Pin grading guide
Every creator adopts a unique approach to assessing the quality of enamel pins. This guide explains my enamel pin grading policy, detailing what to expect for each grade. Handmade pins might have minor flaws. We carefully inspect and categorize each pin using our grading criteria. Consider this when purchasing!
A-grade Pins
Our A-grade pins are the top quality option available. While nearly perfect, they might have small imperfections, typically noticeable only under specific lighting and angles. These can include:
- Tiny bubbles or dots, and slight underfill in the enamel.
- Light scratches or scuffing, and small nicks on both the enamel and metal surfaces.
- Minor color variations, unevenness, or imperfections in the metal plating.
- Inconsistencies in fill levels, surface evenness, and minor dust or specks in soft enamel or glitter.
- Slight misalignments or pooling in screen printing, and minor enamel spillover on the sides.
- Encased posts with a slight wiggle and minor, barely noticeable plating flaws on the pin's front.
B-grade Pins
B-grade pins, sold at a discount, have noticeable flaws visible in normal light with varying degrees of blemishes. They are evaluated mainly on the front surface and sides, excluding the posts and back stamp. Flaws that classify a pin as B grade include:
- Noticeable underfilling or overfilling of enamel, sometimes flooding metal lines.
- Moderate scuffs on enamel or metal, and multiple imperfections in metal plating.
- Missing enamel or metal lines in small sections, and significant off-set or missing screen printing.
- Reduced glitter in some areas, large glitter clusters where they shouldn't be, and noticeable dust on soft enamel.
- Small gouges or marks on enamel, with significant sway in encased posts.
- Large imperfections in metal on sides, noticeable missing plating on the back, or miscolored, chipped, or incomplete front plating.
- Plating flaws that are noticeably large or appear in multiple instances, combined with areas of significant enamel inconsistencies such as deep scrapes, chips, or major color shifts.