Condition Grading

Buying something you can't hold is a leap. You're trusting a stranger's description of a forty-year-old magazine. So here's exactly what happens to everything before it goes up, and exactly what the grades mean.

How I store it

Old paper doesn't cope well with neglect. Damp warps it, sun bleaches it, and cheap plastic sleeves slowly turn it yellow from the inside.

Stock sits in a room I keep at roughly 50% relative humidity, which is the range archivists work to. Below that and pages start going brittle. Above it and you get foxing and mould. Everything's in acid-free sleeves and boxes, out of direct light, in a room with a stable temperature. No attic, no garage, nothing near a radiator.

Broadly the same approach the Bishopsgate Institute takes, which is where I send pristine items I'd rather see preserved than sold.

How I grade it

I'd rather you opened the parcel and thought "better than I expected" than the other way round, so the grades are deliberately cautious.

Mint / As New. No wear at all. No creases, tears, marks or fading, spine uncracked. Genuinely rare in vintage stock and priced to match.

Excellent. Age only. No tears, no real creasing, nothing written on it. Spine might show the faintest wear. Pages clean and bright, everything present.

Very Good. Handled, but handled carefully. Maybe some light creasing, a bit of spine wear, slight tanning at the edges. No tears, no missing pages.

Good. You can tell it's been read. Light creases, tanned edges, some scuffing on the cover, possibly a slight lean to the spine. Structurally sound and complete.

Fair. Rough. Could have tears, heavier creasing, writing, marks. Whatever's wrong with it is described and photographed, and it's priced accordingly.

What I'll always tell you about

If an item has any of this, it's in the listing and it's in the photos:

Tears, creases or folds. Writing, stamps or stickers. Missing pages, posters or inserts. Loose or detached pages. Cover damage or scuffing. Spine cracking or wear. Yellowing, foxing or staining. Any smell, though most stock gets treated.

If it's not mentioned, it's not there.

Smell

Vintage paper holds onto wherever it's been, and a fair amount of it has been in the house of a heavy smoker. Anything that turns up smelling goes into a sealed box with activated charcoal and bicarbonate of soda for three to five days, longer if it's bad. If it won't come up to standard it doesn't get listed.

I've got a few in there three months on. Give me strength.

Photos

Every photo is of the actual item. Not a stock image, not another copy, not a representative example. I scan everything on a Canonscan Lide 400, so what you're looking at is what's coming. If there's a flaw, it's photographed. If I've got two copies in identical condition, the listing says so.

DVDs

Discs are inspected and any scratches noted. Cases, inserts and booklets get graded the same way as magazines. Playback concerns are disclosed.

Why I bother

A lot of what survives from this era is in poor condition, and that's not an accident. These magazines got hidden under floorboards, kept in sheds, smuggled through customs, and binned by relatives who found them. Keeping one on the coffee table wasn't always an option.

What's left is finite, and it deserves better than a jiffy bag and an optimistic description. I'd rather list fewer things and describe them properly.

Got a question about a specific item? Get in touch and I'll send more photos before you commit. Or have a look at what's currently in stock.