EP condition : Terms of Sale and Ratings

Question:

Can anyone define the EP rating system:

-Excellent
-Very good
-Good
-Fair
-Poor?

I just purchased a TV EP Advertised as follows:

"Nice eyepiece in vg condition. It's been normally used. However, the glass is Very good.
Comes with Original box and two caps."

The price was discounted average.

The EP appears to have been dropped with chips in the side as pictured. The glass does seem OK.

How does one rate such an EP? Is this "vg"? Or should this be advertised as: "Has 2 side chips." or something similar?

I would feel uncomfortable trying to resell with a similar advertisement, and as such I worry I won't get much for it on resale. I may send back to the seller as it was just received. Looking for what is "vg" in an EP sale!

Thoughts are appreciated.

Thanks.

Marc

Attached Image:

He should've mentioned the chips on the side... it was the right thing to do...

This would have been better to describe as good condition, used, with wear. The drop marks should have been pointed out with an explanation that the glass was unaffected.
To some, if the price was right, this would have been acceptable.

My feeling is that "Very Good" is not horribly
far off on this one. It is not "excellent"
of course, nor "like new." Perhaps "good"
or slightly better than that. Somewhere around
"good" condition I would expect marks like this,
which clearly distinguish it from excellent or
like-new.

What is this eyepiece? A 19mm or 24mm Pan?
If so, the photo is slightly deceptive in that it
is considerably magnified. When I shrink the
image down to actual size on my hi-res monitor,
the marks begin to become hard to see and seem
much less significant. Without those marks, and
noting only a few set screw marks on the barrel
(maybe there are others though), and assuming no
issues with the glass, I think "excellent" would
be plausible. With the marks somewhere around
"very good" seems correct.

I would have liked to have seen something in
the description about "couple marks on black
barrel." Details of the flaws are always helpful.
One should probably ask, if the flaws are not
advertised.

A considerable issue, is that what bothers one
person, another person may not notice or care
about in the least. What distinguishes "very good"
from "excellent", etc.? What do we care about --
marks on metal, set screw marks, brass showing
through, paint chips, coating marks, dust inside,
factory coating flaws, bubbles in glass, etc.

Merely having photos in the ads does not make
for a gaurrantee of anything. I have seen many
photos on the Evil Big Auction Yard which were
cleverly taken to omit every flaw, etc. Photos
are no substitute for basic honesty.

I have purchased one EP here that was in bad shape that was stated to be very nice. It was a Meade 14mm UWA that had completely destroyed coatings from mold and mildew. Plus it had been disassembled and cleaned to try to remove it, but of course the coatings were already etched and ruined.
This person claimed to have no knowledge of it, he returned my money and I returned the EP and told him to never try to sell it on Astromart again, or I would make sure that everyone knew that he was intentionally selling a ruined EP.
I have bought a heck of a lot of items here and this was the only thing that was misrepresented in an ad.
So most of the time, we have good people selling with proper descriptions too.

Have you contacted the seller? If so, what was the response?