Grading Policy

Each enamel pin is made with love by hand, not mass-produced by machines. As a result, minor to significant errors are bound and expected to happen. Please read below what each category means regarding pin presentation.

  

• Preferred Grade: The pin is as close to flawless as possible. It may contain minor beauty marks that do not hinder its overall aesthetics. This includes but is not limited to: light scuffs, dings/dents, pinpricks, dust specks, minor screenprint errors, wobbly back posts, wiggling pin on pin, minor plating issues on the sides not visible from the front, bent back posts or scratched backs. Anything with special effects has a higher chance of containing minor problems such as uneven glitter specks, small dark areas in glow in the dark, bubbles in the stained glass or glittered areas, and so forth. Essentially, these pins contain minor flaws, but they are not visible when held at arm's length.

 

• Standard Grade: The pin will have some minor flaws visible to the eye. These include scuff marks take away from its aesthetics, larger pinpricks, under-filled enamel areas, air bubbles in regular hard enamel, under and overfilled enamel, misplaced enamel, screen-printed errors, visible plating areas on the front or sides, and anything else mentioned above in Preferred grading. These pins will have noticeable flaws at arm's length.

 

• B-Grades: The pin will have minor flaws more visible to the eye. Flaws may include the following lower enamel fills, tiny speck of glitter or dust, more noticeable scratches or scuffs (usually on metal from over polishing), enamel paint bleeding over to another area, small paint drops in the wrong area, small air bubbles in the fill, more obvious screenprint errors, rough edges of metal on sides or back, missing enamel, slightly oxidized metal, and anything else mentioned above in Preferred grading or Standard grading. Flaws can be seen at arms length or close up.

 

• Flawed Grade: The pin will have significant flaws visible to the eye. These include heavily scratched areas, deep pinpricks, missing screen print, missing enamel, wrongly colored enamel, and anything else mentioned in Preferred, Standard and B-Grade grading.

 

We do not consider wiggly posts as a flaw when grading as this does not affect the image.

 

 

● Please be aware when purchasing ●

 

Unless one is willing to wait, please do not order an in-hand pin with a presale pin. Please place them in separate orders, as I cannot mark the order as shipped until all pins are in hand, which may take several months before the presale pins arrive. Thank you for understanding.