The young man who snatched the pearl madly was slaughtered

Author | Wang Once

Edit | Lu Yiming

Title image | pixabay

Recently, almost everything has gone up except for stock funds.

And a new round of price increases in the consumer market finally took the turn of the former "mother's strict selection" - pearls.

In January, Japanese pearl jewelry brand MIKIMOTO Mikimoto announced its first global price increase, up nearly 20%, while rumors spread that the brand will continue to increase prices in October. This scene makes people sigh that "ginger is still old and spicy", urbanites toss half their lives on the fashion road, and they are still "mother's strict choice" when they return.

Some netizens found that the price of the pearl jewelry box they purchased increased by more than 10,000 yuan in just one year, an increase of 57%. (Photo/Little Red Book @ Sven Big Boar)

Not only brand jewelry is rising, but also the market for wholesale naked beads. According to CCTV Financial reports, the pearl sold for 1,000 yuan in Zhuji Shanxia Lake Town last year has risen to 1,500 yuan this year. Common pearl varieties increased by 30%-50%, and the most popular pearl varieties even increased by 80%.

"Tahiti (pearls) and Australian white (pearls) are both priced one a month, and there are some prices that were sold before, but now they can't be collected when they go to the market." Hamburg, a native of Zhuji Shanxia Lake Town, whose family is engaged in the pearl industry, told New Weekly.

The increase in the price of pearls is of course due to the increase in breeding costs and the decline in production capacity. But more importantly, there are too many people who buy it, and there are not enough pearls.

Expensive pearls with T-shirts,

Urban Wear "New Showmanship"

Galeries Lafayette Karl Lagerfeld said, "In the world of fashion, some combinations never go out of style, like jeans, white shirts and tweed jackets". Now, these three elements may have to add a pearl.

Pearls didn't explode all the time.

Since last summer, the trend has been blowing on social media abroad. This year, the stars represented by Ni Ni and Gao Ye have completely transformed pearls into a fashion item for everyone to get rid of.

Pearls are becoming popular again because they are becoming "everyday". Pearls are no longer exclusive to ladies who can only wear them with high-end dresses or cheongsam, and in a younger aesthetic, pearls are a match made in heaven with affordable and simple T-shirts and sweatshirts.

Young people are beginning to use clothing to create a casual atmosphere.

This is not difficult to understand, after all, everyone does not like to put "force" on the table now. Whether it is an old money style or a quiet luxury style, its core is to show an "effortless sense of surplus" to the outside world.

For example, in the American drama "War of Succession", one of the scenes where the old Qian family laughs at Tom is that Tom wears a Moncler down jacket with a big logo printed on it at a party, which is ridiculed by the third son of the family as "So fluffy, is it full of your hopes and dreams?" ”。 Tom is dressed well, but this is obviously not in line with the "effortless philosophy" advocated at the moment, and will even be singled out as a negative teaching material for excessive force.

The contemporary style program is to look understated but not lose tone, and pearls perfectly meet this criterion. Tahiti is full of pearls with oversize T-shirts, just like Rolex with Uniqlo, and is included in the "Cosmopolitan Beauty Apocalypse (2023 Mid-class Abridged Edition)".

Of course, a consumer goods category can cause a wide range of popularity, the premise must be "the price is knocked down". Unlike diamonds, gold, which have a very high starting price, pearls are frugal today, with a very large price range, and a budget from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, and there are relatively suitable choices.

Li Jiaqi Pearl Festival, the price of live broadcast room selection ranges from 99 yuan to 180,000 yuan.

BUT WHETHER IT IS THE AFOREMENTIONED BRANDS MIKIMOTO, TASAKI, OR THE ONCE POPULAR "WEST QUEEN" PEARL JEWELRY, THE PREMIUM IS QUITE HIGH.

For example, most of the pearls selected by MIKIMOTO are Akoya pearls, although they are seawater pearls, but their beads are the thinnest in seawater pearls, and now they are selling high prices, mainly because of the scarcity. The premium of the "Queen Mother" is even more exaggerated, the price starting from 1,000 yuan is actually selling Swarovski pearls, crystal cores plated with pearlescent skin, commonly known as "artificial pearls".

Under the premium, young people who do not want to be made the difference are directly targeted at the source market.

If the end of small commodities is Yiwu, then the end of pearls must be Zhuji. East China International Jewelry City, located in Xiahu Town, Zhuji Mountain, is currently the world's largest freshwater pearl distribution center. In the past, major brands and wholesalers walked around here, but now individual customers and daigou are also eyeing here.

A visit to Yamashita Lake is enough for young people to break all filters for pearl brands. Whether it is expensive seawater beads or affordable freshwater pearls, they are all packed up and placed on the stalls one by one. The loss of the store's display case and velvet box reminds people of its essence: it is just a particularly beautiful calcium carbonate stone.

The pearl market brings some small wholesale shocks to individual customers. (Photo/Xiaohongshu user @ is Fat Pearl)

Hamburg told New Weekly that in the past two years, there have indeed been many more individual customers who come to buy beads, but their own stores still account for the majority of wholesale. In Yamashita Lake, the sales model of most traditional merchants is different from that of jewelry brands, "like our store, it is customized, and there are fewer finished products." Generally, the customer sends the picture over, if the accessories store has accessories, we will quote according to the price of naked beads plus the accessory fee, and there may be some relatively new stores that will charge some processing fees."

Customers who come to buy pearls usually choose better quality. The higher the quality of pearls, the more obvious the price advantage, "we make one or two thousand yuan of stud earrings, foreign brands of the same quality may be less than 10,000."

Being able to buy higher quality pearls with the same budget is one of the reasons why people have begun to favor Zhuji pearls.

The girl who sells pearl earrings earns 200,000 yuan a month

Of course, pearls can trigger a wide range of popularity, must be because the purchase threshold and price have become more affordable.

Not everyone has the time and energy to visit Zhuji in person, most of them are ordinary consumers who only want one piece of jewelry, and more often buy online. This part of consumers, will be more concerned about the cost performance of pearls, they may not be the depth of pearl jewelry lovers, more just early adopters, so do not consider the value preservation factors, pay more attention to the appearance, the purchase price range is between 100 yuan and 1,000 yuan.

Ms. Guo, who is engaged in pearl trading in Zhuji, also feels the same way, "In the past two years, the main consumption of pearls has been slowly getting younger. Now young people buy pearls, pay great attention to the cost performance, for young people to look good is the key, they do not have much budget to grow grass high-quality pearls, so they prefer not too expensive and practical and versatile type."

After pearls began to reach young people, Ms. Guo also began to sell pearls online. This summer, business reached a small peak. In her words, "I didn't expect to be so busy in the third trimester that my heels couldn't touch the ground."

In the selection of products, Ms. Guo grasped the two points of "good looking" and "affordable", and most of the pearls she sells are high-quality freshwater pearls with affordable prices of 100 yuan, or light luxury saltwater pearls of 2,000 yuan. Since mid-August, in just one month, Ms. Guo has sold more than 200,000 yuan in sales with a freshwater pearl stud earring with a unit price of 59 yuan.

Data of the stores operated by Ms. Guo. (Photo/provided by interviewee)

Ms. Guo's shop is a microcosm. In recent years, the pearl trade in Zhuji Shanxia Lake has gradually shifted from offline bulk wholesale to online retail sales.

According to public information, in the past two years, Zhuji Pearl's sales in the live broadcast industry have increased by 440% year-on-year. During the peak period of Pearl Live, some top anchors can even achieve millions of yuan in sales overnight. According to statistics from the live broadcast platform, the proportion of young people aged 25-30 who buy pearls in the live broadcast room has exceeded 50%, nearly double that of previous years.

Ten thousand unbridled horses galloped in the market, and behind the prosperity there are many hidden worries. For example, in the live broadcast room, incidents of fish eyes mixed with beads occur from time to time. A search for "pearl" on Black Cat Complaints reveals more than 2,000 complaints, most of which focus on fakes, false mussels, and mismatched goods.

Although at present, it is much more convenient for ordinary people to buy pearls, the threshold for beginner learning of pearls is still very high, and the variety alone is enough to dazzle inexperienced young people.

(Photo/Little Red Book @ He Qixing Pearl Studio)

For example, compared with freshwater pearls, seawater pearls have more advantages in luster, size and roundness, so the price is more expensive, and there is no cap, from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan. Freshwater pearls used to refer to seedless pearls, and the price was relatively close to the people. However, in the past two years, a new nuclear variety of freshwater pearls has also appeared, Edison, and many young customers use Edison as a "replacement" for seawater pearls such as Akoya and Australian white.

Variety is not the only factor that determines the final price of pearls, even for pearls of the same variety, different qualities (size, brightness, shape) may differ by thousands to tens of thousands of yuan.

The huge price difference between saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls has led to an absurd phenomenon - the set of certificates.

For example, the most recognized among saltwater pearls is the certificate issued by the Japan Pearl Science Research Institute. But in fact, some merchants will repeatedly send high-quality pearls for inspection, issue multiple certificates, and then sell them on some pearls of less good quality.

There are even people who hang links to certificates on second-hand platforms. (Photo/Xiaohongshu user @Invincible Loser)

And pearls are "one pearl one price" commodity, there is no clear price standard, which means that the gray space in the pricing is larger, which often makes some young consumers who are new to pearls feel big.

Pearl lovers posted to complain about the random pricing of live broadcasts. (Photo/Xiaohongshu user @Beibei learned what today)

Ms. Guo told New Weekly that many buyers who are new to pearls do not know how to identify, but just look good and pay for fake pearls under the bottomless boast of merchants.

"Some live broadcasts will sell dyed beads as seawater pearls, and the price of dozens of pieces can be sold for hundreds of pieces. There are also seawater pearls for coloring, such as optimizing light-colored gold beads into thick gold beads and selling them at a high price, because in terms of color, light gold is much cheaper than thick gold. There are also not very colorful beads in Tahiti, the color is not very good, optimized to sell for high prices of malachite green, peacock blue, etc. ”

At the same time, there will be some merchants, using high-quality pearls when posting pictures live online, and sending slightly lower pearls when shipping offline, not knowledgeable pearl buyers, in fact, it is difficult to find the trickiness.

The pearl that is hard to rejuvenate, don't mess with it again

The pearl market, which has been dormant in the public eye for nearly a decade, has finally rejuvenated.

In 2014, local industry reports in Zhuji said that the pain point of the local industry was "insufficient branding", and consumers were willing to bid 10,000 yuan for luxury bags, but were unwilling to pay the same price for pearl necklaces. Today, the problem is not whether there is a willingness to buy, but probably "do not dare", afraid of stepping on thunder, afraid of being slaughtered.

This is reminiscent of the once hot jade market, and now when people think of jade, the first label that comes to mind is "water depth". At present, pearls are in the quantum superposition of "industry transparency", which seems to be transparent in price, but in fact there are many twists and turns. If pearls are one day labeled "deep in water", how long will the freshness and enthusiasm of young people last?

(Photo/"Dark Glory")

It is difficult for such a group of tired people to study pearl varieties and identify the real and false in their spare time. Therefore, some young people simply look away, lovers who are not short of time and money can buy those white and fat expensive pearls, while novice buyers who are tired of entangled quality varieties directly choose more affordable freshwater pearls or even artificial pearls to test the water.

In the dazzling pearl market, no matter how many twists and turns these novices have experienced and how many tuition fees they have paid, they eventually wash away the lead and return to the so-called first principles: at first I just wanted to buy a beautiful accessory to match the clothes.

Zhuji is originally rich and thrifty, and ten thousand pearls are equal, no matter whether they are noble or cheap, they must be piled together for people to choose. Every bead has its own place, and who says a few hundred pearls are not happy?

Proofreader: Zou Weiyun

Operation: Hee-hee

Typesetting: Shen Zaohui