Short answer: DS is unworn, VNDS is worn one to three times and hard to tell, 9/10 and below means visible wear, and beaters are for wearing not collecting. The grade sets the price, which is exactly why the grade gets stretched.
I grade every pair myself before it lists, and I would rather undersell a condition than argue about it after a shipment. Here is the vocabulary, and what each grade is actually worth.
DS — Deadstock
Brand new, never worn outside. Original box, original laces, original inserts and paperwork. No toe crease. Outsole texture completely intact. Tried on in a store is still DS. Worn to the mailbox once is not.
What it should cost: full market. This is the reference price everything else is measured down from.
VNDS — Very Near Deadstock
Worn, but you have to look. One to three wears, faint toe crease at most, outsole clean with only light texture loss at the heel and forefoot.
This is the most abused grade in the entire market, because there is no hard line between VNDS and 9/10 and everybody’s line happens to fall in their own favour. My rule: if I have to explain why it is VNDS, it is not VNDS.
What it should cost: roughly 60-70% of DS market. Any VNDS listing without outsole photos is a listing you should ask questions about.
9/10 and 8/10
Visible wear, structurally sound. Real toe creasing, outsole texture worn down but not through, maybe light heel drag. Clean, wearable, honest.
There is nothing wrong with this grade. Most of the vintage I handle sits here, and a well-kept 9/10 of a shoe that never gets retro’d is a better buy than a DS pair of something that restocks every eighteen months.
What it should cost: 40-55% of DS market, depending on the shoe and how thin the supply is.
Beaters
Heavy wear, possibly yellowed, possibly with sole separation starting. These are for wearing, not collecting, and they should be priced and described that way. A beater sold honestly is a fine transaction. A beater sold as VNDS is fraud with extra steps.
The two things nobody grades and everybody should
Yellowing. Icy and clear soles yellow with age and UV, and it is not reversible in any way that lasts. A DS pair from 2011 with yellowed soles is still DS, and it is still worth less than a DS pair from last year. Grade condition and age separately.
The box. On a collector pair the box is part of the item, not the packaging. Original box in good shape, with the correct label, can be 15-20% of the value on a grail. “No box” belongs in the title, not in the eighth line of the description.
How I list it
Every pair here carries its grade, and every pair gets the same 12-point check regardless of grade — condition and authenticity are two different questions and I answer both. You can filter the shop by condition and see exactly what is new and what is pre-owned.
If a pair arrives and the grade is not what I said it was, send it back. That has not been a common conversation across 650+ pairs, and I would like to keep it that way.