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bleucheese
Veejay
Joined: Aug 01, 2003
Posts: 1993
Location: this side of the tracks
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 Posted:
June 04, 2008 - 09:15 AM |
 
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| Post subject: silk carpets & pearls |
friends coming in looking to buy both. I know of a huge pearl city out passed suzhou. anything closer to town with reasonable wholesale pricing?
im at a complete loss in terms of silk carpet shopping.
help is appreciated.
bc |
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Renovator
Raver
Joined: Apr 18, 2007
Posts: 485
Location: Century Park & MA,USA
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 10:12 AM |
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Pearls: As long as you stay away from Pearl City on Nanjing Lu you should be OK. I did price comparison on pearl products this week and Hong Qiao market is about 40%-45% less on the asking price from Pearl city even on identical item in identical store at both locations. YuYuan and Hong Qiao have similar pricing and I have yet to check out S&T museum to compare them to 3 others. Volume discounts are pretty good both at Yu Yuan (288 Fuyou) Lu and at Hong Qiao for wholesale purchases. Pearl City on Nanjing is about 50% higher than US online pearl services and ebay on similar items.
I am not sure how deeply they will discount on Nanjing as their asking price is so high to start with I don't think they will deep discount. Started to haggle there but lost patience and did not buy. Pretty good discounts available from asking at Yu Yuan and Hong Qiao, but you must know what you are looking at. Discounts there appeared to be more related to how long they have been stuck with a particular item. Also depends on initial price point and of course setting. Higher end material in 14k gold not as negotiable in HongQiao and Yu Yuan and looked like about 40% off on one off purchases was best that they would give. Other run of the mill product could yield 50% off or more from asking.
Asking prices on same material appears to vary by about 20%-25% between stalls at Hong Qiao. Of course, the higher the asking, the more discount you can haggle.
I am not GG/MGA or GIA certified but have been investing in jewelery for years and have a pretty good idea what i am looking at. Hope this helps. |
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Bella_Min
Talker
Joined: June 03, 2008
Posts: 105
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 10:53 AM |
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PEARL CITY AT THE CROSSROAD OF HONGMEI RD. & YAN AN WEST RD.
A MIXTURE OF PEARL MARKET AND FAKE MARKET. |
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Traminer
Talker
Joined: July 09, 2007
Posts: 97
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 11:08 AM |
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How about solid wool or silk carpets? Ikea is ok but lacks finesse. And I find the selections in Jinsheng Wellborn just vulgar. Where can I find a good Persian in Shanghai? |
_________________
Budding Chinglish expertise |
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Renovator
Raver
Joined: Apr 18, 2007
Posts: 485
Location: Century Park & MA,USA
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 11:08 AM |
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yes, for clarification Hong Qiao market I mentioned in post is the Pearl city as listed by Bella_Min at HongMei and Yan An West, pearls on second floor. |
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rxg
Raver
Joined: Sep 06, 2005
Posts: 457
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 11:21 AM |
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For really good quality silk and wool carpet try "Golden Silk Road" at Beijin Lu and Tongren Lu. It is located inside a private house.
Expensive though- I brought 2 mediocre peices for $6000.
There are rugs that cost $50,000 or higher.
There are some sales item that cost 1000 RMB. |
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qshell
Seeker
Joined: Apr 26, 2005
Posts: 41
Location: California
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 02:48 PM |
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When buying pearls, be aware of fakes.
It's hard to tell fakes from real ones by just looking at them. One trick an insider taught me before was like this. You hold one pearl on each of your hands and rub them against each other. If you feel kind of slippery with almost no resistance, those are fakes. Real pearls, when you rub them, they give you a feel of roughness even though they look perfectly smooth and shiny. Give this a try, you will know what I'm talking about. |
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qshell
Seeker
Joined: Apr 26, 2005
Posts: 41
Location: California
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 02:55 PM |
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On silk carpets, I bought two at Shanghai Carpet Factory on Cao Bao Lu many years ago. That used to be a tourist attraction where visitors from western countries were often taken there, and you could watch carpets being hand-made right in front of your eyes. And of course you could buy them there on the spot. But I'm not sure if the factory is still there.
If you are going to travel to other cities, especially in the western regions of China, I'd buy them there. Labor cost in Shanghai is much too high these days, and I don't believe there are hand-made carpets made in Shanghai anymore. A friend of mine went to Xian last year, and bought a very very good quality 6'x9' wool (although not silk) carpet there for US$400. |
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qshell
Seeker
Joined: Apr 26, 2005
Posts: 41
Location: California
Status: Offline
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June 04, 2008 - 03:00 PM |
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When you buy a carpet, silk or wool, if you can't fold it up and put it inside a 36" suitcase, it means the quality of the carpet is not good enough and it's not worth to buy. Good carpets are flexible and thin because they tend to have more knots per square inch. The higher the kpsi, the thiner the carpet becomes. |
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silkcarpet
Newbie
Joined: June 06, 2008
Posts: 1
Status: Offline
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June 06, 2008 - 12:11 AM |
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we are from the first hand. We have high quality hand-made silk carpet. If you have interest please check our web page for more information.
www.chinasilkcarpet.com |
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Renovator
Raver
Joined: Apr 18, 2007
Posts: 485
Location: Century Park & MA,USA
Status: Offline
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June 06, 2008 - 07:42 AM |
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| qshell wrote: |
When buying pearls, be aware of fakes.
It's hard to tell fakes from real ones by just looking at them. One trick an insider taught me before was like this. You hold one pearl on each of your hands and rub them against each other. If you feel kind of slippery with almost no resistance, those are fakes. Real pearls, when you rub them, they give you a feel of roughness even though they look perfectly smooth and shiny. Give this a try, you will know what I'm talking about. |
If you are going to use this "trick" as one of your tests for a real pearl, at least do it like the pros. It is known as the tooth test. Gently rub the pearl against your tooth and if the pearl feels like sandpaper that could remove your tooth enamel, it may be real. This really only works for antique pearls because of modern technologies, this test is not valid for new pearls found at the pearl markets. Real pearls are really hard to identify and if expensive, a lab test should be performed. Often, however, you are paying much more for the setting than for the pearl. |
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