Five condition grades, and the evidence each one needs.

The grades describe history more than quality, and a partial reel that was carefully re-reeled and kept indoors can be in better shape than unused stock that stood outside for two summers. A buyer reads the grade and the evidence behind it together, never the label on its own.

Two of the five do the most work in a clear-out. Partial covers anything installed from and returned, while removed covers anything pulled out of service, and the difference between them is usually the difference between one cut end and marks left by years of load, heat and handling.

New surplus is the easiest to support and the easiest to lose. The factory tag, the original banding, the mill wrap and the absence of cut ends all point one way. Once the wrap is opened and the reel re-reeled, the same cable becomes unused stock, whatever its actual history.

Removed cable is defined by what service left behind: cut ends, phase tape, bending marks, dirt from a tray and sometimes heat discolouration near a termination. Those marks are evidence, not defects to be cleaned away before photographs. Removing them removes the history that supports the grade.

A lot described as new surplus that arrives with cut ends and sun-bleached jackets does not only lose the grade; it slows everything down. The buyer re-inspects, terms are reopened, and the rest of the list is read with suspicion. That cost lands on the seller as much as on anyone, and it outlasts the reel that caused it.

The reverse is also true. A removed lot described plainly, with its cut ends and its storage history on the manifest, is reviewed without argument, and the buyer's own inspection confirms what was said. Consistency is what makes a list easy to act on, and it is the one thing a seller fully controls.

Most lots are not one grade. A single collection can include two sealed reels, four partials and a coil removed from a panel. Grade line by line rather than giving the whole lot one label, and say which line the uncertainty sits on so the review does not stall on the wrong reel.

Where the grade is genuinely unclear, use unknown and describe what can be seen. Unknown is a legitimate grade supported by a physical inspection; it is not a failure, and it is far easier to review than a confident label that does not survive the first photograph. A buyer inspects either way; the label only decides what they expect to find when they arrive.