I’ve come across an article on TripAdvisor about the Atlas Pearl...

I’ve come across an article on TripAdvisor about the Atlas Pearl farm that hosts visits by tourists. The Atlas rep says in the comments that their best pearls either go to auction or straight to jewelry retailers including Mikimoto and Tiffany’s in Singapore. So this confirms that some of their very best pearls bypass auctions. And of course there are the company’s own retail sales - at retail prices. So it’s likely that the prices on non-auction sales are at least as high as the average of auctions, confirming resglostock’s observation that these sales generate significant income.