. (Side note: the ones my DH gave me are Mikimoto, and now that I see the prices you've posted, I'm freaking out a little about how much he must have spent for them)

But in terms of "making the wife happy," if my DH spent even a hundred bucks on jewelry for me, I might say thank you but I'd be thinking, "What the heck.. don't you know we need a good mattress?" You can't eat gems and pearls, and they don't keep you warm, so I've never really valued them.

[JaneV2.0]

When I think of a pearl necklace I think of June Clever (Leave it to Beaver), Barbara Bush, and Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet) from the British sit com "Keeping Up Appearances". Enough said....

There are so many shapes and colors of pearls available today--and at very reasonable prices--that you're not limited to the classic look. And Barbara Bush's pearls were Kenneth Jay Lane costume jewelry, IIRC--glass or alabaster fakes that are lovely on their own right. (Did I mention I'm crazy about jewelry? I guess I don't have to...)

[pinkytoe]

As a young girl back i the 50s and 60s, we had add a pearl necklaces so your aunties could buy you one or two pearls every year.

[Gardenarian]

My dd, 15, wears my pearls. I never do - but they look great with the vintage/hipster clothes she wears.
They were a gift from my MIL - lovely, but not me.

[iris lilies]

As a young girl back i the 50s and 60s, we had add a pearl necklaces so your aunties could buy you one or two pearls every year.
I used to hear about those necklaces, but no one in my circle had them. Was it more of a Southern thing?

[ToomuchStuff]

I'd be interested to see if anyone has PM'd or Emailed profnot? This reads like spam to me, and I know from experience (unfortunately) that can happen when you use the same password on multiple sites. (an email address of mine was hacked and spam sent from it to the groups I was subscribed to)

[Alan]

I'd be interested to see if anyone has PM'd or Emailed profnot? This reads like spam to me.....
I considered it, especially after seeing the same post in two different forums, although then noticed two subsequent posts in other forums which looked OK.

[flowerseverywhere]

seriously? pearls will make a woman happy?

here is what makes women happy: respect, validation, kindness, equality, love, companionship, acceptance...

[rosarugosa]

Flowers: Really! I had initially wondered if the original post was some type of spoof, or something the OP had read and thought was absurd. The idea of pearls being the key to a woman's happiness doesn't seem to quite sync up with the simple living philosophy.

[rodeosweetheart]

Have you contacted the OP, Alan, to see if she (or he) wrote this? It seems very strange, out of character, and like a spam post. Creepy.

[JaneV2.0]

I thought it looked like someone appropriated Profnot's account. But shiny things still make me happy. Shoot me. :~)

[ApatheticNoMore]

Maybe a woman should make her own darn self happy (or such as she is capable of at any rate) - rather than be made happy. But I like shiny things too!!

[ToomuchStuff]

Maybe a woman should make her own darn self happy (or such as she is capable of at any rate) - rather than be made happy. But I like shiny things too!!

Sounds like an old adult joke about the two gifts to give a woman. The second item involves batteries, in case she didn't like the first.