Here are a few tips for sorting through the mountains of pearls you’ll find at wholesale jewelry shows:
1) To examine a strand of pearls, pick up the large hank they are attached to carefully. Sometimes these things are secured that well, though they should be if you have a vendor who knows what he or she is doing.
2) Preferably the bead strands should be priced, either with a tag on the entire hank indicating the price per strand or each individual strand. If the strand isn’t priced, you can, of course, ask the vendor. However, sometimes this means that prices can very depending on who you ask in the booth, what they think of you, and how well they are doing at the show so far.
3) If you plan to buy in quantity, say 25 or more strands, consider bargaining with vendors. They will sometimes come down on the price if you buy in large amounts.
4) Examine the strands looking for uniform color. Many pearls are dyed these days, which is fine, but you want to make sure the color is evenly distributed along the strand so that you don’t have some beads darker than other.
5) Also check the shapes. Bargain pearls aren’t going to be perfect, but the fewer bumps and blemishes the better the quality
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