Ask him country of origin for all of his glass tiles or other mosaics. Watch him hem and haw. Or look ignorant.

Retro colors are not available because it’s 2018, not 1952, and they are not popular. Not because they are made in China. Do you think that the 70’s avocado tiles or or 50’s cotton candy pink tiles were made in China? Buying colors that aren’t popular is virtually impossible without buying antiques.

Daltile has a lot of special order local big lead time non refundable retro colors, and lots of trim pieces too. The trim is mostly basic colors. Fireclay Tile has gazillions if colors. There’s more. None cheap. What do you actually want?

Honestly how the heck would we know what tiles you want. A lot of cement tiles come in cool colors, and he just doesn’t carry them so the big story.

Complete Tile Collection. (handmade tile from New York)
Vermeere Ceramics-Manhattan Ceramic Tile
Around $19 sf for 3x6 size; other sizes available. They have matte, gloss, & crackle, plus pencils and many borders in lots of colors. You can order samples for $4 each.
I just used different shades in four showers in a new build and I could not be happier!

yeah that guy was full of baloney. I'm going with daltile.