Although Ebay is one of the largest marketplaces in the world it is not noted for its ability of detecting counterfeit items and fraudsters.

I will show you some examples of freshwater low-kwaliteit parels sold as Zuidzeeparels and how to spot them:

 

This ketting is sold as : “Huge AAA+ 12–13 mm real natural South Sea White Baroque parel ketting 18” “

 

When we saw a listing like this we must be aware of a couple of things:

1°Price: Zuidzeeparels aren’t abundant, and a ketting of this maat will never go for less than a thousand dollars. 

2°Country of origin: Although many serious parel businesses are established in China and Hong Kong SAR, it is noticeable than many of these fraudsters in Ebay are selling from China.

3° Vorm:: Although these parels are baroque,their shape is too uniform in order to be Zuidzeeparels. 

 

This ketting is made with potato shape zoetwaterparels and treated to have that metallic glans. Freshwater parels are beautiful and many combinations can be done with them, but they shouldn’t be sold as genuine Zuidzeeparels.

And there are thousands of listing like this on Ebay, so you must only buy from known and respectable sellers.

 

If anything is too good to be true, probably isn’t.