Thrift and Resale Editing and Proofreading Services

Eleven people photograph and list secondhand clothing in the same warehouse. One of them calls a small mark on a cuff "excellent"; another calls the same thing "good"; a third photographs it and grades it "fair". A buyer who has ordered three times has learned that the grades mean nothing here, and that is the whole of the business's reputation.

We edit what secondhand and resale businesses produce — condition grading scales and their definitions, listing templates and photography standards, item descriptions written at volume, authentication statements, returns and dispute policies for used goods, consignment terms for sellers, and the guidance given to staff who grade hundreds of items a week. Our editors work on judgements made in forty seconds by different people.

The condition grading scale is what a resale business is actually selling, and its failure is a set of adjectives applied by whoever is holding the garment. A grade is a promise only if it means the same thing on Tuesday as on Friday. We work through these so each grade is defined by what is physically present rather than by an impression, since "excellent" is a feeling and "no marks, no pilling, no fading; original hem and buttons; may have been worn" is a test; so the definitions are written as things a grader can check in the seconds they have, because a scale that requires deliberation gets applied by mood; so the boundary cases are settled in the document with examples — the single small mark, the missing spare button, the shine on a seat — as these are the items that get graded differently by different people; so any defect is described and located rather than absorbed into the grade, given that a photographed and named mark converts a return into an accepted purchase; so the photograph requirements are specified per grade, with the defect photographed close and in daylight; so measurements are given rather than sizes, since a size label on a forty-year-old garment means nothing; so the smell, the stretch and the alterations are covered, as these are the three things buyers complain about and no grading scale mentions; and so a sample of graded items is checked weekly against the definitions. Scales written this way produce repeat buyers.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including grading documents, consignor information and business data. We are editors rather than authenticators, valuers or graders, and we offer no view on authenticity, condition or value. What we can do is make the grade mean the same thing every time.