anyone else getting conflicting results from Authenticity?

[felt321]

hi- We have had a large number of items be rejected from Authenticity recently.  Items that have had jewelers, auction houses and our own GIA reports verified as being legit.  

in one case, Ebay sent back a bracelet saying the charms were 13k but bracelet itself 14k.  so I changed the listing and resold.  new authenticity SAME BRACELET...different results.  now they say charms all 14k.  

Something is amiss....

[tobaccocardyahoo]

All authenicators and third party graders have some employees with inexperience and too little training. The more Ebay listings they authenticate more greater the chances that you will hit one of them.

I have no clue how much they are paid for an authentication but I would bet that it would not pay for someone with the experience that many Ebay sellers have.

[dbfolks166mt]

     The quality of the authentication services have been an issue since they were first setup. The have been a topic of discussions on these boards in just about every category they are setup for. A lot of it is probably as  tobaccocardyahoo mentioned, varying degrees of experience as well as competencies.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@felt321 wrote:

hi- We have had a large number of items be rejected from Authenticity recently.  Items that have had jewelers, auction houses and our own GIA reports verified as being legit.  

in one case, Ebay sent back a bracelet saying the charms were 13k but bracelet itself 14k.  so I changed the listing and resold.  new authenticity SAME BRACELET...different results.  now they say charms all 14k.  

Something is amiss....

---

What kind of documentation do you get that tells you this? Can you post any of those messages (without personal info or even transaction numbers) to see the verbiage used? 

[a_c_green]

---

@felt321 wrote:

in one case, Ebay sent back a bracelet saying the charms were 13k but bracelet itself 14k.  so I changed the listing and resold.  new authenticity SAME BRACELET...different results.  now they say charms all 14k.

---

Speaking as a guy with no fashion sense (I am told)... I didn't even know there was a "13K" gold rating. I thought there were only a few basic increments... 14K... 28K?... etc... How does one distinguish between 13K and 14K when looking at a piece of jewelry?

[dbfolks166mt]

@felt321 wrote:

in one case, Ebay sent back a bracelet saying the charms were 13k but bracelet itself 14k.  so I changed the listing and resold.  new authenticity SAME BRACELET...different results.  now they say charms all 14k.

Speaking as a guy with no fashion sense (I am told)... I didn't even know there was a "13K" gold rating. I thought there were only a few basic increments... 14K... 28K?... etc... How does one distinguish between 13K and 14K when looking at a piece of jewelry?

     Agree with you on 13K gold never heard of that purity but I guess it does exist. You also can't have a 28K since 24K is "pure" gold. There are several methods to test the Karat weight of gold but the most accurate is with an X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF) which I would expect an authentication service to have but they do cost tens of thousands of dollars so maybe not. 

[a_c_green]

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Agree with you on 13K gold never heard of that purity but I guess it does exist. You also can't have a 28K since 24K is "pure" gold. 

---

Ah. Okay.

---

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

There are several methods to test the Karat weight of gold but the most accurate is with an X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF) which I would expect an authentication service to have but they do cost tens of thousands of dollars so maybe not. 

---

I could see an XRF reporting that distinction (that the charms were 13K but the bracelet itself was 14K), but here in the World of Common Sense, I think the normal reaction to that would be, "Oh, come on..." 🙄

[dbfolks166mt]

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

Agree with you on 13K gold never heard of that purity but I guess it does exist. You also can't have a 28K since 24K is "pure" gold. 

Ah. Okay.

@dbfolks166mt wrote:

There are several methods to test the Karat weight of gold but the most accurate is with an X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF) which I would expect an authentication service to have but they do cost tens of thousands of dollars so maybe not. 

I could see an XRF reporting that distinction (that the charms were 13K but the bracelet itself was 14K), but here in the World of Common Sense, I think the normal reaction to that would be, "Oh, come on..." 

      Agree with you on that one and that would have been my reaction as well. 

[schmi1078]

Yes, I have a bracelet with the authenticator right now saying the 14k men’s Cuban link bracelet i sold is 13k. It belonged to my dad and he did have papers but they were lost. I acid tested it myself and it showed 14k. Now I’m waiting for buyer to respond with a yes or no. It’s been 3 days. I’m concerned about it being left there.