Help me choose a Mikimoto

[love_pearls]

@love_pearls, if another SA allows you to place the order, I would ask explicitly about return/exchange options - and also get that information in writing. 9mm AAA is not a small amount of money, and the option to exchange is not unreasonable when buying organic products completely blind. I agree that luster should not be any concern in this grade but overtone preference is so personal… And you are paying a hefty premium for what should be premium service and safeguards.

Perhaps you could go the same route as @astaeria and buy online, if no boutique staff will help you with your request.

Yes, especially I am not an expert, I can only rely on trust and my eyes as guides when the earrings arrive. They don't have the serial number so they can put any tag on it and tell me it's aaa. I really worry about this. I think I will also bring your photo as a reference. If things come to the worst, maybe exchange for another item.

I think I will need to know the exchange policy.

Thank you for the reminder.

 

[higanbanya]

Hello, I called another boutique and they are going to ask the head quarter if I can order a pair of 9 mm AAA. But I need to give a full payment instead of 50% deposit.

Are you happy with your pair? It will be a blind order for me and I just want to make sure that I will not regret it.

I am also eyeing another item, that is the long necklace which I can wear it double. But of course, the long necklace will not be the AAA.

I think not many people are going for the AAA earrings that's why they don't have them in stock. Are we too stubborn about our earrings?

I’m very happy and in love with my pair!



I’m not an expert at being able to tell between a high AA and an actual AAA though. For a moment after receiving the AAA I did wonder if it was worth the difference as an AA pair I saw at the shop many months felt similar in quality (that AA was also the reason I wanted a Mikimoto AAA as the AA was already very beautiful so it could only get better!)

Both are AAs in this picture but the left one was clearly much more beautiful, and was my first love/introduction to Mikimoto pearls



All in all, I don’t regret my purchase at all as I wanted the best pearl studs I could get while staying mind clean, and I got what I’ve wanted! (:

Since your purchase is quite a sizeable one, might want to take @yssie ‘s advice in case it isn’t up to what you’re expecting, but I have full faith that Mikimoto AAAs will always be the best pearls can get (:

 

[love_pearls]

@love_pearls, if another SA allows you to place the order, I would ask explicitly about return/exchange options - and also get that information in writing. 9mm AAA is not a small amount of money, and the option to exchange is not unreasonable when buying organic products completely blind. I agree that luster should not be any concern in this grade but overtone preference is so personal… And you are paying a hefty premium for what should be premium service and safeguards.

Perhaps you could go the same route as @astaeria and buy online, if no boutique staff will help you with your request.

May I know if you placed your order online or by phone? I took a look at US website and it seems that they only have 9 mm in AA grade. So how was your ordering process from miki?

Thank you.

 

[FL_runner]

Hello, I called another boutique and they are going to ask the head quarter if I can order a pair of 9 mm AAA. But I need to give a full payment instead of 50% deposit.

Are you happy with your pair? It will be a blind order for me and I just want to make sure that I will not regret it.

I am also eyeing another item, that is the long necklace which I can wear it double. But of course, the long necklace will not be the AAA.

I think not many people are going for the AAA earrings that's why they don't have them in stock. Are we too stubborn about our earrings?

I looked at Mikimoto studs and I wanted to go for the AAA so I’m saving up for the size I want. Otherwise if buying lower graded pearls I think there are so many other good options I don’t know that it makes sense to pay Mikimoto premiums. I am not a Pearl expert like many here though!!!

 

[love_pearls]

I looked at Mikimoto studs and I wanted to go for the AAA so I’m saving up for the size I want. Otherwise if buying lower graded pearls I think there are so many other good options I don’t know that it makes sense to pay Mikimoto premiums. I am not a Pearl expert like many here though!!!

At this point, I don't think they have 9mm in AAA anymore. 8 mm maybe yes but 9 mm. Chances are slim. I dare not dream any more. I wonder if I need to go crazy and get 7.5 mm aaa necklace.

 

[FL_runner]

At this point, I don't think they have 9mm in AAA anymore. 8 mm maybe yes but 9 mm. Chances are slim. I dare not dream any more. I wonder if I need to go crazy and get 7.5 mm aaa necklace.

Im so sorry, that’s really disappointing! However I can only imagine how gorgeous the necklace would be!!! I am planning for 8mm eventually for me, but it is a ways off as I have some other jewelry projects I am working on.

 

[icy_jade]

At this point, I don't think they have 9mm in AAA anymore. 8 mm maybe yes but 9 mm. Chances are slim. I dare not dream any more. I wonder if I need to go crazy and get 7.5 mm aaa necklace.

Pearls are harvested annually. Just wait a bit if there are no AAA studs now.

 

[love_pearls]

Im so sorry, that’s really disappointing! However I can only imagine how gorgeous the necklace would be!!! I am planning for 8mm eventually for me, but it is a ways off as I have some other jewelry projects I am working on.

I think getting whatever size they have in AAA first before anything else, size 8 is not too bad. It sits in the middle of my earlobes while 9mm starts dropping.
I will say get them sooner better than later.

 

[love_pearls]

Pearls are harvested annually. Just wait a bit if there are no AAA studs now.

I will get 8mm or 8.5mm if no 9mm

 

[love_pearls]

Pearls are harvested annually. Just wait a bit if there are no AAA studs now.

Now thinking about it, you're right. I need to wait till venus and mercury go direct first before purchasing. I believe in astrology and had one experience of purchasing something during mercury retrograde, guess what, the item went wrong.

 

[yssie]

Okay so just to clear one thing up - I am 100% confident that no Mikimoto boutique personnel will EVER do something like knowingly put an incorrect tag on a product to sell it as a better grade. That would be egregious, and it would absolutely destroy their company’s reputation if it got out, and no single customer or purchase would ever be worth taking that risk for. No need to worry about that.

When you mentioned that the information @astaeria had provided here had allowed you to find out what grade they were actually showing you - remember that she also said that in her own shopping experiences the floor staff didn’t have that information. So the SA who was helping you probably had no idea of actual grade either. Did you ask how he or she determined that the two pairs you were shown were the best? Perhaps he was going by his own eyes, or maybe they were the best available in that store at the time and that wasn’t explicated.

The point I really want to make here is that Mikimoto is not out to cheat you! You don’t seem to be having very good experiences with the boutiques near you, and I’m sorry about that because a company’s staff is the face of that company, but you needn’t worry about dishonesty on their part. Just finding a competent sales venue and/or an SA you click with.

I agree with @astaeria and @icy_jade and others - the luster on an AAA pair will be the best that akoya are capable of. Mikimoto AAA akoya are truly the best of the best. I’m thinking of two reasons you may wish to take advantage of an exchange policy:
1. You get the pearls and the overtone isn’t right for you. This is a personal preference and at least in America Mikimoto pearls run the gamut from silvery to bright pink. Your request for a specific overtone, if you put one in, will be interpreted by many people in their supply chain and may not result in what you initially had in mind.
2. The pearls come in and are 9.01 and 9.02mm. Or something like that. When you specify a size you are guaranteed that both pearls will be at minimum that size, but personally I wouldn’t be happy with pearls that just barely made the size bracket as that bracket costs a sizable premium!

Yes, especially I am not an expert, I can only rely on trust and my eyes as guides when the earrings arrive. They don't have the serial number so they can put any tag on it and tell me it's aaa. I really worry about this. I think I will also bring your photo as a reference. If things come to the worst, maybe exchange for another item.

I think I will need to know the exchange policy.

Thank you for the reminder.

I bought in-person at a boutique. In the US Mikimoto Online doesn’t stock the size that I wanted. US-based boutiques allow exchanges and Online purchases allow returns for refund. I suspect the details vary quite a bit by geography though.

Mikimoto’s A-AAA grading is not a sliding scale. If no “true AAAs” are available, they won’t bump AA up to AAA - so you can be sure that if you buy AAA, you’re getting real AAA quality, no matter when you buy! But if there are no AAA then there are no AAA. In that case I agree it’s best to just wait until the size you really want becomes available, and not compromise with smaller than what you want. At most it’ll be a few months - it may require waiting until next harvest or they may have the pearls available and just need to drill and set them. I had originally asked about 9.25mm and 9.5mm studs and was told there were no 9.5mm available, but I could request a pair be made. That would have taken 3-4 months to fulfill, and would be eligible for exchange for store credit. (I wound up choosing the 9.25mm pair and I’m perfectly happy with that size).

I do want to say that I don’t know if the Quality/Premium/Best of the Best grading I’ve seen on some of the Asian Online stores works there same way as A-AAA in terms of being time-agnostic and inventory-agnostic, or if say Best of the Best really means Best of the Best that’s available right now across ${some subset of global Mikimoto inventory}. So I won’t speak to that grading system at all.

 

[love_pearls]

Okay so just to clear one thing up - I am 100% confident that no Mikimoto boutique personnel will EVER do something like knowingly put an incorrect tag on a product to sell it as a better grade. That would be egregious, and it would absolutely destroy their company’s reputation if it got out, and no single customer or purchase would ever be worth taking that risk for. No need to worry about that.

When you mentioned that the information @astaeria had provided here had allowed you to find out what grade they were actually showing you - remember that she also said that in her own shopping experiences the floor staff didn’t have that information. So the SA who was helping you probably had no idea of actual grade either. Did you ask how he or she determined that the two pairs you were shown were the best? Perhaps he was going by his own eyes, or maybe they were the best available in that store at the time and that wasn’t explicated.

The point I really want to make here is that Mikimoto is not out to cheat you! You don’t seem to be having very good experiences with the boutiques near you, and I’m sorry about that because a company’s staff is the face of that company, but you needn’t worry about dishonesty on their part. Just finding a competent sales venue and/or an SA you click with.

I agree with @astaeria and @icy_jade and others - the luster on an AAA pair will be the best that akoya are capable of. Mikimoto AAA akoya are truly the best of the best. I’m thinking of two reasons you may wish to take advantage of an exchange policy:
1. You get the pearls and the overtone isn’t right for you. This is a personal preference and at least in America Mikimoto pearls run the gamut from silvery to bright pink. Your request for a specific overtone, if you put one in, will be interpreted by many people in their supply chain and may not result in what you initially had in mind.
2. The pearls come in and are 9.01 and 9.02mm. Or something like that. When you specify a size you are guaranteed that both pearls will be at minimum that size, but personally I wouldn’t be happy with pearls that just barely made the size bracket as that bracket costs a sizable premium!



I bought in-person at a boutique. In the US Mikimoto Online doesn’t stock the size that I wanted. US-based boutiques allow exchanges and Online purchases allow returns for refund. I suspect the details vary quite a bit by geography though.

Mikimoto’s A-AAA grading is not a sliding scale. If no “true AAAs” are available, they won’t bump AA up to AAA - so you can be sure that if you buy AAA, you’re getting real AAA quality, no matter when you buy! But if there are no AAA then there are no AAA. In that case I agree it’s best to just wait until the size you really want becomes available, and not compromise with smaller than what you want. At most it’ll be a few months - it may require waiting until next harvest or they may have the pearls available and just need to drill and set them. I had originally asked about 9.25mm and 9.5mm studs and was told there were no 9.5mm available, but I could request a pair be made. That would have taken 3-4 months to fulfill, and would be eligible for exchange for store credit. (I wound up choosing the 9.25mm pair and I’m perfectly happy with that size).

I do want to say that I don’t know if the Quality/Premium/Best of the Best grading I’ve seen on some of the Asian Online stores works there same way as A-AAA in terms of being time-agnostic and inventory-agnostic, or if say Best of the Best really means Best of the Best that’s available right now across ${some subset of global Mikimoto inventory}. So I won’t speak to that grading system at all.

I trust the company but not the SAs. Sometimes they are willing to quickly sell you the items and will hide many things from customers. I called another boutique on Sunday and gave them the item code, the SA quickly replied that it's the best of the best category, we don't have it in ear studs in this grade. And I recalled the SA who served me the day I visited the boutique in person was acting nervous when I took a serious look at the tag so yes they know about the code and the grading. I found out that they only sell one grading for ear studs in my city and it's not even the premium grade so there's no way they will mix up the grading of ear studs. This is very strange but I assume that pearls are not popular in my city, Rolex is. When I visited the miki boutique that day, they didn't have guard opening the door, I just went in easily but they have this 8 or 8.5 mm AAA reserve necklace that is worth 120000 on display. This says that there is no resale value of pearls and people are too realistic to care about it. But I like pearls and it's a joy to wear them. I have been looking for a necklace to match my outfits and as soon as I tried on the double strand, I know it's right for me. After the visit, my wishlist keeps growing. I tried on their ring and it gives me this solid feeling, I used to buy from other brands but those brands have been corrupted, the quality keeps dropping and now I am so happy I find miki.

So if the pearls is about 9.01 or 9.02mm, it's not that cost efficient? Do you mean I should choose 9.10mm? Sorry, I had no Idea what's all about. But jumping from 8.5 mm to 9.01 mm is nice enough right?

I know I should not compromised that's why when the SA kept telling me the grade they offer is good enough for daily wear, I didn't buy it because to me, I can only have one pair of pearls earrings, it's better for me to buy the best I can afford. Not all SAs value the same things. I kept praising the AAA necklace and the SA kinda said it's a collectors item but to me, better wear it then putting it aside. I once heard a story about someone keeping the pearl necklace into a safe and when she took it out, the pearls got dried up and looked dull because there's not enough moisture inside the safe. Pearls are meant to be worn.

Thank you again for your help. I appreciate everyone's help.

 

[yssie]

The expectation of an SA deliberately withholding information etc. is so alien to me - this would *not* be a “normal” shopping experience where I am. From everything in this thread it does seem that if you want AAA/Best of the Best you’ll have to go the request it route.

Regarding size - yes, this is completely just my personal comfort! A 9.01mm stud will be visibly bigger than an 8.5mm or 8.75mm stud and certainly fulfills the criteria for the 9mm size bracket. I just prefer pearls that are well within a given size bracket, with some clearance. If you don’t have that mental hangup then honestly good for you and don’t worry about my comment.

Re. pearls drying out - I believe it! Pearls do need humidity and bank safes are extraordinarily dry, I can easily see months or years of sitting at the bank damaging pearls! Especially pearls with thinner nacre, high quality akoya like you want will age much better than most akoya out there.

There are definitely different mentalities to buying and wearing pearls, even within the ranks of sales personnel!! I’m a collector, I want one specimen of the best that I can get in each category. I know that I won’t appreciate having dozens of studs or strands. That’s nice for me because it means I can spread a limited budget over fewer pieces. I can totally understand that someone else prefers having more variety to choose from though.

 

[love_pearls]

The expectation of an SA deliberately withholding information etc. is so alien to me - this would *not* be a “normal” shopping experience where I am. From everything in this thread it does seem that if you want AAA/Best of the Best you’ll have to go the request it route.

Regarding size - yes, this is completely just my personal comfort! A 9.01mm stud will be visibly bigger than an 8.5mm or 8.75mm stud and certainly fulfills the criteria for the 9mm size bracket. I just prefer pearls that are well within a given size bracket, with some clearance. If you don’t have that mental hangup then honestly good for you and don’t worry about my comment.

Re. pearls drying out - I believe it! Pearls do need humidity and bank safes are extraordinarily dry, I can easily see months or years of sitting at the bank damaging pearls! Especially pearls with thinner nacre, high quality akoya like you want will age much better than most akoya out there.

There are definitely different mentalities to buying and wearing pearls, even within the ranks of sales personnel!! I’m a collector, I want one specimen of the best that I can get in each category. I know that I won’t appreciate having dozens of studs or strands. That’s nice for me because it means I can spread a limited budget over fewer pieces. I can totally understand that someone else prefers having more variety to choose from though.

May I know your purchasing process of your ear studs? Did you just go to the store and make your payment? How much deposit did you need to pay? Did you require a pair of silver pink?

It seems that some stores in certain countries provide certificate but some don't. Does your pair come with a certificate stating Grade, and size of the pearls?

I am trying to find out more information before I make the purchase.

It feels like it's better to go to Japan to get tax free benefit. If purchasing more than one item, that's quite a nice option. I am tired of dealing with the SA here or should I say they are tired of me?

 

[yssie]

May I know your purchasing process of your ear studs? Did you just go to the store and make your payment? How much deposit did you need to pay? Did you require a pair of silver pink?

It seems that some stores in certain countries provide certificate but some don't. Does your pair come with a certificate stating Grade, and size of the pearls?

I am trying to find out more information before I make the purchase.

It feels like it's better to go to Japan to get tax free benefit. If purchasing more than one item, that's quite a nice option. I am tired of dealing with the SA here or should I say they are tired of me?

Of course.

A friend gave me her NYC SA’s contact info, and I texted her to introduce myself, and told her that I was interested in 9mm+ AAA studs.

We chatted by phone, and she looked at inventory on her computer, and told me that she had some 9.0-9.25mm in store but nothing larger than that. She verified pricing, and the differential between 9.25mm and 9.5mm was substantial, so I decided to aim for 9.25mm.

After about two weeks she called me to let me know that she had located a 9.25 pair and would be happy to have it brought into the NYC boutique for me to view. It was the only 9.25 pair available globally at the time, and no 9.5mm pairs were available. Viewing came with no purchase obligation. If I didn’t care for that specific pair, or I wanted yellow gold (this pair had white gold findings), I would have to place a custom request. That required 100% deposit and would have been non-refundable, but if I didn’t care for that pair I could exchange the deposit for store credit toward anything else.

I said I’d love to see the pair, and she sent me a photo when it came in a few days later. I went in to see it a few days after that, and I loved it so I made my purchase in-boutique (I had another pair of pearls to return, so she processed that at the same time and applied that amount as credit toward this new pair).

I did not specify anything regarding size (besides 9.25mm), colour/overtone, or gold colour (I was fine with either 18k WG or 18k YG). My pair happens to be ~9.47mm - nearly at the next size bracket. I got lucky with that!

I did get both a receipt and a Certificate for Retail Replacement. Here’s a pic of the paperwork that I received (personal info redacted of course).

I’m sorry that may not be much help to an international buyer! I saw that you had requested my SA’s contact info in another thread - I’m the same name on the other forum where we discuss VCA (we can’t name other forums here on PS) and on IG if you’d like to reach out.

 

[yssie]