The iGuide Grading Guide provides several layers of depth to appeal to both new and advanced collectors alike. We suggest "report card" grades which we hope will help non-experts to more easily assign an accurate grade. Grading should be easy but too often for new collectors it is not. A term like MINT is vague for newcomers. But grade A makes sense to anybody who has ever received a report card. The iGuide Grading Guide provides our so-called "report card" letter grades from A+ to F, as well our our 1 to 10 numeric grades (on a scale of 1 to 10) and then the standard grades used by many knife collector books. These grades attempt to describe a knife's preservation state. They follow rules used by collectors for years to keep things clear when buying, selling, or talking about collector knives. Grading helps with consistency in the buying, selling, and advertising of knives. Properly grading a knife takes a lot of experience and is more an art than a science, so we hope this guide will help you get started as you learn how to MAKE THE GRADE.
Unused Grades
The term UNUSED refers to a knife that has never been used. It has never been sharpened, carried, handled and is in unused condition. The unused grades range from a perfect A+ to an unused but showing faint signs of wear from opening/closing but without sharpening (B).
Unused knives can be divided into these major grades:
A+
Mint in Box (OMP)
On a scale of 1 to 10, it is a 10.
Perfect, i.e. - in OMP (original manufacture's packaging) where applicable. Brilliant, unusually bright, LIKE NEW. Example is in brand new condition, includes the original box and all original paperwork (if applicable) included in the box at the time of original purchase. The box itself is in new to almost new condition and exhibits few if any flaws. The knife inside the box is in brand new condition and has no noticeable flaws.
A
Mint or aka M
On a scale of 1 to 10, it is a 9.
Almost like new to new. Never used, never carried, never sharpened. No cracks, no wobble, excellent snap; may be lacking the OMP (original manufacturer's packaging). Extremely fine, Superb.& |