Whether you are looking for the must-have white pearl necklace or a pair of stylish black pearl earrings, it can be dauting to select with confidence from so many ebay sellers. You may ask some questions: Who can I trust? Will I get value for money? What are the safeguards, guarantees and returns policy?

To help you further in making an informed decision, ORIENTAL PEARLS have put together some tips on buying pearls on ebay:

1. Firstly, read PEARL EDUCATION on our site as this will provide an overview of pearls and make sense of the information below.

2. How can I be confident of buying pearls from reputable seller? Like buying anything on ebay, there are some basic safeguards to be considered which can be included:

• A return policy exceeding the legal minimum 7 business days which demonstrate confidence. 10-30 days return are widely used. Besides No-question-ask returns policy and full refund shows more confidence.
• Membership adhered to Square Trade, Safe Buy or similiar type of government backed accreditation organization.
• Membership with a high feedback score and high positive rate. Usually you can be confident when shop with a seller who has over  200 score and has over 99.0% positive feedback.
• Displaying clearly paypal accepted. Paypal has buyer protection programms which ensure you buy risk free.
• Postage costs being clearly and fairly displayed. Beware some sellers who inflated the shipping fee and insurance fee.
• Large and clear photos of the pearls on the listing to see more detail.

3. What are the points for selecting pearls on ebay? Besides relying somewhat on trust and instinct, here are a few tips we believe will help your pearl purchase a rewarding one:

• You get what you pay for is the first motto. Certainly, good deals can be had, but buyer bewar all those unbelievable offers, lowest price and wholesale priced offers that give you a strand of AAA grades for less than your weekly shopping!
• There is no inform pearl grade system in pearl industry, usually, each seller grade their pearls by themselves. Some country de have some control on standards and grade such as Tahiti. Pearl`s quality is determined by luster, size, shape, color and nacre. In strand, matching will also play a part. one seller`s A grade can be equivalent to another seller`s AAA grade.
• Check out the description for pearl type. Akoya  (saltwater) pearl is quite different from freshwater pearl in value. Beware some seller use some deceiving term such as cultured pearls or Japanese cultured pearls. Usually, they are freshwater pearl. By the way, don`t believe in Japanese cultured pearls as usually they are from China, China produce over 90% of the pearls in the world. As development of cultured technology, no more difference between Chinese pearls and Japanese pearls except its origin.
• Pearl shape- Pictures can be quite deceiving and unless looking closely, pearls that are potato, off round, barrel shape etc. can appear to be round. The price between barrel and round/almost round pearl necklace can be significant. Make sure the shape of pearl is clearly labeled. If you buy round pearls, you should expect them to be round or mostly round. Sometimes pearls are pictures and labeled as round/almost round but they are clearly seen on closer inspection to be semi-round, off-round, potato or barrel shaped which are considerably less expensive.
• Clasp-the price of a clasp can also affect s necklace. Usually solid 14k, 18k gold or solid gold with diamonds clasp widely be used for good quality pearls, some strand ended with gold plated or silver one will be less expensive.