I am going to do something I rarely do and completely agree with American Pearl on this one.
American Pearl did coin the name and created a line they call "collection quality". It is a line they only associate with akoya pearls. Although I do not agree with their separation of Hanadama and collection quality (as the actual definition of Hanadama means the very best), it is an American Pearl line. I believe anyone else using "collection quality",
especially on the Internet, is attempting to copy American Pearl and piggy-back on their marketing efforts.
I am admitting this although I am not a huge fan of American Pearl either as you will likely glean from the
AmericanPearl.com -Ethical Issues thread recently.
I also second them in calling question to the quality of the other company. There is a golden South Sea strand selling in their "collection quality" area that appears to be yellow, not "gold". The "finest in the world" would wholesale in the $40-$50,000 range in that size as well. Clearly the strand is not the finest grade golden South Sea strand.
There have actually been a few comments on the other company in this thread called
PremiumPearl.com.
If you heart is set on a "collection quality" akoya strand... stick with American Pearl.