Pearl inlay

[Ted Smith]

It's been over 25 years ago but a fellow in San Francisco area traded me a huge amount of Pearl for a Melobro (guess this stuff is really old that he got back in the day, long since passed away). He actually was supplying Martin with Pearl, but, like me, he loved to trade.
I've never done anything with it because you need to be careful of the dust (don't buy without doing research on how to properly work with Pearl and follow safety procedures!!)
Now that we have some custom fretboards available I'm going to get started, but I looked at how much pearl was there and I wouldn't use that in 50 years. So if you need some Pearl, here are some photos of what's there, make me on offer on what you need, or...trade

[Ted Smith]

There are five different bags of different varieties, I really know little about this stuff but he wrote tags on the bags you can read.






MOP must be Mother of Pearl



Mother of Pearl Gold



Pearl Green




Couple other bags unlabeled but really pretty stuff

[Ted Smith]

just about sold out so ping me on what we have left before making an order.

[Andy DePaule]

Hi Ted,
You can look at our web site to find the value of those blanks today...
https://luthiersupply.com/Shell-Blanks.html

What you have is White & Gold Mother Of Pearl as well as Green Abalone.
Green Abalone has the same value as Red Abalone.
Best wishes,
Andy

[Ted Smith]

Well I guess I'm selling them for about half that price, don't want to under price you LOL

[Ted Smith]

Pretty much sold out except for the Gold Mother of Pearl and some of the polished AB,

[Andy DePaule]

Well I guess I'm selling them for about half that price, don't want to under price you LOL

Not to worry Ted,
We have strong sales and if you and the buyer are satisfied then all is for the best.
Had I known I may have bought you out because it costs more to buy and process the shells now because that's when you can even get Green or Red Abalone.
There has been a total ban on commercial fishing of those for over 40 years now.

We were able to get 1,600 pounds of old stock pre-ban Red Abalone last year. It cost a lot even with a good deal.
That cost doubled with the shipping to our workshop in Viet Nam.
Now we are paying for the job of processing the shells into blanks.
The last time were able to even buy those kind of shells was in 2003.
We get most of our now from New Zealand and that's legal, but still not cheap.