Eagle Cap Collectibles Auction: Frequency Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Eagle Cap Collectibles Grading System?
How am I Going to Remember All That?
How Accurate is the Color Photography?
When do I Pay for My Purchase?
What's Included in the Shipping Cost?
How do I pay for my purchase?
Will you ship an insulator to me before it is paid for?
Questions?

To better describe the condition of an insulator, Eagle Cap Collectibles now uses the following grading system:

Grade M = Mint condition. An insulator in Grade M will be factory perfect. Few insulators will ever receive this grade. But if one does, you know it will be one of the finest examples known of its kind, and will demand a premium value.

Grade A = Near Mint to Very Near Mint. An insulator in Grade A will be in the condition traditionally described as "near mint" to "very near mint". Faults might include very minor surface wear, several tiny pings or flea bites, insignificant base nibbles, and not more than three blunted or partially flaked drip points. Factory "faults" allowed with Grade A include extra glass on the surface, minor annealing lines, natural (not broken) open bubbles, and minor annealing separations in the threads or inner skirt that do NOT distract from the overall appearance of the insulator. An insulator in Grade A will also likely demand a premium.

Grade B = An insulator in Grade B is in very good condition, but with a few minor faults. The faults might include wire groove wear that etches into the glass, four or more spots of minor surface wear, four to ten base nibbles, four to ten blunted or partially flaked drip points, or up to three broken-off drip points. A Grade B insulator might also have factory made faults such lehr kisses, annealing lines, glass separations and open bubbles that start to detract from the overall appearance of the insulator.

Grade C = An insulator in Grade C is in average condition. It may have up to three minor chips or slices the cumulative size of which is less than an inch in diameter, or a bruise smaller than one-half inch in diameter, four to ten broken drip points, or more than ten blunted or partially flaked drip points, or a short and/or shallow fracture. It may also have somewhat significant factory faults, such as four or more annealing lines or separations, or three or more open bubbles, or limited grinding of overpoured glass.

Grade D = An insulator in Grade D is damaged. Examples of “damage” are any chip or slice over one-inch in diameter, any significant fracture, a bruise larger than one-half inch in diameter, or more than ten broken drip points.

Grade R = An insulator in Grade R is repaired. The repair can be minor such as having been tumbled clean, to major such as the replacement of missing parts. Grade R affects the value of an insulator only to the extent of the repair. In case of tumbling, some collectors might feel the repair enhances the value of that particular insulator.

Grade X = An insulator in Grade X has been altered from its original state with the intent of making the insulator into something it never was. Examples are the “carnivalization” of CD 257 Hemingrays, or heating an insulator to change its color, or using irradiation to alter the color of an insulator.

You don’t have to. Just remember the grades you got in school. C is an average grade. B is above average. A is far above average. D was a failing grade… in this case an insulator with damage. Grade M (Mint) – well, that’s like those students who achieved the perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Pictures of insulators are taken with digital photography with the insulator on a light box illuminated with 5,000 Kelvin full spectrum light bulbs. The pictures should be similar to what you’d see in a back lit fluorescent display case, depending upon the “temperature” of the bulbs in your case.

Please note: If you display your insulators on shelves with incandescent lighting, the colors may appear different. If you display your insulators on window sills in natural light, the colors may appear different.

Pastel shades almost certainly will be different in different types of lighting. When you buy an insulator in this auction, you are purchasing an item as it appears on a light box illuminated with 5,000 Kelvin full spectrum lighting.

You may not return an item just because it appears different in natural lighting or incandescent lighting. No price adjustments will be offered just because the lighting at your residence is different than the lighting used to photograph the insulator in this auction. A large percentage of collectors have back-lit display cases, and it would be unfair to them to adjust your purchase price just because you outbid them and now find you have different lighting than was used in the auction photography.

Winning bidders will receive an automatic email notice for each item they win. These are for courtesy notification purposes only. Do not pay until you receive an invoice from Eagle Cap Collectibles.

Invoices will be emailed out as soon as possible after ALL of the items in the auction close. Please be patient. We will try to send out the emails within four hours after the end of the auction, but it could be the following day before all of the invoices are sent.

The time consuming part of preparing an invoice is determining the shipping cost to your address. With the purchase of several items, it’s easy to figure the shipping expense due to our use of flat rate priority mail service. But if you only purchase a single item, it will have to be boxed and weighed to determine the actual shipping cost.

Shipping expenses will include the actual cost of shipping the box and mandatory insurance on items sold for $101 or more.

Payment can be made with a credit card, PayPal, check or money order.

If you pay via PayPal, VISA, or Master Card, we will ship your insulators to you within 72 hours. Generally they will be shipped within 24 hours, except for the first day after an auction ends when we may still be preparing invoices.

If you pay via check or money order we reserve the right to wait for these payments to clear before shipping your purchases.

If you choose to use PayPal, you will make your payment to this PayPal address hbanks@budget.net. Please wait until you receive your invoice before making a payment.

For credit card payments, please email us your wish to pay with a card. We will then send you an invoice thru PayPal that you can use to pay with your card. You do NOT need to have a PayPal account to use this option. NEVER send us your credit card information. We never need to see that information ourselves.

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Updated October 15, 2020