Everything That Glitters - Is It Fine Gold? Do Internet Venues Have A Responsibility To Ensure Listings Are Legal?

This post is to help you understand a little more about jewelry, it's creation and what the FTC states is the proper way to sell jewelry. It will also include information about a recent mishap by an online seller (not us) in selling their jewelry. We are also going to touch on the responsibilities of online selling venues when sellers list jewelry items in manner that is inconsistent with the FTC rules, guidelines and laws.

Shopping on the internet for fine jewelry can be a challenge, to say the least. When you are looking at a piece and you read the description, sometimes you may wonder exactly what materials are really used in creating it. Some sellers do not disclose all of the necessary information for you to make an educated decision in making a purchase.

We sell Black Hills Gold jewelry and a few other jewelry items on the internet and we try very hard to give the necessary information for our potential buyers to know exactly what they are getting. Many other sellers do a great job of this also.

Take a look at these pictures, can you tell which is 14K gold, gold filled, gold plated or so-called layered gold?
Hint: Only one piece is 14 karat gold.
On the internet, it is next to impossible to know what you are getting until it arrives in the mail. After all, you can not see the actual item or check for markings that would help in analyzing the item. All you have to go on is the sellers picture and description. You see it is gold colored, shiny and looks to be the real thing. Sometimes, you don't even know after it arrives, unless you take it to a jeweler for an appraisal.

You may be wondering why we are writing this.

A buyer on one of the venues we sell on contacted us and asked us to take a look at a listing for an item that they had purchased and received. They felt that the listing was deceptive and that what they got was not 18K gold as was stated. When they got the item they - "immediately knew that something was wrong, because if they were 18k they would have been tiny. Instead they were big. Then I looked and no mark of 18k on the earrings." - As stated by the buyer.

So, we went to the listing to take a look and were shocked. The listing stated:

"This is a pair of two toned gold butterfly earrings. They are a little more than 1/2 inch high and also a little more than a half inch wide. This beautiful jewelry is nickel free and it will never tarnish. Is it solid gold? No, there is no such thing and it is definitely not plated, it is 18 Karat Gold. It is sold in fine jewelry stores all over the world and I am offering it to you at a fraction of their price."

(We highlighted the deceptive text that tells the buyer they are getting 18K jewelry.)

The seller also had a list of keywords in the listing but the words that were most apt to cause further belief that the items were in fact 18K were:

18 Karat Gold, White Gold, and Yellow Gold

Also, there was a link within the listing which offered more info on the jewelry that the seller offered. It states:

"This is “Real Gold” , but not “Solid Gold”. It is manufactured in a 7 layer process. This is not plated gold or gold filled. It is a seven layer process that makes top quality, hypo allergenic, nickel and lead free GOLD Jewelry affordable without the high price tag of “Solid Gold”! It consists of layers of 24k, 18k AND 22k solid gold over 3 very thin base layers of special high quality metals, topped off with a clear protective finish for strength and lasting beauty. Perfect for everyday wear or stunning pieces just for special occasions!! This will not “chip” , peel, flake, “turn”, or rust.
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(We highlighted and underlined the most revealing portions of the above text from the seller.)

Ok, so a buyer of this item is now totally mixed up as to what they are getting and unless they know a bit about jewelry, they believe they are really getting 18K fine jewelry. Of course, that is not the case. The seller is really offering gold plated jewelry. The dead give away is the 7 layer process. The buyer is not getting fine jewelry and we know of no fine jewelry stores that offer this kind of jewelry. It is merely costume jewelry.Once we saw this, we contacted the support staff on the site and were met with less than positive results. The seller changed the titles of the listings to remove 18K from them but the listings descriptions remained the same and are still deceptive to the buyers. The seller also did not remove the verbiage about not being gold plated. The titles still used the word gold without a proper qualifier. So, we contacted support again and stated the laws and etc only to be met with the following:

"We are not the law, we are XX.com. We do not enforce the law. We do not enforce whether you or anyone else follows the law, that is up to the individual seller to do so. Same goes for any one else on the site, they are responsible for themselves. We do not want any of our users imposing their beliefs or their interpretations of the law on any of our users. They are responsible for themselves, not for any one else on the site.

We have addressed the seller, they have made the changes and we are satisfied with those changes. Additionally the seller has 100% feedback."
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So, that basically is telling us to mind our own business and the site is going to do nothing about this seller intentionally taking advantage of buyers. We sort of found that comment a bit funny, if it wasn't so sad, because the FTC is very clear about how jewelry is to be marketed. It doesn't take a legal degree to understand it.

We understand that the site does not enforce the law but when a violation is brought to their attention, they should handle it properly. It is our opinion that the site is aiding this ripoff if they choose to ignore it. Their own site rules state that sellers are to list their items in accordance to all laws that are applicable for the products they sell. If they are going to remove fake, counterfeit and etc items, (as they sometimes do and it should be noted that they get lots of reports from the PurseForum about fakes and not just reports on purses from there that they act on without much doubt about the reports) we believe that they also should be responsible for this. (After all, listing costume jewelry as 18K fine jewelry is listing fakes.) How else can they justify removing any products whatsoever if they are not going to apply their own site rules consistently and fairly?

We also do not believe that a seller having 100% feedback has any basis in determining the honesty of the seller or the way they represent (in this case, misrepresent) the items in their listings. This seller has only had a few sales of their jewelry items and those poor souls probably don't realize they have been ripped off. The buyer that contacted me has not left feedback yet but if they ever do, I would not expect it to be positive.

It should be noted that the buyer did get their money back with some resistance from the seller (wanting the buyer to ship the item back at the buyers expense) and the seller insisting that the item was 18K gold (and without the buyer asking for a refund, the buyer was just discussing the item content.) After the buyer refused to send the product back at her own cost becasue she didn't make the mistake, the seller told the buyer to keep the item also.

Then it gets better. The buyer sent the seller a note about the other listings they have up and questioned their gold content. The seller sent this in response:

"Hello,

You got your money back, you got your free earrings, now I am asking you to leave me alone. You know nothing about this jewelry or how it is made. Unless you know the manufacturer and have discussed with them as to how it is made, you cannot made a blanket statement and say that this jewelry is plated. It is not and I will not say that it is, that would be cheating customers.

I don’t know what your problem is, but DO NOT CONTACT me again through (site name deleted by our blog) or any other way. I have referred your message on (site name deleted by our blog) to support."
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With that the buyer dropped the situation and went on with their life until 2 or 3 days later when the seller of the plated jewelry sent the following, completely unexpected, rude note:

"Lady, I don’t know what your problem with me is, but I would suggest that you do some research and investigating before you make a blanket statement about someones merchandise. As for asking ‘your jeweler, most of them do not know anything about any jewelry except for what they sell and they will tell you that a competitors jewelry is not ’real’ because they want your business. There is a big difference between Gold Plated and Gold Layered jewelry….

Is Gold Layered the same as Gold Plated Jewellery?
NO! Do not mistake Layered jewellery for plated jewellery as there is no comparison. Gold plated jewellery chips, flakes, and wears off. Gold Layered jewellery is fine jewellery that is in fact 15 times as thick as plated jewellery and can therefore be worn on a daily basis.

You have no idea what my jewelry is made of and for some reason you seem to think that you are an expert or else you just want me to leave (site name deleted by our blog). I don’t know and I don’t care, but if you make any more rash judgments about me or my product, I will be contacting my attorney regarding a lawsuit for harassment and lies about. me. You got a pair of free earrings that will last you a lifetime and you got your satisfaction. May God Bless You and Keep You the rest of your life."
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Boy, talk about customer service (or intimidation and abuse)! It's hard to believe that anyone would act like that after being questioned about their jewelry and its gold content, especially if the items were in fact - 18K and not a lesser product.

Seems to us that the seller is feeling pretty defensive after getting caught in what appears to be a pack of lies and they don't like questions very much.

At first we gave the seller the benefit of the doubt when looking at their listings. We thought maybe they hooked up with a supplier that told them all of this stuff and the seller didn't know any better BUT now, it appears the guilt is making them very aggressive.
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Look What We Just Found!

We found this interesting Squidoo Lens, it talks about "layered gold jewlery," a "7 layer process," and being "lead & nickel free" (same kind of statements as the above seller was using.)
http://www.squidoo.com/gold_layered_jewellery

We then went to the website noted in the Lens:
http://www.glorisjewels.com/

When clicking on the above sites "about" tab, we found the same description as the seller was using in this post.

And note, in part of the sellers emails above - they used 2 terms - jewelry and jewellery. We believe that the seller was copying and pasting the information where they are using the term jewellry (with the double l and an extra e) because that is not a normal way for a US seller to spell the word jewelry but on the website, which is Canada based, it would be normal for them to spell it that way, as is noted throughout their site.

Also, this site makes the same statement as the seller in this story:
Is Gold Layered the same as Gold Plated Jewellery?
NO! Do not mistake Layered jewellery for plated jewellery as there is no comparison. Gold plated jewellery chips, flakes, and wears off. Gold Layered jewellery is fine jewellery that is in fact 15 times as thick as plated jewellery and can therefore be worn on a daily basis.
http://www.glorisjewels.com/what_is_gold_layered_jewellery_

Here's a graphic from the above page showing the process.
Note all of the layers in relation to the base metal portion BEFORE any gold is supposedly applied. Also note that out of the "7 layers," only 3 of the layers consist of any reported gold in this diagram. This gold is completely different and not even close to the same family as a product that is created in karat gold. Karat gold does NOT go through this kind of "layering process." When looking at the above graphic, there does not appear to be very much gold content to these pieces.

Also on the website it states that the "layers" of base metals are fused "with heat" for a certain amount of time which is controlled by special equipment. (This sounds very much like a plating process to us.)

To us and in our opinion, it is just a fancy way of saying plating and a new advertising gimmick to make possible buyers think they are getting more than what they are paying for.

We don't know if this is the supplier that the seller in this story is using but we find the similarities are worth noting. Oh, and they do have a reseller program.
Gold jewelry is created several different ways:

Die Struck

The method in which metals are mechanically hammered into hardened steel dies to produce definite impressions. This process is used on a lot of signet rings.

Cast

The method in which metals are poured or forced into molds which have cavities in the shape or form of the articles to be produced. Of the various casting processes, lost-wax casting is the one most commonly used. Lost-wax casting means the item is first sculpted from wax. The original wax sculpture, or a copy of it, is then used to make a mold and is lost in the actual casting process (thus the name lost wax casting).

Note: Black Hills Gold is created via lost wax casting.

You can find a video we have on our blog about lost wax casting here:
http://thereevesreport.blogspot.com/2009/08/jewelry-casting-general-information.html

Gold Filled & Rolled-Gold Plate

Continuous plates of metal are covered mechanically by means such as soldering, brazing, or welding. The karat gold used is at least 10kt fine, and this gold covering can be applied to one or more surfaces of the base metal. Many quality costume jewelry manufacturers use this process to imitate the karat gold look of fine jewelry. Gold filled or rolled gold jewelry is not as durable as karat fine jewelry, however, because the actual layer of gold on the item is extremely thin.

Gold Electroplate

Electroplate is the process of affixing a plate or layer of fine gold onto a base of metal by an electrolytic process (uses electricity and chemicals). This process can be used to improve appearance and to prevent disintegration. Since the gold plate used won't stick to most gemstones, you can have your problem costume jewelry plated to improve its appearance, or to help if you are experiencing discoloration from your costume or fine jewelry onto your skin. Like gold plate, this process imitates the karat gold look of fine jewelry, but is not as durable due to the thin layer of gold.

Here's a link to more info on gold filled and elecroplating: http://www.artisanplating.com/articles/goldfilled.html#manufacturing

What is karated gold jewelry?

All gold castings start with pure 24 karat gold. 24 karat gold is too soft to use to make jewelry. For jewelry, this pure gold is mixed with an alloy to provide the strength needed for continued wear. These alloys may be copper, zinc, silicon, nickel, silver or boron to name a few. The mixture of metals then designates the gold as 18K, 14K or 10K and so on rather than pure 24K.

The requirements to label a product as being gold filled:

Gold filled is a hollow tube of usually 14K gold (sometimes 10K is used) that is filled with another metal. The exterior of the gold filled jewelry is solid karated gold and everything you can see or touch is a solid layer of karated gold.

In the USA this process is referred to as ‘gold filled’. In Europe the same process will be called ‘rolled gold’. Both terms are synonymous with each other. Many jewelry purchasers outside the jewelry trade mistakenly think 'gold filled' is the same as 'gold-plate'. 'Gold filled is a much higher quality product.

As less gold is being used gold-filled or rolled gold jewelry is a cost effective alternative to karated gold jewelry.

How to tell what you are buying:

Any manufacturers selling karat gold jewelry must designate its purity and stamp the ring with their hallmark (a unique symbol for their business). This hallmark and designation are usually placed on the underside of the jewelry and will be in extremely small script.

Check out any gold rings or wedding bands that you have to find the hallmark. You should see both a manufacturer’s symbol and a designation such as 10K or 14K punched into the metal.

If you have purchased some karated gold rings that only have the purity designation stamped into the metal - not to worry. This indicates that the jewelry was artisan crafted and not mass-produced by a manufacturer.

(From what is karated gold to this point was offered at: http://www.suite101.com/content/karated-gold-versus-gold-filled-a12910)

The FTC has a jewelry guide which applies to persons, partnerships, or corporations, at every level of the trade (including but not limited to manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers) engaged in the business of offering for sale, selling, or distributing industry products.

These guides were set to prevent consumer deception, persons, partnerships, or corporations in the business of appraising, identifying, or grading industry products should utilize the terminology and standards set forth in the guides.

These guides apply to claims and representations about industry products included in labeling, advertising, promotional materials, and all other forms of marketing, whether asserted directly or by implication, through words, symbols, emblems, logos, illustrations, depictions, product brand names, or through any other means.

In part they state:

§ 23.4 Misrepresentation as to gold content.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to misrepresent the presence of gold or gold alloy in an industry product, or the quantity or karat fineness of gold or gold alloy contained in the product, or the karat fineness, thickness, weight ratio, or manner of application of any gold or gold alloy plating, covering, or coating on any surface of an industry product or part thereof.

(b) The following are examples of markings or descriptions that may be misleading:

(1) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation, without qualification, to describe all or part of an industry product, which is not composed throughout of fine (24 karat) gold.

(2) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product composed throughout of an alloy of gold, unless a correct designation of the karat fineness of the alloy immediately precedes the word "Gold" or its abbreviation, and such fineness designation is of at least equal conspicuousness.

(3) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product that is not composed throughout of gold or a gold alloy, but is surface-plated or coated with gold alloy, unless the word "Gold" or its abbreviation is adequately qualified to indicate that the product or part is only surface-plated.

(4) Use of the term "Gold Plate," "Gold Plated," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part contains a surface-plating of gold alloy, applied by any process, which is of such thickness and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured.

(5) Use of the terms "Gold Filled," "Rolled Gold Plate," "Rolled Gold Plated," "Gold Overlay," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part contains a surface-plating of gold alloy applied by a mechanical process and of such thickness and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured, and unless the term is immediately preceded by a correct designation of the karat fineness of the alloy that is of at least equal conspicuousness as the term used.

(6) Use of the terms "Gold Plate," "Gold Plated," "Gold Filled," "Rolled Gold Plate," "Rolled Gold Plated," "Gold Overlay,'' or any abbreviation to describe a product in which the layer of gold plating has been covered with a base metal (such as nickel), which is covered with a thin wash of gold, unless there is a disclosure that the primary gold coating is covered with a base metal, which is gold washed.

(7) Use of the term "Gold Electroplate," "Gold Electroplated," or any abbreviation to describe all or part of an industry product unless such product or part is electroplated with gold or a gold alloy and such electroplating is of such karat fineness, thickness, and extent of surface coverage that reasonable durability is assured.

(8) Use of any name, terminology, or other term to misrepresent that an industry product is equal or superior to, or different than, a known and established type of industry product with reference to its gold content or method of manufacture.

(9) Use of the word "Gold" or any abbreviation, or of a quality mark implying gold content (e.g., 9 karat), to describe all or part of an industry product that is composed throughout of an alloy of gold of less than 10 karat fineness.

** Note to paragraph (b) § 23.4: The provisions regarding the use of the word "Gold," or any abbreviation, as described above, are applicable to "Duragold," "Diragold," "Noblegold," "Goldine," "Layered Gold," or any words or terms of similar meaning.

With all of that said, you can find all of what the FTC says about jewelry and the proper way to mark and market it here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/guides/jewel-gd.shtm
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The FTC also offers the following info about buying gold jewelry here:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/products/pro02.shtm
What responsibility does the venue have in all of this?

Legally, we are unsure but we all know how eBay has been hit by lawsuit after lawsuit over the years for various illegal listings. Even on eBay, they would not allow the listings offered by the seller in this story to remain on their site. They force the sellers to list according to the law. When you list jewelry there, there are even warnings and what not that pop up about listing jewelry items appropriately and that you could suffer consequences if you list contrary to what is stated. They also listen to their users when it comes reports of listings that are questionable. (Can't believe we found something good to say about eBay.)

We would think that the site does hold some responsibility, at least to the buyers who shop there. If they want buyers to feel safe and to come back to purchase again, they need to build credibility with them. This is done by offering products that are described properly and delievered in a timely fashion. The site can do this by making it difficult for sellers to list their items improperly and by really investigating and acting upon user complaints, not just blowing the users off.

How many buyers have to go through this before complaints are filed with the proper authorities and those authorities come to the site and wreak havoc on all sellers and/or the site itself?

As a final note:

The key to gold jewelry shopping online is to know your gold and the industry terminology. When shopping at a jewelry website, look for clarity as to what the jewelry is made of and its weight. Gold is expensive, about $1300 per ounce at this writing, so if the price seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

Have you had a bad experience buying jewelry online?
If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.

All other comments are also welcomed.