Wanna revive this thread a little to present my 5 cents on this. What i think the levels should be (and this is highly subjective, so take it with a grain of salt) : BNIB : as it says - brand new in box. packaging seal untampered with, no fingerprints found inside packaging. 10/10 : opened packaging, kendama unplayed with, probably taken out for display, inspection, etc. 9/10 : isolated dents on tama, as a result of missed spikes, paint is pristine, and unaffected. 8/10 : isolated dents on tama, 1-5 nicks on ken. paint is pristine, and unaffected, slightly deformed spike. 7/10 : cluster of dents on tama, flat spots from dropping on flat surface(s), 5 or more nicks on ken. paint slightly chipped, slightly deformed spike. 6/10 : tama dents suffered from hard downspikes, yanks, floor drops on asphalt, 80% of paint remains, small chip on ken, 50% deformed spike (you can still make out a conical shape). 5/10 : large clusters of tama dents, 70% of paint remains, several small chips on ken or large chip, 70% deformed spike. 4/10 : large clusters of tama dents, 50% of paint remains, several large chips on ken, almost flat spike. 3/10 : tama is barely playable for stall tricks as a result of dents, 40% of paint remains, several large chips on ken, completely flattened spike. 2/10 : barely playable tama, 20% of paint remains, deformed but somewhat playable ken, flattened spike. 1/10 : barely recognizeable and playable setup. all paint stripped away, making it difficult to identify make/brand/model. 0/10 : completely unplayable and unrecognizeable. wood snapped cleanly in half, or chewed away by pet. your setup has been on life support, and has been begging you to pull the plug and end its misery. just do it. purification and redemption by fire.
This would be really helpful , yet make sure we do a scale for the Ken condition and a separate one for the tama. Some people rate the complete and it's skewed due to one being better or worse than the other. Maybe this can be added to the set somewhere under its own tab to reference for sales and trades?
I do like this grading you have provided , yet again I think that the scales should be different for the Ken and the tama instead of a combined description ,because it may get dicey trying to come to a good full number if they rate different and sometimes people will mix and match used kendamas when they post for sale or trade of used items and IMO it seems that this is the only real reason people rate them for others . Because if not for selling or trading them , we wouldn't care to rate them at all and basically consider them either new or in process of demolition ~~ D€$+R○¥ ALL DAMAS ~~
Serious question: who is buying kendamas that have chipped cups? I mean I understand resale, but really, is there a reason to rigorously define 1-5 of the 1-10 scale? Seems like a solid chip would instantly demote a dama to level 6. Perhaps there are exceptions for super-rare damas, but something like that in bad condition is a rarity enough that I don't think it would have a well-defined value anyways. What would a 3/10 emerald mugen sell for?? (Actually, I can think of one example: the SWAG Kotobuki. Its a red kotobuki mugen, that is THRASHED, and someone wrote 'SWAG' in the big cup in sharpie. LOL! It was offered to me as a trade for some Terra handturned stuff once, its kinda infamous amongst OG dama traders. I didn't make the trade )
Yes ! My point as well. No need to rate these really at all unless they are in the 7-10 range so people can make an educated decision if it's worth the value in trade or to purchase something for their collections possibly .
Just thinking out loud but maybe the people who are buying what might appear to be "not worth it" to other players might be doing so for parts or for collectability. Maybe someone needs a decent tama or want a different sarado; basically like parting out a car or old computer. The other possibility is maybe they're looking for true beaters that they can lend to others. We have a bunch of these we take to events that kind of take care of two concerns 1) some noob obliterating your personal GT and 2) nice kendama "sprouting legs" and walking off when we look away.
This thread has been moved over to the the Exchange to help folks rate their offerings. Thanks to @xplodit and other posters for their contributions. Any other questions, ideas, or comments, keep them coming.
I opened the seal on a c Fraser prime pro mod and unstrung it to measure the finger length and strung it and put it back into the box. Is it dead stock or 10/10?
If it's been disassembled I'd probably call it 10/10 if no damage was done during disassembly. It's probably splitting hairs though.
I agree with this. As long as it wasn't played and you didnt mar the wood during restringing, then you are good to call it a 10/10.