A used item has a history, and that history shows. The scale tells you how much it shows, even before you open the photographs. There are five grades, one per line, and each means only one thing.
| Grade | Appearance | Warranty |
|---|---|---|
| New | Sealed, never used. We use it for original accessories and spare parts, not for camera bodies. | 12 months |
| Excellent | It's used, but you wouldn't know it. No visible marks to the naked eye and nothing perceptible to the touch. | 12 months |
| Very Good | Micro-marks visible only when tilting the body towards the light. Intact glass and screen. | 12 months |
| Good | Marks evident to the naked eye, edges perceptible to the touch, worn rubber grips. It has worked. | 12 months |
| For Parts | Something doesn't work, and the product description states exactly what. | None |
The 30-day return policy, however, applies to all five grades, including "For Parts."
The grade refers to appearance, not functionality
This is the most often misunderstood point, so we're stating it here in the middle of the page and not at the bottom: between Excellent and Good, there is no change in functional terms. A Good body has been checked with the same procedure as an Excellent one, works in all its parts, and has the same twelve-month warranty. It costs less because its use is visible.
On a camera you carry daily, you would make the marks yourself within the first month anyway.
Grade by grade
Excellent
The highest grade we give to an item that has previously belonged to someone else. No visible marks when holding the device at reading distance, nothing noticeable when running a finger over the edges. Intact glass, screen, dials, and rubber grips. If we find even the smallest mark, the item drops to Very Good: there is no grey area between the two grades.
Very Good
Some micro-marks that only appear when tilting the body towards a light source. Nothing perceptible to the touch, intact glass and screen. Every mark we found is photographed in the product description: if it's not in the photos of defects, it means we didn't find it.
Good
Marks evident to the naked eye, typically on the edges and base, where the camera rests. Worn rubber grips, in some places the paint has come off, revealing the metal. The optics and screen remain free of scratches that affect the image: a scratch on the front glass is not an aesthetic defect and will downgrade the item, not leave it as Good.
For Parts or Repair
Sold as is, with the defect stated in the title and repeated in the description. It is not covered by the twelve-month warranty because the defect is known and agreed upon at the time of purchase. The 30-day return policy remains valid even for these items: if you change your mind, it can be returned like any other order, with return shipping at our expense.
How we interpret wear on a digital camera
For digital bodies, the aesthetic grade is not enough, because the part that truly wears out is not visible: the shutter. That's why we publish the shutter count on each product description, read from the device and not estimated.
| Range | Shutter count | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Virtually unused | under 5,000 | Bought and used a few times. Common for entry-level DSLRs. |
| Amateur use | 5,000 – 30,000 | A few trips and family occasions. The vast majority of our bodies. |
| Intensive use | 30,000 – 80,000 | Has been used continuously. For bodies with a declared shutter life of 100,000 shots, there is still much useful life left. |
| Beyond declared life | above manufacturer's threshold | We state this clearly in the description. The shutter may last much longer, but the risk is real, and the price reflects this. |
The manufacturer's declared threshold is a statistical average, not an expiry date: a shutter rated for 100,000 shots can fail at 60,000 or last up to 300,000. It serves to compare two examples of the same model, not to predict the future of a single one.
Why these names and not others
Because they are the same ones used by the eBay Refurbished program. We sell the same inventory here and on eBay, and an item classified as Very Good by us is also Very Good there. Having two different scales for the same item means, sooner or later, shipping a Good item to someone who believed they bought an Excellent one.
Write to us with the item code found on the product description and a photo: return and refund at our expense, without discussion about the boundary between one grade and another.