Condition Guide
Condition Guide
At The Pop-Gateway we strive to provide unprecedented transparency along with the savings to match when purchasing one of our products and we aren't just using the word transparent loosely either as we are introducing one of the fairest Funko Pop! platforms on the market. This is done by introducing a simple grading guideline that favors the consumer while providing you with easy to understand savings based on the Funko Pop! box damage. Don't just take our word for it though, we are also providing you with clear 6 point photos (front, back, sides, lids) as well as close-up photos of any significant or hard to see damage as well as descriptors that can help point out almost all visible damage so you don't have to search through a bunch of photos yourself! The cherry on top is that all of our prices are based off of the Pop Price Guide (PPG) that is available to everyone. Simply put, The Pop Gateway was made for fans by fans with the sole intent of building consumer trust in an online marketplace.
Before we get to the details of what a 9 or 8 means to us on a grading scale there are a few things we need to establish in regards to our grading scale:
1) As we are both an authorized Funko retailer and a secondary market for Pops! it is very important for us to distinguish between the two and that is done through our grading scale. The ONLY thing that will be considered a 10 or "mint" is brand new product purchased directly from Funko or its distributors and all brand new product will be clearly labeled as both "new" and graded as a 10. Everything else is part of our secondary market and the best grade that any of our secondary product will be graded is a 9. We don't care how perfect we think it looks, if its not brand new Funko Pop! purchased directly from Funko or its distributors, it is graded as a 9 (this completely favors our customers because anything graded a 9 is automatically priced 10% under its PPG value but more on that later).
2) Any grading scale is subjective. The way we grade and the way you grade could and likely will be different and that's ok, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that we are striving to provide a grading scale that favors our customers. We are only a few sets of human eyeballs (very professional human eyeballs I might add) that are using their best judgement to put a fair grade to the product you buy. If you are familiar with C-scale grading, we are applying very similar techniques, just on a 5 point scale. With that said, we are always aiming to provide as clear of a picture as possible and we welcome you to judge the product for yourself, don't just take our word for it.
3) We are not opening the box and inspecting the character itself. We cant and wont risk further damage to the integrity of the box or clear plastic molding. We are inspecting the box and what the character looks like inside the box. The ONLY stock photo we use is a character photo and this is only to clearly show you what the Pop! looks like. The only time there will be more than a QTY of 1 on each listing is if it is a new product or I have multiple of the same item graded a 9. The photos you see is of the actual Pop! you are buying.
4) This is so important to stress. We are taking the time to point you in the right direction of where the damage is in our damage description but please look at the damage yourself. Sometimes it feels like spelling out the damage makes it sound so much worse than it is. Please, we beg you, to only use our words as a guide. Take a few minutes to look at the photos we are providing to you and judge for yourself. We will be asking our customers to hit a little checkbox at purchase acknowledging that they have looked at the pictures and understand the damage present.
Now on to the grading scale:
10 - As stated above, the only thing that will be graded a 10 is brand new Funko Pop! purchased directly from Funko or one of its premier distributors and it will be clearly labeled as both new and rated a 10. Packaging from Funko has gotten a lot better over the years and Funko has their own quality control that they employ to ensure that by the time it arrives to me or any other retailer that it should be free of flaw.
9 - This is a Pop! that is near perfect. I also like to call this the CMB (cover my behind) grade. A 9 is the start of our secondary market grading scale. All product not acquired directly from Funko will be considered a 9. This is us saying we do not see anything wrong with this pop (please let the pictures speak for themselves) but we are also covering our butts by not declaring this Pop! perfect, mint, gold standard, or flawless. It might have 1 or 2 minor flaws we simply didn't catch. Again we are covering our butts, but by all means we HIGHLY urge you to carefully look at the pictures we provide if it is that important to you. Though a bunch of our stuff gets graded a 9, a bunch of our stuff does not because if we even so much as see some minor corner wear we drop drop the grade down to an 8.
All Pops! Graded at a 9 are sold at 10% off its PPG value. This means that the starting point we will sell anything through The Gateway will be 10% off PPG.
8 - This Pop is in great condition and all damage at an 8 would be considered minor damage. You can expect to see anywhere between one to several minor damage to the box and all damage will be clearly listed to point you in the right direction to see for yourself. Please note any damage to the front of the box outside of minor corner wear will almost automatically move the grade of that Pop! to a 7 (in other words, we try to keep the front panel free of damage at an 8).
All Pop! graded at an 8 are sold at 20% off its PPG value.
We consider minor damage to be including but not limited to corner fray/wear, small nicks, tiny corner tears, creases smaller than 1/4 inch, flap bends and potentially very minor corner dings.
7 - This Pop is still in good condition but you can tell the box has probably been dropped. Drops happen all the time, you can see corner bend/dings/dents damage but it is by no means "crushed" or caved in, but you can tell. Will likely see a few minor and/or a moderate flaw and natural shelf wear.
All Pop! graded at a 7 are sold at 30% off its PPG value.
We consider moderate damage to be including but not limited to corner depressions (dents), tears more than 1/4 inch, creasing more than 1/4 inch, creasing in clear plastic.
6 - We have now entered the realm of the "it's alright". You will see a few moderate flaws or a major flaw. Would likely affect the overall presentation of the product. You most likely don't care about the box and are just looking to nab a deal because you know the Pop! itself still looks good. The open box collector. Some crush damage, very noticeable creases, box cuts, water damage to the box should be expected. Between a 7 and a 6 everything is just a bit worse. You will be looking at the box yourself and determining if it is worth...
All Pop! graded at a 6 are sold at 40% off its PPG value.
We consider severe damage to be including but not limited to crushes, box cuts and major sun wear
5 - Little Timmy set his box next to the window and you can see the sun wear clearly. That box didn't get dropped, it got football punted. The clear plastic on the front of the box is all messed up. Box cuts on the front of the box. But at least the Pop itself isn't broke and bruised. If its still a box I would just prefer to keep it in the box.
All Pop! graded at a 5 are sold at 50% off its PPG value.
Anything graded below a 5 will be sold as an out of the box character only and we will introduce that at some point in the near future.