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For Sale A few collection pieces.

yssie said:
Little H Emerald Grotto Earrings
LT: https://loupetroop.com/listings/other/contact-for-yssie;36836
I'm keeping this listing PS-only for now. Please email me at the addy in the listing above, and let me know what your PS handle is if I don't know you already ::)

Retail: https://littlehjewelry.com/collections/grotto-collection/products/grotto-collection-emerald-earrings

I've worn my pair a small handful of times. Definitely under ten uses total - they're in like new condition.

1613078724070.png

1613078772726.png

The body colour of the souffle pearls doesn't match exactly. You can see this in the photos in the thread linked below - one has cooler tone than the other. The difference is visible side by side but fades on the ears, of course. This is the sort of thing that would bug the daylights out of me if it was "a normal pair of earrings", but in these I've genuinely never minded it... I suppose I just write it off as a quirk of the brand. Honestly, for Hisano's earrings this isn't uncommon.
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...from-little-h-jewelry-hisano-shepherd.247307/

1613079507084.png

All Hisano's stones are recycled. She described her process to me once: Buying old, decrepit jewellery by the lot, sorting out the stones that she wants, and hammering them into chips :bigsmile: These earrings have 14k YG hooks with a brushed finish. The two earrings weigh 7.5g total - use BlingDots!! https://www.amazon.com/BlingGuard-BlingDots-Earring-Supports-Stabilizers/dp/B00B5ASQZ0

- - - - - - - - - -

Pricing:

I will include the original box. $2720 shipped.
Click to expand...

These are beautiful but whoever is modeling them is even more! Hubba Hubba! ;)2
 
White South Sea Keshi pearls, 5-7mm (9.5" unknotted)
LT: https://loupetroop.com/listings/other/contact-for-yssie;36836

I paid $580 for a 16" strand (unknotted). Asking $200 shipped for 9.5" of that strand. Pearls are unused, just restrung onto different thread after I took 6.5".

The remaining strand contains pearls across the full graduation of size that I received - I just harvested every 3rd pearl from the original temp lineup plus three random pearls to get to the length that I need.

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I am pulling the GSSs.

I’ve not had any legitimate interest in the full strand, and I don’t have the heart to separate the pearls - there’s simply no possibility of putting this bracelet together near this price again, as cost of nice GSSs has risen considerably since I purchased.

Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in singleton pearls - I’ll email you!


Tahitian bracelet (reduced), Little H earrings, and South Sea keshi partial remain available.
 
A couple answers to questions I’ve gotten about the Tahitian bracelet -

1. This bracelet is very large on me. I have a ~5.75” wrist and I would remove the largest pearl to size for myself. As is, it would comfortably fit up to a 6.75” wrist. If the buyer of this piece wants extra pearls I recommend reaching out to pearl paradise ❤️ I don’t personally have any spares on hand though, unfortunately.

2. I’m happy to ship internationally to PSers whom I “know” - please tell me your screen name when you email, if I haven’t chatted with you before ::) There are a few ways to accomplish this - the details will vary by destination. Buyer would be responsible for any shipping costs that are in excess of what I would have paid for a domestic shipment.
 
Lowering the Little H earrings to $2350 shipped within the US.
My pair are in like new condition. These retail for $6250.
littlehjewelry.com

Grotto Collection Emerald Earrings

White freshwater souffle pearls carved and lined with reclaimed emeralds set on 14K gold. Carat weight varies with each pendant. Sample pendant has 8.81 cttw. Sample pair shown in white gold. Due to the handmade nature of these items and the varying shape of pearls and gemstones used, items may...
littlehjewelry.com littlehjewelry.com

LT: https://loupetroop.com/listings/ear...welry-hisano-shepherd-emerald-grotto-earrings
 
WSS keshi are no longer available.

Tahitian bracelet is no longer for sale - a family member fell for it, rather unexpectedly, so I’ll be shortening it for her birthday ::)
 
yssie said:
Little H Emerald Grotto Earrings
LT: https://loupetroop.com/listings/other/contact-for-yssie;36836
I'm keeping this listing PS-only for now. Please email me at the addy in the listing above, and let me know what your PS handle is if I don't know you already ::)

Retail: https://littlehjewelry.com/collections/grotto-collection/products/grotto-collection-emerald-earrings

I've worn my pair a small handful of times. Definitely under ten uses total - they're in like new condition.

1613078724070.png

1613078772726.png

The body colour of the souffle pearls doesn't match exactly. You can see this in the photos in the thread linked below - one has cooler tone than the other. The difference is visible side by side but fades on the ears, of course. This is the sort of thing that would bug the daylights out of me if it was "a normal pair of earrings", but in these I've genuinely never minded it... I suppose I just write it off as a quirk of the brand. Honestly, for Hisano's earrings this isn't uncommon.
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...from-little-h-jewelry-hisano-shepherd.247307/

1613079507084.png

All Hisano's stones are recycled. She described her process to me once: Buying old, decrepit jewellery by the lot, sorting out the stones that she wants, and hammering them into chips :bigsmile: These earrings have 14k YG hooks with a brushed finish. The two earrings weigh 7.5g total - use BlingDots!! https://www.amazon.com/BlingGuard-BlingDots-Earring-Supports-Stabilizers/dp/B00B5ASQZ0

- - - - - - - - - -

Pricing:

I will include the original box. $2720 shipped.
Click to expand...

Hi Yssie,
Are your emerald grotto earrings still for sale?
 
9.5-10mm Gem Akoya Studs from Andrew Moline
LT contact: https://loupetroop.com/listings/ear...s-from-andrew-moline-with-psl-hanadama-report

I bought these end of 2020, and I can count the number of times I’ve worn them on one hand. I have another pair of white round akoya in nearly the same size that are my go-to pearl studs.

Story on these is a little meandering. I’ll skip the Once Upon A time and try to shorten to just the relevant parts… :bigsmile:


Pearls measure 9.64 and 9.66mm. Akoya are commonly sold in half-mm brackets - hence 9.5-10mm. These pearls are strongly pinked, which is my preference in akoya (it’s also the traditional Japanese preference). And they're "spotlight matched" - I use that term to say that they’re matched in colour and overtone even in strong direct sunlight, which is the most unforgiving lighting for akoya. They both have very smooth skins and they’re almost 100% clean, face-up and from all sides: One pearl has a small nacre bump in front that’s visible on close inspection when it catches the light just right. Any vendor would call these blemish-free and they’d be correct to - nacre features aren’t technically considered blemishes in Japan, and I’m super nitpicky about stuff like this. I was personally fine with this little bump as it’s really only visible up close when a spotlight hits it from exactly the right angle. I’ll attach a video shortly.

Posts are 18k YG, 0.85mm thick (same diameter as Mikimoto’s) - I can switch thenm out for thinner YG posts or remove the posts altogether if preferred, no extra cost. I will include the original earring backs and box. Shipping is included within the US, and I’m happy to mail internationally as well - if you’re international and interested please feel free to contact me!


The first akoya that I purchased from Andrew was an 8-8.5mm necklace. Those pearls blew all my other akoya away, including my Hanadama and Ten-nyo certified pearls. I had 9.25mm Hanadama studs at the time, and I’d already been vaguely contemplating going bigger, and when I got that necklace I pretty much immediately decided that I needed new studs too.

When I got these pearls… Well, I had some mixed feelings. They’re beautiful. By themselves they’re spectacular. If the only other akoya I had were my older Hanadama and Ten-nyo - I’d have been over the moon. But next to the 8-8.5mm - they didn’t quite have the same sharpness of luster. I put it down to what I’d always heard, “bigger pearls have less luster than smaller pearls”, but I was never completely sure. Had that questioning niggle. Y'all know how that goes.

Earlier this year I got a pair of 7-7.5mm akoya studs from Andrew. And these pearls were white-bodied soap bubbles on posts. Out-of-this-world luster. Better than anything I’d seen yet - nicer than the 8-8.5 strand, by a miniscule margin. First thing I did when I got home that day was ask Andrew about upgrading my 9.5-10 studs to pearls "just like these". He said wasn’t sure if it’d be possible but that he’d find out, and he later let me know that his suppliers didn’t think they could do any better than what I already had.

That spawned an (admittedly somewhat fanatical) search for the final answer to “can really big akoya ever be as lustrous as smaller #Amazing akoya” - a search that ended with me buying a pair of Mikimoto AAA 9.45mm pearls. I brought the pearls that I’m listing here with me to the Mikimoto NYC boutique to do some comparisons, and they’re solidly Mikimoto earring A+ equivalent quality. Worth noting that earring pearls are always the nicest within a given grade - they’re nicer than the pearls used in strands and bracelets.

So now I’ve got a pair of 9.45mm white round akoya studs and a pair of 9.65mm white round akoya studs!! I’ve held off on selling them because it seems silly to take a bath on perfectly lovely pearls… But I can’t think of any way to reset them that I’d actually use, so I’m thinking I might as well see if there’s any PS interest ::)

I’m not going to bother with glamour photos - everyone who sees this thread knows what white pearl studs look like :bigsmile: Instead, here are a couple of links to some of the more in-depth comparisons that I've posted already:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/a-visit-to-mikimoto-nyc-and-musings.264641/page-4
https://www.pricescope.com/communit...d-gem-quality.256212/#lg=post-4723582&slide=0

And size:
1619398551190.png


Okay. Pricing. But first a comment. Mikimoto comes up a lot when I talk about akoya. That’s because Mikimoto is what a PS friend once called “the akoya mafia” - Mikimoto gets first dibs on the best pearls that akoya oysters produce, and Mikimoto’s standards are what every other akoya vendor in the world strives to match. There’s no “beating” Mikimoto in akoya! I’ll be brutally honest: Go to any non-Japan-based vendor in the PS recommended list and request a 9.5mm+ akoya pair, and even if they agreed to source them - the best they could do, Hanadama, Ten-nyo, anything else - most likely couldn't hope to compete even with Mikimoto A+ quality. Thing is, that’s not a reflection on those vendors, it's just a stark portrait of Mikimoto's monopoly on rare akoya and their exceptionally high quality standards. Andrew specializes in high-end akoya and these represent the best that he could do; calling them “gem” is no exaggeration.

This is the problem you run into when you deal in gigantic akoya - which 9.5-10mm specimens certainly are! If you want “the best” quantities are extremely limited. For some perspective - Mikimoto had exactly one pair of AAA studs in the 9.25mm (they sell in quarter mm) size available at the time, and zero pairs of 9.5mm AAA. Large gem quality akoya are just extremely rare.

I paid $7475 for the earrings plus $75 for the PSL - total of $7550 USD. Full disclosure: Andrew has an akoya trade-up programme, but
1. I bought these before Andrew started the programme, so technically they’re ineligible, and
2. In order to upgrade one must have a target to upgrade to. Andrew explicitly checked and he wasn’t going to be able to source bigger and better studs. Even same-size and better wasn't an option.
Instead, he offered to allow me to trade them in for a different pearl product altogether, for something in the neighborhood of $4800 credit. This was some time ago, I don’t know if that offer would still be available to me, but that’s less than I’m comfortable with anyway, and if I’m selling I would rather have money to spend on something other than pearls. I’m listing these here for the lowest that I would feel good about rehoming, which is $5285 USD (via PayPal F&F, cheque, etc.). This is 30% off what I paid for effectively brand new studs that are in pristine condition.

Mikimoto sells 9.5mm A+ quality studs for $8170 USD before tax. If another PSer said she was thinking about buying either Mikimoto A+ for $8170 or unbranded quality-equivalent for $7550, I would tell her to spend the extra 7-8% and buy branded. But of course guaranteeing “unbranded quality-equivalent” demands actually comparing with Mikimoto, which no vendor will do and few consumers have access to!! At $5285 for PSL certified akoya that have been directly judged against Mikimoto quality by someone with a penchant for persnicketing, I do think these are an objectively great deal. I would tell that hypothetical PSer to buy my pearls :lol:

I know $5285 is no walk in the park. No bones about it. Even if they’re "a great deal for what they are”. White South Sea in this size are easy to find and inexpensive - for most people WSS are going to be a much better purchase. These pearls are for someone who specifically wants gem grade akoya in a rare size and quality.

PSL:
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Video of the nacre bump I mentioned in the 9.5-10mm akoya listing. It’s tiny and wholly unobtrusive IRL.
 
Three quick updates here!!

1. Prices posted in this thread are all for PayPal F&F, bank cheque, or equivalent. If a buyer prefers a PayPal invoice I'm happy to do that - I'll calculate the PayPal fee and add it onto the invoice.

2. Given the horror show that is shipping at the moment, all domestic (within the US) shipments will be via USPS Registered. It can be slow but it's the absolute safest way to get valuables cross-country right now!!

3. I'm always happy to offer a viewing period, especially on bigger purchases!! 72 hours upon receipt is my norm but just let me know if more time is needed! If a buyer decides not to keep I'll refund in full minus my own outbound shipping costs, and I ask that the buyer pay for insured shipping (via USPS Registered again) back to me.

Available:
- Little H Emerald Grotto Earrings
- 9.5-10mm Gem Akoya Studs

Thanks for reaching out folks!!
 
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I am withdrawing the 9.5-10mm akoya pair.

I soaked the posts off these and found that one pearl has some sort of scratch or gouge damage under the cup. I’ve not seen this in any of my other pearls from Andrew or Pearl Paradise, and I’ve reached out and he’s going to do some investigation into what might have happened. It is also always possible that these sorts of problems with soft stones are caused by some unfortunate and unmemorable incident during wear.

As I do now know about this issue, though, these pearls are obviously no longer for sale.
 
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