Tall Tales Grading Policy

I've discovered that grading is without doubt the most difficult aspect of this avocation of mine. It's an art, not a science. There are no consistent and objective standards, which offends the engineer in me. "Fine" for one dealer means something totally different than "Fine" for another.

In my years of collecting, I've found that I just had to learn through personal experience what each dealer's grading standards were like, and I imagine you'll just have to do the same with me. What I've tried to do here is to describe all pertinent points of condition in detail; ie. browning, bumps, tears, bookplates, etc. Many of my fellow dealers will undoubtedly think I've gone overboard in this respect. Maybe I have but I'll learn better with experience.

The drawback with doing this is that such descriptions read as being more detracting to general condition and appearance than they really are. So to offset this tendency, I've tried to use the commonly used grading terms of "Very Fine", "Fine", and "Very Good", together with certain modifiers, as indicators of overall condition and "attractiveness". Even here, I might be guilty of slightly inconsistent usage based on age. For instance, given a certain degree of browning, I might consider it to be less of a detraction to general condition for a 50 year old book than I would for a 10 year old book.

This all may sound terribly complicated, and it is. But it's all a part of my attempt to provide completely fair grading. Regardless, you are always protected by my return policy.

Back to Tall Tales Homepages