This post is meant to describe the pin grading scale I use for my own store but I will include other grades others might use and compare to give a better idea of what to expect.
As a personal note overall: my shop does not provide “perfect” grade pins. The reason for this is because unless I can have physical control over every part of production, I don’t believe I can catch every single error in enamel fill, metal or special coat, and general fill levels/smoothness. There are so many factors to ‘grade’ within enamel pins and every shop’s standards will be different. Grading scales overall are a concept nearly unique to indie and small businesses! You would likely not find this level of care within QC of larger companies unless they are intending to sell to collectors.
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A Grade
A Grade pins are the highest grade I offer. They will be the most free of flaws. They will feature no large flaws but may have very minimal flaws that can be easily missed. They are not guaranteed to be perfect. Some examples of acceptable flaws for this grade are here:
- Small scratch on metal or enamel surface only visible in one lighting angle.
- Slight underfill of enamel on one or two sections.
- Slight misalignment on screen-print (for screen-printed pins).
- Dark glitter fleck or stray fleck of glitter on glitter pins.
- Any marks or scratches on the backside or edges of the pin, only the front is considered in grading.
A Grade pins are best suited for protected wear or static display such as a board, banner, or ita bag!
B Grade
B Grade pins are pins with a few noticeable flaws but nothing that particularly disrupts the design overall. For example, a noticeable flaw near the ‘face’ or ‘eyes’ of a design or a high detail focus area might be graded much harsher than one in a lower detail area. Flaws within the latter are more acceptable for B grading. B Grade pins will be discounted from the full price! Here are some examples of B Grade flaws:
- Discoloration of enamel or discoloration of metal coat that is highly noticeable.
- Metal coat oxidation in moderate amounts.
- Screen-print or other enamel material smudges across lines.
- Lower enamel fills in areas with high detail.
- Missing screen-print if minimal.
- Scratches visible at all lighting angles.
B Grade pins when viewed from a small distance will still appear as intended from the original design. B Grade pins are perfect for outerwear on accessories and bags.
C Grade
C Grade is the lowest grade I offer for pins. I mostly offer this grading when I have a very complicated pin to grade that has a lot of steps and different fill colors. There are naturally going to be more unique flaws in the case that the pin is complicated to create. C Grades are heavily discounted and are considered ‘defective’ in design. Here are a few examples of the more extreme flaws:
- Missing enamel fills.
- Offset screen-printing that is heavily noticeable.
- Incorrect enamel color fills.
- Large scratches or dents.
Typically there are very few of this kind that I am willing to sell. Most of the time if there is a pin with one or multiple flaws like this, it becomes a product ‘test’ for other things. For example, a C Grade can still be used for testing different cleaning/polishing materials. The C Grades I will offer for sale are still good for outerwear and will typically not have major obstructions to the intended design though!
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Here is an example of 2 “B-grade” pins. This particular pin is extremely simple, it has 2 enamel fill colors and a black-nickel metal coat. It is a hard-process meaning that the enamel fills are sanded to be smooth and flat and rest at the same level as the exposed metal.
What makes these B-grades in particular are a few scratches on the nickel and some small fill translucency/shaping issues on the leftmost pin’s eyes. These are extremely small flaws and if it was just one of these issues in a very low visibility, this might pass as an “A.” However, because these pins are very simple, the majority of the batch has so few issues that sometimes the grading gets a bit harsher. On more complicated pins it is a little more lenient because the overall artwork is less affected by small flaws.
When you compare the two B-grades to two A-grades on the right, at a small distance in a head-on view, the flaws on the B-grades are nearly invisible. You can still see the light scratches on the leftmost squid though so it is definitely within B-grade category. It is still a perfectly good pin for just about anything that doesn’t involve close-up display viewing. I usually recommend B and C grade pins for wearing out or pinning to a bag or other accessory.
I will add more B and C grade examples below in the future but for now this entry is completed! 🙂 Hope this helps!
