2nd Hand Equipment - What Madness is This?

[TP Username]

Why do second hand equipment sellers feel the need to come up with such utterly ridiculous grading systems?

Previously the home of the "Excellent, Very Excellent, Totally Excellent, Mint Excellent and Turbo Excellent" scale, WEX are now using the classic "IN, 6, 7, 8, 9-, 9 ,9+, R, OB" scale.

WTAF is wrong with these people?!

Anyway, on a more forum relevant note - are any of the main 2nd hand sites better than the others?

 

[chrism_scotland]

I will say I find WEX descriptions to be "optimistic" at times; with even a 9+ often saying the lens has marks, etc - I'm not sure if they're just being super cautious

 

[drsilver]

It's grade inflation that's permeated all manor of marketing. Ink cartridges on my Canon printer come in L, XL and XXL. (Where the large one is, of course, the small one.)

 

[Retune]

It's grade inflation that's permeated all manor of marketing. Ink cartridges on my Canon printer come in L, XL and XXL. (Where the large one is, of course, the small one.)

I believe Durex uses the same system.

 

[toohuge]

Ffordes rating scale is useless. I’ve had to send back loads of things marked as ‘excellent’

 

[LongLensPhotography]

I believe Durex uses the same system.

Time to drop the pointless L and leave just -, X, XX and maybe XXX

 

[TP Username]

So with this grading system nonsense and the frankly indecipherable naming conventions I essentially just threw my hands in the air and ordered a random Panasonic today - has anyone from inside the industry ever looked at it as an outsider and thought "yep, this is all pretty straightforward"?