With the popularity of Pandora’s products, there are more fake bracelets and charms, and they are becoming more and more elaborate. How can you not make a mistake and not buy a fake at the price of the original? I hope that the following tips will help you make the right decision about the originality of the product.

Marking and inscriptions

Pandora hallmarks are “s925 ale” for silver, “g585 ale” for gold, “ale r” (and changed to “ale met” since 2018) for rose gold charms and bracelets — Pandora Rose. These markings are on every charm, bracelet, ring and pendant. Sometimes stamps are cleverly hidden and without a magnifying glass you are unlikely to find them. Jewelers hide them on the rim, on small details of charms, inside charms — openworks.

The above marking has been launched by the company since 2011, before that the charms were marked “925 ale”. Sometimes I get charms released in those years, for example, this one:

Also, when buying Pandora in Ukraine and a number of European countries (in official offline stores), you can see additional hallmarks of the assay office on them, as required by law. In most European countries and the USA, the factory marking of the manufacturer is sufficient.

925 sterling silver is the international silver standard. This unique silver-copper alloy perfectly combines two very important qualities: a color similar to pure silver and high mechanical strength.

On the bracelet, you should pay attention to the very inscription PANDORA.
It should be done evenly, all the letters are neat, the font is not smeared. A distinctive feature is the crown above the letter «O». Pandora has introduced this additional marking since 2008. My bracelet was bought just in that year and there is no crown on it. The cost of a pandora bracelet is quite small.

Now on sale you will not find bracelets without a crown over the letter O. Of course, this applies to the sale of new bracelets, not second-hand ones. Also remember that the original bracelet hard, it only gets softer with time. Fakes are soft right away, the quality of weaving affects, it is not as reliable as that of the original.
Leather bracelets have not yet learned how to fake perfectly, at least I have not come across such ones. The reason, apparently, is in demand — they are bought less often than silver ones. The weaving of the leather bracelet is handicraft, the seams of the strips are not soldered, as in the original, but simply cut and interlaced.
The color scheme is also striking — the original Pandora leather bracelets have deeper colors, sometimes with overflow, and fakes are the most common.

Prices

The price policy of the company in different countries is different. Since the stores operate under a franchise, Pandora only indicates the minimum price, and its upper limit is at the discretion of the stores.
There are no big discounts on products, even during sales seasons. The exception is the sites of closed sales — RUE LA LA, ZULILY and others — several times a year they hold sales of Pandora. Under the sale, for the most part, charms fall, the production of which ceases. Prices are reduced by 30-50%, but you need to buy quickly — positions fly apart in the first hours.
Also a good option to save money is promotions that periodically take place at official sellers. It can be a free bracelet with a purchase of a certain amount, or a promotion for rings or a bracelet in an assembly at a more pleasant price. Subscribe to newsletter — I promptly post all the available promotions that help save money.
Sellers of fakes are unlikely to offer you catalogs and original packaging (although it is also forged, it is handicraft and it will not be difficult to find differences). Look at the history of the seller’s transactions, the amount of information provided. If a person is hiding, does not want a personal meeting — this is also a reason to think. Counterfeit dealers practically do not deal in gold or bicolor charms, because their difference from the original is so obvious. Yes, and not gold there at all, but painting.
If you are told that gold is a coating, do not believe it. The seller himself does not know what he is selling — all the gold parts on charms and bracelets are made entirely of 585 gold. All of the above points should alert you and give you reason to think about whether it is worth the risk.

And finally, what I have encountered lately is that sellers have appeared who allegedly “receive the goods directly from Thailand from the company’s factory.”
I won’t tell you that this can’t be for a long time — sometimes the desire to buy a charm for half the price prevails over the arguments of reason and makes you believe in this deception. Thailand is a very poor country, with a lot of unemployed, and working in a jewelry factory for an international company that adheres to labor laws and work standards is, believe me, very valuable. And the security system at the factory is also appropriate, so it’s unlikely that “a bunch of Thai workers take out charms to order.” With how many fakes we sell under the guise of the original, the factory would have gone bankrupt long ago. Well, that’s right, thinking out loud.
There are also some nuances by which I can identify a fake, but I won’t post them here — I don’t want to open all the cards to scammers. My customers often ask me to help identify the originality of a charm or bracelet — I always help, it’s even quite interesting to do a little investigation :). So if you doubt the authenticity of a charm or bracelet, please contact me — I will help dispel or confirm your doubts. Well, if you still bought a fake and determined it yourself — send photos, I will upload them to protect other buyers.

Self order

If you decide to order abroad on your own, then I can advise you to buy only from official Pandora retailers, a list of which you can see here.
The highest prices are in England, it is generally unprofitable to buy there. Good prices in Germany and the USA, if you search, you can find sellers with shipment to Ukraine, although the savings on single orders are small.
A lot of products are sold on the eBay international auction — but you have to be careful there, as there are more fakes than the original. Officially, Pandora does not sell there, but there are sellers you can trust — look at the sales history, ratings and reviews. There is practically no difference in price with official retailers, but sometimes you can catch rare or discontinued charms from small sellers.

How to distinguish the original from a fake Pandora jewelry — 2 — a must read for everyone!