Mikimoto Grade Comparison -- Take a guess!

[sobellejanet]

Great contest, Andrew. Too much fun. I expect it might be easier in person to make the determination. I tried to guess by how sharp the mirroring in the pearl is. May not be the best way, but we are viewing a photo, afterall and it was difficult to judge the surface. I own a Mikimoto strand of the A grade. You can see surface imperfections with a magnifying glass (but people don't use a magnifying glass to inspect someone else's pearls). They feel perfectly round to the touch, appear blemish-free to the eye and have a lovely luster, so I never fail to get compliments when I wear them. I'm very glad I bought them.

 

[Narcissa]

Wow, what fun - I didn't get past being boggled that the difference between is 14,000 for what appears (in photos) to be such small differences!
-Elizabeth

 

[Katbran]

Narcissa - totally agree with you . Even seeing them in person I'd have been hard pressed to justify even moving up one grade from the bottom... let alone the top grade.

 

[amti]

I wouldn't know where to start on the voting. All the pearls would be round, so I looked for sharpness in luster for each strand since imperfections would be so minor, they may not show in the photos. There were some pearls that were not as sharp as others, but I don't know if that's from the lighting and if the strands were all the same distance from the light source. Mom has a miki rope, and it has such beautiful luster, they look like they are glowing and fake. I'm sure all these strands look that way in real life too.

 

[BAS]

Best to worst (which changes each time I look, so I'll stop at this iteration):

4
1
2
3

Half seem pinked, and half don't.

 

[Andrew M]

Hi P-G friends.

Glad to be getting back to this thread at last!

So, I have the answers...



Lisa C hit the nail on the head exactly, and as many here correctly guessed, number 4 is the AAA strand!

But, a couple of interesting observations...

1 was the AA strand, so in theory the closest to AAA, and it received no votes for he AAA strand. Whereas 2 was the A+ and was a close second to 4 in terms of votes-- This keeps in line with what I have heard about Miki "+" grades, which I have been told seem to mean that the pearls by luster met a higher grade but by surface did not.

3 even received some thoughts of being AAA but it was "only" A - which is supposed to be the furthest apart from AAA.

Ultimately, it just goes to show this...

1) Buying or even pearls through photos is VERY hard!

2) Not all strands are necessarily created equal even within strict grading.


I hope if not scientifically accurate or necessarily really helpful, that this was at least a little fun for everybody.

Andrew M.

 

[pattye]

This was great fun, Andrew, many thanks! I did guess the AAA strand, but couldn't come to any conclusion on the others.

 

[BWeaves]

Could the votes also have been influenced by the order they were presented?

Also I don't know if the AA is actually a different color or if the lighting was different.

Anyway, all 4 strands are gorgeous. I wouldn't throw any of them back if you tossed them at me.

 

[pammbw]

Thank you Andrew for the comparison photos! Very informative. My guesses were pretty accurate when I started reading this thread. I think pearls are like diamonds, each person has to find the strand/stone that speaks to them, whatever grade it may be. I am with Bweaves, any of those strands would be very happy in my jewelry box!

 

[CBPearllover]

This was fun! Did anyone else note how strand 1 seemed to be a different color? I'd love for there to be more polls like this, I learn so much on this forum

 

[Andrew M]

Could the votes also have been influenced by the order they were presented?

Also I don't know if the AA is actually a different color or if the lighting was different.

Anyway, all 4 strands are gorgeous. I wouldn't throw any of them back if you tossed them at me.

Maybe, I suppose. - I purposefully cut them to be not in order so it wouldn't be as obvious having them all in ascending quality. Plus, I thought it might have offered a more realistic comparison to how people generally buy pearls online, especially like I said when considering that the difference between A and AAA is $14,000 and like you said I wouldn't throw any of them back either.

In the original photo, they are all side by side on the same presentation folder so presumably the differences in color would be actual differences at least relative to the other strands next to them.

 

[lisa c]

Well, really? get out of town! A rater has the same taste I have somewhere in the world, cool!
Andrew, thank you, this survey was lots of fun, and a neat challenge, for our electronics and our 'Eye'. It was hard to find the words to explain the emotional judgements of the ratings.

Great fun!

 

[Katbran]

I missed the part where we were to rate them all lol I don't think I read the post accurately. I only voted for the AAA , That said , BAS got them all right ! Well done !!

Judging pearls by photo is hard. I must say that I did think #2 was very nice but 4# was definitely AAA to me . I think with better lighting and some close ups it would have been a bit easier . Good fun though, thank you Andrew. ( and I need to answer your question on IG !! Sorry ! I've been flat out with orders and tracking down wandering packages)