Posted By:
davidcyclebackAre you worried about how you should describe the condition when you are selling it, or are you wondering if the item you received was misgraded by the person you got it from? .... Big old photos and prints aren't quite the same as little cardboard trading cards. The same grading scale applies, but it's more informal. Trading card collectors treat grades like proclamations from the Pope. Vintage photo collectors treat grades as a way to describe the condition and appearance.
If you can post a big picture here and accurately describe the faults ("edge, corner wear including bottom chipping .... crease, wrinkles ...") and nice bits ("Presents well ... Great image... Hughie's quite the dude..."), you've described the condition. What else does a the potential bidder need? To be bottle fed? Marshall Fogel to kiss it?
If, after said description, you still have a great desire to assign a summary grade ("Very Good"), go for it.
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I sell few trading cards, they are usually inexpensive and part of a group lot ("Assorted 1900-1980 sports ephemera and autographs, 80 items including 10 1977 Topps commons"), and when I do I usually cut the grade in about half or more when describing them so I don't have to worry about card collectors who will say "You call this VgEx!!! This is clearly Vg! This is the biggest scam since since 2 Hour Martinizing!"
I once had a large, inexpensive item that I had no intention of shipping flat in a required custum box. It would have been easier for me to throw the item in the trash than spend my afternoon in my basement cutting down and taping together cardboard for a $6 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Window Display (Don't remember what the item was, but it was something like that). In the auction I described that it had a heavy crease down the middle, not for a crease that it had but for the crease it would have after I folded it in half so I could fit it into a standard priority box.