I think I know why this happens! I put my 7.5 - 8 mm Tahitians (edit: I actually meant Akoyas) on to go out last night, and suddenly they seemed small. Then I realized that I've been wearing 8 - 11/12 mm Tahitians for weeks and have gotten used to looking at that size on me. DH's only comment when I mentioned it was that if I was going to get bigger Akoyas, I should go really big, and not just one size up. Given the price jump, I don't see that in my future, but it's funny what we get used to looking at, because when I considered the 8 - 8.5 mm and 8.5 - 9 mm strands in NYC, I thought they looked too big. 7.5 - 8 is the classic size for white pearls here.