I first want to say thank you all for this great informative forum. I have really learned a lot over the last couple of weeks.

I had purchased a strand of akoya pearls that were graded AAA from Premium Pearl. I was told by Yan that they were top of grade Japanese akoya pearls. Not really being much of a pearl educated type I just took that at face value. But when I received the pearls I just did not think they were very good. They certainly did not look like pearls I had seen in some stores. They did not have the same *pow* factor, and there were alot of marks on them.

So I did a little bit of research online and it of course led me to this place. I found this thread and decided to order another akoya necklace from Pure Pearls. I know some of you will say I should have got a freshwater, and I do plan to get a freshdama to compare soon, but I really wanted to get an akoya.

I have to say that my experience was exactly as recounted here. I got the AA+ only because the AAA that I wanted was out of stock. The AA+ had the *pow* that I was looking for. There was no comparison at all between the two necklaces. Pure Pearls' piece made the Premium Pearl piece look grotesquely cheap, and Premium Pearl made a big deal about their pearls coming from Japan and not China so they were so much better. AND the Premium Pearl strand was AAA but Pure Pearls was AA+, yet so much better! I personally don't believe that Premium's pearls were from Japan even, especially because they were so inexpensive.

Anyhow, thanks again. I would have liked to put a picture of the two necklaces side by side to show you what a difference there was but the picture I took was pretty bad. I may try one more time but I have to get a refund for AAA strand (and I use the term AAA very loosely) so I will have to send it back.